Clearwater Seafoods is dropping Marine Stewardship Council certification for its Canadian offshore lobster fishery, calling it "a voluntary decision driven by business considerations."

The blue MSC eco-label tells consumers the seafood they are buying is sustainably caught and has been a point of pride for North America's biggest shellfish producer.

Clearwater's offshore lobster fishery off southern Nova Scotia was the first lobster fishery on the Eastern Seaboard to receive MSC certification in 2010.

The current five-year certification expires at the end of the month.

"Clearwater is confident in the ability of this fishery to meet the MSC standard today, but has chosen not to initiate recertification at this time given the internal resources required to support recertification," Clearwater vice-president Christine Penney said in an email statement to CBC News.

Maintaining certification has become more onerous recently for the fishery.

Two years ago, Clearwater was convicted of a gross violation when it was caught illegally storing thousands of lobster traps on the ocean floor even after it had been repeatedly warned by Canadian authorities to stop the practice because it was a conservation risk. The traps were left on the bottom with escape hatches open, but continued to catch and kill lobsters.

The conviction triggered a Marine Stewardship Council audit and new conditions were imposed to demonstrate compliance.

"The question comes to mind whether they're unable to show that evidence and therefore they wouldn't pass the certification," said Shannon Arnold, an environmentalist with the Ecology Action Centre in Halifax.

"And so by just walking away from it, they're not forced to show that to the consumers that they're actually fishing within the law."