Community Catch is making its first appearance at this year’s Scottish Skipper Expo in Aberdeen – although Linda Wood and the other staff from Community Catch are no strangers to the exhibition as visitors and from previous roles. ‘We’ll be there to meet fishermen who come to Aberdeen and it’s a relaxed place to meet a lot of people in just a few days,’ she said.
‘It’s a brilliant way to engage and to get in touch with fishermen from all over Scotland and the UK, so we can make them aware of what the opportunities are and the choices available to them.’
A fresh venture launched last year, Community Catch is designed to provide small-scale fisheries with opportunities to reap the benefits of certification – and retailers with the openings to engage better with smaller fisheries. With a growing perception that larger certification bodies had become increasingly beyond the reach of smaller fisheries, the group behind Community Catch have approached this from a fresh angle, building a more accessible platform which is affordable for smaller operators or groups – but without sacrificing credibility.
‘We could see there was a widening gap as larger commercial fisheries were gaining certification, and a very unlevel playing field was emerging as certification has become too expensive and complex for small-scale fisheries,’ said Linda Wood, who joined Community Catch as its CEO, bringing with her a wealth of experience from Marks & Spencer as Fisheries & Aquaculture manager.
She commented that as this gap has widened, both ends of the market lose out, as there are fishermen unable to take the step to certification, while retailers find themselves less able to source from smaller fisheries that don’t have accreditation that their markets demand. The upshot is that as well as providing a more accessible platform, the Community Catch approach is also more in tune with consumer concerns.
‘The market has changed,’ she said. ‘We’re meeting this with an increased focus on social credentials – health & safety, human rights, and labour rights. At the same time, the cost of Community Catch certification is significantly lower than that of the MSC model. Community Catch is a global charity, a not-for-profit venture, providing certification tailored for small-scale fisheries that takes in stocks, seabed impact and crew welfare – the full picture. This provides a path for the due diligence to be carried out, and both ends of the market need this.’
Community Catch already has a variety of fisheries heading for certification. The Orkney crab, lobster and velvet crab fishery is already far into the process and could be the first to achieve certification – or it could be the Abalobi fishery in South Africa for line-caught yellowtail, as both are close to completion. Others on the way are West of Scotland nephrops (trawl and creel), Woolworths in South Africa with six line caught species, and Nile perch from Uganda.
The route to certification is streamlined and starts with a comprehensive self-assessment against a broad set of criteria, followed by an independent verification process by an appointed CAB that incorporates opportunities for stakeholder comment and objections. A key part of the process is an anonymous crew questionnaire, which takes in questions of forced labour, payment, health and safety and training.
‘We’re serious about crew welfare,’ Linda Wood said.
‘The process means a lot of upfront work by the applicant. But if you’re organised, you could be finished and out the other end within four months. So, this is significantly faster than other certifications, This is designed so it could be one man and his boat doing this, or five working together – or a fishery association, a processor or a market. So, this can be fisher-led, or market-led’.
This is the approach of Orkney crab and West of Scotland nephrops fisheries which are both fisher led, while in South Africa the line fishery is being driven by retailer Woolworths. The Nile perch certification in Uganda is in the hands of the export association with the aim of lifting the fishery’s profile and reach for each end of the business – both fishermen and processors.
‘This is designed to be affordable, accessible and credible. It’s about small fishing communities not becoming ghost towns,’ she said.
