FAROE ISLANDS — October 21, 2013 — Queen scallops from the Faroe Islands have won the coveted blue MSC ecolabel after a 14 month independent assessment by certifier Vottunarstofan Tún ehf. The certification follows a five year effort by fishery managers to win MSC certification for their fishery.
With fishing licenses granted to a single vessel, the scallop fishery has a long history of low-impact, fishing and it scored well on its environmental impact and management. However, it had previously suffered do to a lack of scientific data on scallop stocks.
By using the MSC’s risk-based framework (RBF), the auditors were able to establish the sustainability of the stocks by taking a more precautionary approach to ensure that stocks are sustainable and there is very little risk of stock and habitat harm from fishing practices. As part of the certification, managers have committed to further improvements to build scientific data available on scallop stocks and how quickly fishing grounds recover.
Jógvan Martin F. Joensen from the fishery said: “Based on long-term stable catches we have always been convinced that our queen scallop fishery is sustainable in every sense and now customers and consumers can easily verify that by seeing the MSC logo. The certification process took a long time as fishery evaluators needed scientific information, which was not immediately available. Having achieved the MSC certification is a positive development in our fishery and has already proven to be advantage when marketing the products abroad.”