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HERITAGE PEARLS
IN A WORLD OF OYSTERS
The amount of certified sustainable seafood Such is the history of the fishery that even today the Mayor
of Colchester, in keeping with a tradition that dates back to
available worldwide continues to increase as
the 1500s, sails down the river to Mersea in the first week of
more and more fisheries, driven by consumer September to cast the first dredges that officially open the
and retail demand, obtain the blue tick of oyster season. This is followed in October by a grand civic
approval from the Marine Stewardship council. Oyster Feast where dignitaries from around the country are
invited. Today it is the soap and sports stars who are as
Lesley Smeardon finds out how focusing on likely to be invited as the High Sherrifs and councillors in
good fishing practices can maintain livelihoods, this modern town of around 180,000 which include London
support modern day profits and improve commuters, retail, manufacturing and tourism workers and,
of course, fishermen.
environmental quality.
The centre of the region’s thriving oyster fishery is situated
In Britain’s oldest recorded town of Colchester, they’ve 10 miles from Colchester on the small island of Mersea,
been fishing native oysters since the Romans arrived 2,000 separated from the mainland by a small channel. Both
years ago. Since that time, the waters of the Blackwater native and rock (gigas) oysters are cultivated in the shallow
River, part of the Greater Thames Estuary, have been rich creeks leading from the Blackwater where warm summer sea
with the shelled delicacies that now grace the tables of temperatures and nourishment from the nearby marsh are
some of London’s more fashionable restaurants. perfect for the oysters.
Richard Haward, whose fishery KEEPING THE TRADITION
is undergoing MSC
accreditation, is a seventh Every year in September,
generation oysterman whose Mersea Island holds its
family has over 200 years of annual oyster dredging
experience growing oysters match that sees a whole
along the Blackwater River. community brave the cold
to participate or simply
watch the spectacle.
The Tollesbury and Mersea Native Oyster fishery itself is
fairly small with a catch of around 60 metric tonnes a
season. At one point there would have been around 150
boats dredging the Blackwater but today only around 20
fishermen are part of the fishery.
The Edge
www.coastnet.org.uk/theedge | December 2009 magazine
“Through Marine Stewardship Certification (MSC), we can
© Jiri Rezac/WWF-UK
improve the management of fisheries globally, reducing
the likelihood of fish stock decline and greatly increasing
the chance of recovery. Equally, MSC certification will
improve other environmental impacts of the fisheries,
such as the bycatch of seabirds, cetaceans and other
marine wildlife, as well as other fish, which are still far too
high in many fisheries around the world.”
The process is well on the way with certification hoped to The Tollesbury fishery’s sustainability comes through a
be achieved by April 2010 but it’s been a slow process and variety of factors including: size of haul, methods used,
without the funding from WWF and the technical help and an innate understanding of the need to ensure fish
from CoastNet, Haward is certain it would never have stocks increase or remain stable throughout the seasons to
happened. “A small industry like ours could not have maintain the future of the fishery.
envisaged funding the process. We were lucky to have had
funding to undertake the pre-assessment which was a Looking long term at fisheries in general, Haward is
short health check on our fishery, but had to wait some cautiously optimistic. “Attitudes are changing and many
time before we could find financial help and the expert more fishermen are taking a longer term view but do need
advice to complete the process.” to see a financial benefit in changing their ways. What is
good is the change in public perception towards
Dr Theresa Redding from CoastNet who is providing the sustainability which could result in a higher value being
technical expertise to guide the fishery through the put on sustainable practices. This is especially the case
certification process says it’s hard for fisheries to do this since there are now so many more sustainably-caught
themselves with often prohibitive costs. “It’s true that the fish available.”
costs of certification are too high for many fisheries. We
have been working with inshore fisheries that tend to be And change there has been. Since 2006, an increased
more closely connected to the local coastal community focus among seafood buyers including major supermarket
and very small scale. This means barriers to assessment are chains in Western Europe and the US has led to MSC-
huge: organisational capacity to manage the MSC process, certified seafood on shelves. This, coupled with a public
volume of catch and therefore revenue to support the demand for sustainably-produced products, puts the drive
costs are two. for sustainable fisheries into the hands of many.
© Jiri Rezac/WWF-UK
The Edge
www.coastnet.org.uk/theedge | December 2009 magazine
© Brent Stirton / Getty Images / WWF-UK
As WWF Fisheries Policy Officer Bartlett comments:
“The consumer now has the power through purchasing
behaviours to directly influence and improve the global
marine environment by putting MSC products in their
shopping basket. WWF in conjunction with CoastNet is
working with fisheries in the Thames to gain certification
of their fisheries, so that today’s consumers and future
generations can both enjoy its seafood, safe in the
knowledge that it's sustainable.”
The Edge
www.coastnet.org.uk/theedge | December 2009 magazine