Eight major primary processors of wild Alaska salmon are phasing out their financing of the Marine Stewardship Council salmon certification program, prompting a decision by the Alaska Fisheries Development Foundation to continue its support only through Oct. 29.
The eight processors, Trident Seafoods, Icicle Seafoods, Ocean Beauty Seafoods, Peter Pan Seafoods, Alaska General Seafoods, Kiwk’pak Fisheries, E&E Foods, and North Pacific Seafoods, account for about 70 percent of the wild salmon harvest processed in Alaska.
They have given us notice they will support the MSC program for Alaska salmon only through October of 2012, when the current certificate expires, said James Browning, executive director of AFDF.
AFDF made its decision at a board meeting on Jan. 16, Browning said.
Individual reasons from the companies for the phased pullout are confidential, he said. MSC has offered independent affirmation of what the Alaska industry and fishery managers have held since statehood; that Alaska salmon fisheries are sustainably managed. However, the majority of these processors now feel it is time to redirect their resources toward a broader marketing message, he said.
Kerry Coughlin, MSC Americas regional director, responded that MSC regrets that the Alaska salmon industry is withdrawing from the assessment underway for a potential third certification period. While there are other sources of MSC-certified salmon, Alaska was an early and important leader in the MSC program, Coughlin said. We hope that this fishery will re-enter assessment, maintain the market advantage of MSC certification, and continue to showcase their sustainability.
It is important to emphasize that the transition away from MSC certification of Alaska salmon in no way affects the ongoing MSC certification of Pacific cod in the Bering Sea/Aleutian Islands or the Gulf of Alaska, Browning said. As fishery client of record for those Pacific cod fisheries, AFDF will continue to represent its industry sponsors and take all action necessary to maintain certification and recertification of the Pacific cod fisheries without restriction, he said.
AFDF is the current fishery client for the salmon harvest in Alaska, representing a total of 35 participants in the third annual surveillance audit of that fishery, Browning said.
A spokesperson for Copper River Seafoods, which is also a participant, said that CRS would have no official comment on this action at this time.
Browning said all Alaska salmon harvested during the 2012 fishing season will remain eligible to carry the MSC logo and be sold as certified as long as the participating entities maintain valid MSC chain of custody certification. However, the second recertification that AFDF just initiated with Intertek Moody Marine would need to be completed in order to continue the MSC certification beyond Oct. 29, he said.
The issue of MSC certification, which represents to international seafood buyers that these fisheries are sustainable, has long been a controversial one for some major processors, who said that Alaska’s constitution mandates that the state’s fisheries must be sustainable and that MSC certification should not be needed. Others maintain that the MSC certification is needed to get their fish into some substantial wholesale and retail markets.
2012 Alaska Dispatch