reLAKSation 305. Callander McDowell
Sustained?: According to IntraFish, UK retailer Morrison’s is undergoing a chain of custody audit in a bid to gain eco-certification for its seafood products by the Marine Stewardship Council. This is just another example of what UK Fisheries Minister Ben Bradshaw described as retailers falling over themselves to prove their sustainable credential to shoppers. Morrison’s have more to prove than other supermarkets because they finished near bottom of the Marine Conservation Society’s league table of sustainable retailers.
Yet, despite this lowly position, the store states that “At Morrisons, you can rest assured that all the fish at our award winning fresh fish counters are from sustainable stocks and caught using the least damaging fishing methods. We’re proud of our work with the Marine Conservation Society (MCS) who advise us on how best to do this.” (The award is the Retail Industry Awards Seafood Retailer of the Year as distinct from Waitrose who are SeaFish’s Seafood Retailer of Year).
What is interesting about Morrison’s statement is that they say that ‘all their fish are from sustainable stocks’ yet according to the Marine Stewardship Council website, Morrison’s do not sell even one MSC approved sustainable fish species from their fish counter. Does this mean that their fish is sustainable or not? We at, Callander McDowell, suspect that most customers are happy to put their trust in Morrison’s to supply fish which is fished in the most sustainable or responsible manner. We think that is highly unlikely that any customer will shop at Morrison’s and then look for another retailer to supply their fish.
We would not be surprised if Morrison’s fish buyers had looked at Wal-Mart owned Asda and seen the apparent benefit of having their fish counters certified by the MSC as being able to sell fish from well managed and sustainable fisheries. Asda have made as much mileage as possible from their certification. Every fish counter displays a large banner advising of their MSC credentials. The implication to consumers is clear – their fish is all from sustainable sources even if the reality is very different.
According to the MSC website, Asda currently sells three fish species that have been certified by the MSC as sustainable; Pacific cod, Alaskan salmon and Cornish mackerel. Since gaining MSC certification, some of the labels on the fish have been changed. Pacific cod, which was the first MSC product that Asda sold used to incorporate the MSC logo in the label. Now the MSC logo is nowhere to be seen. We would imagine that as the MSC logo is so prominently displayed at the back of the counter, Asda believes that there is less need for it to be attached directly to the product. However, we would imagine that the MSC are not so pleased.
We, at Callander McDowell, are not surprised that there is such confusion surrounding the sustainability of fish. It was not so long ago that that the distribution of fish quotas within the EU was the subject of mainstream news coverage every year due to the regular disagreements between fishermen and scientists about the stock levels of various species. The fact is that no-one really knows how much fish is in the sea and therefore it is subject to continual dispute. Against this sort of background, we can only wonder how the various certification companies can really be judged as an arbiter of whether a fish stock is sustainable or not?
Despite such uncertainty, sustainability appears have become inextricably linked with the Marine Stewardship Council, which is why stores like Asda and Morrison’s want to be seen to be certified by them. Unfortunately, the MSC have created a near monopoly on sustainability. Thus, if it’s MSC approved it’s good and if it’s not MSC approved then it’s bad. In MSC terms, UK consumers should avoid fresh Icelandic cod and instead buy previously frozen Pacific cod which has been shipped halfway round the world, not forgetting the food miles and the inevitable carbon footprint.
The fact that UK consumers are being encouraged to buy Pacific cod and Alaskan salmon sourced from the other side of the world is the inevitable result of the way that the sustainable movement was created and subsequently driven. The single driving force behind sustainability is the environmental movement. The MSC was established by the WWF and its direction has been encouraged by the work of organisations such as Greenpeace and the Marine Conservation Society that have maintained the pressure on the protection of wild stocks. Their real aim is to protect the marine environment not to protect a regular supply of fish to the global marketplace. Thus, their approach is to promote reductions in the fishing pressure on fish stocks rather than to consider ways in which the continued demand from the marketplace for fish can be met. The emphasis is therefore placed firmly on the fish stock and if the only way that the sustainability of the fish stock can be guaranteed is to reduce the catch, then that is their solution. Yet, there are other ways to protect fish stocks but the environmental groups will not endorse them because they believe that they too will damage the marine environment.
Clearly, the best way of reducing the fishing pressure on fish stocks is to satisfy market demand from other sources. The MSC appears to suggest that European cod should be avoided and instead, consumers should buy Pacific cod instead. However, there is an alternative and that is to provide the market with farmed cod. If sufficient cod can be farmed to meet demand, then there will be no need to harvest fish from the wild. We, at Callander McDowell, have argued that farming is the best management tool available for the protection of wild stocks yet the MSC have discounted this approach as did their founding members. Farming is not considered to be part of the fisheries’ management portfolio and thus is excluded from the sustainability agenda.
This is a blinkered view which could actually increase the fishing pressure on stocks rather than help reduce them. If we reconsider the approach that anything approved by the MSC is good, whilst anything else is bad, then consumers may be encouraged to avoid farmed produce simply because it does not carry the MSC logo. Most consumers would not realise that farmed fish is excluded from the MSC scheme because all they would see is the MSC logo. Perhaps the approach taken by Asda is not so bad after all since this blanket approval of the fish counters will naturally include farmed species as they now dominate most fish counters anyway.
