UK retailer the Co-op has been audited on the quality of its seafood sourcing by an independent partnership of charities
The audit by the Sustainable Fisheries Partnership (SFP), the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and Whale and Dolphin Conservation, examined threats to wildlife from capture in commercial fisheries, commonly referred to as “bycatch.”
“Co-op’s commitment to addressing bycatch will increase the sustainability of its seafood offerings and influence actions throughout its supply chain and with other retailers,” said Ian Rolmanis, global markets deputy director at Sustainable Fisheries Partnership.
Sustainable commitment
The audit, conducted by the three organisations, included a review and risk assessment of the fisheries disclosed by Co-op in the Ocean Disclosure Project.
While the primary purpose of the audit was to identify fisheries where there are bycatch risks, it revealed broad and proactive actions by Co-op to promote healthy fisheries and protect marine biodiversity.
On the plus side, Co-op’s tuna sourcing comes from fisheries with healthy stocks and that use techniques, such as pole and line, that have very minimal bycatch impacts and/or impacts on habitat.
In addition, the Co-op supply chain specifically avoids fishery products from fisheries that have high population-level impacts on sea turtles, such as pelagic longline fisheries in the Pacific Ocean. It also does not source from purse seine fisheries that use fish aggregating devices.
Co-op’s Healthy Oceans strategy includes sourcing from fishery improvement projects (FIPs) and fisheries certified by the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) that have mechanisms in place to support solutions on bycatch issues.
But the audit still identified a number of fisheries as having high potential bycatch risk and a full list of these fisheries will be incorporated into Co-op’s Ocean Disclosure Project profile.
Co-op is prioritising action on its Alaska salmon set/drift gillnet fisheries, which pose significant risks to seabirds; its Icelandic cod/haddock gillnet and longline fisheries, which pose significant risks to seabirds and marine mammals and its Canadian (American) Lobster and UK Brown crab pot and trap fisheries, which carry risks to marine mammals.
Bycatch audits are a key part of SFP’s Protecting Ocean Wildlife initiative, an international, industry-led effort to address marine wildlife bycatch, especially endangered, threatened and protected (ETP) species.
