February, 2008 Edition

                                          What's Happening at the FCC



Members of the FCC Oceans Use Committee met with various sections of DFO, Ottawa over two days in Ottawa. Below are some key outcomes of the meetings.

1. DFO, Science – Strategic Direction

The Department has identified 10 priority areas for DFO Science. Fish population and their productivity remains a high priority. With the expanding mandate of DFO (endangered species, ocean issues, climate change, etc.), the FCC has voiced continuing comment that effective fisheries management requires in-depth understanding of fish populations and their productivities. In this context, the DFO, Science undertook to consider a standing DFO Science/FCC Science working group.

2. Industry/DFO Science Joint Projects

With the 2005 Federal Court ruling that DFO can no longer allocate fish to industry in order to get industry to conduct joint science projects, DFO received $10 million to continue projects in the 2007 fishery and $12 million per year for joint projects for 2008-2011 fisheries. In 2006, there were 206 joint projects of which 170 met a newly established interim joint science project guideline for the 2007 fishery. These projects were funded in 2007 by the $10 million fund. These projects will continue to receive funding in 2008.

However, a National Committee has been formed to review the value for money of the 170 projects and to consider new proposed projects in response to the additional $2 million available in 2008-2011. As a result of the review, some of the current projects may be phased out. The projects will be assessed on their benefits to conservation, science knowledge, and to industry (i.e. economic benefit). Ability of the sector to finance the project without DFO’s financial assistance will also impact the assessment.

3. Sustainable Fisheries Management Framework

This initiative brings together a number of issues - Managing the Impact of Fishing on Sensitive Benthic Areas; Policy on Fisheries for Forage Species; Fisheries Management Framework Incorporating the Precautionary Approach; and DFO’s Fishery Sustainable Report. The meeting continued the dialogue between the FCC and DFO towards developing a framework that addresses the issues (seabed impact, forage species, the precautionary approach, sustainability check on fisheries management plans) while allowing the industry economic, sustainable use of Canada’s aquatic resources.

Considerable work still needs to be done on the Framework documents. However, July 2008 has been set as a target for completion. The FCC wants to have a responsible, practical Canadian seabed impact policy in place to be used as a responsible, template for negotiations in international fora such as the United Nations, the FAO, and NAFO.

4. FAO Draft International Guidelines for the Management of Deep Sea Fisheries in the High Seas.

Although these guidelines are for fishing on the high seas, they are also guidelines for Regional Fisheries Management Organizations such as NAFO. As such, they could have a direct impact on Canada’s Atlantic fisheries management as the UN Fish Stocks Agreement requires that Canada’s management measures of the straddling stocks be “compatible” with the management measures adopted by NAFO.

The FCC’s review of the FAO draft guidelines identified the need for serious changes to the document. The meeting with DFO provided an opportunity to review our concerns. DFO, in general, was receptive to our comments. The first international meeting on the document is in February with an aim to finalize the document prior to March 2009.

Cooked & Peeled Coldwater Shrimp – A Generic Marketing Campaign?

A coldwater shrimp conference was held in St. John’s the last week of January. With coldwater shrimp supply stabilizing and warmwater shrimp supplies continuously increasing and their prices decreasing, one of the recommendations of the conference was for Canada and, perhaps, other suppliers of cooked &peeled coldwater shrimp (Norway, Iceland, Greenland, & Denmark), to launch a generic campaign to distinguish cooked & peeled coldwater shrimp from warmwater shrimp in order to maintain/expand markets and re-build cooked & peeled shrimp prices in the marketplace.

As a first step, a meeting is being planned for the NL industry in the week of February 18th to see if there is a consensus to move forward. If the NL industry is prepared to pursue the initiative, the FCC has offered to organized an Atlantic–wide industry meeting and provide the umbrella for an Atlantic-wide funding submission to the federal government and, if recommended, liaise with the Norwegian, Icelandic, Greenland & Danish industry members regarding a possible collaborative North Atlantic campaign.

Exports to Russia

Russia is in the process of developing an approved Russian fish importers list and an approved Canadian fish processing plant list. CFIA reports that it has currently a list of 139 Canadian plants that are actively exporting to Russia. If your company is exporting or has an interest in exporting, please notify the FCC so that we can ensure your company is included in the list submitted to the Russian authorities. Russian inspection authorities will visit Canada in April to audit Canada’s fish products safety program using the list submitted by CFIA as the basis for sampling which plants will be visited in the audit.

FCC Calls for Updated CFIA/Health Canada Food Recall Protocol

The recent recall of breaded shrimp products because of the detection of trace amounts of semicarbazide (SEM) which is used by laboratories as an indictor of the presence of the ban nitrofuran (NFZ) drug has led the FCC to request Health Canada and CFIA to update its recall protocol because of the emerging science regarding SEM.

The concern is that SEM is a legal additive in flour and many food products. As such, one cannot avoid getting some false positives results in some foods (breaded, marinated, etc.) if trace amounts of SEM is used as an indicator of the presence of NFZ. In the breaded shrimp instance, the public recall was issued within hours of the detection of trace amounts of SEM. When trace amounts of SEM are detected in breaded, marinated, etc. seafood products, the FCC position is that due diligence requires that CFIA and Health Canada consider other factors that may be in play, the level of detection, the potential harm to humans, the potential of a false positive, etc. before a public recall is taken that could significantly harm the food safety reputation of a company.

USFDA Reconsidering Zero Tolerance on Listeria.

After much resistance, USFDA is considering abandoning its zero tolerance approach to listeria and adopting a regime more in keeping with the World Health Organization’s (WHO) recommendations and the regime introduced by Canada in 1994. The following action levels are proposed for ready to eat foods: