Sockeye Eco-Certification Kicks up Storm
Why give BC's collapsed runs a sustainable seal of approval, critics ask.
Sockeye salmon: BC's catch to be approved by Marine Stewardship Council
There's a federal judicial inquiry underway to find out why British Columbia's Fraser River sockeye salmon runs collapsed in 2009, but an international organization is within weeks of certifying the sockeye fishery as ecologically sustainable.
And while an industry spokesperson said the certification will help improve the fishery, critics say it points to what's wrong with the certification process.
The Marine Stewardship Council, based in England, works, according to its website, "with fisheries, seafood companies, scientists, conservation groups and the public to promote the best environmental choice in seafood."
After a nine-year process, the certification body, Nova Scotia's TAVEL Certification Inc., has determined B.C.'s sockeye fishery should be certified to be in accordance with the MSC standard. Anyone who objects has 15 working days to file a statement with the MSC.
Enviro groups 'strongly' object
Early indications are that the MSC will hear some objections.
Even before the MSC had posted its sockeye decision on its website (and it still wasn't up as of this writing), four B.C. environmental organizations said they would be "objecting strongly" to the announcement. Representatives of the David Suzuki Foundation, Skeena Wild Conservation Trust, Headwaters Initiative and Watershed Watch Salmon Society were all available to comment.
"It's irresponsible to certify the Fraser above all when we've got a judicial inquiry into its management," said Vicky Husband, a senior adviser to the Watershed Watch Salmon Society. The MSC should at least withhold its certification until after the inquiry is complete, she said.
MSC's announcement comes just a few months after Fraser River sockeye returns collapsed from an expected 10 million fish to around one million. In November, Prime Minister Stephen Harper called a federal inquiry into the collapse.
Said Husband, "It is unimaginable that any fishery targeting Fraser sockeye could be considered sustainable at this time."
The Skeena, Nass and Barkley Sound sockeye are doing better than the Fraser, she said, but the Department of Fisheries and Ocean's needs to commit to a stronger plan to rebuild the stocks and to keep harvest rates low enough to protect endangered stocks before it will get support from conservation organizations like hers.
"MSC certification of B.C. sockeye fisheries is corporate eco-fraud," Husband said. "It's credibility will be lost to its consumers and markets." The MSC process appears to be more about certifying fisheries than about conservation, she said. "From its inception the MSC process has been a failure."
Husband said she fears the certification will be granted regardless of any objections raised with the MSC. "Our experience in looking at objections is they never overrule."
A call to TAVEL's Steve Devitt was not returned by publication time.
Fishery responsibly managed: SFU experts
"2009 wasn't a very pretty picture, that's true," said Christina Burridge, who led the certification effort as a consultant to the B.C. Salmon Marketing Council.
To put it in perspective though, the escapement, or number of young salmon that went out to sea, was the 14th lowest in the last 40 years, she said. It was a bad year, but not desperate, she said.
A Simon Fraser University think tank on the fishery decided there were a range of possible factors that depressed the run, including a combination of environmental factors and the effect of fish farming, but found management of the fishery wasn't one of them, she said. "They agreed the fishery has been managed responsibly."
The question, as far as the MSC is concerned, is what happens when runs decline, she said. If returns shrink DFO has committed to closing the fishery, she said. "If 2010 looks like 2009 there won't be any fishing and there won't be any fish bearing the label," she said. "There'll be no fishing."
MSC's certification will help improve management of the sockeye fishery, she said. The certification comes with 43 conditions that DFO has to put in place over the next five years, she said. They are the kind of conditions conservation groups want to see, she said.
"This certification delivers that and it delivers the accountability that that actually happens," she said. "I would see it myself as a victory for the fish."
Certifiers try to stay up with shifting facts
It's difficult to manage a fishery when the returns are so unpredictable, said Mike McDermid, the Ocean Wise program manager at the Vancouver Aquarium.
Right now there's little but speculation about what happened to the "missing" fish, he said in an email. "I think this really speaks to our inability to accurately predict salmon returns," he said. "This creates some serious concerns with respect to the fishery because decisions need to be made in advance whether or not an area or fishery will open to commercial or recreational fishing."
It is good news that the managers of the fishery are willing to shut it down when returns are low, he said. "This is a very important step for solid management and one that governments have been reluctant to do in the past because of the repercussions of public and industry pressure."
