What happened?
In March 2023, Seafood Watch®, a ratings system from California’s Monterey Bay
Aquarium, gave a red (“avoid”) assessment of the Atlantic Mackerel fishery in
the Bay of Biscay, off the coast of northern Spain. This is where we source our
Atlantic Mackerel.
Why the red rating?
Atlantic mackerel in the Bay of Biscay belong to a much larger
population of mackerel that migrate across the entire Northeast Atlantic, from
the coast of Portugal to Icelandic and Scandinavian waters. There’s no
international agreement on harvest rates, and the overall population of Atlantic
mackerel is being overfished as a result.
Our response to the rating
The Atlantic mackerel population in Bay
of Biscay itself can sustain responsible harvest,
according to the International Council for the Exploration of the
Sea (ICES), the world’s oldest intergovernmental science association. Likewise,
The Good Fish Foundation, based in the Netherlands,
gives this place-based fishery a green rating.
The trouble happens further north: 90% of the annual Atlantic mackerel harvest comes from northern European
waters, from mid-water trawlers and purse seiners,
again according to ICES data. These industrial boats overharvest fish, haul in
bycatch and damage the ocean ecosystem.
Our fishing partners in the Bay of
Biscay use small, family-owned boats and fish with hook-and-line, a highly
selective method that avoids bycatch. We’ll keep monitoring the health of the fishery,
working with our partners in academia. As long as harvests
don’t exceed the limits for a healthy, resilient fishery, we’ll source our
Atlantic mackerel from the fishing families of northern Spain.
