Good practice:

Responsible Fishing

The project aims at ensuring the sustainability of both the purse seine fishers’ profession and fish stocks, providing consumers with traceable and sustainable seafood, improving the sustainability of Kavala’s purse seine fishing boat fleet, which mainly fishes for anchovies and sardines. It brought together the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) which manages the Fisheries Certification Standards with the involved purse seiners so as the last to proceed with the certification (greater goal).
The challenging but successful “Responsible Fishing” is a pioneer programme based on the MSC Fisheries Standard, implemented for the first time in the Mediterranean with the cooperation of various stakeholders as fishermen, scientists, state services, organizations, and the supply chain. The programme received great acceptance from consumers, since purchasing certified seafood bearing the blue MSC label is considered a positive choice that supports fishing communities struggling to stop overfishing. It is a choice that provides them with confidence that the certified product has been produced with responsible management and sustainable practices.
The project partners are WWF Greece, Supermarket chain “A-B Vasilopoulos SA; Kavala purse seiners “MANIOS”, Greek Fisheries Research Institute (INALE). Other stakeholders include the Marine Authorities of Greece, the Ministry of Rural Development and Food, fishery associations, fishermen, food industry, local and regional authorities.

There is a relatively fair cost of sustaining the practice, invested by the project partners, while the main funding lies in the human resources by the prime stakeholders.

The practice is selected because it: safeguards the pelagic fish stocks; safeguards the purse seine fisherman profession; improves purse seine fishing practices, to ensure keeping the seas alive; promotes qualitative and certified sea-food bearing the blue MSC label, for consumers; networks different stakeholders on the basis of a joint objective; promotes the certification of Kavala’s purse seine fishing fleet; adds value to the local food industry and gastronomy (economy); is transferable.

The cooperation of many different stakeholders which demand investment in time and human resources; The related costs to keep the practice sustained; The long process for achievement of the objectives.

The practice is interesting because: it combines local purse seine fish traditions with science and ecology, to ensure sustainable and qualitative fishing; it networks the stakeholders, the local and regional authorities and others (participatory decision making process); it highlights the name of the city as synonymous to environment protection and promotion of qualitative and certified local products (traceable and sustainable seafood).

The approach of the development of the practice contains precious elements of learning. Though, the practice is demanding due to the variety of stakeholders involved and the available recourses (time, funds, human recourses) they can invest.