Sustainability notes

This is an overview of how the Oregon pink shrimp fishery scored in assessment against the MSC standard. For the certifiers evaluation please download the full public certification report 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 of the points on which the fishery scored over 90 are outlined below. 

Principle 1: the state of the fish stock

• The shrimps are readily identified and the life history well understood. Age, sex, growth and maturity are well documented and monitored. Fishery impacts on growth, sex and age composition have been studied and there is no evidence of overfishing.
• Mesh selectivity is studied extensively. Shrimp size at a given age varies geographically – larger shrimp are found at the southern part of their range and smaller shrimp to the north. Mesh size is adjusted accordingly along the coast for the different sizes of shrimp.

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

• Fish excluders are used in the fishery and this minimizes potential ecological impacts on non-target species.

Principle 3: the fishery management systems

• The management system provides for one of the best mandatory systems for minimising by-catch and mortality of non-target species. The ocean shrimp fishery of the Pacific coast is one of the cleanest shrimp fisheries in the world due to the implementation of mandatory fish exclusion devices or by-catch reduction devices (BRDs) in Washington, Oregon and California.

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: 

• Within one year, the client must document the main elements of the ecosystem affected by the fishery. Within two years the client must have completed a study (including a report) that will provide inferences into understanding of the type and magnitude of effects that shrimp trawling has on the main ecosystem elements. Based on the results of the research, a report should provide a convincing scenario of how the ecosystem would likely recover if there are significant fishery related impacts.
• Prior to the first annual surveillance audit, the client must prove that the management system estimates all commercial catches, landings and by-catch and annually assesses the status of the stock.