Animal Welfare Institute, Defenders of Wildlife and Natural Resources Defence Council, all of which are Make Stewardship Count members, have filed an objection to the MSC recertification of the Gulf of Maine Lobster fishery. The fishery first gained certification in 2016, but was subsequently suspended in August 2020 after being found to be in violation of the US Endangered Species Act. The suspension is now lifted, despite the continued risk to the critically endangered North Atlantic Right Whale, and the current certification ends on June 30 2022. The CAB, MRAG Americas, has recommended the fishery for recertification, however, those objecting claim that the fishery is no longer in compliance with the MSC Standard due to its impact on the North Atlantic Right Whale and having insufficient conservation measures in place.
“It is unconscionable that the leading seafood certifier in the world would give its seal of approval to a fishery that poses grave threats to a critically endangered species,” AWI Marine Wildlife Consultant Kate O’Connell said in a release. “Given that MSC’s new fisheries standard – approved Friday, 24 June – does not even require fisheries to achieve a progressive reduction in bycatch, the label is in serious jeopardy of losing its credibility.”
“If the Gulf of Maine lobster fishery was certified as sustainable at this time, consumers of MSC-certified lobster could be unknowingly hastening the demise of one of our most emblematic and endangered species,” NRDC Senior Scientist Francine Kershaw said in a release. “There could not be a more blatant way to further erode consumer confidence in MSC as a certifying body.”
Read the press release from AWI, NRDC & Defenders
Our thoughts: For several years, we have been concerned with the many MSC-certified fisheries taking place along the migration route of the North Atlantic Right Whale. We know that these fisheries pose a risk of entanglement to these whales. While we acknowledge that this is no easy problem to tackle and fisheries have been working to reduce their impacts on right whales, we support this objection and do not support the recertification of the Gulf of Maine Lobster fishery. There simply continues to be too much risk, and current conservation measures are not adequate to truly deserve this stamp of sustainability.
