Over the last 50 years, there's been a five-fold increase in the amount of fish being taken out of the the oceans.
A quarter of total fisheries are now classified as over fished or depleted and another half of the remaining global fisheries are being fished as hard as they can be.
Over fishing and it's associated environmental impact is our second biggest sustainability change after climate change.
We live in a world that wants more and more seafood.
A billion people on this planet depend on seafood for their sole or their main source of protein.
So many fish are being taken out , that it's not leaving enough fish in the ocean to ensure that there are fish supplies for the future generations.
The worlds' fisheries are in trouble and I'm worried about it personally, because the sustainability of the world stocks leads directly to the sustainability of our business and the sustainability of our employments.
And of course the Grand Banks of Canada is the horror story that should be the lesson to us all about how our fishery can collapse.
In the early nineties the Grand Banks cod fishery collapsed.
This was a very large cod fishery that's been landing hundreds of thousands of tons of cod for a number of centuries.
Those fish have never come back. And in addition, forty thousand fishermen lost their livelihoods.
This was the wake up call to the industry, and that spurred the development of the marine stewardship council.
The MSC concept is actually quite simple. When consumers see that MSC blue Ecolabel.
They've got that third party assurance and verification, that by choosing that product they are not contributing to the social and environmental problems of fishing.
Well, Hastings is a very old fishing industry is probably the oldest in the country.
My family was here in the 1200's, and it does show that we're a sustainable fishery, as we've here for so many generations.
But that, that wasn't enough.
We can't prove we're a sustainable fishery.
The only way we can prove we're sustainable fishery, we have good fishery practice is to join MSC.
And once you've got that badge of approval, you haven't just said you are, you've proved you are.
The MSC has a range precious from the small community based fishery they sold herry and mackrel the mighty Alaskan fisheries, like the Alaskan Salmon fishery and the Alaskan Pollock fishery.
The key point is they've all been independently assessed as meeting those are the most rigorous scientific sustainability standards.
Our is the first MSC certified tuna fishery in the world. It absolutely is going to give us an edge in the market.
For the part of the public that really understands and wants something that comes from a sustainable fishery, here it is for them.
No product can carry the label in the marketplace unless every single link in the supply chain has an annual audit to make sure that their separating certified fish from non-certified fish.
You can trace back to who caught the fish, what boat it came off of, where it was unloaded, where it was freezer-stored, where it was trucked to, and how it got to you finally in the store.
We ask every supplier to go through a very, very detailed set of questionnaires. But if the fish is MSC certified they don't have to answer any of those questions, other than number one, "Is it MSC certified?"
And it's an easy, quick reassurance that that fish is sustainably sourced.
People don't really want to... understand the detail and this is where a skay lined council is so important, because it gives a cheque, that they have gone through a process and this showed that it is sustainable.
So we also have paid more for MSC certified fish than its' equivalent from non MSC certified fisheries.
We actually ourselves get a better price back and that comes back to us as fisherman simply because of a good sustainable manner.
Once we've got the MSC approval, we found new market avenue for our fish.
The growth over the last two years has been astronomical.
So for example Walmart, the world's largest retailer in 2006 made a commitment that within five years for their wild captured fish supplies they will only source Marine Stewardship Council certified fish.
We sell approximately twenty million pounds of fresh fish a year. We had to do something that would protect us.
as we grow and was we need more and more product into the future. And that's where the MSC really shown out to us as a leading way that we can really embrace and grow our business.
So the vision is to create a race to the top in global fisheries management by identifying, creating market incentives, and rewarding the best managed fisheries in the world.
We are now approaching a tipping point.
We now have an estimated two hundred million items of MSC label sea food being sold annually around the world in 36 countries.
People are getting more of an understanding of what that funny blue logo actually means .
That that product has come from a well managed fishery .
We want children to see the blue label, the MSC logo.
You have to teach the children that that's a choice that they can make that's acutally good for the planet.
And it's now built into the curriculum, so children as they come through will continue to learn about the different between general fish that you can buy and the MSC label.
We're very concerned that there won't be a supply going forward. Sustainability isn't just a business term of how I keep my business going.
It's also the impact that we're having on the environment, and sooner or later we feel the competition will have to go down this route.
Because the raw material supply is dwindling and dwindling and so, the traditional, "I can buy a million pounds from wherever I need it," five or ten years from now, fifteen, twenty years from now, they're not going to be able to do either.
I think the last two years have proven that the MSC concept works. There's a business case for officials to come forward and, most importantly, there is an ecological case.
What's at stake at the end of the day is the future of the fishing industry in itself . Because if we don't look after fish stocks for the future there will be no fish for the future.
Seafood is the most traded primary commodity in the world. Half of that fish is coming from the developing world.
For MSC to really be able to deliver its mission of contributing to reversing the decline in global fish stocks, we have to become global.
At most we have seven percent of global fishes in the program, when in an ideal world we need 100%.
Because I think it is holding on all of us to ensure that this valuable
and renewable food resource is managed sustainably for this and future generations.
