Herring

Stocks in the North Sea are currently within safe biological limits. Purse seines and pelagic trawl fisheries can result in cetacean by-catch.
TIP: Choose a Marine Stewardship Council fishery (eg Black Water).

Problems

Overfishing caused the collapse of stocks in the North Sea in the early 1970s.
It can be caught as bycatch in industrial fishing, which depletes numbers.

Solutions

Between 1977-81 North Sea fisheries were closed to allow recovery. Management improved and now fish are harvested in a sustainable way.
The Thames herring fishery at Blackwater in Essex became the first fishery to be certified for the second time as meeting MSC sustainable requirements. Fish are sold at Sainsburys, Tesco and Waitrose.
In May 2006, the North Sea and the East English Channel autumn spawning stock was certified as reaching sustainable levels by the MSC.

Photo courtesy of Lisa Andersson