What's for Dinner? Fish Fraud in Canada

What's for dinner? Are we having sustainably caught Arctic Char from right here in Canada? Or are we easting an endangered species illegally caught from halfway around the world?

Well unless you have a DNA testing kit there's no way to know. Seafood in Canada has been shown to be labelled incorrectly 47% of the time so you really have no idea what you are actually eating. How can we help support our honest fishermen and women and stop supporting criminal fishing organizations and save our oceans?

Well tuning into today's podcast is a great place to learn from the experts who are working hard to sort this issue out!

In today's episode you will hear from Christina Callegari the Sustainable Seafood Coordinator from Seachoice and the Ecology Action Centre. Christina works hard to raise awareness about seafood fraud and to advocate for seafood traceability to be adopted across Canada wide.

To give us an economics point of view on food fraud we spoke with Dr. Sylvain Charlebois from the Dalhousie  University Agri-Food and Analytics Lab. You may have seen him on the news whenever there is a major story about food or may have even tuned into his podcast The Food Professor Podcast. Dr. Charlebois shared many nuggets of wisdom about why food fraud is an issue everyone should be concerned about and how it impacts many sectors of the food world.

Everyone we spoke with directed us to talk to the team from Oceana Canada who discovered 47% of the seafood tested from across Canada was labelled incorrectly. We spoke with  Sayara Thurston who is a Seafood Fraud Campaigner about this complicated issue and how Oceana Canada is taking it head on!

And last but not least you'll hear from Sophika Kostyniuk the Director of Fisheries and Seafood of the Oceanwise Seafood Program. You'll learn all about how buying sustainable seafood can be as easy as looking for a Oceanwise logo when your at a restaurant or grocery store.

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Transcript

David Evans: 0:27

I don't know about you, but I'm so excited that it's finally summer. And that COVID restrictions are starting to loosen. And we can start to think about even dare to dream about meeting people to share meals with once again. Now, when we're thinking about having people over for dinner, what's the most important thing to know? It's one question to ask what's for dinner. But it's another problem to know what actually you're serving. Especially if you enjoy seafood, it may surprise you to know that much of the seafood that we get in Canada isn't at all what it says on the package. It could be an entirely different species of fish could be entirely different type of fish. But you'd never know. You might be one of those people who says, Well, I still enjoy it. I don't really care what it actually is. But what if I said that you might be actually eating an endangered species leading to its extinction? What about if people have allergies to these fish, and they're not properly labeled, and people have allergic reactions, but also illegal fishing leads to forced labor and human trafficking around the world? This is a huge problem, and it has real human consequences. Today on the podcast, we're going to tackle seafood fraud in Canada. What is causing this problem? And how can we fix this crazy issue? Water we doing? And how can we do better? your one stop shop for everything water related from discussing water to use and the organisms that depend on it for all the global issues that you really never knew all had to do with water. I'm your host, David Evans from the aquatic biosphere project. And I just want to ask you something. What are we doing? How can we do better? I don't think it will come as a surprise to anyone listening to this podcast that there are definitely some concerns in the seafood world about sustainability. seafood is an important protein source for over 3 billion people worldwide. And we need to make sure we protect these important fish species, not only for ourselves, but for the future. 59 point 6 million people are employed in fisheries work around the world. So if these fish stocks were to collapse, be enormously devastating. And on top of the over exploitation of these fish stocks is illegal and under reported unregulated fishing, it's estimated that 20% of all the fish caught in the world are caught illegally, through unregulated and unreported fishing, which actually ends up being about 26 to $50 billion of economic loss every year. And we haven't even talked about the environmental impacts that fishing can have around the world as well. So when we talk about getting sustainably sourced seafood, what does that really mean? What do we need to know about our seafood to make sure that it's sourced sustainably.

Christina Callegari, Seachoice: 4:19

So first, we have issues such as overfishing, catching more than what can be replenished, things like bycatch. So that's where fisheries will be capturing other species, so not the target species that they're after. And unfortunately, a lot of that catch ends up going waste. There's also habitat destruction, a lot of the gear that we're using is destroying the bottom of the ocean. So things like dragging where you're dragging it across the ocean floor. It's really it's scooping up everything right, so it's not leaving much behind. On the other side, if we look at agriculture, if it's not done well, there's also habitat damage. So one of the ways that we farm fish is an open net pens and the ocean and so those can create a lot of pollution from all the waste has impacts on our wild stocks as well can transmit disease and parasites. Sometimes there's chemicals being released into the ocean, and then if fish that are being farmed Then now there's sort of this competition between the farm species that are in the ocean and wild species.

