MacAlister Elliott & Partners Limited (MEP) developed and piloted a ‘sustainable standard’ eco-label for the eel fishing and farming industry, with the aim of spreading best practice and ensuring that the industry was contributing to eel conservation.
The standard includes glass eel and adult eel fisheries, eel growers and eel restocking for fisheries and conservation. It incorporates strict requirements on minimum mortality rates and minimum contributions to conservation-led restocking programmes, to ensure that participants are overall contributing to, rather than depleting the stock.
It also includes husbandry best-practice, welfare, transport and traceability. The standard is freely available for public comments on the website of the Sustainable Eel Group www.sustainableeelgroup.com
