Supporting fishery improvement projects (FIPs)

Great strides have been made by the aquaculture industry to improve its responsible practices in recent years, with substantial efforts particularly focused on encouraging marine ingredient suppliers to ensure that they source raw materials from well-managed, sustainable fisheries.

SDG FIP.pngA large number of fisheries in Europe and the Americas today are certified to the MarinTrust standard. Skretting has the ambition to source from only MarinTrust-compliant fisheries, and we support fisheries to embark on improvement projects so they can become certified according to the MarinTrust standard.

Currently, Skretting is engaged in three fishery improvement projects (FIPs). One of the most important fisheries in the world, the Peruvian anchovy fishery, is engaged in a FIP to achieve a “certifiable status” according to the guidelines of the Conservation Alliance for Sustainable Solutions (CASS).

At the meeting held in November 2019 in the FIP Working Group, Instituto del Mar del Perú (IMARPE) representative, Dr. Jorge Tam, presented on the advances of the ecosystem model to understand the trophic impacts of the fishery. The presentation showed a great degree of advancement, but more work is yet to be done. IMARPE scientists expect to have completed this by the beginning of January 2020 with a report to follow.

 
MarinTrust improvers programme in Ecuador

A group of 18 Ecuadorean fishing and processing firms, together with three international feed producers, have committed to carry out a FIP for small pelagic resources. The participating international feed producers are Skretting, Biomar and VitaPro Ecuador.

The companies involved represent about 80% of the country’s small pelagic fishing firms, active both in the production of fishmeal and of frozen and canned products for direct human consumption. The improvement project is part of the MarinTrust Global Standard for Responsible Supply fishery improvers’ programme, which allows producers of marine ingredients to demonstrate their commitment to improvement towards responsibly sourced raw materials.

Peruvian anchoveta FIP

In 2019, according to rules established by FisheryProgress.org, the FIP entered its third year and was therefore audited.

FishChoice undertook the audit of this FIP in 2019. Work remains to fulfill Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) requirements related to the standard point 1.2.1 about Harvest strategy. When this work is completed, the Peruvian anchoveta fishery will have been successfully benchmarked against the MSC Certification. It will then be up to the Peruvian fishing industry to decide to conduct an actual certification process or not.

FIP in Vietnam’s Vung Tau region

Skretting Vietnam, together with fishmeal producers, governmental agencies and other aquaculture feed producers, continues to engage in a FIP in the Vung Tau province in Southern Vietnam. The aim of this project is to improve the fishery management of the Vung Tau province mixed trawl fishery over a five-year period to a level where it can meet the requirements of the MarinTrust standard. 

MarinTrust has formally launched its multispecies criteria to be tested during the next three years with relevant fisheries such as mixed trawl fisheries in Southeast Asia. During this period, the pilot will work as part of the MarinTrust Improvers’ Programme (IP).

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Supporting fishery improvement projects (FIPs)