Tag Archives: Swedish Agency for Marine and Water Management
North American-wide lobby fighting to save live lobster exports to Europe
Groups lobbying to protect North America’s live lobster shipments to Europe have been having weekly phone calls and strategy sessions, says the Lobster Council of Canada. “We have been advocating with governments. We’ve been encouraging Canadian exporters to advocate with their national governments,” said executive director Geoff Irvine. The groups include federal and provincial officials and key lobster industry players from the United States and Canada. Five months ago, Sweden called for a ban on all live lobster imports from North America after 32 American lobsters were captured in Swedish waters between 2008 and 2015. Irvine said there are several theories as to how they got there. The argues the American lobsters pose a risk as an invasive species, so as a precautionary measure it’s calling for the ban, but Irvine said science doesn’t back that up. Read the story here 09:48
Lobster Council of Canada working with European governments to combat threat to live lobster imports
The discovery of several dozen live lobsters in Swedish waters earlier this year is jeopardizing future imports to Europe from North America. In Canada, there is work being done to prevent that move. Geoff Irvine, executive director of the Lobster Council of Canada, says the organization has been working on this issue for months. “We just want everyone to be aware that it is being attacked very aggressively,” he said. The Swedish Agency for Marine and Water Management is spearheading a drive to stop the import of live lobsters from North American exporters. It has asked the European Union to bar these imports. The agency considers the American lobster an alien species in Swedish waters and has satated the lobsters’ presence could introduce new and “very serious diseases and parasites that may affect domestic European lobster and other shellfish.” Read the rest here 10:30
