SEAFOOD.COM NEWS by John Sackton Sept. 4, 2013 — Mike Mason from KLDG in Dillingham reports that Alaska’s commercial salmon fishermen are organizing a public protest against Walmart today, for refusing to carry Alaska salmon produced without a label from the London based Marine Stewardship Council.
The protest, which will get plenty of TV coverage in Alaska, will be held at the largest Walmart store in Anchorage, on the old Seward Highway.
John Renner, president of Cordova Fishermen United, and one of the organizers of the protest, said there are several accreditation agencies for sustainability, and processors should be able to have a choice.
“Because there is a dispute or because some rating agency has changed their mind should not affect the sale of Alaskan products.”
“We have an American product here that is second to none. Walmart has been a customer in the past, and we hope to do business with them again.”
On Thursday, Alaskan representatives from ASMI, the Governor’s office, and from ADF&G will meet with Walmart officials in Arkansas to discuss the sustainability of Alaskan salmon.
All the Alaskans are asking is that Walmart recognize that nothing has changed on the ground in Alaska in terms of sustainability, and that they accept Alaskan salmon as 'equivalent' to salmon certified by the MSC. This is the same Alaskan salmon they have purchased proudly for years and which the MSC salmon certifications were originally based on.
Alaskan processors withdrew from the MSC in 2012 because it made no sense for the most sustainable and best managed salmon fishery in the world to cede its management decisions and strategies to the goals of an outside organization which makes external changes to its definitions of sustainability instead of working within the highly praised fisheries management framework to address problems.
In the case of salmon, the MSC certifier determined they could no longer certify Prince William Sound pink salmon, despite the fact that the impacts of hatchery fish – which have been in place for more than 100 years in both Alaska and Russia – are being carefully monitored and studied and there is no consensus whether new mitigation strategies are warranted. They did not make such claims against other MSC salmon fisheries that are also hatchery based. This inconsistency in standards, along with the costs and expensive budgets needed to satisfy the MSC, led the state to seek out alternative third party sustainability certifications.
This story originally appeared on Seafood.com, a subscription site. It is reprinted with permission.