Canada's In-Depth Guide to Sustainable Seafood
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Canada’s In-Depth Guide to Sustainable Seafood Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society www.SeaChoice.org SeaChoice is a national program that helps Canadian businesses and SeaChoice brings together broad national expertise from fi ve consumers make the most ocean-friendly seafood choices to support Canadian conservation organizations: the Canadian Parks and the long-term health of marine ecosystems and coastal communities. Wilderness Society, David Suzuki Foundation, Ecology Action Centre, Living Oceans Society, and Sierra Club BC. 2 | SeaChoice healthy choices, healthy oceans • www.seachoice.org Canada’s InDepth Guide to Sustainable Seafood What is sustainable seafood? Sustainable seafood is fish or shellfish caught or farmed in a manner that can be sustained over the long-term without compromising the health of marine ecosystems. Unfortunately, the effects of unsustainable fishing and aquaculture practices are already obvious worldwide, including right here in Canada. But, it’s not too late. Everyone can make a difference by learning about sustainable seafood and making more ocean-friendly choices. Determining seafood sustainability SeaChoice works with the Monterey Bay Aquarium to provide science-based sustainability rankings for the majority of seafood sold in Canada, both farmed and wild. As practices and products change, SeaChoice adds new listings and updates. Seafood options found on the SeaChoice “Best Choice”, or green list, are the most sustainable based on ecological impacts (social equity and climate change are not considered at this time). Seafood on the yellow “Some Concerns” list should be eaten less oft en. Options ranked “Avoid” on the red list have serious conservation concerns, and should always be avoided. SeaChoice healthy choices, healthy oceans • www.seachoice.org | 3 4 | SeaChoice healthy choices, healthy oceans • www.seachoice.org Canada’s InDepth Guide to Sustainable Seafood Sustainability considerations for wild-caught seafood For wild-caught seafood products, the most important as bycatch. SeaChoice assesses what proportion sustainability factors to consider are maintaining of a catch is bycatch and looks at the conservation healthy populations of the wild species being harvested, status of each bycatch species. making sure harvesting techniques are not causing 4 Habitat impact. Fishing gears and removal of problems for other ecosystem components, and ensuring eff ective management is in place. Specifi cally large amounts of fi sh has an impact on habitat and SeaChoice looks at the ecosystem as a whole. SeaChoice looks at how much damage fi shing gears cause to the ocean 1 Inherent vulnerability of the harvested fish or environment and if the removal of the harvested seafood to fishing pressure, including lifespan, fi sh or seafood is causing problems for the marine number of off spring, and age of sexual maturity. life that feed on them. Gear types, such as trap or Long living fi sh with low numbers of off spring are more vulnerable to fi shing pressure. hook and line methods, are less damaging to the ocean fl oor and conservative catch rates keep fi sh 2 Abundance of the population (or stock in the sea for other marine life. status) of harvested fish and seafood, making sure removal rates are not higher than 5 Effectiveness of management. Management the population is capable of replacing. If they are, systems that use independent scientifi c assessments overfi shing is occurring. to monitor stock status and incorporate scientifi c 3 Nature and extent of bycatch. Many types of advice into fi sheries policy, as well as monitor and fi shing gear are not very selective, meaning fi sh, enforce all applicable laws, are needed to ensure birds, sharks, turtles, and marine mammals that the long term productivity of ocean resources. are not intended to be harvested can be caught Sustainable management means long-term health and discarded. Th is non-target catch is referred to takes precedence over short term economic benefi t. SeaChoice healthy choices, healthy oceans • www.seachoice.org | 5 Common fi shing methods How seafood is caught is an extremely important Used for: dogfi sh, Atlantic and Pacifi c cod, rockfi sh, factor when assessing the nature of bycatch as well lingcod, Atlantic halibut, fl ounder, sole, haddock, as habitat and ecosystem impacts of a fi shery. Th e shrimp, monkfi sh, squid, Chilean seabass, orange following is a list of fi shing gears most commonly roughy. assessed by SeaChoice, ranked by the risk they pose to the marine environment.† Bottom gillnet: Medium to high impact on High-risk gears accidentally caught groundfi sh, marine mammals, corals, sponges and other bottom dwelling creatures. Th ese gears oft en damage the seafl oor and Total area of bottom contact is smaller than for are highly unselective, catching anything in trawls and dredges. 