A dispute with Walmart over Alaska salmon sparked a protest Wednesday by fishermen outside the South Anchorage store, and on Thursday a contingent of state and seafood marketing officials will argue in Arkansas to keep Alaska salmon in the retail giant’s supercenters.
The immediate issue is whether Wal-Mart will accept a new way of certifying that the harvest of Alaska salmon is sustainable. If Walmart rejects the program, the reputation of Alaska seafood as quality, eco-friendly food could take a hit.
On Thursday, Gov. Sean Parnell aide Stefanie Moreland, state commerce Commissioner Susan Bell, state commercial fisheries director Jeff Regnart, and three top officials with the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute are meeting with Wal-Mart executives at the company headquarters in Bentonville, Ark. Aides to both of Alaska’s U.S. senators, Mark Begich, and Lisa Murkowski, are teleconferencing in. Parnell, Begich and Murkowski all have pressed Walmart to accept Alaska salmon as a well-managed resource. The Alaska Constitution requires fish be managed under the “sustained yield principle.”
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