Consistent overfishing of Northeast blue whiting, a principal ingredient in salmon feed, threatens the environmental certification of the species. The loss of this certification would, in turn, risk the certification of fish production dependent on such feed and will cost consumer sales, as told by an array of firms involved in feed and salmon farming to the governments of Norway and the Faroe Islands. The European Commission has accused Norway and the Faroes of refusing to meet and agree on country-specific allocations of the overall quota on the blue whiting stock that is set based on advice by the International Council for the Exploration of the Seas (ICES), the body which the EU and other fishery management authorities rely on for sound biological advice as to resource stock conditions. Other concerned harvesting nations, including other EU Member States and the UK, follow such quota advice on blue whiting, while the two offenders have refused to agree on their country-specific quotas from the total fishery quota for all countries and continue to heavily fish the resource.
In such criticism, the EU has been joined by the Northeast Atlantic Pelagic Advocacy Group (NAPA), an alliance of more than 70 companies including salmon farmers Mowi and Scottish Sea Farms, retailers Asda, Marks & Spencer, Tesco, Waitrose, Morrisons, Aldi, and Co-op, and feed producers Cargill, BioMar, Skretting, and Cooke Aquaculture-owned Northeast Nutrition. NAPA blames Norway and the Faroes for their farmers and feed producers facing the prospect of refusing blue whiting because of the fishery’s loss of sustainability certification by the Marine Stewardship Council’s “Blue Label” mark of approval. This ultimately risks the loss of certification of salmon grown with feed from this blue whiting fishery. In turn, a loss of salmon certification will alienate a large segment of European consumers for whom environmental certification is a priority when buying seafood. NAPA is joining the EU Commission in pressuring the two violating countries to improve their fishery management activities to align with their responsibilities: in particular, to agree to stop overfishing their blue whiting resource. Charlina Vitcheva, the EU Director-General for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, said direct blame for the certification status of the blue whiting stock lies with Norway and the Faroe Islands, while other countries have not acted irresponsibly.
