Jacksons Fish is a fourth generation family-owned business, that cares dearly about the land and oceans of our planet and their future.

At Jacksons Fish, we are committed to sustainability and green policies, endeavouring to always minimise our environmental impact while delivering fantastic seafood products to our customers and businesses. We believe that sustainable practices should be at heart of every individual and business to ensure longevity and enjoyment for all and that’s why we have implemented a number of initiatives to reduce our carbon footprint, conserve ocean resources, and promote social responsibility in our practices. 

This sustainability statement, will outline our policies and actions related to sustainability and goals that we will continually work towards.

Ocean Resources – Sustainably Caught Fish

Jacksons Fish has always been a leading voice of concern with regards to sustainable fishing practices. Emphasising the commitment to responsible fishing and not overfishing. Jacksons supports local inshore day boat fleets, as these vessels have a reduced impact on the fish stocks and also the seabed, whilst providing fresher and better quality fish for our customers. Day boats are often in stark contrast to larger factory ships or beamer boats, they are operated normally by one or two fisherman and catch much smaller volumes of fish each day. The result of smaller day boat fishing is a reduced impact on the ocean environment, fishermen can focus on catching specific species, reducing discards or the need to throw back dead fish or unwanted catches. 

Wherever possible, Jacksons tries to buy line-caught fish, as this fishing technique has no negative impact on the seabed and vastly reduces bycatch waste by allowing fishermen to catch and release any live fish they do not want.

Brixham has a long and rich fishing heritage dating back all the way to the 14th century. The local fishing industry works closely with responsible marine and fishing organisations, adapting the fishing methods and the nets that are used. This progress has had a huge impact on the fishing industry, reducing the damage and impact to the seabed, whilst simultaneously allowing boats to better target the fish they are trying to catch. Jacksons Fishmongers is also conveniently located only 13.5 miles away from Brixham Fish Market, where it obtains the vast majority of its fish, reducing the food miles of your items.

We also emphasise responsible fishing by sourcing only Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certified Hake. We also stock some farmed products, like Trout, which helps to ease demand on Sea Trout and Salmon. Jacksons is also a proud user Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC) approved Sea Farmed Gilthead Bream and Bass during some parts of the year, allowing local numbers to replenish during peak seasons and of course when fishing bans are in order.  

The MSC certification is great for recognising and rewarding efforts to protect oceans and safeguard seafood supplies for the future. It ensures that the fishery meets rigorous standards for sustainable fishing practices, including the health and size of fish stocks and the impact on the environment. 

The ASC certification similarly guarantees that farmed fish are produced responsibly, with minimal impact on; the environment, farmed fish feeds, resultant pollution and local communities.

Reduced Food Waste

Food waste is not just a seafood orientated problem, but we recognise that and want to minimise our involvement in this global and growing issue. With global food waste nearing a staggering 20% of food produced, here at Jacksons Fish we want to do our bit to help. 

Our policies to minimise waste:

• Purchasing fish to order – reducing excess and unsold seafood
• NO offcuts – small cuts of fish are used in other products like our Fish Pie Mix
• Stocks – seafood frames and shells are used to make stocks
• NO Seafood to Landfill – Excess frames and guts are used by our network of local fisherman as fishing bait, whilst simultaneously reducing the need of edible whole fish being used as fishing bait. 

Reduced Traditional Polystyrene Use

As a omnichannel fishmonger, we pride ourselves on driving work within the industry towards more sustainable and eco-friendly practices. 

Within our online fishmonger department we have decided to ship orders in fully recyclable Puffin cardboard boxes, with a recyclable Sheep’s wool liner for insulation. This now provides our customers with an eco-friendly alternative, to the traditional polystyrene boxes that were used for fresh fish deliveries. 

Sheep’s wool is regenerative and therefore sustainable. It is also biodegradable, and abundant material with unique natural insulating properties. Sheep’s wool is therefore an exceptional dancing partner to fresh produce, and a smart choice for our delivery boxes. It is also easy to recycle via Puffin’s Return Scheme on their website. The wool could also be repurposed in a variety of ways, such as filling cushions or even mixed into compost.

