The Iceland Sustainable Fisheries (ISF) monkfish fishery has gained MSC certification, the first fishery for this species anywhere to be certified. This is also the eight occasion in which an ISF fishery is the first for that species to get the MSC blue tick.
Historically, monkfish were an occasional by-catch in the trawl fishery, until a primarily gill net fishery developed off southern Iceland, since shifting increasingly to waters off the west of Iceland with activity taking place mainly in late summer and into the winter months.
Landings are in the region of 1000 tonnes annually, with 60% of catches exported to the UK and other markets include Denmark, Germany, Sweden, Switzerland, France and the Benelux countries. 70% of exports are as fresh monkfish tails.
Under the MSC assessment, demersal fish and langoustine trawls, seine nets, longlines and gill nets are the certified fishing methods.
‘We are proud that monkfish is the latest addition to our MSC certified fisheries,’ said ISF project manager Kristinn Hjálmarsson
‘The catch quantity is not much – only 853 tonnes this fishing year – which makes the cost of certification expensive on a per tonne basis. However, that does not change the fact that we want to be sustainable. Size doesn’t matter and neither does quantity. Hopefully, consumers will appreciate the effort to bring large and small quantity species from sustainable sources to their plates.’
ISF was established in 2012 to be the fishery client group for the Icelandic seafood industry. The group aims to gain MSC certification for all Icelandic fish stocks and now counts over 50 membership companies.
