The Governor appointed the working group in February to explore whether the state’s industry could gain MSC certification. Established in 1997 by the World Wide Fund for Nature and the food industry giant Unilever, the London-based nonprofit organization has assumed a pre-eminent role in designating which commercial fisheries are sustainable.

MSC certification has become an important marketing tool for “green” retailers such as Whole Foods and many segments of the fishing industry. Currently, MSC has certified some 30 fisheries worldwide as meeting its sustainability standards and more than 600 companies are certified by MSC as meeting its standards of seafood traceability. On its Web site, the organization claims that the value of seafood products carrying the MSC sustainability seal is nearly $1 billion.

North America has only a handful of MSC-certified fisheries. The Canadian northern prawn (shrimp) trawl net fishery recently earned certification, and the Oregon pink shrimp fishery was certified last October. Several Alaskan fisheries, including salmon, cod and halibut, have earned certification since 2000.

Before submitting Maine’s lobster industry to MSC scrutiny, the working group commissioned an independent “pre-assessment report” from Moody Marine Ltd., an environmental consulting group from Halifax, Nova Scotia. The pre-assessment process is designed to give members of a fishery a clear look at how well their industry measures up to MSC standards and how difficult it might be to earn certification.

According to the report, the Maine lobster industry stands a good chance of meeting the MSC’s requirements. The report outlined several potential issues that might be raised during the certification process but concluded that none of them appear to be insurmountable.

Unsurprisingly, the biggest problem is the risk that lobster fishing gear is believed to pose to large whales in the Gulf of Maine. Other issues relate to the possible damage lobster traps may do to the ocean floor and the lack of a plan to limit the fishery if lobster stocks should begin to fall.

The working group has scheduled a series of public meetings with the members of the lobster industry and the public to explain the certification process and discuss the report. The first meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m. on Monday, Sept. 22, at the Ellsworth Public Library. Other meetings are scheduled for Rockland on Sept. 23 and Portland on Sept 24.