Sustainability notes

This is an overview of how the Gulf of St. Lawrence northern shrimp trawl fishery Esquiman Channel scored in assessment against the MSC standard. For the certifiers evaluation please download the full public certification report (to download, please follow link) with detailed information on the performance of this fishery against the criteria of the MSC environmental standard for sustainable fishing.

The fishery scored as follows in assessment against the MSC standard for sustainable fishing. The highest possible score for each principle is 100 and a fishery must score at least 80 against each principle to get certified: 

Sustainability strengths

Some points on which the fishery scored over 90 are outlined below. 

Principle 1: the state of the fish stock

• The most recent assessment (2006 for 2007 fishery) indicates that the indices of stock conditions are mostly positive. The stock is expected to
  remain healthy and, although the next two years may see some decrease in biomass, predicted values remain above the long-term mean. The
  assessment team awarded a score of 90.
  

Principle 2: the impact of the fishery on the marine environment

• The Gulf fleets have co-operated to significantly improve the fishery through the phases of incorporation of the Nordmore grate (to minimise bycatch), improvement of the management processes and scientific tools, integration of First Nations and allocation of temporary permits into the fleet.
  

Principle 3: the fishery management systems

• There is a well established working relationship between the principle participants in the fishery, including Group A harvesters, Group B harvesters, fishery scientists and managers as described in the Integrated Fisheries Management Plan 2003 - 2007. This is clearly one of the important strengths of the fishery.
  

Challenges

In order to ensure its continuing sustainable operation this fishery made a commitment to improving its performance where it scored between 60-80. Some of the actions the fishery has committed to are:  

• DFO managers and scientists and the fleet continue to work to improve the fishery. Currently, there is significant effort to formalize the adoption of the precautionary approach into the management plan. Lack of the precautionary decision framework is currently a weakness which will be corrected with the precautionary principle work. There are also ongoing requests from the temporary allocation permit holders to be formally incorporated into the traditional fleet. While this activity represents normal fishery management negotiations, increases in effort could present a real risk to both the economic and biological health of the fishery.
  
  
• Declines across the Atlantic Canadian fishery, particularly in the groundfish sector, have caused reductions in those fleets and the direct employment in associated processing sectors. The four Gulf shrimp stocks, which have continued to be healthy over the last 15 years, continue to be under pressure from non-shrimp licensed harvesters who are requesting allocation of quota in the fishery. Although this does not directly compromise the sustainability of the fishery, additional allocations would add more effort into the fleet and potentially cause problems at a later date should the decision become necessary to significantly reduce catches.