David Evans: 5:26

Okay, so what I really took away from that was, there's a lot going on with seafood. And it's not really that easy to understand what's going on. If you're just looking at a fish that you just bought, or a fish on your plate at a restaurant, it's so hard to understand where that fish's journey has taken it, and how it arrived onto your plate. Also, I feel like you need to be a marine biologist to just even understand what's going on here. So how do you even start to make a sustainable choice? If that's something you feel strongly about? How can we tell if people are choosing to fish target species that are plentiful or bountiful? And they're not targeting fish stocks that are already in decline? How can you tell if a fish that you buy at the supermarket wasn't caught using a dredge net just trawling everything on the bottom of the ocean floor? How can you tell if there wasn't a lot of bycatch associated with that? This episode isn't intended to rail on about fishing practices. But it's more about how can we as the consumers support groups that are fishing sustainably without supporting groups that are fishing unsustainably. Here's the little hint it all focuses around the word traceability.

Christina Callegari, Seachoice: 6:38

It's not as simple as just, you know, the cow that you're eating in your burger, it's seafood can be many different species that could come from many different places. And so it just takes a lot more time to understand. So my name is Christina caligari. I am the sustainable seafood coordinator at the ecology Action Center. It's an environmental charity, based in Halifax, Nova Scotia. traceability is kind of my bread and butter, so I'm really happy to talk about it. Yeah, so so traceability is not entirely anything new. It's basically in a nutshell, it's a tool that's used to track information about a product along a supply chain, the seafood that we get in Canada, most likely not actually from Canada, we do import a lot of seafood, the we export a lot, but we also import just as much. So it's, it's close to 85%. I believe. The seafood industry has had a lot of news around it lately, where the industry can be subject to things like human trafficking, forced labor, or unsafe working conditions. Sometimes there's like to organize crime. So there's a few social issues that are that are tied into seafood. And because we're we're importing so much into Canada, although it you know, it might be happening elsewhere, it definitely, you know, comes back to us. So sort of moving past, you know how seafood starts out along the supply chain, we now have seafood being highly susceptible to miss labeling and fraud, it's definitely up there. If you compare it to the other foods or commodities that have instances of fraud, it's gained a lot of attention within the seafood space, because traceability not only allows for good product safety, but it also can help to ensure legality, so making sure that the seafood sold wasn't associated with those social impacts that I mentioned, or that it wasn't legally fished. And then it can also be a really great way to actually storytel and communicate to the supply chain and consumers because you're able to bring that information all the way to the label, for example, it's a way to better connect people with where their foods coming from basically,

David Evans: 8:49

when there's so many steps involved in getting the fish to your plate, knowing its journey, I think is super important. But even when I go to the grocery store, still, there's not much information on the actual package to let you know the journey of that product from basically farm to table or ocean to play. Even when there is information, it can be a little bit deceiving.

Christina Callegari, Seachoice: 9:13

There's cases where we could catch you know, let's say sockeye salmon in BC, but because we're so globalized and it's really cheap to send our fish to China for processing, we might send that sockeye salmon from BC to China, maybe we'll have some processing there. And then we decide we want to send it to now the US for some extra processing. And then it could be sent back to Canada. So you could be eating Canadian caught fish but because of our labeling the way that we label or seafood products in Canada, it always says the product of the last place of processing gas, I would say the product of the USA and so you'd look at the label and think, Okay, this is a product of the USA, not Canada. So it gets tricky.

David Evans: 10:00

So even the labels that we do have, they don't tell the whole story. It seems crazy to me to think that the fish that's caught off the coast of Canada can get sent halfway around the world to be processed, sent back to another country to be processed again, and is sold as a product of that country. That doesn't tell the story of that fish at all. I mean, maybe this is just me having no background in supply chain management at all. So to help me understand, I reached out to Dr. Sylvain Charlebois, otherwise known as the food professor from Dalhousie University to really help me wrap my head around how food gets to Canada and why it's labeled the way it is.

