Canada sablefish: the fishers' story
Meet the Canadian Sablefish fishers
MSC certification has helped the Canada sablefish fishery gain recognition for their efforts as innovators of sustainable and science-based management. Chris Acheson, who heads the Canadian Sablefish Association, discusses the motivations behind and impact of certification for the fishery.
Quick facts
"We have always been very proactive. We want to have a long-term fishery that we can depend on, and we've been going down that road for a number of years."
– Chris Acheson, president of the Canadian Sablefish Association
Why we chose MSC certification
About 75 per cent of the sablefish, sometimes called black cod, caught in Canada is exported to Japan and another 20 percent is exported to other countries, so the opinions of overseas markets hold a lot of weight with those involved with the fishery.
As the MSC label gained recognition abroad, Canada's sablefish fishers, who fish off the coast of British Columbia, came to see certification as increasingly attractive.
It was not until they saw some interest in the MSC label from the Japanese market though, that they decided to go ahead with the certification process, says Chris Acheson, president of the Canadian Sablefish Association, which represents Canada's directed sablefish fishery.
Although Japan’s interest in MSC is still small, Acheson hopes the MSC label will prove to be a key marketing tool to complement their premium quality sablefish.What sets us apart
Here are a few of the steps the British Columbia sockeye salmon fishery has taken towards sustainable fishing:- Traps allow small fish to escape and have minimal impact on bottom habitat and non-target species.
- A limited number of vessels ensure pressure on stocks is not too great.
- Long-term efforts underway to improve upon and increase innovation of new management processes.
- Ongoing commitment to gathering more data on stocks and environmental impacts.
Environmental benefits of MSC certification
Science has been a big part of how the Canada sablefish fishery ensures it is harvesting sustainably. "We have spent about a million dollars each year on science and stock assessments to help manage the fishery," says Acheson. "We have always been very proactive. We want to have a long-term fishery that we can depend on, and we've been going down that road for a number of years."
The fishery has been using a process called ‘management strategy evaluation’ (MSE) to integrate science with management decisions. "MSE is a way for us to evaluate different management strategies through scientific models and basically play ‘what-if’ with various scenarios to find out, with a known degree of certainty, what the outcomes will be," explains Leslie Budden of the Canadian Sablefish Association.
This work has been independent of the MSC process, Budden explained; "but I think MSC complements our fishery so well because we have been trying to pioneer some of these innovative ways to manage fisheries for long-term sustainability."
As a whole the fishery is quite small, with only about 25 to 35 vessels active in a given year. Over half the fishery is a trap fishery, which has very low impact on habitat and non-target species. Steel frame traps covered with nylon netting are attached to a line and lowered to the bottom where they are left to catch large fish alive, while allowing smaller fish escape.
As with all groundfish in British Columbia, sablefish are managed as part of the Integrated Groundfish Management Program, which works to improve BC groundfish fisheries through measures such as 100 per cent electronic at-sea monitoring, 100 per cent dockside monitoring, and individual vessel quota systems for all groundfish species managed by a total allowable catch (TAC).
How else does MSC certification benefit the environment?Economic benefits of MSC certification
Though Japan and their other Asian markets have not demanded the MSC label like some European and Middle Eastern markets have, Acheson is "hopeful that emerging markets in Japan and elsewhere calling for high-quality, well-managed fish will result in better prices for us."
Ultimately, he hopes the label will be a useful marketing tool. Certification, in fact, came in the final year of an intensive four-year marketing programme by the fishery. "So maximising the potential of MSC for our fishery is something we're sort of transitioning into. We are looking forward to programmes we can put in place for next year to do that and to take advantage of all the work that has been done," says Budden.
"We are very committed to maintaining the certification so that it will be part of the tools that we have going forward," she says. "We will be getting our association members up to speed on ways to use the certification to maximise sablefish value in their various operations."
How else does MSC certification improve economic prospects for fisheries?Looking ahead...
The conditions of certification placed on the fishery included confirming the original stock status reports to validate the methodology, addressing concerns over the bycatch of rougheye rockfish and assessing fishery impact on seabirds. Budden says that based on the reports of their science staff and fishery managers, it looks like they have already either met or exceeded the requirements of those conditions.
Learn more at the Canadian Sablefish websiteGet recipes for sustainable fish dishes
Find MSC labelled products from this fishery
More about MSC certified fisheries and fish
The article above was written by an independent
journalist commissioned by the MSC to find out how MSC certification
has helped this fishery.
