© Jiri Rezac/WWF-UK
HERITAGE PEARLS
IN A WORLD OF OYSTERS
The amount of certified sustainable seafood
available worldwide continues to increase as
more and more fisheries, driven by consumer
and retail demand, obtain the blue tick of
approval from the Marine Stewardship council.
Lesley Smeardon finds out how focusing on
good fishing practices can maintain livelihoods,
support modern day profits and improve
environmental quality.
In Britain’s oldest recorded town of Colchester, they’ve
been fishing native oysters since the Romans arrived 2,000
years ago. Since that time, the waters of the Blackwater
River, part of the Greater Thames Estuary, have been rich
with the shelled delicacies that now grace the tables of
some of London’s more fashionable restaurants.
Such is the history of the fishery that even today the Mayor
of Colchester, in keeping with a tradition that dates back to
the 1500s, sails down the river to Mersea in the first week of
September to cast the first dredges that officially open the
oyster season. This is followed in October by a grand civic
Oyster Feast where dignitaries from around the country are
invited. Today it is the soap and sports stars who are as
likely to be invited as the High Sherrifs and councillors in
this modern town of around 180,000 which include London
commuters, retail, manufacturing and tourism workers and,
of course, fishermen.
The centre of the region’s thriving oyster fishery is situated
10 miles from Colchester on the small island of Mersea,
separated from the mainland by a small channel. Both
native and rock (gigas) oysters are cultivated in the shallow
creeks leading from the Blackwater where warm summer sea
temperatures and nourishment from the nearby marsh are
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 Tollesbury and Mersey native oyster

fishery is hoping to make history by
becoming Britain’s (and maybe the world’s)
first recognised sustainable oyster fishery.

Says seventh generation oysterman, Richard Haward,

Director of the Tollesbury and Mersey Native Oyster Fishery
Company: “My family has been growing oysters
in these shallow creeks since 1792 when William Haward
sailed to deliver oysters to London’s Billingsgate Market.
There have been a lot of changes since then. In my working
life I’ve seen native oyster stocks decline for Colchester Mayor Henry
many years before recovering in the 1980s when TBT Spyvee opened the
(tributyltin) antifouling was banned. As a company we’ve match in 2009 as has
had to adapt our husbandry methods to protect against the been tradition since the
oyster disease Bonamia and we’ve had to grow the more 1500s, casting the first
common gigas (rock) oyster which now spawns in the wild dredges aboard the
in order to make a good living which we can’t Foreman Smack
do on native oysters alone.” ‘Mermaid’.

The fishery is hoping to make history once more by

becoming Britain’s (and maybe the world’s) first recognised
sustainable oyster fishery through certification with the
Marine Stewardship Council (MSC). Funding for the process
has been provided by WWF and HSBC, with advice and
guidance through the certification process from fishery
experts within CoastNet.

The case for certification is compelling as Giles Bartlett,

Fisheries Policy Officer at WWF, points out. “Globally 76%
of fish stocks are fished above the Maximum Sustainable
© Jiri Rezac/WWF-UK

Yield (MSY), which is a shocking statistic. In Europe, where

you might expect the situation to be better, 88% are fished
past MSY, of which 30% are outside safe biological limits, The match lasted for two hours before the fleet
perhaps not recoverable. This must change.” sailed to Packing Shed island for the weigh-in
and an oyster opening competition.