17 their path. Used for: Greenland halibut, Atlantic cod, monkfi sh, Bottom trawl: Th is is an unselective gear type dragged along the bottom, worldwide, in shallow and deep- white hake, dogfi sh, walleye Pollock. seas. Fish, marine mammals, corals, sponges and other bottom dwelling creatures are regularly caught Dredge: Scallop dredges are dragged along the seafl oor as bycatch, and seafl oor damage is considered high and pick up everything in their path. Hydraulic relative to other gears. 5 4 13 dredges inject high-pressure water into the seafl oor †The relative risks of fi shing gears presented in this document are based on ecological impacts evaluated in a study of Canadian fi sheries (How We Fish Matters: Addressing the Ecological Impacts of Canadian Fishing Gear, Fuller et al., 2009). They are intended to provide general guidance on bycatch and habitat impacts; however, the impacts of any fi shing gear will ultimately be fi shery-specifi c. 10 5 6 7 8 1 3 4 9 Please visit the How we Fish Matters website at www.howwefi sh.ca for more information on the impacts of commercial fi shing gears used in Canada. 6 2 | SeaChoice healthy choices, healthy oceans • www.seachoice.org Canada’s InDepth Guide to Sustainable Seafood to liquefy the bottom and expose buried clams. Both gear can have medium to high bycatch rates for dredges have a high impact on the seafl oor and groundfi sh, sharks, and seabirds. Habitat damage can accidentally catch bottom-dwelling marine life depends on the speed, technique and weather when because of their unselective nature. 15 14 gear is hauled in. 18 3 Used for: clams, scallops, cockles, sea cucumbers, mussels. Used for: Atlantic and Pacifi c cod, rockfi sh, lingcod, Atlantic and Pacifi c halibut, sablefi sh, fl ounder, sole, haddock, dogfi sh, skate, Chilean seabass. Medium-risk gears Common fi shing gears used in Canada (gear and vessels not drawn to scale) these gears either have a signifi cant impact on the seafl oor, signifi cant bycatch, or a 1 Prawn Trap 11 Harpoon (swordfi sh harpoon) moderate impact on both. 2 Dive 12 Purse Seine (herring seine) Bottom longline: Bottom longlines consist of a single 3 Groundfi sh Bottom Longline 13 Groundfi sh Otter Trawl mainline that can extend up to 150 km with several 4 Shrimp Beam Trawl 14 Off shore Hydraulic Clam Dredge thousand baited hooks attached. Anchors on the 5 Groundfi sh Otter Trawl 15 Dredge (scallop dredge) longline secure the gear to the ocean fl oor. Th is 6 Midwater Trawl 16 Pot and Trap (lobster trap) 7 Hook and Line 17 Bottom Gillnet (groundfi sh gillnet) 8 Salmon Purse Seine 18 Groundfi sh Bottom Longline 11 9 Midwater Salmon Gillnet 19 Pot and Trap (crab pots) 10 Pelagic Longline (swordfi sh longline) 20 Dive 12 13 14 18 15 19 16 17 20 SeaChoice healthy choices, healthy oceans • www.seachoice.org | 7 Midwater trawl: Th ought to have a low incidence of Low risk gears bycatch, but information is lacking. When used Low-risk gears have the lowest rates of as intended it does not come in contact with the accidental catch and seafl oor damage bottom. 6 relative to the other gears presented. Used for: Atlantic herring, Pacifi c hake, rockfi sh, Midwater gillnet: Can have a high impact on birds if walleye Pollock. no avoidance devices are used. Generally low bycatch and rarely contact the bottom. 9 Pots and traps: Bycatch oft en consists of undersized Used for: salmon, herring, sardines, mackerel. individuals of the target species. Habitat damage varies, but traps do make contact with the seafl oor causing disturbance, especially during hauling when Purse seine: Low bycatch rates and rarely contact the 12 8 they may be dragged. 1 19 16 bottom. Used for: Crab, lobster, sablefi sh, shrimp, prawn, cod, Used for: salmon, herring, capelin, mackerel. Chilean seabass. Hook and line (handline, jig, troll): Have much fewer Pelagic longline: Bycatch is the major concern with hooks per line than longlines. Minimal seafl oor some of the highest bycatch rates in Canada for this damage and low bycatch rates. 7 gear type. Th e most common bycatch species include Used for: salmon, albacore tuna, lingcod, Pacifi c cod, endangered turtles and threatened sharks. Th is gear is rockfi sh, skate, sole, fl ounder, dogfi sh, mackerel, mahi not used on the bottom. 10 mahi, squid, sturgeon (caviar), octopus. Used for: Atlantic albacore, bluefi n, bigeye and yellowfi n tuna, swordfi sh, shark, and mahi mahi. Dive: No known bycatch and minimal seafl oor damage. 2 20 Used for: Scallop, sea cucumber, sea urchin, octopus, geoduck clam. Harpoon: No known bycatch or seafl oor damage 11 Used for: Swordfi sh. 8 | SeaChoice healthy choices, healthy oceans • www.seachoice.org Canada’s InDepth Guide to Sustainable Seafood Sustainability considerations for farmed seafood Important factors for sustainable farmed seafood, or 3 Disease and parasite transfer to wild stocks.