MSC Certification = Perseverance

In 2010, l’Association des pêcheurs propriétaries des Iles-de-la-Madeleine (APPIM) decided to initiate the MSC certification process in order to better position its lobster on existing and potentially new markets. Conservation measures and adopted one the last 15 years had already gone a long way in establishing the sustainability of the fishery. The pre-evaluation however revealed that certain management measures needed to be developed in order to obtain full evaluation. Amongst there were: conducting and documenting a survey on by-catches, establishing an electronic logbook system with proper training for fishers and adding a precautionary approach to the existing management plan with the appropriate harvesting rules i.e. limit reference points (healthy zone, cautious and critical). Now, to achieve our objective of increasing demand of our lobsters on markets, the APPIM is working to obtain full collaboration and participation of all players in the distribution chain to promote our MSC lobster.