An independent adjudicator in Canada has recommended the Alaska salmon fishery be recertified as sustainable under the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) Fishery Standard, rejecting objections raised by two conservation groups.
“This decision is disappointing and very misleading,” SkeenaWild Conservation Trust Fisheries Biologist Kaitlin Yehle said in a statement. “This is a fishery that does not adhere to internationally recognized best practices with respect to handling and release of bycatch species, basic catch monitoring and data collection, and is intercepting millions of south-migrating salmon from populations of conservation concern yet is marketed to consumers as ‘sustainable.’”
The Alaska salmon fishery began its fifth assessment under the MSC Fishery Standard in November 2022, a lengthy process that involves an independent assessor evaluating any concerns raised about the fishery.
While the assessor ultimately recommended recertification, two NGOs – SkeenaWild and the Raincoast Conservation Foundation – filed official objections, triggering the MSC Disputes Process.
“The MSC objections procedure is an important part of ensuring the independence and rigor of the MSC fisheries assessment process,” MSC explained in a statement. “It offers a structured process for stakeholders to provide input and resolve alleged errors in the Final Draft Report. The process is transparent, and all relevant documents are posted online.”
The conservation groups claim that regulators significantly underestimate the damage commercial fishing in Alaska does to endangered, threatened, and protected salmon populations in British Columbia, Washington, and Oregon. The NGOs also repeated claims made by Wild Fish Conservancy in its lawsuit against NOAA Fisheries that salmon harvesting deprives endangered southern resident killer whales of much-needed prey.
As part of the MSC Disputes Process, independent adjudicator Melanie Carter was brought in to assess the opposing claims. The adjudicator issued her decision 30 October, determining that the objections to recertification did not hold up.
“After much consideration, I have concluded that the assessment should proceed now to certification,” Carter said.
In a statement, the MSC noted that the organization maintains impartiality and does not assess or certify fisheries itself.
Canadian conservation groups lamented the adjudicator’s conclusion, harshly criticizing MSC’s standard and certification process.
“Both the MSC and the Alaska salmon fishery had an opportunity here to demonstrate that they are actually committed to sustainable fishing, as they both claim, but instead proved the opposite – that their labels are meaningless marketing scams,” SkeenaWild Executive Director Greg Knox said in a statement. “The MSC’s failure to address these overfishing problems in Alaska seriously undermines its credibility.”
“We are unfortunately not surprised by this outcome, given the MSC’s weak standards and that every stage of the certification process favors the fishing industry,” Watershed Watch Salmon Society Executive Director Aaron Hill said. “The elaborate nature of the evaluation process gives it a veneer of rigor, but the outcome favors the industry clients who pay big bucks to get their fisheries certified.”
In July, Ocean Wise announced that it was dropping its recommendation of MSC-certified salmon fisheries in Southeast Alaska, reiterating claims that the fishery is harming salmon stocks in other areas and that salmon bycatch is removing much-needed prey from southern resident killer whales’ territory.
“This fishery is intercepting and harvesting salmon stocks inseparable or practically inseparable from B.C., Washington, and Oregon stocks,” Ocean Wise said in a statement. “Some of these stocks are destined for rivers in B.C. and contribute to the future survival of Canadian salmon runs. Evidence suggests that a significant proportion of these stocks are harvested within Southeast Alaska fisheries and are currently outside of their biologically based limits, compromising southern ecosystems.”
The decision was lambasted by Alaska's salmon sector.
“Ocean Wise says it uses ‘sustainability assessments from credible sources.’ Yet, it cites a formal objection by a stakeholder group to another certification body as the basis for its recommendations without doing due diligence to validate the claims, which could have been accomplished using information readily accessible from multiple sources," Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G) Policy Advisor Dani Evenson said. "Instead, it attacked fisheries that are sustainably managed.”
The MSC also pushed back on Ocean Wise's claims.
“The MSC stands by the rigor and thoroughness of its assessment process and the outcomes of third-party certification decisions," the certification body said.
A lawsuit filed by Wild Fish Conservancy (WFC) citing some of the same complaints almost succeeded in shutting down the Southeast Alaska salmon fishery in 2023, after a district judge ruled that NOAA Fisheries had not adequately assessed the effect commercial fishing was having on the area orcas. An appeals court ultimately allowed the commercial fishing season to commence while NOAA Fisheries updated its documents, which the agency released in October 2024.
