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| Workers remove leftover bits of shell from pink shrimp meat. Oregon's shrimp fishery recently was certified as a sustainable fishery by the Marine Stewardship Council. (Photo by Susan Chambers) |
“We’re really excited,” Oregon Trawl Commission Administrator Brad Pettinger said. “It’s been a long time.”
The Trawl Commission, which represents fishermen who tow nets to catch shrimp and fish, started the certification process in April 2005. The process for most products takes up to a year and a half.
Based in London the MSC is an international non-profit organisation that provides a wrold-wide set of management and environmental standards against which any fishery can be evaluated. It grades the fishery according to harvest management, accountability of management and enforcement systems and minimisation of bycatch and adverse ecosystem impacts. Independent experts are tasked with evaluating the fisheries.