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A Southern Ocean trawl fishery was last month certified as a sustainable and well-managed fishery under the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) standard (click here).

The fishery is for Mackerel Icefish Champsocephalus gunnari in the South Atlantic sector (CCAMLR Subarea 48.3) using pelagic, not demersal, trawls.  According to the MSC "the fishery scored particularly highly on its maintenance of the ecosystem with nets designed to avoid contact with the ocean floor and extensive measures in place to limit bycatch of seabirds."

A similar fishery for icefish, using both pelagic and demersal trawls around Australia's Heard and McDonald Islands in the southern Indian Ocean sector of the Southern Ocean, was certified by the Marine Stewardship Council in 2006 and is now being reassessed (click here).

No less than three separate toothfish Dissostichus spp. fisheries in the Southern Ocean, variously utilizing demersal longlines and demersal trawls, are currently under assessment by the MSC (click here).  A longline fishery for Patagonian Toothfish D. eleginoides in the South Atlantic sector has been previously certified (click here).

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 10 November 2010