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AOP is interested in helping consumers understand what are the best options in seafood to purchase that come from fisheries that:
• Do not overfish in the single-species or ecosystem contexts
• Do not have adverse impacts on habitat
• Do not incidentally catch marine mammals, seabirds, other fish or the wrong age or sex of fish they are trying to catch
• Have management practices that are precautionary
• Are free of contaminates such as mercury or PCBs
• Are rich in omega-3s, and are safe to eat
To this end, AOP is a partner of the Seafood Choices Alliance. AOP has been a point of contact for Marine Stewardship Council assessment and certification processes for Alaska fisheries.
Seafood Choices Alliance
Seafood Choices Alliance is a nonprofit trade association that unites a growing number of leading voices from the seafood industry, enabling them to expand seafood choices they offer while ensuring a healthy ocean. As an association that unites the leading voices from the seafood industry, Seafood Choices Alliance enables its members to advance actions that reflect their shared concern for the long term supply of seafood and the long term health of the ocean environment.
There is a strong, growing marketplace for sustainable seafood. Our seafood supply must be managed for sustainability, not maximum resource extraction, and the seafood industry can be a leading voice for environmental sustainability. Seafood Choices Alliance provides the seafood sector - fishermen, chefs and other purveyors - with the information they need to make sound choices about seafood, so that they can provide the best options to their customers. The Alaska Oceans Program became a partner with the Seafood Choices Alliance in 2004, hoping to be a resource about Alaska marine conservation issues regarding seafood.
The ultimate goal is for all those affiliated with the seafood industry – from fishermen and fish farmers to distributors, wholesalers, retailers and restaurants – to join with consumers to transform the seafood marketplace into a more environmentally sustainable one.
Marine Stewardship Council
In 1997, the global consumer goods giant Unilever and the international conservation organization World Wildlife Fund founded the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) in an attempt to use market-based incentives to avoid continuing to deplete fish stocks around the world. The MSC is a non-profit organization that certifies fisheries as responsibly managed according to its Principles and Criteria. The MSC also allows certified fisheries to use the MSC eco-label that is supposed to signal to consumers that the seafood they are purchasing has not been overfished or harvested in ways that harm the marine environment. The organization has been independent of its founders since 1999 and operates offices in London, Seattle and Sydney.
Alaska is one of the few remaining places in North America with commercial fisheries that are perceived as relatively robust, especially when compared to other regions that have suffered massive collapses. Because of this, it is likely that individual fisheries off Alaska will continue to apply for MSC certification, especially since over four billion pounds of seafood are produced from Alaska's waters annually (over half of all U.S. fisheries combined). To date, a handful of North Pacific fisheries have engaged the MSC for certification - Alaska salmon received MSC certification in September 2000 and is in the process of being reassessed for a second 5-year certification, the Alaska pollock fisheries were certified in 2005, the North Pacific halibut, the North Pacific sablefish and the Pacific cod freezer-longline fishery were certified in 2006, and other fisheries are entering the assessment process.
Many people around the world are concerned about the health and long term viability of North Pacific fish populations and marine ecosystems. The Alaska Oceans Program has been very involved in tracking the Marine Stewardship Council’s certification processes for Alaskan fisheries. AOP along with international, national, and Alaska based non-governmental conservation organizations, zealously opposed the certification of the Alaska pollock fisheries. AOP has also worked in good faith as a stakeholder to reform the MSC’s governance and certification methodology problems by providing constructive suggestions on how to improve these serious issues. View Reports by Wildhavens and Bridgespan
We have been disappointed with the slow pace of MSC’s reforms and will no longer participate in certification efforts. We have asked the MSC to suspend all certifications until it makes the much needed reforms, but they have declined. Although we are interested in using market-based incentives to improve fisheries management and protect ocean ecosystems, we cannot support the MSC until we are confident that its certification system provides conservation benefits to the ecosystem and rewards fisheries that are truly sustainable. View letter submitted stating participation has ended and Arlie House background summary.
MSC In The News
Read Recent Comments on the Pollock Certification
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