FAQs - Fishery profiles

What are the FishSource scores?

FishSource does not have its “own” sustainability rating system, rather providing the user with a straight forward, clear, information on how international, accredited systems would rate / have rated the fisheries. Scores make use of commonly reported numbers from stock assessments but they do not define a fishery as “good” or “bad”. Fisheries can be ranked against one another and give insights into how other groups would score a fishery against current measures of sustainability. Scores currently relate to the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) standards, which in turn rely on international organizations’ criteria – e.g. International Council for the Exploration of the Sea – ICES. Scores have been developed in a way that a score of 8 has a parallel of an 80 MSC rating – i.e., “unconditional passing” on that criteria, towards MSC certification. Same rational applies to, e.g., a FishSource score below 6 → “the fishery will be ineligible for certification” [MSC standards]. To learn more about how scores were derived or how they relate to the MSC system you may download a PDF document here .

What is the common structure to all FishSource fishery profiles?

Each profile provides different depths of information. The profiles include: ID page with information on the species, geographical distribution, jurisdiction, and other basic information on the fishery; Sustainability Info page with scientific and technical information from FishSource contributors; Summary Page and Scores Page provide buyers with information they can use; Basics page with some facts and history about the fishery and the species; Sources page on which all sources of information for the profiles are listed including either direct links to the specific documents (when publicly available online) or full quotations (e.g., in the case of peer-reviewed scientific articles).

How often are the FishSource profiles updated?

The official release of stock assessments updates or of any management measures concerning the stock or fishery triggers the profiles’ updating: there’s an internal FishSource updates’ annual calendar which anticipates all major updates required and when (e.g., stock assessments for NE Atlantic fisheries are released late May / early June by ICES) which acts as a base for FishSource staff allocation. The FishSource and SFP staff also tries to be aware of the release of any non-anticipated actions / outcomes concerning management, advice or environmental matters that might justify an update of the corresponding FishSource profiles.

Why are scores based on data from different dates?

Because the statistics they rely upon obey to different official dates of release (see also “How often are the FishSource profiles updated?”)

Are there any profiles for farmed species?

The aquaculture component is still under development, but it will adhere to the same basic principles as the rest of FishSource – it will use only public information, and not define sustainability itself, but instead report on basic metrics.

How are FishSource profiles named?

Profiles on FishSource are based on a single biological stock unit (an intraspecific group of randomly mating individuals with temporal and spatial integrity – Ihssen et al., 1981) of a single species, as determined by genetic, phenotype, growth or other population parameter, parasite or tagging studies. See Sparre & Venema, 1998 for a more detailed description of the stock concept.

The general rule for naming profiles is:

“Species name – stock unit (fishery specification if applicable)”;

The first part of the profile name is the species name. As a rule, the FAO English name is adopted (Check the FAO ASFIS List of Species for Fishery Statistics Purposes web page. As examples, the FAO name for Parapercis colias is New Zealand blue cod; for Penaeus merguiensis is Banana prawn; and for Trachurus trachurus is Atlantic horse mackerel.

The second part describes the stock unit. This is generally the name given by managers or stock assessment scientists with a further descriptor of location if necessary. E.g.: “Silver hake – US Atlantic coast northern” is just called “northern stock” by managers. If the stock structure is not known or if units are defined purely for management purposes the stock unit is labelled “Stock units undefined”. In this case, the fishing country or general area is added in brackets if needed to refine the location of the fishery, e.g. “Orange roughy – stock units undefined (Australia)”. The stock unit may be omitted when it is redundant, as in endemic species whose FAO name describes the stock location, e.g. “Peruvian anchovy”; “North Pacific hake”.

Besides the stock-based profiles there are fishery-based profiles, nested within the stock-based profiles, when only a part of the stock is addressed (“Mother” and “child” profiles). An example are those profiles associated with fisheries in the MSC evaluation system (either in assessment or certified). Brackets are also used in this case to further specify what the “child” profile addresses, specifically, the country(ies) whose jurisdiction the fishery is in and the fishing gear(s) used.

MSC “child” profiles also add to the above information in brackets the MSC client (fishers’ organization) and the MSC status – “MSC-FA” (full assessment), “MSC-C” (certified). For example: “Albacore – North Pacific (usa; lhm, ltl, jig; awfbo; msc-c)”; “Alaska pollock – Aleutian Islands (usa; tm; aspa; msc-c)”.

To see what the acronyms stand for please tick the “Highlight acronyms” box in the top right corner of the page.

References:

Ihssen, P.E., H.E. Booke, J.M. Casselman, J.M. McGlade, N.R. Payne and F.M. Utter, 1981. Stock identification: materials and methods. Can.J.Fish.Aquat.Sci., 38(12):1838-1855.

Sparre, P. and S.C. Venema, 1998. Introduction to tropical fish stock assessment – Part 1: Manual. FAO Fisheries Technical Paper 306/1 Rev.2. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. http://www.fao.org/docrep/W5449e/w5449e00.htm#Contents

Why aren’t some fishery profiles completed?

FishSource seeks to cover as many fisheries as possible. Our approach consist on creating ID and Scores pages, as well as summary pages whenever possible, opening the profile for external contributions from experts of particular aspects of fisheries, or invited partners, following a “seed” rational, all external contributions being accommodated on the Sustainability Info sections. That’s why some fisheries only have ID, scores and/or summaries.