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Displaying items by tag: Responsible Fishing

#Fishing - The UK's new voluntary Responsible Fishing Scheme (RFS) has received a boost as Marks & Spencer became the first retailer to sign up to its charter for sustainable fishing.

From next year all British fishing boats supplying M&S supermarkets will have to be certified by the RFS, confirming that any seafood they catch has been done so responsibly and that their crews have a safe working environment.

International fishing fleets have until 2021 to get certified under the scheme if they're to continue supplying M&S stores.

“We’re passionate about being a responsible retailer," M&S food director Andy Adcock told edie.net about the move, part of the retailer's Plan A sustainability programme.

"We only buy fish from the most sustainable sources, a commitment we’ve worked tirelessly on for almost 20 years, and this pledge means our customers can shop with us knowing we’ve done everything possible to protect the marine environment and those working in our fish supply chain.”

However, M&S is candid that it can't influence the fishing industry alone, with the company's Hannah Macintyre saying that more collaboration will be needed across the industry to ensure that the RFS "will do for fishing standards what the MSC has done for fish stocks".

edie.net has more on the story HERE.

Published in Fishing

The Irish Cruiser Racing Association (ICRA) Information

The creation of the Irish Cruiser Racing Association (ICRA) began in a very low key way in the autumn of 2002 with an exploratory meeting between Denis Kiely, Jim Donegan and Fintan Cairns in the Granville Hotel in Waterford, and the first conference was held in February 2003 in Kilkenny.

While numbers of cruiser-racers were large, their specific locations were widespread, but there was simply no denying the numerical strength and majority power of the Cork-Dublin axis. To get what was then a very novel concept up and running, this strength of numbers had to be acknowledged, and the first National Championship in 2003 reflected this, as it was staged in Howth.

ICRA was run by a dedicated group of volunteers each of whom brought their special talents to the organisation. Jim Donegan, the elder statesman, was so much more interested in the wellbeing of the new organisation than in personal advancement that he insisted on Fintan Cairns being the first Commodore, while the distinguished Cork sailor was more than content to be Vice Commodore.

ICRA National Championships

Initially, the highlight of the ICRA season was the National Championship, which is essentially self-limiting, as it is restricted to boats which have or would be eligible for an IRC Rating. Boats not actually rated but eligible were catered for by ICRA’s ace number-cruncher Denis Kiely, who took Ireland’s long-established native rating system ECHO to new heights, thereby providing for extra entries which brought fleet numbers at most annual national championships to comfortably above the hundred mark, particularly at the height of the boom years. 

ICRA Boat of the Year (Winners 2004-2019)