Swiss retailer Manor joins FoS sustainable seafood scheme and takes threatened marine species off its shelves

 

Manor, a main Swiss retail chain, has joined the Friend of the Sea project for certification and promotion of seafood from sustainable fisheries and aquaculture.
 
“Our suppliers already comply with the minimum size requirements and engage at protecting marine mammals and turtles from bycatch. But Manor wanted to go even further in its conservation efforts. This is why we joined the Friend of the Sea project.” affirms Mr Steiner, Purchase Director of Manor SA.
 
As a first important step, Manor took off from its shelves any seafood originated from species threatened in the wild: atlantic cod, haddock, halibut, bluefin tuna and atlantic salmon.  In the future, only cod, salmon and halibut from Friend of the Sea certified aquaculture will be found at Manor’s points of sales. Bluefin tuna will be replaced by other tuna species, such as yellowfin.
 
Manor will then gradually introduce on its shelves only seafood certified as sustainable by Friend of the Sea. “Manor engages to sell, by the end of 2008, only certified sustainable seafood, whether preserved, fresh or frozen.” confirms Mr Steiner. Products and their origins are assessed according to strict Friend of the Sea criteria and audited by independent third party certification bodies.
 
“Manor took a brave decision, which should be followed by the whole industry” comments Paolo Bray, director of Friend of the Sea “we are sure consumers will appreciate and reward. Not only, this decision will take pressure off those overexploited resources, it will also reduce the impact on the seabed, since several of those species – namely cod, haddock and halibut – are mostly fished with bottom trawlers, a fishing method which ploughs the sea floor destroying corals and sponges, by-catching any marine species found on its way.”
 
Manor joins a list of retailers and processing companies which in Europe, USA, Africa and Asia have already joined Friend of the Sea and had their products certified.
 
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MANOR SA
Elle Steinbrecher
PR Responsible
Tel: +41.61.6942222
Fax: +41.61.6861838
 
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FRIEND OF THE SEA
 
Friend of the Sea (www.friendofthesea.org) is a project for the certification and promotion of seafood from sustainable fisheries and sustainable aquaculture. It is the only certification scheme which, with the same logo, certifies seafood wild-caught and farmed. Friend of the Sea started as a project of the Earth Island Institute, the NGO which operates the successful International Dolphin-Safe project (www.dolphinsafetuna.org). It is participated by some of the main retailers world wide, such as Carrefour Italy, Coop Italia, Eroski, Manor and Finiper. Some important producers (wild and aquaculture) have also undergone their products to assessment for certification (full list on web site: companies from Spain, UK, Portugal, Italy, Morocco, Canada, Turkey, etc.).
Friend of the Sea’s criteria compliance is verified by independent accredited certification bodies. Essential criteria for fisheries are the following (all criteria are described in documents downloadable from website): (a) the product should not originate from overexploited (nor depleted, data deficient or recovering) stocks; (b) fishing method should not impact the seabed; (c) fishing method should be selective (maximum 8% discard – average WW according to FAO 2005); (d) fishery should respect all legal requirements. A list of Friend of the Sea conforming origins and approved fishing methods is available under the ‘Sustainable Fisheries’ menu on the web site.
Friend of the Sea is open to retailers, processing companies which would like to have their product certified. 

For more info contact info@friendofthesea.org
 
 
Paolo Bray
Director
Friend of the Sea
www.friendofthesea.org
paolobray@friendofthesea.org
Skype: friend.of.the.sea
HQ (EU): Tel: +39.348.5650306
Fax: +39.02.29537094
United States: Tel: 001.617.418-3491 (EC)
United States: Tel: 001.415.508.5293 (WC)
UK: Tel: 0044.020 7193 4146
 
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