GULF OF CALIFORNIA SARDINE FISHERY
CONSIDERED FOR SUSTAINABILITY LABEL

2/08  NCMC was recently joined by 10 other nationally-recognized fishing and conservation groups in calling on the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) to strengthen the criteria for evaluating the Gulf of California sardine fishery and other reduction fisheries, arguing that the bar needs to be raised to protect their unique and critical ecological role as forage in the ecosystem.

MSC is a nonprofit organization that works globally to recognize well-managed fisheries and promote responsible seafood choices through a certification and labeling program. In October 2006, the organization announced that the first feed-grade (reduction) fishery to be considered for sustainability certification was under assessment.

The move to certify the sardine fishery has drawn criticism from fishermen, scientists and conservation groups in both the United States and Mexico, who view the certification as condoning the use of wild fish as feed for the growing aquaculture industry - a practice that experts, including the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution's Marine Aquaculture Task Force, regard as a major threat to ocean ecosystems.

The Gulf of California sardine fishery, which deploys a fleet of purse-seine vessels out of Guaymas and Yavaros, Mexico, targets Pacific sardine and Pacific thread herring - two critically important forage fish for many of the Gulf's inhabitants, including seabirds, sharks, marlin and dolphin that migrate to the Pacific Ocean off the U.S. coast. More than 85% of the fishery's catch is reduced to fishmeal and oil for use in aquaculture and livestock feed.

Read the letter submitted to the MSC by NCMC and other fishing and conservation groups.

Read more on our Bring Back the Big Fish program in the Pacific.