The Canada Pacific halibut fishery of British Columbia has passed its assessment to earn Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certification for being a sustainable and well-managed fishery.  It is the first fishery in B.C. to earn this distinction.  An event celebrating this certification will be held Thurs., Oct. 8, at C Restaurant in Vancouver.¹

Between mid-March and mid-November each year, this hook-and-line fishery catches Pacific halibut (Hippoglossus stenolepis), a large flatfish that ranges offshore of California, northward to the Bering Sea and westward into Russian and Japanese waters.    Halibut from the fishery is available fresh or frozen as whole fish, fillets, steaks and boneless roasts; halibut cheeks are also available.  British Columbia halibut is sold to the United States, to Europe and across Canada.

The fishery has been active since the late 1880.  Since 1923 it has been managed under the International Pacific Halibut Commission, a joint U.S./Canada fisheries management agency, along with the Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans.  The client for this fishery’s MSC certificate is the Pacific Halibut Management Association of B.C. (PHMA), a fishermen’s association that represents the vast majority of commercial halibut vessel owners in British Columbia.  All catch from commercial license holders in good standing with the PHMA is now MSC-certified.

“We’re delighted that the B.C. halibut fishery has proven itself one of the best managed in the world by meeting the MSC standard,” said Jake van der Heide, president of the PHMA.  “Our fishermen are fully accountable for their catch—both halibut and non-target species—and every vessel is monitored electronically.”

“Loblaw Companies Limited is very excited by the opportunity to source MSC certified halibut from a local Canadian fishery,” said Paul Uys, Vice President, Fresh Foods, Loblaw Companies Limited. “As we continue to move towards meeting our stated initiative of sourcing all seafood sold in our stores from sustainable sources by the end of 2013, the MSC certification of the BC fishery will help to increase our ability to meet our customers’ desire for fresh and frozen halibut, but from a sustainable source.”

“The Marine Stewardship Council is thrilled to see the B.C. halibut fishery complete their MSC assessment and attain MSC certification”, said Brad Ack, regional director for MSC Americas.  “This is the first B.C. fishery to achieve this goal, so it is an important milestone, and we applaud them for their commitment to sustainability.  This is good news for the many consumers who prize halibut for its wonderful taste, as they now have additional choices to choose certified-sustainable halibut when shopping or dining out.”

The assessment of this fishery was conducted by Scientific Certification Systems, Inc.  During the assessment, the three principles of the MSC 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 fishery and its assessment results can be found at http://www.msc.org/track-a-fishery/certified/pacific/Canada-Pacific-halibut-bc.

Photos are available upon request.

# # #

¹See attached flyer for additional information about the Oct. 8 event in Vancouver.

About Marine Stewardship Council (MSC):

The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) is an international non-profit organization set up to promote solutions to the problem of overfishing. 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 FAO guidelines for fisheries certification.  The FAO “Guidelines for the Eco-labelling of Fish and Fishery Products from Marine Capture Fisheries” 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 offices in London, Seattle, Tokyo, Sydney, The Hague, Edinburgh, Berlin and Cape Town.

In total, over 150 fisheries are engaged in the MSC program with 56 certified and over 100 under full assessment. Another 40 to 50 fisheries are in confidential pre-assessment. Together, fisheries already engaged in the MSC program record annual catches of close to 7 million metric tons of seafood, representing over 12 percent of global capture production for direct human consumption. The fisheries already certified catch close to four million metric tons of seafood—over seven percent of the total global capture production for direct human consumption. Worldwide, more than 2,500 seafood products, which can be traced back to the certified sustainable fisheries, bear the blue MSC ecolabel.  For more information, visit www.msc.org.