WASHINGTON — Consumers who buy one company's swordfish caught off eastern Florida will be seeing a blue and white label at the store that assures them the fish was caught with utmost care for life in the Atlantic Ocean.
The company awarded the eco label, Day Boat Seafood of Lake Park, Fla., says it's a reward for years of working to take only fish from a healthy population. Conservationists, however, are concerned because most of the company's swordfish are caught on surface longlines, which sometimes stretch for 30 miles with hundreds of hooks dangling down.
"Long-line fisheries catch whatever is swimming by," said Teri Shore of SeaTurtles.org, an advocacy group that objected to the certification by the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC). "It's not sustainable for the oceans."
The MSC's certification for Day Boat Seafood, granted in December, was the first for any fish in the world caught on ocean-surface longlines.
Read the complete story from The Sacramento Bee