The Southern Red King crab bottom trap pot fishery operating within the Federal Waters of the Argentine Economic Exclusive Zone is entering full assessment in the Marine Stewardship Council''s (MSC) certification program.
The fishery will be assessed against the MSC standard and, if successful, its products will be eligible to bear the blue MSC ecolabel recognising products from well-managed sources. Southern Red King crab is also known as Red King Crab or Crabbe Royale in some markets.
The government management bodies overseeing the fishery are the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries and Fisheries dependencies (sub-secretariat of Fisheries and Aquaculture), and the Federal Fisheries Council (CFP). After nearly five years of experimental fishing in association with the National Research Fisheries Institute (INIDEP), the crab fishery opened commercially in November 2008 to Centomar S.A. and one other fishing company with each operating two factory vessels. Centomar S.A. and Nova Fisheries, which markets the products, are the clients for this assessment.
"From the beginning, our in-house scientists cooperated with federal and provincial scientists, and in 2006, began working toward meeting the high standards set by the Marine Stewardship Council," said Alexander Merebashvilli, Centomar’s general manager. "Centomar S.A. is committed to further defining and protecting this resource. We believe that MSC certification will help to identify this resource with other fisheries around the world making thoughtful decisions about how they fish and what they take."
