Fisheries committee  I'm here in a support role.

Fisheries committee  Thank you.

Fisheries committee  Yes. Of the nearly 400 samples collected from restaurants and grocery stores, and a small number from markets, 44% were mislabelled. A common one was snapper, or “red snapper” on the label, but it was actually tilapia. We collected 44 samples of snapper, with 12 of red snapper

Fisheries committee  There are multiple reasons. Let's start with health. Of the hundreds of mislabelled samples that we found, 60% had health issues.

Fisheries committee  They had potential health impacts. For example, the type of species substituted had higher risk of certain environmental contaminants. We came to the number by cross-referencing the CFIA's fish list, which lists all of the potential health impacts of certain species. We cross-r

Fisheries committee  Exactly. Also, seafood is a high allergen risk category. You don't want to be served a fish that you're allergic to. That's obviously a huge issue. Then there's the impact on our oceans, because 30% of the mislabelled samples are vulnerable or threatened species, and as my col

Fisheries committee  They're laundering illegally caught fish. A minimum of 20% of the global fishing catch is associated with illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing. Imagine how many thousands and thousands of tonnes of fish that is. All of that needs to be laundered into supply chains, and i

Fisheries committee  Yes, it does. Seafood fraud is actually an umbrella term that can also refer to things like overglazing, underweighting and different issues of that sort, where you're pretending there's more fish matter than there is in what you're selling. Oceana's focus on species substituti

Fisheries committee  Yes, all of our numbers are strictly of substituted species: It was one thing on the menu, and from doing did DNA testing we found that it was something completely different. We didn't look at all of the other issues that can be present.

Fisheries committee  I'll add that when the United States came up with their seafood import monitoring program, it took 16 departments working together and coming up with recommendations. It is a vital first step to have all of those key players sit down at the table and tackle it together.

Fisheries committee  That's a fantastic question. Certain kinds of shellfish have increased traceability, I think because of the disease and health risks associated with them, but it's a proof of concept that can be applied to make sure that all of the seafood we eat is tracked.

Fisheries committee  Our colleagues didn't look at that specifically, and a cost distribution conversation definitely has to happen with the players. One thing we heard from industry that has included traceability in their business operations, both internationally in those jurisdictions as well as do

Fisheries committee  Really interesting things have been happening around this concept of Fishcoin, the use of blockchain and how money is allocated to incentivize fishers to participate in the program. I can send more information on fishcoin, but there are different ways in which fishers are seeing

Fisheries committee  Exactly. It changes market prices.

Fisheries committee  To go back to the overall statistic, of the mislabelled substitutes that we found, we did find that 30% were vulnerable or threatened species, and that was a variety of species.