Saving Seafood

MSC to review consistency of its standard, interactions with endangered species

September 26, 2018 — The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) has released its new terms of reference for its next fisheries standard review, after reversing its August decision which would have prevented vessels from fishing for both MSC and non-MSC certified fish simultaneously.

The new terms of reference describe the areas of the MSC’s standard that will be looked at in detail, and possibly revised, over the next three years.

The areas for review are divided into three sections: standard efficiency, standard effectiveness, and standard evolution.

Reviewing standard efficiency will involve looking at the structure of the MSC fisheries standard and identifying redundancy or overlap in the scoring system. It will also focus on ways to reduce the complexity of the standard and improve its compatibility with new digital tools that could improve data management MSC said.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

 

Russia’s biggest MSC certified fishery reconfirms sustainability

September 5, 2018 — The following was released by the Marine Stewardship Council:

In a milestone development, the Russian Pollock Catchers Association’s Sea of Okhotsk Pollock fishery has received Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certification for a second time. Once again confirmed as sustainable and well-managed, the fishery’s catch can carry the blue MSC label.

The fishery is one of the world’s largest suppliers of Pollock from the North Pacific, serving over 20 countries across five continents. Every five years MSC certified fisheries have to go through the full assessment process again to ensure they are continuing to meet the MSC Fisheries Standard. The assessment was carried out by third-party conformity assessment body Acoura Marine.

Continuous improvement

The Pollock Catchers Association (PCA) first obtained MSC certification in 2013. The fishery was given 8 conditions – improvement areas to address during the five-year certificate period – and all of these were closed. Three conditions were aimed at improving the scientific basis of stock assessment and fishery management and were met successfully. Another three conditions concentrated on minimizing the fishery’s impact on the Sea of Okhotsk ecosystem, including fishing operations’ interaction with Endangered, Threatened and Protected (ETP) species. Two further conditions were set for the management process. Closure of these conditions has led to greater transparency and closer involvement of stakeholders, including environmental NGOs.

Camiel Derichs, Director MSC Europe said: “Congratulations to the Pollock Catchers Association (PCA) on their recertification. Over the past five years, the PCA, scientists, management and NGO actors in Russia have worked hard to address the conditions placed on the fishery, resulting in real improvements. The progress achieved was recognised in the re-assessment, where the PCA received higher scores than previously for many assessment indicators.”

“As the only global wild capture fisheries standard meeting the ISEAL codes of good practice, the MSC reviews its standards every five years in light of progressing science and management best practice. As a result of the last Fisheries Standard Review (FSR), the MSC has adopted a new standard (version 2.0). Over the course of their new certification time frame, we hope the PCA will continue to make improvements to ensure a smooth transition to this new version of the MSC Standard,” he continued.

Read the full release here

Pew: Atlantic bluefin not ready for MSC certification

August 31, 2018 — The Pew Charitable Trusts has come out in opposition to a Japanese company’s attempt to get its Atlantic bluefin tuna longline fishery certified by the Marine Stewardship Council.

Last week, the council announced Usufuku Honten Co. Ltd. began the assessment process for the voluntary certification. It marked the first bluefin fishery to be assessed. Control Union Pesca Ltd. will perform the independent review, focusing on the Dai-ichi Shofuku-maru. The ship, which stays in the Atlantic Ocean all year, catches bluefin in October and November annually.

MSC certification is being sought because its process is designed to acknowledge fisheries that meet sustainable fishing management standards, Usufuku Honten said. The council, founded in 1997, has certified 296 fisheries located in 35 countries through its first 20 years of existence. That represents about one-eighth of the worldwide marine harvest. More than 38,000 groceries, restaurants, hotels, and other sites have also been certified to see the more than 25,000 products that come adorned with MSC’s blue label.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

 

MSC addresses forced labor, process issues in standards update

August 31, 2018 — The Marine Stewardship Council has announced an overhaul of its certification process after a review that lasted more than two years.

