Sustainable fish stocks for pets and pet owners

Demand in the 21st century 

As part of the humanization process, today’s pet owners are looking for products that both deliver additional benefits including combatting common health problems and use sustainable materials. An example is pet food containing fish or fish oil. These help combat arthritis and support both cognitive behaviour and cardiac health similar. For dogs, they also help with skin and coat condition. Whilst today’s pet owners appreciate these benefits, they also want to know if the fish materials originate from sustainable sources.

The United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) estimate that 87% of global fisheries are already overfished and that only 10% of global fisheries are certified as sustainable. Fish are an important part of both human and pet diets and future food security relies on ensuring seafood sustainability. The question we need to ask is: how do we ensure sustainability?

Fish sustainability codes

Whilst food safety and quality codes have existed longer, fish sustainability codes originated in the 1990s. Following collapse of globally important fisheries, consumers wanted to know the origin of their fish. This saw the birth of the first global sustainable fisheries guidelines (UN Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries in 1995). Over the following twenty years, this code has become the foundation on which other seafood sustainability / eco-labelling codes like Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) and Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC) have been built. Adoption of these codes ensures future viability of fish stocks.

With any voluntary codes of practice, a challenge is ensuring equivalence across different schemes and since 2013 this has been achieved through the Global Sustainable Seafood Initiative (GSSI). This allows FAO and partner organizations to benchmark seafood sustainability schemes for equivalence.

Implications for pets and pet owners

Voluntary GSSI codes provide the basis for governments to manage their stock sustainably and ensure future stocks. MSC is now seen as the leading code for wild caught fish whilst ASC is the leading code for aquaculture. Traditionally, the pet sector has used co-products or stock not otherwise used for human consumption and these codes ensure that only sustainable fish is used – not endangered species. This is good for both humans and our pets.

Uptake of fish sustainability schemes 

Registration to fish sustainability codes is increasing across the global pet food industry. Global corporations like Mars Petcare and Nestlé Purina Petfood use schemes, including MSC and Sustainable Fisheries Partnership (SFP), as part of their commitment to sustainability and other aspects of corporate social responsibility (CSR) including avoidance of modern slavery in their fish supply chain. Alongside this, other pet food brands have built a global brand identity based on sustainable fish supply, including the first MSC certified pet treats manufacturer in the UK, Seatreats.

New opportunities

Further opportunities exist with sustainable fish stock including ‘discards’ – this fish may be over quota and can often be disposed. If properly planned, it can be used in the pet sector with both the fishing community and the government working together. The pet sector may also arrange with an agreed vessel to fish non-quota species. The sector has opportunities to look at investing in high end equipment to manufacture quality pet ingredients from by product e.g. membrane filtration plant. Aquaculture fish from sustainable stock may provide opportunities for species that do not have a local human market. My own interest is working with the flood plain fisheries which produce high quality fish but some months of the year has fish too small for human consumption so can be used for the pet sector. We work with local factories and businesses to get maximum value out of the whole fish.

Since 1995, sustainable fish codes have continued to evolve and be implemented in both the human and pet food supply chains. Sustainability is an important part of the humanization of pet food and the future sustainability of the pet food industry itself.