Tracing your lobster directly to the harvester – two exciting new programs launch in Canada
Consumers today want to know where the food they eat comes from to ensure it is safe and nutritious for their families. The Canadian lobster industry has reacted with two projects that will help tell the iconic story of the lobster fishery in Canada and show consumers exactly who caught their lobster and where it came from.
The Canadian Council of Professional Fish Harvesters has embarked on a pilot project that will allow consumers to learn more about where their lobster is harvested, landed and shipped. Harvesters in various ports around Eastern Canada are banding some of their catch with an orange tag labelled “This Fish” that includes a unique number and website. A restaurant patron in Los Angeles who is served one of these lobsters can immediately pull up the website on their smart phone, punch in the unique ID and learn all about the lobster they are eating.
Check out www.thisfish.info for more information.
The province of Quebec has an excellent program that promotes all locally produced or harvested products called “Aliments Du Quebec”. Lobster harvesters in the Gaspe region and Magdalen Islands have developed a special tag and band that they are also using that will take the consumer to a website with a unique ID number and show you a video of the vessel and captain who caught that lobster. The harvesters in Quebec have also invested in a unique new system to register their catch using an “E-Log” system which is essentially a small personal computer on each boat that transmits the catch data directly to the Department of Fisheries and Oceans and links with the data from shore buyers.
For more information please visit www.alimentsduquebec.com
While still in their infancy these projects allow the unique story of how Canadian lobster is caught to be told directly to our customers. Live shippers are embracing this concept and are using it with customers who appreciate this type of traceability. This also provides an excellent opportunity for achieving better prices for harvesters and live shippers alike and a new and exciting way for the industry to collaborate and work together.