Sustainability
Decades of sustainability in the shrimp industry
Management of the shrimp resource
CAPP continues to be a strong advocate of sustainable management measures to conserve the shrimp resource, its ecosystem, and vulnerable marine environments.
Management of Canada’s coldwater shrimp fisheries follows the Precautionary Approach Framework outlined in the graphic below. The target harvest rate ranges from 10-20% when the Spawning Stock Biomass (SSB) is in the Cautious Zone, and is 20% when the SSB is in the Healthy Zone. This approach provides revenue for the offshore fishery in the order of $350 million annually.
While not directly comparable with other countries, it is noteworthy that harvest rates on Pandalid shrimp fisheries in other countries are in the order of 30-35%, in the order of 50% higher than the target harvest rate used in the Canadian fishery.
The two Pandalid species in Eastern Canada (Pandalus borealis and Pandalus montagui) are each considered to be a wide-spread, single stock complex but are currently managed as seven individual separate stocks, with harvest rates applied separately to each management unit. This ensures that fishing effort is spread across the full range of the resource, guarding against inadvertent overfishing of any single component of the stock complex. Following the seasonal ebb and flow of the Arctic ice pack, Canada’s year-round offshore shrimp fishery ranges from waters of the Arctic Ocean off Baffin Island, southwards along the Labrador Shelf to the Grand Banks off the island of Newfoundland.
Unintended catch (bycatch) prevention
Canada's wild coldwater shrimp fisheries utilize measures to reduce unintended catch or bycatch of non-shrimp species to only 1%.
Canadian shrimp harvesters have for decades used a rigid separator grid/grate system in their trawls. Fish of any size can be caught within the opening of the net but, in combination with a subsequent opening at the top of the net, the Nordmore separator grate acts a a by-catch excluder device allowing most fish to be diverted from the net unharmed. As a result, the unintended catch or by-catch of non-shrimp species in our fishery is in the range of 1%.
Sustainability certification
First achieved Marine Stewardship Council’s (MSC) ‘global gold standard’ certification as a sustainably managed fishery in 2011.
The MSC’s report from its recent reassessment of this fishery observed:
- There is a robust harvest strategy in place including well-defined harvest control rules for all Units of Assessment.
- There is a strong focus on management and information in the Canada Northern and Striped Shrimp Fishery, in particular for primary and secondary species.
- The shrimp fishery is known to have very limited overlap with areas that were assessed as being Significant Benthic Areas (SBAs).
- The Canadian approach to the management of Vulnerable
Marine Ecosystems (VME) establishes marine refugia that protect large areas from all forms of bottom contacting fishing gear. CAPP and its member companies played a strong leadership role in securing these area closures, despite already having a very small (~2%) area fishing footprint.
New technologies to reduce fishery footprint on the environment
Our newest vessels include onboard systems to recover electrical and kinetic energy from numerous points for reuse on the vessel. Advanced hull designs and hybrid shaft generation reduces fuel usage and attendant greenhouse gases and carbon footprint. Member companies employ a ‘continuous improvement approach’ in the active design of new monitoring technology and on-going refinements to fishing gear to further reduce the impact of our fishery.