Dr. Sylvain Charlebois, Dalhousie University: 10:42

So my name is Sylvain Charlebois. I am the director of the agrifood analytics lab at Dalhousie University, in Canada. And what we do at the lab is to try to understand the future of food, the seafood or fisheries, I quickly understood that transparency is not necessarily a priority. There's a lot of things going on out there. That really concerns not only me, but of course, a lot of people, including consumers and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. And when you look at the importance of the sector in in our economy, you need to take care of it. But when you think about ocean sustainability, when you think about food chain integrity, and this whole issue of food fraud, that's certainly one area that I've actually worked a lot in over the last little while.

David Evans: 11:40

So we've talked about food fraud quite a bit already, but we haven't really taken a really hard look at it yet. So what is food fraud? So food fraud happens when you sell something? And you say it is something that it isn't? A lot of times it's substituting a cheaper species and pretending it's a more expensive, more prized fish to be had. So for those who end up purchasing this fish, why should you care? If you can't even tell the difference in the taste? If it is the fish it's labeled as or if it's a different species entirely?

Dr. Sylvain Charlebois, Dalhousie University: 12:16

Why? It's a good question. I mean, a lot of people actually do not care. I mean, they they believe, well, I'm paying a price and and when I bring the product home, I'm pretty satisfied with the product. I'm not really concerned about my health either. When I go to the restaurant, what I order is very good. And so why should I care about the species one, when you think about substitution, you are looking at economically motivated crimes, I mean, you are going to be substituting one species with another and that other species, species will likely be cheaper. And so you are cheated in some way as a consumer. And And still, they may not be enough for people to feel concerned about the The other concern that I have certainly as economists is that as soon as you actually allow this kind of behavior to occur, you're not helping innovative businesses, which want to operate with high integrity and honesty. And so you're basically penalizing good behavior and people who actually do want to charge more for food because it is worth more. And frankly, in the era of cheap food, you do see that there is some complacency, which is unfortunate, the more fraud occurs, the more likely you penalizing the good companies out there who are actually quite honest, I would actually add a third element, which is the element of public health. Some people out there are actually allergic to specific species, especially when it comes to seafood. And if your product is not properly label, you could actually endanger the lives of certain consumers. And so that's another danger if you with substitution or adulteration. It is certainly, there's certainly a risk.

David Evans: 14:17

I just wanted to have some seafood. I didn't want to be supporting criminal organizations that are involved in human trafficking and illegal fishing. I don't want to have an allergic reaction. I want to know what I'm eating. And I want to feel good about it. So I guess the next question is, how big of a problem is this? We keep mentioning it, keep bringing it up. But how often are we actually buying seafood? That is not actually what it says it is? Now for this question. Everyone I talked to pointed me in one direction. Oceana, Canada, Oceana, Canada has done a number of studies, where they've DNA tested fish from across Canadian marketplaces to see if they actually are the species that they are actually labeled as, so I'll turn this over to sciarra Thurston from Oceana Canada to let us know what's going on in Canada with seafood right now.

Sayara Thurston, Oceana Canada: 15:10

We, you know, we wanted to take a look and see if this problem which has been well documented around the world was an issue here as well. So we conducted DNA Testing, which is really the only way to actually know if the fish in front of you is what is written on the label. Because you know, even if you're an expert on the subject, it's very difficult to identify a filleted fish once it is processed, and it's there in front of you. So we conducted DNA testing in six cities between 2017 and 2019. And we found that almost half of the samples that we tested were mislabeled. So if the consumer is trying to make conscious choices about sustainability, then, you know, we're really taking away that that choice from consumers by not ensuring that products are properly labeled. It's kind of the the beginning years of the campaign. And then, as we as we move forward, we're also looking more now we recently did a report looking at illegal products and kind of the volume of illegal products that could be coming into the country because illegal fishing unfortunately, is a is a huge global issue. This is something that's just enormous in scale, and ended its impacts. We know that up to one in five fish caught globally could be from a legal origins. It's worth you know, between 10 and 23 US billion dollars is that the figure get that gets thrown around, there was a study just last week, I think it came out that said that the US could be importing up to $2.4 billion of illegal products each year. And, you know, a lot of the products that we import come through the US. So we could be importing some of those products unwittingly. So consumers could be spending their money on products that were caught illegally, you know, endangered species are caught by someone who's trapped in a situation of modern slavery, which is another issue and Global Fishing supply chain. So it's really can't be overstated. The scale of the problem. and Canada is a part of that.

