Copper River Seafoods has joined a number of other Alaska-based companies that are withdrawing support for the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certification of the 2014Alaska salmon fishery according to a statement on the company's website.
In the statement, the company cited the Alaska Salmon Fishery Public Comment Draft Report as its reason for pulling its support.
“Unfortunately, the report passes only 13 of the 14 Alaskan fishing areas, leaving Prince William Sound in assessment until additional information is gathered,” the company said in its statement. “Copper River Seafoods believes in choice, but cannot support a certification model that fails to certify all fisheries within a state that is a global model for sustainable fisheries management.”
The company promised to revisit its decision “If the MSC chooses to certify all of Alaska’s salmon fisheries.”
The company indicated it has supported both the MSC certification program and the FAO-based Responsible Fisheries Management (RFM) assessment program presented by the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute (ASMI) as an alternative to the MSC program.
While the company continues to support sustainability certification at the behest of its customers, the company said in its statement that it will only support the RFM program from now on.
Further, without citing a specific program, the company's statement also critiqued sustainability certifications in general, calling them “one of the most significant” threats to the company.
The company indicated such sustainability certification, while well-meaning, “has also caused issues for model fisheries like Alaska by preventing market access for companies that choose to support state and federal fisheries management rather than paying to participate in an approved certification scheme.”