Jacksons does re-use polystyrene boxes for our wholesale operations. We sterilise and clean boxes that our raw materials are delivered in, before shipping to wholesale customers in these boxes. This way we are recycling made boxes and encouraging others to use theirs again. We do NOT purchase new polystyrene boxes. 

Jacksons has therefore managed to position itself into creating a very negligible amount of packaging waste and limited its use of plastics. We are proud lead the way in reducing our waste and also using more regenerative and eco-friendly packaging in our practices. We would also like to encourage other businesses to follow suit in sustainable solutions and collectively creating a greener fishing industry. 

Single use plastic

Single use plastics have a profound environmental impact and as a responsible business, we are continually seeking innovative ways to reduce our use of them.

As of 2024, Jacksons will discourage the use of plastic carrier bags in its retail shop and will now levy a 10 pence charge for those who want a bag. Jacksons Fish has also changed the type of their plastic carrier bags to ones that are made from at-least 30% recycled materials. Additionally, Jacksons Fish has launched some stylish Tote and Cool Bags for its valued customers, helping to promote the reduction of single use plastics and will also encourage in store customers to bring containers for their fresh seafood.

Jacksons has also stringently tested the reduction of the thickness of its standard vacuum sealable bags for its online seafood and smoked fish offerings. As a result, Jacksons Fish has now reduced the thickness of these plastic sealable bags from 85 microns to 70 microns, making a huge difference to our single use plastic consumption, whilst not hindering the maintenance and delivery of our products. 

For our online seafood portion offerings, Jacksons Fish only offers a minimum two portion packet. We understand that customers may not want two portions or could live alone. But, due to the freshness and quality of our fish, we decided to sell only two portion packets as this significantly reduced single use plastic waste, for similar quantities of fish use. Our fresh seafood would be fine to store for a couple of days in the fridge after opening or could be be frozen for a later date, if two portions was to be too much. 

Farmed Salmon

Farmed Salmon is growing and contemporary topic of discussion and it can be quite a contentious issue. That is why, Jacksons Fish has always used Loch Duart for Salmon, with Loch Duart being a leader in sustainable, low impact Scottish Salmon Farming. We do not use Norwegian Salmon. 

Loch Duart uses fish such as the Ballan Wrasse, which is as a cleaner fish, playing a key role in keeping the Salmon free from parasites such as Sea Lice in a Natural Way. They also avoid using antibiotics, hormones, and antifoulants (marine pesticides) on their farms. The feed used for the Salmon is carefully formulated to replicate the Salmon’s natural diet. Loch Duart also has a lower than average stock density, giving their fish more room to swim freely from the hatchery to the sea.

With issues currently facing the global fish farming and more specifically the Salmon farming industry, we believe that Loch Duart is providing the highest quality farmed Salmon around and  also taking their external environment into account.

At Jacksons Fish, we do not use Wild Salmon in any of our products. Wild Salmon populations are extremely low around the UK, and they are often overfished further afield, leading to concerns about the long-term sustainability of the species. By using a sustainable and quality Salmon Farm, we can promote the highest quality Salmon in a responsible and eco-friendly fashion.

Paper Printing and Usage

At Jacksons Fish our online orders will not contain printed customers invoices in the mailed boxes, this is to reduce our ink and paper consumption. Jacksons will also handwrite addresses on our customer packages, to again reduce our paper and printer ink usage. 

In order retail shop, card receipts will only be printed on request and customer fish will be externally wrapped in recycled newspaper for insulation. This newspaper has not being used/read before, it is purely returned unsold from local shops and news outlets. 

For wholesale, all customer invoices and statements will be digitally maintained and delivered via Ninja software, reducing our paper usage.  

Summary

We know that Jacksons Fish and the fishing industry is just at the start of their journey towards a more sustainable, eco-friendly and greener future. We also recognise that the fishing industry still faces significant challenges and that lots of adaptions are required to conserve our oceans.

Despite Jacksons and other bodies efforts within fishing industry who are sustainable orientated, there are still issues such as overfishing, bycatch, and seabed destruction that must to be addressed. However, we are committed to doing our part to improve and to educate those within the industry. A greater future for all is not something that can be achieved alone, so we actively encourage collaborative ideas and projects, and would like anyone or other businesses to put forward any ideas they have for the future and greater seafood industry.