Ocean Wise, whose advice is used by restaurants, recommends choosing wild B.C. and Alaskan salmon over salmon farmed in open-net pens, he said. But things change so fast and the issue is so complex that they produce seasonal recommendations that vary as the season progresses.
"This allows us to make recommendations on fisheries, populations (specific runs or stocks) right down to the boat level in order to ensure that people are supporting sustainable fisheries and populations," he said.
He said he hadn't yet looked closely enough at the MSC pre-assessment documents to comment on how they would affect the fishery, but added, "I do feel there is a need to better understand the populations [stocks/runs] involved and there is a need to fine tune rather than broad stroke assessments of fisheries with regards to their ultimate sustainability."
With some populations strong and others weak it is difficult to make a reccomendation across the whole fishery, he said.
Watershed Watch's Husband said several B.C. conservation groups will file a formal objection to MSC's certification of the B.C. sockeye salmon fishery.
"The fact that a fishery as unsustainable as the Fraser can be certified as sustainable under the MSC label highlights just how broken and corrupt the MSC process is," she said. "The MSC is not only failing its mandate, but also fooling consumers around the world into believing they are making a good choice by purchasing MSC products which will be sourced from collapsing fisheries and endangered populations." ![[Tyee]](http://thetyee.cachefly.net/ui/img/ico_fishie.png){kind=small}
happy
21-01-2010
How very odd
One of the gauranteed Tyee "hot button" issues, the salmon fishery, has been posted for a number of hours now and zero comments, while even the article about Oprah is logging its fair share.
Now I'm going to go out on a limb here and suggest this might be due to the mention of the Great Traitor Suzuki?
What a conundrum.
freebear
21-01-2010
Commented already on similar article somewhere else
What happens when consumers switch to fish from a 'sustainable' fishery?
Price goes up; consumers switch back to 'unsustainable'; but 'cheaper' fish species...
Or,
In order to meet increased demand, 'sustainable' fishery increases harvest; no longer 'sustainable'...
Or,
Shift to aquaculture fishery at the expense of wild fish species' ecosystems.
We are mining the oceans!
freebear
21-01-2010
Found it!
From the 'Hook'
freebear
Few, if any, modern human activities are actually sustainable.
Eco-certification is Campbell like greenwash.
Certified, so people only consume certified; supply goes down from more demand; supply is increased or price is increased.
Result no longer sustainable as only rich can purchase and those tat can not afford-switch to other fish species!
We can not keep 'mining' planet Earth!
Illahie
21-01-2010
I find it very odd
The Marine Stewardship Council has recognized a very serious problem, one that is very important, yet hugely under reported.
The problem: many of the fisheries of the world are being very poorly managed, causing serious and possibly irreversible damage, resulting in the destruction of many of the worlds fisheries.
The MSC tries to do something helpful and positive, encourage people to behave in a responsible manner by encouraging seafood consumption from sustainable stocks.
MSC does this through their certification process.
The odd and ironic part of this is that the "environmentalists" should be cheering wildly, yet appear to be the source of the protests about the process.
The environmental crowd should bow their heads in shame.
The Fraser River Sockeye stocks were almost wiped out by the Hells Gate slide in 1915. DFO has been working hard to rebuild these stocks, to the point where the runs are now approaching the pre-slide levels.
It is ironic that the huge 138 million Sockeye out migration of 2007 may have caused the Sockeye crash of 2009. It is quite possible that so many juveniles went to sea that the zooplankton stocks of the Gulf of Georgia were overwhelmed, resulting in the destruction of the stocks, and the poor returns in 2009.
Illahie
21-01-2010
The Hells Gate slide
Was in 1913, not 1915
Bustagrill
21-01-2010
misinformation
Illahie, you are on thin ice about the huge number of smolts contributing to the crash by "overwhelming" zooplankton in the Gulf. Sounds like the biased fuzzy thinking of industry person. How come DFO's smolt surveys in the Gulf in 2007 (the same year those 130 million smolts swam to sea) showed that Harrison fish had survived so well? The world is changing, the productivity (recruits per spawner) of Fraser sockeye is plummeting, yet some stocks are doing better than ever. It is a fool's game to point to easy, convenient answers. And it is a fool's game to manage fisheries based on forecasting techniques that are based on the assumption that environmental conditions for salmon are constant.
It was almost a blessing that so few fish showed up in 2009. If just a few more fish had showed up, or if they had showed up just a week or so earlier, it would have unleashed very aggressive fishing plans that would have aggressively overharvested endangered stocks such as Cultus Lake sockeye.
