The 2018 Annual Economic Report on the EU Fishing Fleet (STECF 18-07)

2018.10.9

The Baltic Herring and the dioxine challenge

2018.10.1

A new paper “Food security and safety in fisheries governance – A case study on Baltic herring” uses a participatory backcasting exercise to define a desirable future vision for the use of Baltic herring catch and to develop pathways of actor-specific governance actions to increase the use of the fish as a safe-to-eat food. To read the paper click here

The results reveal that increasing the contribution of forage fish, such as Baltic herring, to food security entails a paradigm shift in fisheries governance that involves 1) inclusion of well-defined objectives for catch use in the EU CFP and the related regional multiannual plans, 2) broadening the scope of the MSY-driven governance and management to one that addresses catch use, and 3) proactive catch use governance.

Results in relations to fishmeal and fish oil were:

“Owing to the dioxin problem, reducing Baltic herring to dioxin-free fishmeal and oil was considered an important way, especially in the short term, to increase the contribution of Baltic herring to food security.”

“Finally, actions to create a market for Baltic herring fishmeal and oil for human consumption were identified. These included responding to the growing demand for healthy fish products, and investing in new production lines or, alternatively, revising regulations to allow the production of fishmeal and oil for human consumption in the same production line as for feed.

“The Danish factories don’t produce fishmeal and oil for human consumption, because of the legal regulation. They are not allowed to use it. Because they are considered by-products. Completely same factories in Peru can produce for human consumption, but not in Denmark. But they are trying to change it. It should be the products, the quality of the products that decides whether it can be used or not.” Representative of fishmeal and oil industry, Denmark”