The blue seal on fish products is meant to convey buying reliability for consumers and guarantee that the fish comes from stocks which are being sustainably fished. However, the result of the current study from Kiel conveys another message. More than ten stocks were fished more than was economically and ecologically reasonable (see press release from May 25).
In the press release by the MSC the points of reference applied in the study were questioned. But the official points of reference “fishing pressure” and “stock size” from the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) were clearly used. Overly high fishing pressure (“above“) and to small stock size (“below trigger”) are clearly designated there and marked in red within the traffic light labeling system.
Contact
Dr. Rainer Froese, GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel, Telephone: 0431-600-4579
rfroese@geomar.de
Dr. Silvia Opitz, GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel, Telephone: 0431-600-4522
sopitz@geomar.de
Friederike Balzereit, Public Outreach, Cluster of Excellence “The Future Ocean“, Telephone: 0431-880-3032
fbalzereit@uv.uni-kiel.de
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