The Pacific hake mid-water trawl fishery, which operates off the west coast of the United States and Canada, has achieved MSC re-certification.
The mid-water trawl fishery first achieved MSC certification in the autumn of 2009. Pacific hake (Merluccius productus) is also known commercially as Pacific whiting.
The client group of the Pacific hake fishery includes both US and Canadian participation. The US members, led by the Pacific Whiting Conservation Cooperative (PWCC) and the Oregon Trawl Commission (OTC), represent the majority of the onshore and at-sea hake processing sectors and the vessels that harvest the catch. The Canadian client group is led by the Association of Pacific Hake Fishermen (APHF) who represent the majority of the harvesting sector.
The management of the Pacific hake fishery is shared jointly by an international agreement between the governments of Canada and the United States.
The annual TAC for the Pacific hake fishery has a fixed allocation of 73.88% and 26.12% for the US and Canada, respectively. The primary commercial markets for Pacific hake are Europe, Asia and North America. It is used in producing a variety of products including surimi and frozen fillet, dressed and whole fish block markets.
“The combined efforts of the fishery client and fishery managers have resulted in significant completed improvements,” said Dan Waldeck, executive director, Pacific Whiting Conservation Cooperative. “The development of a robust US and Canada Hake Treaty process with a shared vision of science-driven, sustainable management of the hake resource also contributed to the success of the re-certification of the fishery to the MSC standard.”
The fishery completed 24 total conditions during the initial certification period and achieved re-certification with the improved total of two conditions.
