Good morning. Thank you for inviting me to appear.
I'm the campaign director for Oceana Canada. At Oceana, we believe that by restoring Canada's oceans, we can strengthen our communities and reap greater economic and nutritional benefits.
When fish derived from illegal, unregulated and unreported sources enters the Canadian supply chain, it undermines our food safety, cheats consumers and the Canadian fishing industry, thwarts efforts to stop overfishing and contributes to human rights abuses.
In Canada, a lack of traceability in seafood supply chains is allowing fish from IUU sources to enter our marketplace. Without traceability, an endangered species of fish caught by forced labour on a vessel fishing illegally can make its way onto Canadian grocery store shelves with no way for consumers to know the truth about its origin.
To combat IUU, Oceana Canada recommends the following:
Implement a full-chain boat-to-plate traceability system for all seafood sold and caught in Canada.
Require an annual report to Parliament on the status of imported and domestic stocks.
From reported stocks, DFO should identify the origin of catches and verify the legality of all seafood being sold in Canada. For domestic stocks, DFO should report on performance and management decisions for all stocks.
Require labelling on all seafood products sold in Canada to include the scientific species name, the geographic origin and the type of fishing gear used.
Implement DFO's fishery monitoring policy to facilitate international reporting and to help the fishing industry meet import requirements in other countries and ensure that valuable export markets remain in place. The department must accelerate efforts to transition to electronic reporting that records all sources of catch, including bycatch and discards.
Urgently move to enact legislation with the direct purpose of eliminating forced labour in Canada's global supply chains, including the seafood sector.
Combat IUU at the global level by continuing to fund and expand the development of federal government technology programs and organizations, including DFO's dark vessel detection program and Global Fishing Watch.
When implemented, these recommendations will ensure that, ultimately, only legal, sustainable and equitable products are sold in Canada. They will also create safeguards, so that Canadians purchasing seafood are not unknowingly contributing to forced labour or other human rights abuses. Efforts to tackle IUU fishing will also redirect financial contributions back to the legitimate economy.
In a study that we commissioned, researchers estimated that Canada's commercial fisheries sector generates a landed value of approximately $354 million annually from unreported catches, resulting in an estimated tax revenue loss of almost $34 million a year. Furthermore, Canadians are spending up to $160 million a year on imported seafood derived from IUU fishing, including seafood potentially harvested using forced labour.
Since 2017, Oceana Canada has conducted DNA testing on seafood from grocery stores and restaurants across Canada. In the spring of 2021, we found that 46% of the seafood samples tested were mislabelled. Our testing of 472 samples taken between 2017 and 2019 found that a similar 47% of the samples were mislabelled.
Our analysis found several instances of escolar labelled as butterfish or tuna. Escolar is an oily fish that causes acute gastrointestinal symptoms and is banned for sale in several countries. We found Japanese amberjack sold as yellowtail. Amberjack contains a natural toxin that can cause long-term debilitating neurological symptoms. We also found several endangered species of fish being sold.
Canada's seafood supply chain remains opaque, with weak traceability standards. By implementing our recommendations, the government could keep IUU fish out of the Canadian market, protect our health, our oceans, our wallets and our seafood industry, and not contribute to global human rights abuses.
Canadians deserve to feel confident that their seafood is safe, honestly labelled and legally caught.
Thank you.