The council says products with its ecolabel can be traced back to a sustainable fishery.
Maine had its lobster industry awarded the council’s blue ecolabel on March 10 at the start of the annual Boston Seafood Festival.
Kerry Coughlin, the council’s regional director for the Americas, called the addition of Maine lobster “historic.”
"Having one of the most famous and iconic fisheries in the world become MSC certified sends a powerful and positive message about confirming seafood sustainability to buyers and consumers around the world," Coughlin said in a statement on March 10.
"The Maine lobster fishery has operated for centuries and today’s announcement indicates the fishery’s commitment to be viable for centuries to come."
In 2010, the council certified offshore lobster caught in zone 41, which is south of Nova Scotia.
According to the Marine Stewardship Council’s website, the lobster fishery from the Îles-de-la-Madeleine is being assessed for the ecolabel.
These moves are not changing the minds of the German animal rights group.
Klosterhalfen said the council’s ecolabel simply protects lobsters from overfishing, but it does not stop their death in pots of boiling water.
"It's something that doesn't change our position at all because it doesn't change how the lobster actually gets treated," he said.
Klosterhalfen said his group has no plans to spread its campaign outside of Germany.
German campaign 'unfair'
Geoff Irvine, the executive director for the Lobster Council of Canada, said last week the decision to pull lobster from the German shelves is unfair.
“It's inconclusive whether or not lobsters feel pain but from our perspective we assume that they do. So we make sure that everything we do in the plant and in the process kills the lobster in the most humane way,” Irvine said.
Irvine said the Lobster Council of Canada will give European retailers more detailed information on the lobster industry, hoping to convince them to keep buying Canadian lobster.
Irvine said on March 13 most Canadian lobster fisheries will be certified in 14 to 16 months.
But certification comes with a price. It can cost up to $250,000 to earn the ecolabel.
