The facts about pelagic fishing

Alarmist and inaccurate information regarding the culture and practice of pelagic fishing operations based on unevidenced assertions is unhelpful and misleading. At North Atlantic Fishing Company, we source food from the sea, to feed people across the world, and we make significant investments to ensure we do this selectively and sustainably to limit our impact on the marine environment.

North Atlantic operates within a highly regulated marine based food production system that provides an affordable protein source with significant health benefits for human consumption.

The Facts:

1. We conduct environmentally friendly fishing practices

Pelagic vessels cause no damage to seabed habitats, flora, and fauna. They use a mid-water trawl, which has no contact with the seabed. Regulators assess the impact of all types of fishing gear on the sensitive seabed features of marine protected areas. If the gear has an impact, it’s not permitted for use.  Further, in deriving scientifically based quota Total Allowable Catches (TACs) and quota allocations, the environmental impact of fishing is factored into the deliberations.

2. We only fish where we are permitted

Our vessels only fish where they are permitted to do so. If there is risk that our operations will hazard the protected features of an area or introduce risk to the balance of the marine ecosystem, we will not be able to fish there.

Pelagic fishing is managed on the basis of a maximum sustainable yield per pelagic stock. The level of Total Allowable Catch (TAC) and resulting quotas are based on scientific researchto produce evidence to underpin the advice given to policy makers.  They  take account of the needs of other marine species and the ecosystem services provided by pelagic fish. The size of the vessel we use to catch the fish reflects operating efficiencies and has no bearing on marine environment impact.  Once we have caught our quota of fish, we stop fishing.

3. Low carbon footprint

Wild-caught pelagic fish has the lowest animal protein carbon footprint, requiring no artificial feeding or freshwater supplies, while pelagic and demersal trawling are extremely energy efficient.

If we swapped the current amount of fish we eat for meat, we would need more than 22 times the area currently taken up by the world’s rainforests for animal grazing – for every kg of beef, farmers use 6.5kg of grain and over 13,000 litres of water. That is almost a 10x larger footprint than pelagic freezer-trawler fishing!

4. We fish responsibility and contribute to the sustainable management of pelagic species

Pelagic species such as herring, mackerel, blue whiting, and horse mackerel are wild caught, highly migratory and swim in large, dense shoals of individual species. This means that the stocks we fish are seasonally abundant in certain places, in large quantities, and at high concentrations. We use this pattern of behaviour to catch fish in controlled quantities, at the optimum time and place, over a relatively short period to ensure the quality of the catch.  We closely monitor each individual catch of fish and capture data that is shared with fisheries scientists to enable them to assess stock size and composition to inform their advice on sustainable practices.

5. We invest in sustainable fishing technologies

We invest in state-of-the-art technology to make our fishing compliant and selective. Nets are designed to let juvenile fish escape, ensuring they can go on to reproduce and contribute to the future sustainability of the stock. Acoustic deterrent devices dissuade marine mammals from approaching the nets. Electromagnetic deterrent devices have the same effect on shark species.  We use cameras to identify the catch before the net is deployed and the latest sonar technology enables us to only target the quantity of fish we need.  Electronic logbooks report our catches back to the authorities every 24 hours. CCTV cameras, once fitted in 2024, will contribute to scientific data collection and provide evidence of compliant operations.

It is so important that as an industry we come together to help inform and educate the wider public about our sustainable and responsible fishing operations.  This will help to balance the debate and combat the spread of misinformation which is detrimental to the professionals that make it their livelihoods and may introduce food security risks to the millions of people globally who depend on fish as their main source of protein.