Sustainable fishing: safeguarding seafood supplies - in pictures

“…everyone should be embracing sustainability. For us it's not just about saying you do something - it's about proving you do it.” Calum Richardson, owner of the Bay Fish and Chips.

For every independent restaurant in the UK, there is a fish and chip shop. This year, MSC certified The Bay Fish and Chips in Stonehaven, Scotland became the first chippie to win the Fish and Chip shop of the Year and the Good Catch Award for Sustainability in the same year. Often described as the Fish and Chip Oscars, the awards have a huge impact on the shops involved, catapulting them to stardom among the 10,500 fish and chip shops around the UK. We’re seeing more and more chippies follow in The Bay’s footsteps to get MSC certified.
Photograph: Karen Murray

The MSC’s Fish and Kids project was founded in 2005. The aim was to ensure that the fish on school menus comes from MSC certified sources and educate pupils about making sustainable seafood choices.

One of the first local authorities to sign up was London’s Tower Hamlets (pictured). Now eight years old, the project has reached over 4,000 primary schools, a quarter of all primaries in England and over 800,000 children. It has also resulted in spin-off projects in Sweden, France and Singapore.

www.fishandkids.org offers teachers curriculum-linked lesson plans, games and activities, some of which are also available on the Guardian Teacher Network. Photograph: Andy Aitchison

In 2009, Dutch fishmonger Bart van Olphen went on a tour of MSC certified and in-assessment fisheries around the world with chef Tom Kime. Together, they wrote the Fish Tales cookbook, a collection of recipes and stunning photos from their travels.

In 2009, their tour covered thirteen fisheries but a similar tour today could involve nearly 400 fisheries and hundreds more MSC certified recipes. Photograph: Leonard FŠustle/leonard fŠustle

Following the success of Hugh’s Fish Fight and a long-running campaign by Greenpeace, Maldivian pole and line-caught tuna is probably one of the most famous sustainable fisheries in the world. But the low-impact fishing method is only part of the sustainability story, the Maldives are only one country among many fishing from the same tuna stock. The Maldives have worked hard with the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission (IOTC) and WWF, playing an integral role in setting new management requirements that will affect all of the IOTC countries fishing for skipjack tuna. In 2012 the fishery gained its MSC certification.

By committing to new management requirements and further improvements, they will ensure that MSC certified Maldives pole and line tuna remains an icon of sustainability.
Photograph: Leonard Fäustle

When the MSC started working with McDonald's over five years ago, some of their source fisheries were MSC certified, others weren’t. Rather than walk away from their supply fisheries, McDonald's supported improvements in all their fisheries.

One example was the eastern Baltic cod fishery. Cod stocks in the eastern Baltic sea had suffered from years of illegal fishing. By working with their suppliers and the Sustainable Fisheries Partnership to improve stocks and support treaties that eliminated illegal fishing, McDonalds helped the stocks to recover to sustainable levels. In April 2011 the fishery was MSC certified allowing for every fillet-o-fish in Europe to bear the blue ecolabel from October. Following the success of MSC certification in Europe, McDonald’s USA followed Europe's lead in January 2013 offering MSC certified fillet-o-fish to their customers.

This caption was amended 15 May to correct McDonalds Americas to McDonald’s USA. Photograph: MSC

How do you make diners interact with their fish to learn about where it came from? After much testing, Moshi Moshi sushi master, Junji-san, produced the world’s first fully-edible QR code sushi. Photograph: Photo credit: Paul Winch-Furness/Photo credit: Paul Winch-Furness

More than half of the world’s seafood comes from developing countries yet often these countries lack the data that is vital to assessing fish stocks.

Working in partnership with WWF, the Ben Tre clam fishery in Vietnam joined six other fisheries helping the MSC to develop a new assessment tool to audit data-deficient fisheries. Their work opened MSC certification to data deficient fisheries around the world. Ben Tre clams were MSC certified in 2009 and the certification has had tangible benefits to the fishers. Clams from Ben Tre are sold across Europe, the US, Japan and China and the MSC label has resulted in a 65% price premium to the fishers. Part of this additional profit is being used for a social welfare fund, and another part is given to the commune to use for infrastructure development. Photograph: Leonard FŠustle/leonard fŠustle

Every country in which the MSC operates has certain iconic ways of eating fish. Some of them are world-famous like sashimi in Japan or herrings in Norway. In the UK, fish and chips dominate our public consciousness when eating out, but at home, frozen fish fingers are still a firm favourite.

Birds Eye had experimented with MSC labelled ‘Omega 3’ fish fingers in the past, but moving all of their cod and haddock fish fingers was a bigger challenge. The UK eats more than 180m Birds Eye fish fingers each year so it is vital that they are sustainably sourced. Photograph: T Middleton/MSC

Over the past five years, MSC certified products have blossomed on the UK’s supermarket shelves with over 1,300 products now wearing the blue MSC label. By committing to certified sustainable seafood retailers and seafood brands are helping to drive change at sea, switching existing lines to MSC certified options as their fisheries get certified and insisting on MSC certified when developing new products.

Jamie Oliver has inspired the nation to enjoy cooking through his TV programmes, and books and brought that ethic to the frozen aisle in partnership with Youngs. Both are long-standing supporters of the MSC, so, when Youngs approached Jamie to develop a new line of frozen products, the MSC label was a natural fit. Photograph: Janet Pullan/Jamie Oliver

"The idea that people who've got less, care less, is out of touch with how people really feel and behave, and totally misjudges the British public. Our research shows similar attitudes across socio-economic groups. It's one reason why we have Marine Stewardship Council certification for our basics fish fingers as well as over 100 other product lines…" Justin King, CEO, Sainsbury’s.

In the UK, Sainsbury’s have led the retail sector by offering MSC certified seafood throughout their store from the more expensive Taste the Difference range through to the more cost conscious Sainsbury’s Basics.

Sainsbury’s commitment to independently certified seafood means working with 37 MSC certified fisheries around the world, all with fully certified supply chains to ensure that their pollock, mussels, cod and more are always from a sustainable source. Photograph: Sainsburys

Many of the fisheries that pass an MSC assessment do so with conditions aimed at raising them from basic sustainability to best practice at all points. The South Africa hake fishery, certified in 2004, included a condition to investigate unknown seabird impacts by fishing. The results were shocking, revealing 18,000 seabirds caught and killed every year.

The yellow streamers in the photograph are tori lines, just one of the measures introduced by the fishery to help scare birds away from the lines and prevent them drowning. Already albatross deaths in the fishery have been reduced by 80%. Staying in the MSC programme, the fishery is committed to going further, reducing seabird deaths to zero as part of their certification.
Photograph: Bronwyn Maree

Shetland brown crab is the first UK crab fishery to get MSC certified. Small fisheries face an inherent challenge due to their size and lack of resources. Despite the inshore fleet making up three quarters of the UK fishing boats, these smaller boats can struggle to engage in the MSC programme due to a shortage of data and opportunity for investment.

In 2012, the MSC and Seafish launched Project Inshore – a vast research project to find the gaps in knowledge in our inshore fleet. By identifying the highest performing fisheries and areas for new research, hopefully more fisheries will soon join the Shetland brown crabs with the MSC label. Photograph: Shetland Shellfish Management Organisation