The Eastern Baltic cod fishery has become the first fishery from Poland to enter into assessment against the MSC standard for well-managed and sustainable fisheries.
The Poland Eastern Baltic cod fishery is made up of five fishing organisations with 134 vessels. The fishers use trawls, longlines and gillnets to catch cod in the Eastern Baltic Sea. Their annual total catch amounts to 5,500 tons on average. The cod from this fishery is sold mainly on the domestic market and is exported to European countries such as Germany and France.
The Eastern Baltic has benefited from reduced fishing pressure, increased spawning rates and a long term management plan which has seen the cod stock rebuild to healthy levels. Danish and German fisheries harvesting the stock have already achieved MSC certification and report greater market recognition for their catch.
Marcin Radkowski, president of the Ko?obrzeska Grupa Producentów Rybs, one of the five fishing organisations says, “We are taking up the challenge and are having our fishing activities assessed for environmental sustainability. By means of the certificate we want to show that we use the fishing resource in a responsible manner and that we are ready to confirm this through an independent auditor. We are certain that we have made the right decision in applying for assessment as the MSC standard is considered the world’s most rigorous and comprehensive set of criteria for sustainable fishing and the MSC ecolabel has a high level of acceptance and recognition.”
Mercator Media Ltd 2013