The changes include a new requirement that MSC-certified fisheries declare they are free from forced labor and child labor, and changes to the timeline of both when stakeholder input is accepted and to the dispute resolution process between parties seeking an MSC certification and those who have objections to an individual certification.

MSC Fisheries Standard Director Rohan Currey said introduction of updates to MSC’s Fisheries Certification Process and General Certification Requirements came after an organizational review that began in late 2015.

“The Marine Stewardship Council is a listening organisation and this review began in response to feedback from partners and stakeholders on the complexity of the assessment process and the resources required to engage with it,” Currey said. “To address this feedback, we aimed to reduce complexity and increase effectiveness of stakeholder engagement whilst maintaining the credibility and robustness of the whole process.”

Most prominent among the changes is MSC’s new requirement that by 31 August, 2019, all fisheries in the MSC program must complete and submit a Certificate Holder Forced and Child Labour Policies, Practices, and Measures, detailing the measures they have in place to mitigate the presence of forced or child labor. If the deadline is not met, the fishery will no longer be eligible for certification and any existing fishery certificates it has from the MSC will be suspended.  Fishing and supply chain companies and their subcontractors that have been successfully prosecuted for forced labor violations will not be eligible to participate in the MSC program for two years after their conviction.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Can dogfish save Cape Cod fisheries?

August 21, 2018 –Low clouds hang over the pier as fishing boats line up to drop off their catch for the day. Fishermen in orange suspendered waders and rugged boots perch on the edges of their boats. The fishermen, with weathered faces and hands toughened by their work, ignore the tourists gawking and snapping photos from a viewing platform overhead.

Then, the fog descends, giving the scene a sense of timelessness. But this scene has changed from decades past. For 400 years, fishermen across Cape Cod caught boatloads of, well, cod. The fish was so plentiful and valuable that fishermen bought houses and new boats off cod profits alone. But today, there’s a different fish filling the piers: spiny dogfish.

Cape Cod has nearly lost its namesake fish, due to overfishing and climate change. So fishermen have switched to dogfish, skates, and other more plentiful options. This move could help revive the Massachusetts fishing industry, and might even help the cod rebound, researchers say. But getting Americans to bite may not be as easy.

“This is the fish we could feed the United States with,” says Chatham fisherman Doug Feeney. “We have people that are hungry. We have prison systems. We have vets. We have homeless people. There’s just so much that can be done with this product.”

For a long time, fishermen saw dogfish as an annoyance. They were a “trash fish” with little value that often ended up clogging their nets. The large spines on their fins especially made them a pain to throw back, and they eat pretty much everything smaller than them – including juvenile codfish.

Read the full story at The Christian-Science Monitor

Bahamas’ spiny lobster fishery achieves region’s first MSC certification

August 14, 2018 — The Bahamas spiny lobster on 7 August became the first Caribbean fishery to receive Marine Council Stewardship certification, placing it among an elite group of just 8 percent of developing countries’ fisheries to be certified.

The MSC label is given to wild-caught seafood that has been certified as sustainable according to the MSC’s scientific standards. The fishery’s certification was awarded by the accredited third-party assessment body Control Union Pesca Ltd., following a detailed 19-month assessment.

“With the certification, the lobster tails are now eligible to carry the internationally recognized MSC blue fish label, which makes it easy for consumers to know that they’re choosing seafood that is as good for the ocean as it is for them,” the MSC said.

Mia Isaac, the president of the Bahamas Marine Exporters Association, said the certification “is a proud accomplishment”

“We eagerly accept the MSC stamp of approval. It’s been a collaborative effort and we are thankful to all the stakeholders, especially the fishermen,” Isaac said. “As we continually improve our spiny lobster fishery, we aim for product of The Bahamas to become synonymous with strength, collaboration and sustainability.”