It’s not surprising that most consumers are either confused by or fail to understand sustainability. A recent survey in the US from the Hartman Group and reported by IntraFish suggests that the term sustainability has little or no meaning to consumers. Only 5% of consumers knew which companies support sustainability values. In the UK, consumers are more aware of sustainability issues but many fail to apply this awareness when out shopping. Alison Austin from Sainsbury’s said most consumers are happy to leave any responsibility for decisions about sustainability to the store. She told the North Atlantic Seafood Forum early this year that consumers say ‘You figure it out, you make the decisions and you take the environmental action on my behalf’. This is not surprising since consumers are often happy for the stores to take decisions on other aspects of food such as quality. This is why Lorna Jack of SeaFish has reported that most categories of ethical foods are growing. She said this may be because consumer preferences are changing but conversely, it could be because stores are more willing to stock more ethical and sustainable foods on the grocery shelves.
If responsibility for ensuring sustainable fish and seafood is stocked by the supermarkets is actually being made by the supermarket buyers then there could be little need for a single recognisable arbitrator of sustainability. Instead, buyers could use a variety of measures to assess sustainability bringing in species that would be otherwise excluded.
One such species is coley, which we have mentioned in a previous reLAKSation. The MSC has certified Alaskan Pollack and as a result, this fish can be found in all British supermarkets in one form or another. The Alaskan Pollack fishery is an important commercial fishery which is why the processors’ association were so keen to see it certified. Coley is a relative of Pollack but is not greatly sought after. It is currently being sold in one supermarket at £3.89/kg as compared to cod at £8.48/kg. Most fishermen would prefer to catch other species than coley because it doesn’t have a great value. For this reason, it is unlikely that there will be a great rush to attain MSC certification for coley fisheries. Yet, stocks are plentiful. Perhaps, if coley was certified as sustainable then more people would eat it instead of cod and more processors would substitute it for cod instead of using imported Alaskan Pollack.
Other fish which may be excluded include those from the developing world whose economies are dependent on exports of fish. The German eco certifier GTZ has investigated such fisheries and according to IntraFish, has concluded that there is a mismatch between modern certification requirements and the reality of the many small scale artisan fisheries, especially in relation to the costs incurred.
One way forward may be if such fisheries could seek a different form of certification; one in which the fishermen are themselves involved. This would pass on custodianship for protection of fish stocks to those whose livelihoods depend on them.
However, it is not just the smaller fisheries in the developing world which could benefit from a greater involvement in certification. The Alaskan fishing industry is now considering transforming the Alaska Seafood label into its own eco-label. They see this as the best way of combining sustainable fisheries with their own brand.
Closer to the UK, there are other efforts to demonstrate sustainability. Fishupdate.com report that the Frozen at Sea Fillets Association have said that British fish and chip lovers are being encouraged to enjoy sin-free cod due to careful management of the North Atlantic and Barents Sea. These fish stocks have been given a sustainable bill of health by scientists because of the responsible approach adopted by FASFA members’ vessels and the fishermen themselves. These stocks are considered sustainable even though they have no official certification.
A new initiative to protect stocks of North Sea fish is also under discussion. The proposal is that there would be a real time closure of any stock if fishing vessels found that they were catching undersized fish. The voluntary closure would be managed by the fishermen as it would help safeguard their own future. Even the WWF welcomed this proposal as a way of protecting young fish and ensuring the longer term viability of the fishery.
However, it is not just the fishermen who are looking at sustainability. The Scottish salmon industry has announced the first assessment of its sustainability. Fishupdate.com say that the study will amongst others, inform customers and the public on the sustainability of the Scottish salmon farming sector. Yet, we do not believe that this goes far enough. This is an opportunity to demonstrate to consumers that farmed salmon is a sustainable alternative to wild caught species. This could be achieved through the introduction of the industry’s own sustainability logo as a way of highlighting that farmed fish is just as, if not more sustainable, as fish from well managed wild catch fisheries.
We believe that the Marine Stewardship Council has been very short-sighted in vision of a sustainable future but we are ever hopeful of change. Perhaps the appointment of John Connelly to its Board of Governance will introduce some realism to its approach. Mr Connelly recently co-authored an article in the US paper The Examiner (www.examiner.com). The article is titled ‘Sustainable seafood feeds the world’. Mr Connelly writes that sustainability is critical because demand for seafood is on the rise. He said that we must cultivate an environment in which modern aquaculture complements the sustainability of wild catch fisheries and bridges the 80 million tonne gap in supply. He ends by saying that cultured seafood not only maintains the sustainability of the oceans but also allows the seafood industry to supply the world with nutritious and affordable seafood for future generations.
He is right. You can’t have sustainable fisheries without sustainable farming. Hopefully this is the sustainable message which he will take to the MSC.