Policies
Here are some of our key policy statements and positions related to seafood sustainability and Fish for Life.
Our Position on Illegal Fishing
Since Young’s has been supplying fish and seafood for over 200 years, it is clearly both our duty and our interest to actively support the sustainable management of fisheries and marine environments around the world. We believe that sustainable practice is the only way to safeguard the future of fish – both now and for future generations.
Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated fishing (IUU) hinders scientific stock management, threatens biological sustainability and distorts markets and it must be eliminated from the world’s fisheries. However, we are aware that there is no simple or single solution to eliminating IUU as many different factors may result in fishermen taking illegal catches from the sea, including:
- An incentive for illicit profit
- Weak fishery monitoring, surveillance and control measures
- Too little quota entitlement for the fishermen to operate profitably
These factors must be addressed through the timely application of appropriate and effective policy and regulatory measures. This is why we have recently supported the development of a new EU Regulation (EC) No.1005/2008 to prevent, deter and eliminate IUU fishing. Our business is an active participant in the industry stakeholder consultative process leading to this new Regulation which will become fully implemented in January of 2010.
We utterly condemn the use of illegal practices, which have no place in a modern, sustainable and responsible fishing industry and aim to eradicate any possibility that illegal material should enter our supply chain. We never knowingly purchase such material or deal with suppliers implicated in practices such as:
- Exceeding quota limits
- Fishing outside prescribed areas
- Ignoring size regulations
- Using banned fishing methods
- The capture and sale of non-target species
It is therefore fundamental to the implementation of our policy that we require all our suppliers to both commit to - and demonstrate that - they are operating legally and to industry best practice. Our business is at the forefront of work to develop and enhance traceability systems and controls over the seafood supply chain - through such initiatives as the ‘AIPCE Control Documents’ for Barent’s Sea and Baltic Sea cod fishing. We are also involved in promoting the wider adoption of more formal collaborative agreements between fishing nations such as the ‘Port State Control’ measures which have been proposed by the FAO of the United Nations.
We maintain an ‘open book’ policy on the maintenance of our own records. We co-operate fully with all the relevant regulatory bodies, give them free access to any information which may be helpful in monitoring fish sourcing and legal supply and expect our suppliers to do the same.
Reviewed 12 May 2009
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