The fishery certification was coordinated by Maresco A/S, a Danish company specialising in shellfish, and includes three Faroese vessels supplying around 4,500 MT of prawns from the Barents Sea and North East Arctic Ocean.
Low bycatch and discards
The fishery scored particularly highly on its environmental impacts with mandatory sorting grids on all three fishing boats keep bycatch of other species (and thus discards) to one to three per cent.
The three vessels are also involved in an underwater camera project, where cameras are being installed on the trawls to see how they are working. The cameras will also provide further data about the impact the fishing gear has on the sea bed.
High prawn stocks
Prawns are found throughout the Barents Sea and around Svalbard in the North East Arctic Ocean. Despite its size, the stock is considered to be one stock and the joint NAFO and ICES assessment of stocks shows it has a good history of strong, healthy stocks dating back to the 1970s.
Eyðun Durhuus, Managing Director of Maresco A/S said: “It is a great pleasure and honour for us to achieve MSC certification, as this has become a must for us and our customers. Sustainability will always be a key word in our daily work for a long-lasting fishery in The North East Atlantic area.”
Gisli Gislason, MSC Manager Iceland, Greenland and Faroes, said: “This is the third Faroese fishery to win MSC certification in the past six months and reflects the Faroe Island fisheries’ commitment to demonstrably sustainable fishing. The low-impact and strong management of this fishery are a credit to the fishermen and the fishing companies that operate the three vessels. I’m very pleased to welcome them to join the MSC certified fisheries around the world and I hope that this will prove to be a valuable and useful certification for Maresco A/S.”
