Faroe Island Cod, Haddock Fishery Gains MSC Certification

The certification covers the entire Faroese fishery for North East Arctic cod and haddock within the Barents Sea (ICES subareas I & II). The fleet consists out of two 60 meter vessels; the MV Gadus and Vesturvn. The catch is processed (filleted, headed and gutted) and frozen at sea and landed in Faroese ports, ready for export to the EU. The fishery takes place year round, using demersal trawls.

Jgvan Hansen, General Manager at JFK Ltd says: "We are looking forward to delivering our customers frozen-at-sea MSC certified cod and haddock, because it's very important today for a company to be able to adapt with the times and this is what we at JFK have done with this certification. Furthermore this certification will open up new markets and also allow us to build on existing markets. We are very excited to see what this has installed for us."

Anfinn Olsen, CEO at Framherji says: We are looking forward to bringing our MSC certified cod and haddock products, directly caught and fully processed on board of our stern trawler Vesturvn, into the worlds markets. It is a great achievement and we are proud to say that the Faroe Island cod and haddock fishery is now certified against the MSC standard.

Camiel Derichs, MSC Deputy Director Europe says: Its a pleasure to congratulate JFK and partners with the first MSC certification of a Faroese demersal fishery. The assessment team from Det Norske Veritas (DNV) looked at the status of the cod and haddock stocks in the Barents Sea, the impacts from these fisheries on the ecosystem, and the overall management of these fisheries. They observed that the cod and haddock stocks in the Barents Sea are in good condition and exposed to acceptable fishing pressure. These fisheries are also selective, and have low bycatch rates and ecosystem impacts. Finally, they are subject to solid monitoring, control and surveillance by Faroese, Norwegian and Russian authorities.