The United States east coast North Atlantic fishery for spiny dogfish, assessed as six separate units of certification, has been awarded MSC certification.
The fishery was entered into the MSC program by the Sustainable Fisheries Association which consists of four companies: Seatrade International Co., Inc.; Zeus Packing, Inc.; Marder Trawling, Inc. and Eastern Fisheries, Inc.
The fishery operates year round in federal and state waters off the US East Coast from Maine to North Carolina and uses three gear types: gillnet, longline, and otter trawl. In 2009, landings from all three gear types were approximately 3,300mt, with gillnet accounting for approximately two-thirds of the total. Due to the strong recovery of the stock in recent years following the success of management measures such as low annual catch quotas and trip limits, fishery managers have been able to increase the allowable commercial catch. In the fishing year 2012-13, the limit is 16,101mt. The primary commercial market is the European Union.
Attorney John F. Whiteside, Jr., speaking on behalf of the Sustainable FisheriesAssociation, said: “We entered the US Atlantic spiny dogfish fishery into assessment because we wanted to confirm to our buyers in the European Union that the fish they are purchasing comes from a sustainable and well-managed fishery and MSC certification has the global integrity and credibility to enable us to do that. We’re proud our fishery earned MSC certification and know that seafood sustainability will help support the livelihoods of our fishermen and fishing communities into the future.”
The certification body included 14 improvement actions, called conditions, in the Final Report and Determination, relating to gill net units demonstrating they are not hindering recovery of Atlantic cod in the Gulf of Maine and Georges Bank; providing additional scientific data on interaction with bycatch species in state and federal waters; and obtaining additional data regarding interaction with Endangered, Threatened and Protected (ETP) species in state and in federal waters in order to quantitatively assess the interaction.
Two improvements are also required for the fishery to provide additional information to confirm compliance by license holders of the federal and state management measures.
Progress against the improvement actions and continued evidence of compliance with spiny dogfish conservation measures will be assessed during annual surveillance audits.