The Edge
www.coastnet.org.uk/theedge | December 2009 magazine
 “Through Marine Stewardship Certification (MSC), we can
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.”
MSC certification has long been considered a motivator for
securing a healthy and resilient fish population while
improving socio-economic benefits of the fishery. Haward
certainly recognises the benefits of certification: “MSC
accreditation will give recognition to how we grow our
oysters, which we have always considered to be
sustainable. It will also help to show that there are oysters
other than the more recognised gigas out there. It may
even enable us to increase prices. These haven't really
changed in over 15 years.”
The process is well on the way with certification hoped to
be achieved by April 2010 but it’s been a slow process and
without the funding from WWF and the technical help
from CoastNet, Haward is certain it would never have
happened. “A small industry like ours could not have
envisaged funding the process. We were lucky to have had
funding to undertake the pre-assessment which was a
short health check on our fishery, but had to wait some
time before we could find financial help and the expert
advice to complete the process.”
Dr Theresa Redding from CoastNet who is providing the
technical expertise to guide the fishery through the
certification process says it’s hard for fisheries to do this
themselves with often prohibitive costs. “It’s true that the
costs of certification are too high for many fisheries. We
have been working with inshore fisheries that tend to be
more closely connected to the local coastal community
and very small scale. This means barriers to assessment are
huge: organisational capacity to manage the MSC process,
volume of catch and therefore revenue to support the
costs are two.
© Jiri Rezac/WWF-UK
The Edge
www.coastnet.org.uk/theedge | December 2009
© Jiri Rezac/WWF-UK
“We help secure the much needed funding for assessment
and act as the liaison body between the fishery and the
certification process. Our role is to facilitate a smooth
assessment process and reduce the burden on the fisheries
to organise interviews, data, publications and expertise
needed by the certification body for both the pre-
assessment phase (the general health check of the fishery)
and the main assessment.
The Tollesbury fishery’s sustainability comes through a
variety of factors including: size of haul, methods used,
and an innate understanding of the need to ensure fish
stocks increase or remain stable throughout the seasons to
maintain the future of the fishery.
Looking long term at fisheries in general, Haward is
cautiously optimistic. “Attitudes are changing and many
more fishermen are taking a longer term view but do need
to see a financial benefit in changing their ways. What is
good is the change in public perception towards
sustainability which could result in a higher value being
put on sustainable practices. This is especially the case
since there are now so many more sustainably-caught
fish available.”
And change there has been. Since 2006, an increased
focus among seafood buyers including major supermarket
chains in Western Europe and the US has led to MSC-
certified seafood on shelves. This, coupled with a public
demand for sustainably-produced products, puts the drive
for sustainable fisheries into the hands of many.
HOW DO YOU EAT YOURS?
Raw, cooked with lemon, with Tabasco, or not at all, it’s all
a matter of personal taste. A native oyster has a much
stronger, more robust flavour where the mineral flavours in
a Pacific or rock oyster, flavours are more subtle.
For the Mersea Oysterman, Richard Haward: “I prefer my
oysters the 'natural way – just as they are'. A little lemon's
OK, but to me Tabasco or even shallot vinegar is too much.”
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.”

With good management and practice, the historic oyster

fishery in Colchester may yet continue to prosper. A brief
flick through its 2,000 year history demonstrates that our
modern problems of overfishing, environmental
degradation and changing culinary fashions are nothing
new to the fishery. In 1566, for example, a closed season
was declared to conserve stocks following a particular bad
period of overfishing. And the desire for oysters has
continually flip flopped in and out of fashion over the
years – from cheap and common source of protein to
luxurious delicacy.
For centuries, generations of fishermen have understood
(but not always acted upon) the basic premise that looking
after their livelihood through good management principles,
conservation of fish stocks and an understanding of natural
environmental limits just makes sense. That is, if they want
to be fishing for the next 40 years and able to hand over to
subsequent generations.
Sustainability is in many ways a 21st century term for that
common sense, pragmatic, long term management. But it
is one that hopefully, through adoption, will provide the
fishing industry the necessary profits to make sustainable
practice the only realistic, enduring way forward.
Lesley Smeardon is editor of CoastNet’s online
magazine The Edge.
WHAT’S IN A LABEL?
It’s now 10 years since The Marine
Stewardship Council (MSC) started
independently assessing fisheries against
a developed environmental standard for
sustainable and well-managed fisheries.
After successful assessment a fishery is
able to attach the worldwide blue tick MSC eco-label
onto their seafood which provides an easy way to help
consumers support sustainable and responsible
fisheries. Today, there are over 50 fisheries around the
world that can carry the label on their products.
WWF has been working with fishing communities
in China encouraging them to adopt sustainable
fishing practices
LOCAL ISSUES ON A
WORLD STAGE
The certification of the Tollesbury and Mersey Native
Oyster Fishery with the MSC is a local project that is part
of a much larger WWF initiative funded by banking giant
HSBC as part of its Climate Change Partnership. The
initiative focuses on increasing sustainability practices
along four of the world’s largest rivers: the Amazon,
Ganges, Thames and the Yangtze. And while issues may
differ, the environment and socio-economic benefits of
adopting sustainable fishing practices remain largely the
same the world over.
Liangzi Lake, situated along the Yangtze River in China,
was once the exclusive realm of self-employed fishermen.
With the explosion of people working in China’s
freshwater fishing industry during the 1990s, large scale
fish farm enterprises also began to work Liangzi Lake
increasing competition to unsustainable levels. Not only
conflict but environmental degradation began to increase
with underwater vegetation disappearing and fish stocks
depleted. WWF, along with the Chinese Academy of
Sciences has been working with the commercial farms
and small-scale fishermen to introduce a closed fishing
season and various measures to help restore underwater
vegetation and guarantee the lake’s many organisms have
time to reproduce. Improvements in the lake’s
environment have been notable resulting in higher yields
of premium value fish which has created more jobs for
fishermen and a significant increase in per capita income.

The Edge
www.coastnet.org.uk/theedge | December 2009 magazine