Not opening the fishery due to an absence of fish is not evidence of sustainable management.
You say "many of the fisheries of the world are being very poorly managed, causing serious and possibly irreversible damage, resulting in the destruction of many of the worlds fisheries." As if this isn't happening right here in BC. Overfishing is rampant on our coast. Pull your head out of the sand.
Illahie
21-01-2010
Bustagrillse
What is known is that there was a huge out migration of Sockeye smolts from the Fraser in 2007. 137 million of the 138 million Sockeye died. The largest risk to survival happens in the first 30 days in the ocean. DFO testing in the lower Straight of Georgia in 2007 found only 157 smolts when they should have found many thousands.
The timing and migration of the Harrison stocks are different. Good luck for them I expect.
A basic rule of survival is if you do not eat you die. The demise of millions of smolts in the lower gulf may have nothing to do with food. It may have everything to do with food.
What is very well understood is that there has been a chronic problem with ocean survival of Sockeye since the mid 1970's.
The crop of zoo-plankton follows the growth of phytoplankton. The phytoplankton bloom varies from year to year. If the Sockeye smolts do not have anything to eat when they hit the ocean they will surely die.
What is known is that these fish died in the lower Fraser river or the lower Gulf. It may have been due to a chemical spill or predation or some other cause.
DFO do not walk around with halos on their heads. The rockfish fishery will probably never recover. Coho have been decimated in the waters facing the Straight of Georgia. There are many problems in fisheries management
Bustagrill
21-01-2010
more misinformation?
Illahie, could you please explain this statement:
"The Fraser River Sockeye stocks were almost wiped out by the Hells Gate slide in 1915. DFO has been working hard to rebuild these stocks, to the point where the runs are now approaching the pre-slide levels."
Fraser sockeye returns for the past 3 years have been absolutely horrible. Not saying its all due to overfishing - warming river temperatures have taken their toll on spawners, and ocean conditions are not favourable to the smolts. But certainly the weaker stocks have been harvested year after year at rates routinely exceeding their maximum sustained yield. And fisheries have been allowed to occur year after year on those weak stocks despite DFO knowing full well that the target escapements would not be met. So... to say that DFO has worked hard to rebuild the Fraser sockeye stocks to nearly pre-slide levels seems like a pretty outlandish claim.
Illahie
21-01-2010
Bustagrillse
It seems that the ocean survival of sockeye has a lot to with the Pacific Decadal Oscillation. During the period from the 1940's to about 1977 the PDO was in cooling mode. This was a very good time for Sockeye production. From the mid 1970's until recently the PDO was in warming mode. The last 30 or so years have been very poor for oceanic Sockeye survival. Despite the very adverse conditions over the last 30 or so years, the Sockeye fishery has survived.
The PDO has now changed to cooling mode. This will probably be very good for Sockeye in the future, or not, we are in uncharted territory. The future is not yet written.
If history is our guide, the Sockeye fishery should do well. Of course there is the pestulance, plague, drought, disease, flood, heat stress, cold, spawning success, lake rearing success, juvenile migration success, outward migration success, ocean survival success, return migration sucess, spawning and mating success to worry about.
I am sure that there is nothing to worry about.
ME2
22-01-2010
Illahie
The thing to worry about Illahie, will happen if DFO, Gov't and Industry take "Eco-system Certification" for Sockeye under their wing and contrive the same kind of "Ecosystem Based Management" they've come up with in Forestry.
KWD
22-01-2010
continued growth makes sustainability impossible
Sockeye, and indeed all salmonid survival rates, are inversely proportional to the growth rate of human activities that interfere in the salmonids ability to follow the (evolutionary) survival script that has been written for them.
Salmon numbers have fluctuated in the past. If we believe early ethnographers, dramatic fluctuations occurred prior to contact. However, human population densities, the level of technological development and superstition, prevented total elimination of salmon runs.
Not so today. On top of the gauntlet of so-called “natural” obstacles salmon now face their most serious threat to survival: the fisheries manager.
These are folks that are governed, not by what’s best for salmon, but by what’s best for humans. They do whatever is necessary (and call it a "trade off") to increase salmon population numbers (lake fertilization programs and hatcheries are prime examples) to ensure human needs are met.
Unfortunately, they’re running out of enhancement options that will actually meet human demands without destroying equally important links in the ecological web.
The extinction of salmon runs, and the advent of salmon farming and ranching are logical outcomes.