Read the full story at Seafood Source

MSC teams up with Walmart in China

August 14, 2018 — An effort to court major retailers in China appears to be paying off for the Marine Stewardship Council, which teamed with Walmart and the China Chain Store and Franchising Association (CCFA) for the launch of a “Sustainable Seafood Week” in a Sam’s Club store in Shenzhen the week of 13 August.

Chinese retailers want to make the upstream portion of the supply chain more sustainable, according to Pei Liang, secretary general of the CCFN. He pointed to the MSC label as a “standard” by which Chinese retailers can measure their sustainability efforts.

“We want environmental protection from suppliers to consumers,” Shi Jia Qi, Walmart China’s vice president of government relations, told SeafoodSource. Shi said Walmart will seek to increase the number of MSC-labeled goods stocked in Sam’s Club stores in China.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Documents Released on Trump Administration Defense of National Monument Actions

July 25, 2018 — In today’s print edition, the Washington Post published an article by Juliet Eilperin on the Trump administration and national monuments. The article, based on internal documents from the Interior Department, was critical of senior officials for allegedly dismissing positive information on the benefits of national monuments.

The majority of the story focused on land-based monuments, but with regard to marine monuments, the Post reported that,“On Sept. 11, 2017, Randal Bowman, the lead staffer for the review, suggested deleting language that most fishing vessels near the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument ‘generated 5% or less of their annual landings from within the monument’ because it ‘undercuts the case for the ban being harmful.’”

Saving Seafood executive director Bob Vanasse was quoted in the article noting that “‘Trump administration officials have been more open to outside input than their predecessors.’ … ‘They had a lot of meetings with our folks but didn’t listen,’ he said of Obama officials, adding even some Massachusetts Democratic lawmakers raised concerns about the New England marine monument’s fishing restrictions.”

The article suggested that Mr. Bowman, a career Interior Department employee and not a Trump administration appointee, purposefully excised information from logbook data indicating that, on the whole, most vessels fishing near the monument generate just 5 percent of their landings from within the monument.

However, there are valid reasons to be cautious about the logbook-data driven 5 percent statistic. There are more sources available to characterize fishing activity – in addition to just logbooks, formally known as “vessel trip reports”, which was the sole source cited in the email referenced in the Post story. While, as the material references states, the information comes from NOAA and the fishery management councils so it can be presumed accurate, the context is missing.

An Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) survey identified recent (2014-2015) fishing activity within the boundaries of the National Monument that, if the Obama executive order is not reversed, will be closed to the fishery in the future. The results indicate that 12-14 percent of the offshore lobster fishery effort and 13-14 percent of revenue ($2.4-2.8 million annually) for the lobster and Jonah crab fishery comes from the area of the National Monument. This revenue is significantly higher than that derived from the vessel trip report (logbook) analysis, which is only about $0.7 million annually.

The document cited in the Post story correctly cites the $2.4-$2.8 million annual revenue in those fisheries, but it does not make clear the significant percentage of offshore revenue that comes from the monument area. Similarly, when the document cites $1.8 million from the Monument region annually (2010-2015), that includes only the $0.7 million lobster trap revenues derived from vessel trip reports, not the total indicated by the ASMFC survey for more recent years.

While it is generally accurate, if one looks at the entire fishing industry in the region, to make the statement that only a small number of vessels derive more than 5 percent of their revenue from the Monument area, for those vessels and fisheries that conduct significant portions of their operations in the monument area, the economic harm is significant.

Also, in a document attached to the story, a margin comment erroneously states that NOAA advised the Interior Department that the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certification for red crab was “revoked.” That is not the case. In 2009, the red crab fishery became the first MSC-certified fishery on the East Coast. The certification was never revoked. The certification expired because the participants in the fishery determined that the cost to pursue renewal of the certification exceeded the financial benefits they anticipated would arise from maintaining it, and they decided voluntarily to allow it to lapse.

