The Sustainable Fisheries Partnership (SFP) has published a sustainability league table of the principal fisheries used for the production of fishmeal and fish oil.
The 22 fisheries have been assessed using the FishSource (www.fishsource.org) methodology devised by SFP which allows basic comparisons to be made against existing fishery sustainability indicators.
The table is contained in a new briefing from SFP – ‘FishSource, Reduction Fisheries and Aquaculture’ – which can be obtained from the SFP website - www.sustainablefish.org.
The briefing also gives a short description of how the FishSource methodology calculates scores, and a full explanation of the methodology is available on the Fishsource website.
Some of the main findings include:
- None of the principal reduction fisheries use ecosystem-based management (EBM) approaches explicitly in setting management targets for the biomass of target stocks.
- 9% of the fish from the world’s main reduction fisheries are from fisheries that meet single-species current good practices, meaning the target stocks are healthy and well-managed.
- 14% of the fish from the world’s main reduction fisheries are from fisheries that have bio-mass above single-species target levels, meaning the target stocks are healthy.
- 67% of fish from the world’s main reduction fisheries are from fisheries that score above minimum acceptable levels commonly used in single-species fisheries management.
The results of the table will prove invaluable to fishmeal and oil buyers seeking guidance on sustainable sourcing as well as manufacturers of aquaculture and farm animal feeds. Buyers of aquaculture products and organisations developing aquaculture standards will also find the data useful in helping to shape policies.
