The Iceland golden redfish fishery and Iceland saithe fishery have entered into Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) at the same time.
Both fisheries have been entered into assessment by Iceland Sustainable Fisheries (ISF), which was established in June 2012 to be a common platform for Icelandic fisheries in their journey towards sustainable fishing and MSC certification.
Gunnlaugur Eiríksson, managing directior of ISF said: “We see this is a very important step for the Icelandic seafood industry to be able to introduce more species from Iceland with MSC certification. It is an important step for buyers of seafood from Iceland to know that fish from Iceland is sustainable and well managed.”
If successfully certified, the Iceland golden redfish fishery will become the first redfish fishery in the MSC eco-label programme. The assessment will be carried out by independent certifier Vottunarstofan Tún.
Golden redfish (Sebastes marinus) is fished year round but normally the fishing concentrates in the late winter and early spring. It’s primarily processed for export especially in frozen fillets, but also exported fresh chilled. The main markets for golden redfish are Germany, Japan, The Netherlands and China.
The saithe (Pollachius virens) fishery takes place year round with its catch peak during spring and autumn. Saithe, called Ufsi in Iceland, is mostly caught to the south and west of Iceland and is primarily processed for export especially in frozen fillets. Some is also exported salted, dried and fresh. Main markets are Germany, Netherlands, Spain and Nigeria.
