The Canadian Pacific Sustainable Fisheries Society has decided to self-suspend the Marine Stewardship Council certification for British Columbia’s sockeye, pink, and chum salmon fisheries.
The decision to withdraw from MSC certification came after the regional office of Canada's Department of Fisheries and Oceans couldn't keep up with stipulations put in place on the original certification. The suspension will become effective on 27 November of this year.
“Everyone who cares about wild salmon in British Columbia should be worried,” CPSFS Executive Director Christina Burridge said. “There will now be no independent oversight of how Fisheries and Oceans Canada Pacific Region manages these fisheries.”
First achieved in 2017, the certification came with 22 conditions requiring progress audits. An initial audit a year later in October 2018 found the fishery lagging behind in nine of the 22 conditions imposed by the MSC certification.
“The year-one targets simply required a plan for stock assessment and for evaluating the effect [of] salmon enhancement. We realized early this year that DFO [Department of Fisheries and Oceans] was unable to deliver on those commitments so we hired external help to deliver the plans,” she said. “But we see little practical commitment to implement those plans from DFO. We might well pass the 2019 audit but we see little prospect of meeting the 2020 requirements.”
The news comes toward the end of a lean season for salmon in British Columbia. Only 557,000 sockeye returned to the Fraser River this year when some five million were projected to return by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, with a landslide causing further havoc with the fishery. Industry figures in the province requested emergency relief and requested that consumers instead buy Alaskan salmon instead.
“Though we are disappointed, saddened, and frustrated to be forced out of the program, we believe the fishery is sustainable and we are working on a plan to have these difficulties addressed in order to have the fishery evaluated and re-certified by the MSC at a future date," Burridge said.
Image courtesy of the Marine Stewardship Council