David Evans: 17:05

When I first heard about this issue, and I thought, this would be such a cool topic to do an episode for the podcast about I got myself a DNA testing kit from a lab from gwelf, Ontario, and went about to do my own small DNA testing experiment, to see if the fish that I could buy right here in Edmonton, were actually the species that they were labeled as, so I sampled four different species from four different supermarkets across the city. And I went and I sent the samples into the lab. Now, that's the good news. The bad news is the lab was quickly transferred over to a COVID-19 testing facility, which obviously takes precedent over analyzing DNA samples of fish from Edmonton, Alberta, as it rightfully should. So only one of my samples was actually analyzed. And it turned out to be exactly what it was supposed to be. So I guess it's good in that sense. But maybe I'll have a follow up. Once the pandemic is over. Hopefully, my samples will finally get processed. So what do we know, we know fish fraud is a very prevalent issue in the Canadian marketplace. It affects the economy of fisheries, it affects human health, and it can lead to the funding of criminal organizations, even human slavery. So what are we doing? And how can we do better? This seems to me like something that requires the federal government to get involved.

Sayara Thurston, Oceana Canada: 18:31

And there actually is quite a bit of political Well, the government has actually funded several global initiatives to tackle illegal fishing. Quite recently, they funded an initiative to detect called dark vessels of vessels fishing illegally around the world, which is great. And they've also committed to implementing a solution to this problem holistically. So boat to play traceability, knowing where our products come from. So that commitment was made in 2019. And then we have these these piecemeal, you know, funding initiatives of using satellite technology to address illegal fishing kind of in certain areas around the world. But we haven't seen a move forward yet on putting in place traceability, which is what would really tie all those things together, and allow us to make sure that we're keeping these products out of the market. So that's really what needs to happen next, you know, we need to say, newsmen on this commitment to implement traceability to make sure that we're not leaving Canada's borders open to allowing these products to continue to come in here. And as you say, you know, perpetuating demand for these practices. It was great to get the commitment on boat to play traceability. But shortly thereafter, there was a global pandemic. So you know, we certainly should, should give the government a little bit of grace on that, but that was over 12 months ago. And, you know, something like just committing to a timeline for getting something like this in place. We're kind of lucky in our timing and coming to this because there are other systems in place in the world that we can look at and the best practices and also construct a system which will work with other traceability frameworks in other markets, which is really important because of course, if you have systems that aren't able to really speak to each other, then you create loopholes for people who are trying to conduct criminal activity and you also create burden on honest fishers who are trying to do the right thing, but now they're trying to, you know, be compliant with six different systems for their products, which is Which is a huge burden. So our timing is is good on this and that we can learn from, from other existing systems and create a system that will work now and into the future. So we have to do it.

David Evans: 20:34

But it has to be done, it has to be implemented, which takes time. So while we were hoping that the federal government does push forward with this, and make it a criteria for all seafood in Canada, how can we make sustainable choices in the meantime? Well, one of those systems that makes a recommendation, and it's easy to understand, and you've probably already seen its logo before is the ocean wise seafood program, the program allows for seafood that's harvested sustainably managed well and ecologically, to be provided with the logo on their products to show that it is a sustainable recommended option. But hey, don't take it from me. Here's Sophika Kostyniuk, the director of Fisheries and seafood from ocean wise to tell you a little bit more about why their recommended option is top notch.

