July 27, 2023 — Alaska’s fish and game commissioner has tough words for the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC), the seafood certification body whose familiar blue-fish logo can be found in every supermarket. MSC certifies the sustainability of fisheries around the world, based on stock levels, management practices and environmental impact – but not the politics or warfighting posture of the coastal state. Alaska Commissioner Doug Vincent-Lang disagrees: he believes that Russia’s belligerence in Ukraine should be a disqualifier for Russian fishing vessels, and that Russian fish should not be marketed with the same “sustainable” check mark as Alaskan fish.
“MSC . . . has observed Russian actions in Ukraine, assessed the implications for its Russian client fisheries, and chosen a path of accommodation and appeasement,” Vincent-Lang argued in an editorial this week.
Vincent-Lang took a step further and accused MSC of ignoring the invasion in order to keep receiving revenue from Russian members. “[This] gravely misleads consumers and markets who believe that the seafood they are buying is certified to the highest environmental and ethical standards,” he asserted, and letting Russian fishermen keep MSC certification “denigrates the certification” of Alaska fishermen by association.