The Juan
Fernández lobster trap fishery has achieved Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certification. Lobsters from this remote Pacific island community are now
eligible to carry the blue MSC ecolabel which demonstrates they come from a
well-managed, environmentally sustainable source.
Certification
to the MSC fishery standard is a significant achievement. This fishery joins an
elite group of 248 MSC certified fisheries that are helping to ensure healthy
marine ecosystems for the future.
MSC
certification provides recognition of the fishery’s efforts to protect the
marine environment. It also provides access to international markets that
demand sustainable seafood. This could contribute to improving the livelihoods
of the community of Juan Fernández which is located 400 miles from Chile’s
mainland. By meeting the MSC standard, the fishery is helping to ensure future
supplies of lobster as a source of revenue for the 800 inhabitants of these
islands.
“The certification of this artisanal fishery is exciting news for the
community of Juan Fernández, Chile and all developing countries,” said Geoff Bolan, MSC Americas Commercial
Director and US Program Director.
“The MSC welcomes fisheries of all sizes and types into the program and
it is our hope that the people of Juan Fernández will reap the environmental
and market benefits of MSC certification.”
The Juan
Fernández Archipelago consists of three islands, the main one being Robinson
Crusoe Island. Robinson Crusoe Island was named for the famed novel which may
have been inspired by the story of marooned sailor, Alexander Selkirk, who
inhabited the island from 1704 to 1709. Today, fishing lobster is an important
economic activity for the 800 plus inhabitants of the islands. The future
welfare of the community depends in large part on the continuing availability
of lobster, as it has for the last 120 years.
The fishery is
made up of Robinson Crusoe, Santa Clara and Alexander Selkirk islands in the
Juan Fernández Archipelago and the Desventuradas Islands to the north. Total
landings in recent years have been approximately 100MT. Currently, China and
France are the principal commercial markets for the harvest.
The success of
fishery management over recent years is based on five main management measures
that are implemented with the full cooperation of all the islanders: only
licensed artisanal fishers who are island residents may harvest lobster in the
area; the use of relatively small vessels that can only tend a few traps per
day; informal property rights on individual fishing spots; a conservative
minimum landing size (115 mm carapace length); and a closed season of four and
a half months.
The
Undersecretary of Fisheries and Aquaculture of the Government of the Republic
of Chile (SUBPESCA) financed the assessment through the government’s Fishery
Administration Fund (FAP, in Spanish). Management of the project was carried
out by the University of Concepción in Chile. The initiative was developed to
support the Juan Fernández artisanal fishing community and help fishers
differentiate their product in international markets.
Raúl Sunico,
Undersecretary of Fisheries and Aquaculture for the Government of Chile, said: “This achievement is aligned with the
fishery policy mandated by Chilean President Michelle Bachelet. We can no
longer base our fishery development on increasing catches; what Chile needs now
are sustainable fisheries that add value to our seafood products. The Juan
Fernández lobster fishery is a good example of that.”
Pablo Manríquez
and Julio Charmorro, representatives of the fishery, said: "Obtaining this certification is
recognition of our sustainable fishing practices over the last 120 years which
highlights elements of traditional management, the use of passive
environmentally friendly gears and collaborative efforts to collect key
fisheries data.
“Ten years ago, recognizing the lack of continuous baseline information
on which to assess the status of this fishery, the Juan Fernández
fishers and Dr. Billy Ernst of the Department of Oceanography at University of
Concepcion created a continuous cost-effective monitoring program which laid
the groundwork for our successful achievement of MSC certification. We also
appreciate the help of the Government of Chile, through Mr. Alejandro Karstegl,
SUBPESCA’s Crustacean Fishery Unit Coordinator, in obtaining this important
certification.”
MSC’s Bolan
added: “Thank you to the Chilean
government for believing that small-scale fisheries can achieve MSC’s robust
standard and for the support it has provided this fishery. We hope this success
will inspire other fisheries in the region to pursue certification.”
About the assessment and certification
Intertek
Fisheries Certification (IFC), an independently accredited certifier, assessed
this fishery against the MSC standard. During the assessment, the three
principles of the MSC’s fishery standard were evaluated in detail: the status
of the fish stock, the impact of the fishery on the marine ecosystem and the
management system overseeing the fishery. More information about the Juan
Fernández lobster (Jasus frontalis) fishery and the complete Public
Certification Report detailing the fishery’s passing scores against the MSC
standard can be found on MSC’s web site at www.msc.org/track-a-fishery/certified.
About the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC)
The Marine
Stewardship Council (MSC) is an international non-profit organization set up to
help transform the
seafood market to a sustainable basis. The MSC runs the only
certification and ecolabeling program for wild-capture fisheries consistent
with the ISEAL Code of Good Practice for Setting Social and
Environmental Standards and the United Nations Food and Agricultural
Organization Guidelines for the Ecolabeling of Fish and Fishery Products from
Marine Capture Fisheries. These guidelines are based upon the FAO Code
of Conduct for Responsible Fishing and require that credible fishery
certification and ecolabeling schemes include:
- Objective, third-party fishery assessment utilizing scientific evidence;
- Transparent processes with built-in stakeholder consultation and objection procedures;
- Standards based on the sustainability of target species, ecosystems and management practices.
The MSC has
regional or area offices in London, Seattle, Tokyo, Sydney, The Hague, Beijing,
Berlin, Cape Town, Copenhagen, Halifax, Paris, Madrid, Stockholm, Santiago,
Moscow, Salvador, Singapore and Reykjavik.
In total, over
340 fisheries are engaged in the MSC program with 248 certified and 97 under
full assessment. Together, fisheries already certified or in full assessment
record annual catches of close to ten million metric tonnes of seafood. This
represents over eleven per cent of the annual global harvest of wild capture
fisheries. Certified fisheries currently land over seven million metric tonnes
of seafood annually – close to eight per cent of the total harvest from wild
capture fisheries. Worldwide, more than 25,000 seafood products, which
can be traced back to the certified sustainable fisheries, bear the blue MSC ecolabel.
Read more HERE.
IAF 1501
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