Brands and retailers have a vital role to play in protecting small pelagic fish stocks, according to the MSC, as demand continues to grow for both human consumption and feed meal markets.
Herring, blue whiting and mackerel in the North-East Atlantic have lost or had their MSC certifications suspended following disagreements on quotas between fishing nations. These three key stocks have only had international agreements in place for four of the last 25 years up to 2024. The result is that over the last seven years these species have exceeded the scientists' advised catch by 31%.
Some of MSC’s commercial partners have already switched to source herring from other pelagic fisheries such as North Sea herring, summer-spawning Icelandic herring, Southern Gulf of California thread herring and Chilean jack mackerel which are readily available and supplying important markets.
According to the MSC’s Small Pelagics Yearbook 2025, the small pelagics species group is the second most engaged in the MSC program with more than 3 million metric tonnes certified globally in 2024, representing 12% of global small pelagic catch.
Small pelagics play a vital role in our ocean’s ecosystems serving as the main food source for marine life. They also provide critical nutrition for human diets, and their mix of protein and Omega-3 fatty acids makes them a valuable source for aquafeed and other marine ingredient uses.
Ensuring that supplies of small pelagics are sustainable is critical as demand is increasing for several reasons. Firstly, there’s a growing market for sustainably sourced fish oils destined for human consumption. In 2008 there were only four fish oil supplements carrying the MSC ecolabel available. By the 2023/24 financial year, 475 MSC certified supplement products were available. Secondly, projections indicate aquaculture will continue to grow, and with it the demand for small pelagic fish, a key source of fish meal and fish oil for feed.
Nicolas Guichoux, MSC’s Chief Program Officer, said: “Against this backdrop of increasing demand, it is vital to protect small pelagic fisheries for the future. This newly published yearbook demonstrates the role of certification in driving sustainable outcomes for this species group, whilst highlighting the risks to these highly dynamic fisheries when international agreements are not in place to protect from overfishing and mismanagement.
“Retailers and brands have a huge role to play in driving momentum towards greater availability of certified small pelagic fish in the supply chain. In addition to species that are in the pipeline towards certification, the necessary changes to quota setting for stalwart species such as Atlantic mackerel, blue whiting, and Atlanto-Scandian herring need to be made to allow their return to MSC’s program.
“These species are vital in servicing important global markets that are reliant on these fisheries as a critical source of protein, ensuring certified availability for both industry and consumers. In the longer term, this could affect prices and volumes of product for the market.”
The Small Pelagics Yearbook 2025 outlines the challenges facing the species, such as impacts of climate change on stock shift distributions, whilst providing an analysis of the global market for this species. It highlights some exemplary case studies of certified small pelagic fisheries, as well as the role of certification in supporting positive outcomes for people and planet.