Sophika Kostyniuk, Oceanwise Seafood Program: 21:26

Yes, I'm the director of Fisheries and seafood. So I oversee both our science team and our accounts team. And the accounts team are those extraordinary individuals that support our 750 plus business partners on a daily basis. As they go on their journeys, to sourcing more and selling more and more sustainable seafood products. seafood is actually widely regarded as the most complicated food system on the planet. Because fish, at least in the wild environment don't constrain themselves to political borders. So they will travel between Canada and the US. And in the case of salmon, all the way up to Russia down to Japan, China, we even find them in Chile, though there are many different government bodies and oversight bodies that have to hand over jurisdiction from one location to the other. There's really no coordinated system globally, to track what is really happening with the world's fisheries. So it's very, very complicated. The good news is for people that are out there listening is that programs like ours, distill all of that complexity into something so simple, which is a logo, you can very quickly judge whether something is recommended or not recommended, on average, people take six seconds to make a decision in a grocery store as to whether or not they're going to buy a product. So it's absolutely critical to know which of those verification logos you trust, and you're comfortable moving forward with your decision. And someday, if you ever want to dig into the science, it's absolutely available. But third party verification, whether it be on beef, dairy, eggs, whatever fish is really, really critical, because there's a lot of hard work and analysis that goes into determining whether a production system is sustainable or not.

David Evans: 23:28

oceanwise seafood program began because people were frustrated because they couldn't figure out how to get sustainably sourced seafood reliably. Now, ocean wise is not a boat to play traceability system per se. It's a recommendation, not a certification. So it doesn't certify that each piece of seafood is exactly what it says it is. But it says that this fishery is a good choice to make. But for more information on how they actually make their recommendations, I'll turn it back to Sophika.

Sophika Kostyniuk, Oceanwise Seafood Program: 24:02

So for ocean wise seafood, we look at sort of three key criteria to determine if a product is sustainable or not. At present, we solely judge whether a species and product is sustainable or not looking at ecological impacts. So we look firstly at is this stock of fish healthy and abundant and resilient. So can it actually withstand fishing pressure? So that's one, two, is it well managed so in Canada are fisheries in the ocean are managed by Department of Fisheries and Oceans DFO. We work very closely with them to obtain their data counts their analysis, and we defer to them to implement management measures when to open fisheries, how many fish to fish in a given season and so forth. So that's kind of the first set of criteria. The second set is understanding what is the impact on the ecology of a system on the habitat? So is there bottom trawling involved? If so, is that significantly damaging the environment? Is it ripping up corals or is it simply bouncing along right? Depending on where that practice is being used, it can be very negative in terms of environmental impacts, or there could be little to no impact. So that's the next one. And then third is our other species being negatively impacted. So now we get into issues like bycatch, which many people I'm sure will be familiar with images really, really upsetting images of, for example, albatross being caught on long lines, turtles, dolphins being scooped up in large per se nets, even manta rays and other sharks. So those are kind of the three big buckets of criteria that we use to assess whether a species is a recommended item, or not recommended. And each of those criterias, once you complete the analysis, are translated into a numeric score. And then those scores are added up, and then it's kind of like a pass fail.

David Evans: 26:21

So they take all of this information, and then it goes into a pass fail to say whether or not the logo can be applied. Now, all of the scores and information, you can figure out all of that on their website. And they actually have different scores for each different seafood species, based on how it's caught or harvested, and where it's caught or harvested, you can actually be have recommendations for eating a tuna species, and also against eating the same tuna species just based off of where was harvested, or based off of different methods that were used to actually harvest that species from the ocean. And the great part is, you only have to look for the logo to understand if it is a recommended choice. Ocean wise has about 1300 different recommendation options. And I'd encourage you to check some of the recommendations out on their website, because it's really cool seeing how the world's fisheries operate, and how we can understand different areas of the world based off of their fisheries. So takes into account lots of the different factors that we've been talking about already throughout this episode. And they have goals to expand this to some of the other topics we've already talked about in previous episodes as well.