The fact that fisheries folk actually consider shutting down a fishery is not only a testament to their inability to put salmon survival at the top of their to-do list, it’s a testament of failure.
If history is our guide, sockeye numbers will continue their downward trend.
coyoteman
22-01-2010
ideologies and "reasoned" population controls...
"...continued growth makes sustainability impossible
Sockeye, and indeed all salmonid survival rates, are inversely proportional to the growth rate of human activities that interfere in the salmonids ability to follow the (evolutionary) survival script that has been written for them." wrote KWD.
Over my lifetime, we have cast various villains as the cause for salmon decline, starting with seals through everything just about, BUT growth in human population density linked with pollution and over-fishing demands. In my vierw, it is the millenia old problem of humans thinking everything is the problem but themselves, and hence they never get to the real issue or solution, at least many times.For to address this will require addressing the really, really hard issues... everything from the Roman Catholic sanctity of HUMAN LIFE ideological tenets, insisted upon by a "presumed" chaste/virgin priesthood that is often a closet for pedophiles and other hetero-sexual haters, and or to an out of control, never ending growth and development capitalism.
In the end, we humans are going to have to address and deal with our own population and its density issues, or lay the foundations, as we are, for ourt own extinction.
Good one that cuts to the nub of it, KWD.
KWD
22-01-2010
various villans
As usual folks manage to drag a net around the easy-to-catch enemies of sockeye and, indeed, all wild salmon. And, at the end of the day, no one should be surprised to find habitat loss (marine and fresh water), fish farms, climate change, ocean acidification, predation and over fishing, along with the bound and gagged bodies of DFO and our politicians squirming on the inquisition’s deck.
But, as coyoteman claims, the reluctance “to address and deal with our own population and its density [related] issues”, shows through in our failure to troll deep enough to catch the real culprit: human population growth which is supported and encouraged by capitalism’s growth-at-all-costs cornerstone.
The planet has a limited supply of resources and many, not just salmon, have peaked in terms of satisfying human demands.
We can contain fish farms; we can cut back on commercial fishing; we can cull predators; we can change our behaviour to reduce pollution, habitat loss and anthropogenic climate change, but unless we face up to the fact that capitalism encourages too many people to continue chasing too few resources, we face levels of catastrophe way beyond the loss of wild sockeye.
The time has come to question our belief that more is better. The time has come to question the politics of growth-at-all-costs and the nonesense of manufactured sustainability. The time has come to have the church explain why it wants so many to suffer.
BTW, the loss of sockeye in the Fraser system will turn our politicians into 'smilies' ... it simply opens the door for further hydroelectric development.
dloewen
22-01-2010
MSC credibility?
Posted a similar comment on the related article to this one.
I've made some comments on the soon-to-be MSC certification fisheries on my website and other salmon-related issues:
http://salmonguy.wordpress.com/
Comments, directly linked to MSC's credibility. The organization has an entire page dedicated to explaining their credibility. However, last time I checked credibility is like trust - it's not one of those things you explain or demand - it's something you earn.
The SFU "salmon think tank" was mentioned in other comments. In their documents they have some stunning graphs of catch data. It paints a clear picture of the concept of Maximum Sustained Yield (MSY) hard at work.
MSY as a dominant practice of fisheries management since the 1930s has most likely led to the UN suggesting 70% of world's fisheries are in trouble.
In the case of BC's salmon, MSY has allowed salmon fisheries to catch 80% of the estimated population and therefore expected 20% of runs to reproduce in perpetuity (as well as feed all the other critters that depend on salmon returns - e.g. bears, eagles, and so on).
The graphs of the 'think tank' show these levels of catch. And yet, they also have graphs of the reproductive rate of adults dropping dramatically in recent years.
A few years ago (2001) a researcher in Washington State, Bilby looked at the impact of salmon carcasses on the food for salmon fry. His study suggested that stomach contents of young salmon are often 40-60% comprised of the marine-based nutrients brought upstream by their parents. Either as a direct result of feeding on carcasses, or the insects and larvae that fed on carcasses, etc.
At some point, something had to give. Ocean conditions, fish farms, or whatever other potential culprit - if you skim off 80% of any population for decades, the tipping point towards crash will be reached. Especially if you're consistently stripping away an essential food source for the next generation of salmon.
I've also commented on my website today on how these eco-certification programs are unfortunately becoming like underwear:
http://salmonguy.wordpress.com/2010/01/22/eco-certification-programs-are-becoming-like-underwear/