The Pacific hake mid-water trawl fishery received Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) re-certification after a third party assessment done by MRAG Americas. The fishery operates off the west coast of the U.S. and Canada. It first received MSC certification in fall 2009.
Participants from both the U.S. and Canada are included in the client group of the Pacific hake fishery. U.S. members represent the majority of the onshore and at-sea hake processing sectors and the vessels that harvest the catch. They are led by the Pacific Whiting Conservation Cooperative (PWCC) and the Oregon Trawl Commission (OTC). The Canadian group is led by the Association of Pacific Hake Fishermen (APHF), which represents the majority of the harvesting sector.
The fishery is jointly managed by an international agreement between Canada and the U.S. A joint management committee recommends the annual Total Allowable Catch (TAC), while the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) in the U.S. and the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) in Canada are responsible for domestic management of their country’s fisheries.
“The combined efforts of the fishery client and fishery managers have resulted in significant completed improvements,” said Dan Waldeck, executive director, Pacific Whiting Conservation Cooperative. “The development of a robust U.S. and Canada Hake Treaty process with a shared vision of science-driven, sustainable management of the hake resource also contributed to the success of the re-certification of the fishery to the MSC standard.”
The annual TAC for the Pacific hake fishery has a fixed allocation of 73.88 percent and 26.12 percent for the U.S. and Canada, respectively. The primary commercial markets for Pacific hake are Europe, Asia and North America. Hake is used in producing a variety of products, including surimi and frozen fillet, dressed and whole fish block markets.
