The Icelandic exporting business Sæmark has entered its cod, haddock and wolffish fisheries for full assessment under the Marine Stewardship Council’s (MSC) certification programme.
These fisheries will be the first in Iceland to be assessed against the MSC standard for sustainable and well-managed fisheries, and the first wolffish fishery in the MSC programme.
The assessment will include six units of certification made up of 23 vessels supplying Sæmark’s partners: Fiskvinnslan Íslandssaga hf., Hraðfrystihús Hellissands hf., Oddi hf., Þórsberg ehf. - four fish processing companies associated with Sæmark Seafood Ltd. in the MSC full assessment.
The Icelandic TAC allocation for 2009-2010 was set at 150,000MT for cod, 63,000MT for haddock and 12,000MT for wolffish. The fisheries under assessment catch 6,200MT of Atlantic cod, 3,300MT haddock, and 1,100MT of wolffish using longline, handline and Danish seine. The fishing fleet runs year-round mainly off the west and north-west coasts of Iceland.
Sæmark’s main markets are the USA, the UK, and continental Europe for fresh and frozen fish and Spain, Italy and Greece for salted fish.
