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Atlantic scallop fleets seek eco-label despite a history of battles with environmental groups
It took years for oceans and fisheries problems to seep into the public consciousness, but it's flowing fast now - a torrent that has supermarkets and fishermen scrambling for the high ground of environmentally certified seafood labeling.
"The way things are going, sustainability is the way of the future," said Ross Paasche of the American Scallop Association, who persuaded colleagues Jn the East Coast industry to seek Marine Stewardship Council certification - for a very successful dredge fishery that nevertheless gets pummeled by environmental activists.
Scallop dredging has so many issues - bycatch of yellowtail flounder, bottom habitat impacts and endangered species interaction with turtles - that its candidacy for MSC certification strikes at the heart of critics' arguments. The council's March 2010 move to approve the northwest Adán tic scallop fishery in Canada, and start the process for the American industry, appeared to catch many by surprise - including the organizations Oceana and the Pew Environment Group, which had been preoccupied with a drive to get Atlantic bluefm tuna and other species protected by die Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species.
For a long time people in the scallop industry said they did not want to spend the price tag for working through the MSC certification process, said Gib Brogan of Oceana.
"We're having a hard time figuring out how eidier one of these scallop fisheries can be considered," Brogan said. "Our concern is the value ofthat certification if there are loopholes."
"It's an open process where we allow their input," Paasche said. "I guarantee you we have more good science than they'll ever have. We have a global market, we have a robust resource diat's been going on for more than 1 0 years. We're not afraid of management, we're not afraid of green groups."
In summer 2010 a team of specialists conducted visits beginning with New Bedford, Mass., said Pau) Knapmaa, North American regional manager for Moody Marine, a West Sussex, England-based consulting firm that has been the designated third-party agency for a number of MSC fisheries.
In February 2011 the MSC revised their estimate and predicted that their review will be completed by December 2011. The...