Fisheries Secretary Richard Lochhead has congratulated the Scottish pelagic sector on achieving the gold standard of sustainability. Lochhead was attending the meeting of the Scottish Pelagic Sustainability Group and celebrate certification of the Scottish western mackerel fishery by the Marine Stewardship Council. In that meeting Lochhead said that the mackerel fishery in Scotland will likely be worth around £100 million this year.
It is told that the Scottish mackerel fishery is the first large-scale mackerel fishery in Europe to gain MSC accreditation. Lochhead also informed that a quota increase of 33 percent was agreed at last year’s fisheries negotiations. He was delighted that mackerel, Scotland’s second most commercially valuable stock, has achieved the gold standard of sustainability.
According to him it means that a massive 90 per cent of Scotland’s pelagic landings are now MSC certified. It is no exaggeration to say that the Scottish pelagic fishery is a model fishery from which many of anybody could learn. Lochhead also said that this achievement is also a timely boost for our fishing communities in these difficult economic times.
There is no doubt that this achievement also benefits consumers as they now have concrete evidence that when they are choosing Scottish mackerel in the supermarket, they are buying a top-quality product from the most sustainable source possible. John Goodlad, chairman of the Scottish Pelagic Sustainability Group, opined that SPSG is pleased to add Scottish mackerel to Scottish herring as a MSC certified fishery.
