Question Period Note: Monterey Bay Aquarium ‘red-listing’ of Lobster

Is the Department aware of the red-listing of lobster by Monterey Bay Aquarium based on risks to right whales?

• Canada and the Canadian fishing industry have taken significant action to protect right whales from fishing gear entanglements. This includes establishing temporary and season-long fisheries closures and removing 1,303 tons of ghost gear since 2020.
• Monterey Bay Aquarium’s opinion ignores Canada’s robust protection measures and we are working actively to address this misperception.
• We will continue to work with industry and other partners to apply our adaptive measures to prevent fishing gear entanglements and protect right whales.

• On September 8th, the Monterey Bay Aquarium, through their Seafood Watch Program, updated their listing of Canadian Snow crab and lobster fisheries. Snow crab fisheries were listed to Avoid primarily given the impact on the recovery of the North Atlantic right whale (NARW) population. The claim is that the management measures do not go far enough to mitigate entanglement risk and promote recover of the NARW population. For Canadian lobster fisheries, Seafood Watch updated their assessment from Good Alternative to Avoid. They used the same rationale for lobster, Snow crab, and gillnet fisheries: there is a high risk of entanglement of NARW, and management measures by Canada do not go far enough.
• Comparable US fisheries received a similar rating due to their impacts to NARW.
• The Lobster Council of Canada made the Department aware of the pending assessment from Seafood Watch a number of months ago. Geoff Irvine, president of LCC, worked closely with departmental officials in responding to the Seafood Watch review, noting concerns with their assessment. DFO also sent a response to the Seafood Watch Program to outline the success of Canada’s efforts to avoid entanglement with NARW from Snow crab and lobster fishing gear.
• A recent report, by the Canadian Wildlife Federation estimated that our area-based closures reduced risk entanglement in the southern Gulf by 65 per cent. By adding additional measures such as retrieval of ghost gear, this reduction increased to 87 per cent.
• Many ENGOs, including the Marine Stewardship Council, have complimented DFO on their measures to protect NARW in Canadian waters.
• Since 2017, there have been no NARW mortalities observed in Canadian waters.

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