Fishery: MSC certificates for Eastern Baltic Sea cod fisheries suspended

Author: BalticSea2020
Year published: 2015

Today the MSC certificates for Eastern Baltic Sea cod fisheries are suspended. This means that cod landed by certified fisheries from Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Poland and Latvia will not carry the MSC ecolabel. MSC stands for Marine Stewardship Council and the label guarantees sustainable fishing. 

The current data available is not sufficient to establish the size of the cod stocks and their regrowth, making MSC withdraw the certifications for cod fishing in the Eastern Baltic Sea during a period of 90 days. To read more, please visit MSC’s homepage.

MSC has made a wise decision considering the current lack of knowledge regarding the Baltic Sea cod. BalticSea2020, together with scientists from leading fishing nations around the Baltic Sea (Denmark, Poland, Germany and Sweden), will launch a large knowledge-based project at the beginning of 2016. The project will include developing consistent methods for age determination of cod - knowledge that is essential in order to make decisions regarding cod stock’s vitality and, in the long run, how much fish that can be caught every year.