Read the full Washington Post story

Read further coverage of this story from E&E News

For Maine lobstermen, conservation and success go hand in hand

June 26, 2018 — It’s 7 a.m. on the Pull n’ Pray. The lobster boat rocks over large swells as the water sparkles in the June morning sun. The grating whirr of the hydraulic winch drowns out the hum of the boat’s motor as it lifts the first lobster trap of the day out of the water. Justin Papkee swings the trap up onto the side of his boat and quickly opens the latch. Suddenly there are lobsters flying through the air.

Mr. Papkee’s blue rubber gloved hand is nearly a blur as he reaches again and again into the open trap, tossing the lobsters back into the water rapid-fire before pulling in the next trap.

Splash. Splash. Splash.

Occasionally he pauses to measure a lobster, or check for a notch or dense clusters of eggs on its tail. After Papkee and his sternman, Jim Ranaghan, have hauled up and sorted through all 16 traps on this line, just one keeper sits in a milk crate on the deck. Then, it’s onto the next set of traps.

This is a worse than average day for the lobsterman, but even on the absolute best days Papkee throws back about half of the lobsters he catches. On those days, he says, it feels like he’s keeping them all by comparison.

Papkee had traveled about 10 miles offshore from Portland to check his traps. It took more than an hour to get to the first of his red and blue buoys. But as he tosses lobster after lobster back into the ocean, Papkee seems unfazed.

“This is just how it’s done,” he says.

Maine has particularly strict rules about which lobsters can be kept. But lobstermen generally don’t resent those laws. In fact, they’re the ones that came up with most of them.

The conservation of natural resources is often portrayed as being in opposition to economic interests, placing the good of the globe over individual livelihoods. But most Maine lobstermen don’t see it that way. They have what has been called a “conservation ethic” that dates back more than a century and has yielded a long list of sustainability rules.

“When you think about this at first glance, it seems crazy. They caught them, why would they want to throw them back?” says Matt Jacobson, executive director of the Maine Lobster Marketing Collaborative. “[The lobstermen] are very mindful of the notion that they are the protectors of the resource.”

This has made Maine lobster one of the world’s most sustainable fisheries. In 2016, the region earned certification from the international Marine Stewardship Council for its “rigorous sustainability requirements,” which have also contributed to a boom the industry is currently experiencing. And with climate change presenting a new challenge for Maine’s iconic lobsters, some researchers say, this commitment to conservation may be more important than ever before.

The duty to protect the resource was ingrained in lobsterman Sonny Beal at just five years old. His father taught him to prioritize the health of the fishery over the weight of his hauls, just like generations before him. He learned to measure lobsters, to check if they were reproductive females, and to notch the tails of any egg-bearing females before throwing them back. Now a lobsterman and father himself, Mr. Beal is teaching his two sons the same.

“I think that we’ve got something really great here and will have something really great for a long time to come because we do take care of it every day,” Beal says. Lobstermen have been passing the tradition of conservation down through generations of sons (and more recently daughters as well) for decades.

Read the full story Christian Science Monitor

 

Adjudicator rules that controversial Shetland scallop fishery can be MSC certified

June 21, 2018 — An independent adjudicator appointed to oversee the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) re-certification of Shetland’s inshore brown crab and scallop fishery has ruled that NGO Open Seas failed to establish grounds for its objection in the first place.

Open Seas brought its objection in March, saying, “it is with some regret that we are challenging the proposed re-certification of the scallop dredge fishery in Shetland”.

“Unfortunately the possible re-certification of scallop dredging here, under its current management regime, risks green-washing an important certification standard that should represent a benchmark for sustainability,”

Adjudicator Eldon Greenberg stated the objection was dismissed in its entirety, after seeing Open Seas’ written submissions and hearing its oral evidence.

In essence, Open Seas’ objection boiled down to the fact that, in its view, the scallop fishery causes “serious or irreversible harm” to habitat structure. The NGO was unable to prove this statement though. Greenberg found that “what matters is not so much the damage wrought by the fishery in the areas fished, but the scale of damage compared to the range of habitat”.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News