Fishery Improvement Projects (FIP’s) generally need to be regarded as a step in the direction of MSC certification.  Of course you could have FIP’s established for other reasons.  FIP’s guide fisheries towards improvements.  There are a couple of risks or problem with FIP’s.  First a FIP can be quite static, i.e. it sounds good but the improvements aren’t really happening or circumstances change or are beyond the control of the FIP and sustainability remains a hope rather than a pathway.   Second not all fisheries plan to sell into Western consumer markets but it is the big players in those markets that tend to require and support FIP’s.  Third, the clue’s in the last sentence: big players!  Small participants, like ourselves, but also the small- scale fishing boats we try to prioritise are disadvantaged by their size – just surviving in the market place is hard enough, we don’t have the time, money or resources to convene or contribute to a FIP.

We do support the concept of FIP’s, we support the concept of improvements, we work as and when we can, to make fishing better – and we do that also by the choices we make when we buy fish, the campaigns we support and the large amount of pro-bono time we give up to make the oceans more sustainable.