Outside an Anchorage Wal-Mart store, a protest erupted from fishermen upset with a decision by the company regarding how it purchases seafood. In 2011, the world’s largest retailer made changes to its policy on buying seafood. The decision was made to only purchase seafood certified as sustainable by the Marine Stewardship Council, fish obtained from a fishery improvement program; or any equivalent certification program.
Nearly 40 Alaska fishermen participated in the protest. The protesters held up signs reading Buy American? Start with Alaska Salmon and Wal-Mart should be WILD about sustainable ALASKA SALMON. Passing motorists in south Anchorage honked in support of the protesters.
Alaska state and seafood industry officials were to meet with executives of Wal-Mart Stores Inc. the following day. The meeting was to have taken place at the company’s headquarters in Bentonville, Ark.
Due to high costs and burdensome paperwork, many large Alaska processors have dropped the MSC program, according to Greg Gabriel, executive director of the Northwest and Alaska Seiners Association of Kenai, Alaska. He continued, We would like Wal-Mart to recognize that there are other certifications out there, and the state of Alaska is a leader in sustainability, always has been, always will be.
In a letter to Wal-Mart CEO Michael Duke, Alaska Gov. Sean Parnell protested the move. Parnell wrote, Alaska has been in the business of sustainability long before the MSC’s existence, managing salmon fisheries to high standards since statehood. Parnell said the state supported the processing industry in dropping the council certification.
The state is now encouraging the development of a new program that reflects the standards of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Regarding the program, Parnell said it provides a meaningful guarantee of responsible, sustainable management to conscientious consumers but does not subject our science-based fisheries management by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Marine Fisheries Service to an ever-changing definition of sustainability or subject our seafood industry to an ever-increasing labeling cost to access traditional markets.
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