The Bay of Fundy, Scotian Shelf and Southern Gulf of St. Lawrence lobster trap fishery has entered into Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) assessment.
The client for the assessment is the newly formed Nova Scotia/New Brunswick Lobster Eco-Certification Society, and the assessment is being funded with support from society members and the two provincial governments, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.
The New Brunswick and Nova Scotia inshore lobster fishery is managed by Canada’s Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO). The fishery’s conservation efforts include limits to the number of licenses, trap limits, length of fishing seasons, number of fishing days, total allowable catch quotas, staggered fishing seasons, minimum lobster size restrictions, and the return of female egg bearing lobsters to the ocean.
Representing a major source of income for New Brunswick and Nova Scotia fishermen, the fishery included 4,146 licensed harvesters in 2012-13. The landed value of all lobster fisheries in Atlantic Canada was $663 million in 2012, which is the highest of any fishery in Canada. The 2012 landed value of lobster in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia was $107 million and $382 million, respectively, which represents 74% of the national total.
Working to attain MSC certification will help secure the long-term success and stability of the Canadian lobster industry in a competitive global marketplace and provides us with an opportunity to prove Canadian lobster is a well-managed and sustainable fishery, said Eugene O’Leary, President of the Nova Scotia/New Brunswick Lobster Eco-Certification Society and President of the Guysborough County Inshore Fishermen’s Association.
Mercator Media 2014