Lobster fishermen told they could get caught up in eco-labeling and certification

By Tina Comeau

SOU’WESTER

Eco-labeling and certification is a hot topic floating through fisheries around the world these days, and fishermen in southwestern Nova Scotia were recently told to brace themselves for it.

At a meeting of the lobster fishing area 34 management board in Yarmouth, N.S., lobster fishermen were told that more and more major retailers and consumers are demanding that the seafood products they carry and purchase be from certified fisheries.

Lisa Anderson of the Nova Scotia Fisheries Sector Council told the fishermen that the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) has approximately 1,600 certified products in 36 countries. That compares to having had just 100 products in 10 countries only a few short years ago.

In the United States, she said, Wal-Mart – which has a 14 per cent market share of the grocery market in the U.S. – is demanding MSC products within two to four years.

Which is why fisheries that don’t get with the program run the risk of losing access to certain markets.

The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) is one example of an eco-labeling and certification process that is sweeping through the world’s fishing and seafood industries. The program has developed standards for sustainable fishing and allows consumers and markets to trace back MSC-labeled seafood to their origin. The standards used in the certification program are based on independent third-party assessments.

Another example of a certification program is Friend of the Sea, in which approved fisheries target stocks that are not overexploited, use fishing methods that don't impact the seabed and also generate little discard.

To be certified in a program like MSC, an assessment has to be conducted that takes into account the condition of the candidate stock, the impact of fishing on the ecosystem and the fishery management practices being used. But the assessments are lengthy, and they are costly. The average cost to go through the assessment part of the program is $100,000, but Anderson said she’s heard cases of lows of $35,000 and highs of $500,000.

Lobster fisherman Ashton Spinney, a chair of the LFA 34 management board, said this is a cost that would have to be borne by fishermen. Spinney adds its almost like giving control of your fishery to a foreign entity. However with consumers having the final say, and demanding more information on the products they’re purchasing, fishermen may find they have little choice.

But Wayne Spinney, who has fished out of Cape St. Mary’s in Digby County, N.S., says he has a problem with the certification program and process. He says a fishing industry is evaluated on how it conducts its fishery, but lobster fishermen aren’t the ones with the say on how the lobster industry is managed. That is the role of DFO.

“Why aren’t DFO doing the footwork on this?” Spinney asked.

Asked that question, DFO area director Ian Marshall said, “We couldn’t do it because if you look at MSC, they’re not looking for a government organization, they’re looking for a fishing sector to make an application. So I think the mandate is more directly focused at the industry, rather than a government agency.”

Meanwhile the Nova Scotia Fisheries Sector Council is in the process of developing a roadmap for the industry to help inform it of the requirements of eco-labeling and certification. Part of this will include carrying out a case study on the live lobster industry, and trying to come up with a cost analysis of what certification would cost the industry, and also what would be the implications or forgoing the route entirely. This work is expected to be completed by the spring.