Thank you for joining us for The Tradex Foods "3-Minute Sustainability Recap"
A summary of hot news items in sustainability – for seafood purchasers and industry.
The following information is a rundown of key sustainability news items for the month
of November.
The World Wildlife Fund announced the winners of the 2011 International Smart Gear Competition.
The competition seeks innovative, environmentally-friendly ways to reduce bycatch.
This years’ winning design, developed by Kazahiro Yamazaki a captain of a Japanese
Tuna vessel, is a double-weight branch that sinks long line hooks beyond the range of
seabirds and reduces injuries and fatalities to crews caused by rapidly recoiling weights
and hooks.
In 2010, over 95,000 double-weight branch lines were hauled in with no crew injuries
- and seabird bycatch was reduced by 89 percent.
------Next up - Pew Environmental Group released a report that found illegal, unregulated and
unreported fishing of Bluefin tuna is on the rise.
According to the report the amount of Bluefin traded globally last year exceeded the official
quota by 141 percent - two years prior the gap was only 31 percent.
The International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tuna has agreed to implement and
fund an electronic barcode system to improve tracking of Bluefin Tuna catches.
The system is not a perfect solution but it will certainly help.
Sealord - a New Zealand-based company – has become an official Participating Company with
the International Seafood Sustainability Foundation.
Sealord will be investing in programs to improve tuna fisheries management.
The Government of Canada and the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador will each contribute
over $9 million dollars towards the Atlantic Lobster Sustainability Measures Program.
The program encourages the long-term sustainability and economic prosperity for the Lobster fishery
in Atlantic.
And in Alaska, the Sablefish fishery has been awarded the Responsible Fisheries Management
Certification.
Currently, the Alaska Pollock fishery is in the final stages of the assessment process
and if awarded, it will be Alaska’s fourth fishery to earn the certification.
------And finally, an update on the Marine Stewardship Council:
The Alaska Salmon fishery, which includes Chinook, Coho, Chum, Pink and Sockeye, has
entered into assessment to become re- certified for the third time.
New Zealand’s Hoki fishery is also pursuing re-certification – but there has been some
opposition to this from environmental groups.
There’ve been significant catch reductions in the Hoki fishery over last decade – dropping
from 250,000 MT in 2001 to just 89,000 MT in 2008.
The small Prawn fishery in the Spencer Gulf of South Australia has become the first of
its’ kind in the Asia-Pacific region to be MSC-certified.
The recommendation to certify the purse seine Skipjack Tuna fishery of the Parties to the
Nauru Agreement has been rejected.
The International Seafood Sustainability Foundation states that there is a lack of regional cooperation
amongst the nations sharing the stock.
Other objections include the lack of defined harvest control rules and a deficiency in
monitoring and catch reporting.
------And in Spain, Lumar Natural Seafood is expanding its MSC product line.
And with all these fisheries becoming certified and undergoing assessment – it’s important
to look at just how effective the MSC certification is.
The MSC published its’ first report quantifying environmental improvements made by fisheries
participating in their program.
The study found that five years after earning certification, fisheries scored 80 or higher
on 90 percent of the key performance indicators.
Essentially, the results indicate that the MSC program is providing fisheries with a
globally recognized standard of sustainability that is being used not only by fisheries who’ve
obtained certification, but also by fisheries who are making improvements to reach certification.
Thank you for joining me for The Tradex Foods "3-Minute Sustainability Recap"
This is Ryan McKay - “BUY SMART” and “EAT MORE SEAFOOD”