Sophika Kostyniuk, Oceanwise Seafood Program: 27:30

Ghost gear is a huge area of interest for us to expand into. There's an incredible organization, sort of leading the charge the global ghost gear initiative,

David Evans: 27:39

I seem to remember them from somewhere,

Sophika Kostyniuk, Oceanwise Seafood Program: 27:41

and we work in collaboration with them already, but not integrated into our program. However, I believe that will be coming in the coming years, what is the carbon footprint of a product by the time it gets to you. The amazing thing is the globalization of all significant commodities fish included in that is that a fish can be caught in Canada, sent overseas, processed in China sent somewhere else turned into a value added product with sauce or rubber marinate on it packaged up and then shipped back to Canada and sold again 200 kilometers from where it was originally caught. Nobody is accounting for that carbon footprint for all that pollution. That is something we're very, very interested in learning a lot more about and eventually incorporating that into our label program. And lastly, social justice, human rights issues. There are some incredible groups, particularly in Southeast Asia, I'd say that are making significant headways on labor issues, labor abuses in the fisheries industry. And we would love to also incorporate that component into our seafood label, eventually, so that it's truly a comprehensive gold standard. Because I personally am not comfortable saying something is sustainable, just from an ecological perspective. But then knowing that there is the risk of human rights abuses, like huge carbon footprint, impact and so on. So it's, it's something that we're striving towards over the next five to 10 years.

David Evans: 29:30

Who knew there was so much that went into making a sustainable choice? Just if you wanted to have some seafood? This episode has blown me away, just the passion that everyone spoke with, but also how much goes into these decisions. And of course, these new goals for ocean wises program are very much tied to sustainability. We did a whole episode on ghosts, that carbon footprint is a huge, huge deal. And it seems crazy that we don't think about that when we purchase a different product we see made in China and just accept that as that's what it is. But there's these added costs that do add up, not to mention the social justice issues that were continually brought up by all of our guests. These are all definitely very important issues that we need to pay attention To bring together to make one decision as consumers. So what do we need to do? Well, we need to make sure we keep the government accountable so that they do move this legislation forward. So we do make this a priority for the seafood sector in Canada. But I guess in the short term, look for the ocean wise logo, look for a certification process as well for the ASC or the MSC Marine Stewardship Council and the aquaculture Stewardship Council to provide a traceability element to your seafood. And as Dr. Charlotte ball recommended, just buy something with a head on it gives you the best shot at knowing what it is you're actually eating. Thanks for listening to today's episode all about fish fraud, and seafood sustainability in Canada. I'm your host, David Evans. And I just love to thank all of the guests we had on this episode. They're all so knowledgeable and bring so much to the table when it comes to seafood sustainability, and what we can do here in Canada. So in order that they appeared, Christina Calligari, from th ecology action centre, and s choice, you can find out mor about her work on sustainabl seafood in Canada at se choice.org or the ecology actio center.ca. There'll be links i the show notes, thanks to Dr Sylvain Charlebois from the agr foods and analytics lab a Dalhousie University. And he' also the host of the foo Professor podcast, which highly recommend as well. Very very cool. There'll be links i the show notes for both th podcast and for his lab website. Thanks to Saya a Thurston from Oceana, Canad, you can find out more abo t their work on seafo d sustainability, and their D A testing program f r seafood at oceana.ca. And la tly, but not least, thank y u to Sophika Kostyniuk and the cean wise seafood program for peaking with us, and telling us ore about how you can buy ustainable options right here n Canada. There'll be links in he show notes for all of these antastic guest speakers and heir organizations as well. You uessed it, the deep dive nterviews will be coming out ater this week. Get excited. e'll go way deeper into verything that these groups do. can definitely say it's hard o fit about four hours worth of nterviews into a 30 minute pisode. So be sure to know that here's a lot more where this ame from. Thank you so much for istening to the what are we oing podcast, it's been such an xperience conducting these nterviews and producing these pisodes. And it's been great to et lots of positive feedback bout these episodes. So nfortunately, these are the ast episodes for season one. ish fraud is our last topic hat we're covering in this eason. But don't worry, season wo will be coming your way oon. I'm the host and producer avid Evans. And I just like to hank the rest of the team from he aquatic biosphere project, pecifically to Paula Polman, So hie cervera, and Anna Bettini. T anks for all of your help. To l arn more about the aquatic b osphere project and what we're d ing here in Alberta telling t e story of water. Check us out a aquatic biosphere.ca. And if y u have any questions or c mments about the show, we'd l ve to hear them. Email us at c nservation at aquatic b osphere.org. Please don't f rget to like, subscribe and l ave us a review. It really h lps us out. Thanks and it's b en a splash