September 8, 2014 — The following was released by the Marine Stewardship Council:
The Maine Certified Sustainable Lobster Association, Inc., a group of New England lobster wharf operators, processors, dealers and wholesalers, has entered the Gulf of Maine lobster fishery (Homarus americanus) into independent, third-party assessment against the Marine Stewardship Council’s (MSC) standard for sustainable and well-managed fisheries. This assessment is in parallel with a separate assessment of the fishery that led to MSC certification in 2013. The founding members of the client group are Cozy Harbor Seafood, Inc., Craig’s All Natural, LLC, East Coast Seafood, Inc., Garbo Lobster Co., Inc., Inland Seafood, Inc., Mazzetta Company, LLC, and Orion Seafood International, Inc.
About the fishery
The Gulf of Maine lobster fishery under assessment covers all commercial vessels licensed by the State of Maine or the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) that fish within the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) Lobster Conservation Management Area 1, which includes the Gulf of Maine stock in coastal Maine and Northwest Atlantic FAO area 21. Fishing is seasonal and concentrated in the latter half of the year. The fishery is managed jointly by the NMFS, ASMFC, and the Maine Department of Marine Resources. Over four thousand commercial fishermen actively harvest Maine lobster. In 2013, fishermen landed 126 million pounds of Maine lobster with a landed value of $364 million. The Maine lobster fishery accounts for more than two thirds of all lobster landings in the United States. The product is sold live, fresh and frozen in domestic and international markets.
What the fishery says
Craig A. Rief, President of the Maine Certified Sustainable Lobster Association, said, “Our association represents members dedicated to the sustainability of Maine lobster. It is our goal to make it affordable for members to share the benefits of MSC certification. Maine lobster is known domestically and around the world as an iconic species that defines high quality seafood. MSC certification will enable us to certify to our customers that Maine lobster is harvested in a sustainable way to assure it will be available long into the future.”
About the certifier
Independent certifier SAI Global Assurance Services will conduct the assessment of this fishery against the MSC standard. Orla Minogue, Programme Administrator, can be reached at: Orla.Minogue@saiglobal.com. Stakeholders with an interest in the fishery are encouraged to provide comments and information for this assessment process.
The MSC guide for stakeholder input is available online at: http://www.msc.org/documents/get-certified/stakeholders/stakeholder_guide_to_the_MSC_v2.pdf/view?searchterm=stakeholder.
A template for stakeholder input is available online at: http://www.msc.org/documents/get-certified/stakeholders/template_for_stakeholder_input.
About the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC)
The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) is an international non-profit organization set up to help transform the seafood market to a sustainable basis. The MSC runs the only certification and ecolabeling program for wild-capture fisheries consistent with the ISEAL Code of Good Practice for Setting Social and Environmental Standards and the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization Guidelines for the Eco-labeling of Fish and Fishery Products from Marine Capture Fisheries. These guidelines are based upon the FAO Code of Conduct for Responsible Fishing and require that credible fishery certification and ecolabeling schemes include:
– Objective, third-party fishery assessment utilizing scientific evidence;
– Transparent processes with built-in stakeholder consultation and objection procedures;
– Standards based on the sustainability of target species, ecosystems and management practices.
The MSC has offices in London, Seattle, Tokyo, Sydney, The Hague, Glasgow, Berlin, Cape Town, Paris, Madrid and Stockholm.
In total, over 300 fisheries are engaged in the MSC program that, together, represents over 10 percent of the annual global harvest of wild capture fisheries. Certified fisheries currently land over seven million metric tonnes of seafood annually – close to eight percent of the total harvest from wild capture fisheries. Worldwide, more than 22,000 seafood products, which can be traced back to the certified sustainable fisheries, bear the blue MSC ecolabel.
For more information on the work of the MSC, please visit www.msc.org.
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Media Contact:
Mike DeCesare | Communications Director, Americas Region
Marine Stewardship Council | 2110 N. Pacific St., Suite 102 | Seattle, WA 98103
1-206-691-0188, ext. 109 | mike.decesare@msc.org