PORTLAND, Maine — An worldwide group that units sustainability requirements for business fishing has suspended a certification it awarded Maine’s lobster trade over issues about hurt to whales.
Representatives for Marine Stewardship Council, which relies in London, stated Wednesday that the suspension of the Gulf of Maine lobster fishery’s certificates will go into impact on Dec. 15. The group stated in a press release that the hazard North Atlantic proper 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 choice to remove its certification from the U.S. lobster fishery represents the second time a sustainability group has downgraded the trade’s standing this yr. Seafood Watch, based mostly at Monterey Bay Aquarium in California, stated in a report in late summer season that it has added the American and Canadian lobster fisheries to its “red list” of species to keep away from over issues about dangers to whales.
Some retailers eliminated lobster from their stock after Seafood Watch’s choice, and the trade might endure extra repercussions from MSC’s transfer. MSC runs the most important seafood certification program on the planet, and its brand, a blue and white fish, options prominently at many seafood counters.
The group’s attain is broad, because it has partnered with retailers starting from native seafood counters to Walmart and McDonald’s. MSC certifies a whole bunch of worldwide fisheries that make up about one-seventh of the world’s wild-caught seafood. Some different main retailers, together with German big Lidl and English grocery store chain Sainsbury’s, have made commitments to provide choice to MSC licensed seafood.
The financial impression of the removing of certification stays to be seen, stated Kyle Foley, sustainable seafood program supervisor for the Gulf of Maine Research Institute, a marine science middle in Portland, Maine.
“Many major retailers look to certifications such as MSC to help them make sustainable seafood choices,” stated Foley, who added that the removing is a suspension and never essentially a everlasting loss.
A 3rd-party assessor that screens fisheries’ conformance with MSC requirements carried out an audit of the Gulf of Maine lobster fishery in September and located the fishing trade out of compliance, MSC stated in a press release. The auditor discovered the fishery out of compliance due to a federal courtroom choice that stated the principles governing the trade don’t fulfill the Endangered Species Act or the Maine Mammal Protection Act, the group stated.
“To meet the requirements of the MSC Fisheries Standard, fisheries must comply with all relevant laws,” the MSC assertion stated.
Right whales quantity about 340 and their inhabitants is falling. They are weak to entanglement in fishing gear and collisions with giant ships.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”