Alaska’s salmon fishery is pursuing Marine Stewardship Council re-certification, the London-based sustainable fisheries program unveiled on Friday.
If successful, Alaska salmon would be the first U.S. fishery to earn MSC certification three times.
It was one of the world’s first fisheries — as well as the world’s first salmon fishery and the first U.S. fishery — to obtain MSC certification in 2000; it was re-certified in 2007. The fishery includes all five Pacific salmon species — sockeye, coho, chinook, chum and pink. This year’s Alaska salmon catch amounted to USD 603 million, the third most valuable harvest since 1975.
The fishery’s client is the Alaska Fisheries Development Foundation (AFDF), which took over for the Alaska Department of Fish & Game, which manages the fishery, in 2010.
Intertek Moody Marine will conduct the independent, third-party assessment.
“Alaskans take pride in the successful management of our salmon resources to produce long-term sustained-yield as required by Title VIII of our State constitution, and it is important to have these accomplishments affirmed by the Marine Stewardship Council. The MSC label helps Alaska’s salmon harvesters and processors tell people around the world that Alaska takes good care of our marine and freshwater environments,” said Jim Browning, AFDF executive director.
Early this week, New Zealand’s hoki fishery — also one of the world’s first fisheries to receive the MSC eco-label — announced that it is seeking MSC re-certification.
