From 26th April, the offshore haddock catch remains MSC certified while inshore haddock lost its certification. The client, Norges Fiskarlaget, opted not to apply for reassessment for the inshore haddock fishery. Both inshore and offshore cod have had their certificate temporarily extended until the 3rd of May, due to an objection raised to the recertification of offshore cod. While the Independent Adjudicator decides whether to accept or reject the objection, or ask for more information, both the coastal and inshore cod fisheries certification is being extended one week at a time.
Our thoughts: The Issue that caused these fisheries to lose their MSC certification was already present at the time of the initial assessment and certification. Rather than having the fisheries “fix” the issue prior to certification, the CABs opted to give a high enough score for the fisheries to enter certification with conditions in hopes that the problem would be solved before re-assessment. As many feared, that did not happen.
