November 17, 2022 — An international nonprofit organization that sets sustainability standards for commercial fishing management has suspended a certification it awarded Maine’s lobster industry over concerns about harm to whales.
Representatives for Marine Stewardship Council, which is based in London, said Wednesday that the suspension of the Gulf of Maine lobster fishery’s certificate will go into effect on Dec. 15. The organization said in a statement that the danger North Atlantic right whales face from entanglement in fishing gear is a “serious and tragic situation” of “grave concern to all those involved in the fishing industry.”
MSC’s decision to take away its certification from the U.S. lobster fishery represents the second time a sustainability organization has downgraded the industry’s status this year. Seafood Watch, based at Monterey Bay Aquarium in California, said in a report in late summer that it has added the American and Canadian lobster fisheries to its “red list” of species to avoid over concerns about risks to whales.
Some retailers removed lobster from their inventory after Seafood Watch’s decision, and the industry could suffer more repercussions from MSC’s move. MSC runs the largest seafood certification program in the world, and its logo, a blue and white fish, features prominently at many seafood counters.