Seattle—The Canadian northern prawn trawl fishery has now been certified to the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) as a sustainable and well managed fishery.  It is the first Canadian fishery to earn MSC certification, and the northern prawn will be the first Canadian wild-caught seafood eligible to bear the blue MSC eco-label.

With an annual catch of more than 177.7 million pounds (80.6 million kg.), the Canadian northern prawn trawl fishery is now the largest MSC-certified coldwater shrimp fishery in the world.  The primary market for this fishery is the United Kingdom, with other major markets including continental Europe, the United States and other international markets.  As a coldwater shrimp, the northern prawn (Pandalus borealis), is smaller than tropical shrimp but is well known for its sweet, highly flavorful meat.  

Derek Butler, executive director of the Association of Seafood Producers, which holds the MSC certification for this fishery, said, “I want to compliment our Member-Producers, MSC and other stakeholders for working together to ensure this achievement.  I am proud of their work and this certification, particularly given what it represents for this fishery in terms of sustainability, viability and market positioning.”

“The Marine Stewardship Council extends hearty congratulations to the Canadian northern prawn trawl fishery for this achievement,” said Brad Ack, regional director for MSC Americas.  “This is a notable milestone, as northern prawns are the first Canadian fishery to gain MSC certification, and we are looking forward to others following.  Seafood buyers around the world can now add one of the largest wild shrimp fisheries to their ‘buy list’ of fisheries that have MSC’s independent, third-party assurance of sustainability.”

Inge van den Berg, vice president of public affairs and investor relations of Loblaw Companies Limited, Canada’s largest food retailer, said, “Canadians are increasingly aware of and concerned about buying seafood that has been responsibly fished using sustainable fishing methods.  We proudly announced offering MSC-certified fish in our stores earlier this summer and will have 15 MSC-certified private label seafood items by year end.  We are committed to and look forward to further expanding our offerings as more fisheries, like the Canadian northern prawn trawl fishery, become MSC-certified.”

The fishery is managed by Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) with numerous management measures to ensure a well-managed fishery.  For example, vessels in the fishery utilize otter trawls fitted with Nordmore separator grates which ensure reduced bycatch as fish pass through the grate and escape from the trawl.  The fishery runs from mid-spring to early fall.  Raw material is landed fresh to processing facilities around the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, where it is produced in single frozen, cooked and peeled format.

The Association of Seafood Producers (ASP) represents industry producers Barry Group Inc., Fogo Island Co-Op Society Ltd., Notre Dame Seafoods Inc., Nu Sea Products Inc. (BGI), Ocean Choice International L.P., Northern Shrimp Ltd (OCI) and St. Anthony Seafoods Limited Partnership (Clearwater).  These companies all hold MSC Chain of Custody certification, meaning that consumers will soon be able to identify sustainable Canadian northern prawn products by the blue MSC eco-label on their packages—and that these products will be fully traceable through the supply chain to the MSC-certified fishery.  

The fishery’s assessment took approximately 22 months to complete and was conducted by independent certifier Moody Marine Ltd.

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About Marine Stewardship Council (MSC):

The MSC is an international non-profit organization that was set up in 1997 to promote solutions to the problem of overfishing. The MSC runs the only widely recognized environmental certification and eco-labeling program for wild capture fisheries. It is the only seafood eco-label that is consistent with the ISEAL Code of Good Practice for Setting Social and Environmental Standards and UN FAO guidelines for fisheries certification. The FAO “Guidelines for the Eco-labeling of Fish and Fishery Products from Marine Capture Fisheries” require that credible fishery certification and eco-labeling 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, Edinburgh and Berlin.  In total, more than 120 fisheries are engaged in the MSC program with 32 certified, 76 under assessment and another 20 to 30 in confidential pre-assessment.  Together the fisheries record annual catches of more than 5 million tons of seafood.  Of fish for human consumption, they represent more than 42 percent of the world’s wild salmon catch, 40 percent of the world’s prime whitefish catch and 18 percent of the world’s lobster catch.  Worldwide, more than 1,600 seafood products resulting from the certified fisheries bear the blue MSC eco-label.  For more information, please visit www.msc.org.