Letter to The Guardian - Senegal fears its fish may be off the menu for local consumption

In response to ‘Senegal fears its fish may be off the menu for local consumption’ by Martine Valo on 18th February 2014

Dear Sir/Madam,

Your article on the competition for fish landings raises some important questions regarding utilisation of the catch. There is general consensus that fisheries should be managed to protect their biomass and allow a level of harvesting that is sustainable to the stock and other parts of the marine ecosystem and that Illegal, Unregulated and Unreported (IUU) fishing should be prevented. Assuming this is in place, the fish being landed can enter various channels to market and, in a free market, the fishers should decide who buys their catch, subject to local regulations.

The growth of the global farmed fish industry has created a strong demand for fishmeal (protein) and fish oil, increasing the price paid to fishers for small, bony fish that often have limited or no human consumption markets. It has also encouraged the recycling of fish offal and byproducts which now comprise around 35% of the total raw material used, with a corresponding decrease in whole fish use. Farmed fish is providing increasing volumes of valuable protein and is recognised as a key component of global food security. As farmed fish diets now contain more vegetable than fish, the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation estimate that for every 0.3kg of whole fish used in feed, there is 1kg of farmed fish produced.

IFFO is the not-for-profit association of the world’s leading businesses in the fishmeal, fish oil and wider marine ingredients sector. While we do not condone diverting fish from human consumption to the detriment of the local population, we also support the right for fishers to maximise the return for their catch within a legal framework and recognise the contribution a responsible farmed fish industry is making to human nutrition.

Yours sincerely,

Andrew Mallison

Director General, IFFO