With Northeast Atlantic coastal states’ self-imposed deadline to reach an agreement on mackerel quota allocations approaching at the end of March, UK food retailer Waitrose & Partners has joined supply chain businesses in calling for the collaborative and sustainable management of mackerel, herring, and blue whiting stocks.
Working as part of the North Atlantic Pelagic Advocacy (NAPA) group, Waitrose is urging coastal states to collaborate to ensure that catches do not creep above sustainable levels.
“Waitrose has had a responsible seafood strategy in place for more than 25 years. This means we’ll only partner with fisheries that share our approach to responsible sourcing, and our ambition of helping secure a sustainable future for wild fisheries and the seas more broadly,” Waitrose Senior Aquaculture and Fisheries Manager Melissa Tillotson said.
“We’re committed to achieving our goal whereby 100% of the fish and shellfish we sell is independently certified as responsibly caught or farmed to a recognised third-party standard. We are deeply concerned by the lack of sustainable management of Northeast Atlantic mackerel, Atlanto-Scandian herring, and blue whiting which has led to overfishing of these stocks.”
NAPA is a market-driven coalition of more than 60 leading retailers and supply-chain businesses from across the world, who are publicly committed to the responsible sourcing of sustainable seafood. They are united by the common problem of the loss of supplying fisheries’ sustainability certifications as a result of overfishing in the Northeast Atlantic.
They say this poor management and certification loss is jeopardising their ability to meet their commitments to people and the planet.
Tillotson said that as a founder member of NAPA, Waitrose believes the collaboration can help it meet its responsible seafood commitments.
“It is our collective duty to preserve fish stocks for future generations, and we know our customers agree, whether they buy canned, frozen or fish from our service counters.
“We’re calling upon the coastal states to work together to agree on sustainable catch shares, follow scientific advice and commit to long-term management. Anything less will present significant challenges in our future sourcing of these species.”
During the annual talks held between the coastal states in 2022, the seven nations set themselves a deadline to reach a final agreement on the sharing of mackerel quotas before 31 March 2023.
The first coastal states meeting on mackerel took place in London in early February 2023. During the meeting, all seven states reiterated their commitment to reaching agreement and acknowledged that compromise will be necessary.
Two more mackerel working groups are planned – in early and late March.
NAPA Project Lead Dr Tom Pickerell highlighted that the March deadline is now looming.
“Northeast Atlantic mackerel is once again seemingly being taken seriously by the coastal states responsible for its recent history of mismanagement and overexploitation. But their constructive words only count as lip service unless they work together to each take their fair share, and do so quickly. Mackerel management matters and so NAPA is determined to hold the coastal states to their deadline. There are now four weeks to go, and we are counting,” he said.
