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Fish4Ever has one of the strictest approaches to marine sustainability but this is not translated into a charter of terms and conditions but represented more by a list of statements and principles. Our marine sustainability choices are made by an in-depth analysis of the issues and the scientific evidence produced by the various marine authorities as well as the many NGO’s that work in the field (or rather the waters) of marine sustainability.
As we’ve “grown up” in marine sustainability we’ve realised that some broad statements are simply not tenable or that some rules should apply to one type of fishing but not to another or to one part or area of the seas - and not to another. This is even more the case when looking at social questions. Nor is it our place to create a set of rules and regulations – that’s the role first of the many governance bodies created by international legal arrangement under UN auspices and second the role of certification body, such as the MSC. A certification body should be structured transparently and involve a large number of stakeholders, it can have a commercial interest in selling a symbol but should not be profit-making (we aren’t either but that’s a different story!)
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The right to make rules and regulations is not ours. Next we don’t like the semi-legalistic approach of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR); we feel that too often companies with a CSR approach are either fundamentally anti-ethical or unethical. This may not be an entirely fair statement when applied to individual companies as an anti-ethical approach is one that is actually encouraged by the type of economic and corporate system that we all have to exist under. But we feel that CSR is too often used as a sub-set of PR, that green-spining is never far from the surface, that one ethical position is so often let down by another anti-ethical position.
As a small company, it is of course easier for us to be “pure” although we still also have to be a business. Also there is nothing saying we should be pure; it is a choice we have made and a choice we make because we come from the organic sector - and real organic companies have always tried to be as holistic as possible in their approach to sustainability. Whilst in the end all attempts to include sustainability and ethics more broadly must be applauded and encouraged, there is nonetheless a lot to be said for the simple statement of attitude “it ain’t what you do, it’s the way that you do it...”
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| * All our land ingredients are certified organic.
* Organic agriculture has a far lower carbon footprint than conventional agriculture and can therefore mitigate climate change. Organic agriculture has lower greenhouse gas emissions and can act as a carbon sink, to sequestre or trap carbon.
* Organic agriculture protects and increases bio-diversity and promoted conservation goals as well as a healthy and vital soil.
* Organic agriculture does not require the production or use of toxic chemicals or result in their subsequent leakage or runnof into the water system. Organic farmers work to retain natural water resources and to reduce nitrate runoff. This runoff from normal non-organic agriculture has serious marine implications.
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* Organic factory production does not allow the vast majority of chemically-derived additives, flavours, colours, processes and preservatives that are usually allowed in food. Only a very limited number of non-toxic necessary additives can be included in an organic product.
* The organic system of certification ensures that there is a verification and traceability system and that all organic ingredients and products conform to organic standards.
This system is enforced by law and whilst cheating does and can occur, it is fairly easy, through the verification process and tests performed by companies and governments, to locate, punish and prevent it.
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| * We will not sell fish that is endangered. We will stop sales of fish listed as critically endangered by the IUCN. We will also consult NGO-produced avoid lists and recommendations.
* We do not catch or impact endangered species as by-catch. We choose selective catch methods that are dolphin-friendly, albatross-friendly, bird-friendly, turtle-friendly and shark-friendly.
* We commit to methods with low or near-zero by-catch. Any by-catch should preferably be consumed and not discarded.
* We do not fish juvenile fish as by-catch. If juvenile or younger fish are the target catch, we will be careful to choose selective methods that allow enough fish to swim on and live another day.
* We will chose fish stocks that are well-managed and/or where stock levels are either sufficient or sufficient to recover.
* We will avoid illegal fishing. We will not buy from boats listed as illegal by the FAO, by Regional Tuna authorities and by Greenpeace. We will keep this list updated. We will also avoid all areas where high incidence of illegal fishing and poaching have been recorded and where we have reasonable grounds to believe that illegal fishing is occurring and/or where, were it to be occurring, it would be at levels that endanger marine conservation or represent a form of theft from poor economies.
* We will support packers and fishing companies with good traceability systems, good buying procedures and a record for responsible purchasing and that follow relevant regulations and prohibitions, e.g. on catch, size or seasonal limits.
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* None of the fish we pack is bottom-dwelling so none of our fishing methods involve possible damage to the ocean floor and consequent damage to the eco-system, for example coral reefs or the food and fauna on the ocean floor. If we were to add a bottom-dwelling species, for example any crab or lobster to the range, we would allow the most ecologically selective methods such as traps or pots.
* We do not use long-lines, purse-seiners setting on
FAD’s or driftnets. We do not use bottom trawling or dredging.
* In tuna we do not use gillnets as this can cause a large
by-catch of several dolphins species, gillnets in other fisheries can cause by-catch of porpoises and dolphins (as can pair-trawling – for example for seabass off the Southern coast of UK). Gillnets are used in the Alaskan and MSC certified fishery for salmon; in this case gillnets are an environmentally-acceptable choice as there is no by-catch and the net allows smaller/younger fish to escape the catch.
* We support the MSC sustainable fishing certification scheme. 70% of our lines will be MSC certified by the end of 2009.
* We support the concept of marine parks promoted by Greenpeace, the Marine Conservation Society and other NGO’s. Marine parks are essential to restore the eco-system to a pristine condition unharmed by mankind. Marine parks can actually benefit fishing in the wider sea by protecting and increasing numbers, especially if located in important spawning or feeding grounds.
* We support better managed seas and promote the idea of better management by insisting on sustainability as the key criterion of our selection.
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| * We support local and traditional fishing communities. Wherever possible we will support fishermen that fish within their own territorial waters and we will support packers that are local to the fishing.
* We support the idea of fairly-trade fish. We will not work with fisheries that are the result of an unequal deal between poor countries and rich countries that damage local fishing villages and communities.
* We will not support long distance foreign water fishing fleets that fish in the coastal waters of developing
states.
* We will not not support sweatshop-type factories in developing countries with no labour rights, bad working conditions, poor standards of hygiene, health and welfare.
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* In 2008 we launched the world’s first ever “fair fish” skipjack tuna - granting a 10% premium on top of the market price, which in part is committed to a community project.
* The skipjack tuna factory we use in the Maldives is accredited to the Ethical Trading Initiative standards and government owned. Fishing provides work for some 20% of the population and Maldivians have one of the higest per capita consumptions of fish in the world. Boats are owned by a large number of local fishing captains. All our other products are packed within the EU.
* We have approached the Fair Trade Foundation to encourage and ask them to develop a Fair Trade standard for fish.
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