Canada’s largest sustainable seafood label has pulled its recommendation for southeast Alaskan salmon fisheries amid ongoing claims they are intercepting millions of B.C.-bound fish before they reach endangered southern resident killer whales.
Ocean Wise quietly delisted the Alaskan fisheries last week, and on Monday, sent emails to restaurants and grocery chains that sell the fish. The decision, which targets chinook, chum, coho, pink and sockeye salmon in Alaska's District 104, comes within weeks of the Vancouver-based eco-label adding a handful of B.C. salmon fisheries to its sustainable list.
“It’s huge,” said Aaron Hill, executive director of Watershed Watch Salmon Society. “This is the first time that we have a seafood eco-label that we can say is trustworthy on salmon.”
The decision to list southeast Alaskan salmon fisheries as “not recommended” was made following an official complaint filed in April 2024 by three conservation groups — Raincoast Conservation Foundation, Watershed Watch and Skeena Wild — to the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC), the world’s premiere seafood sustainability label.
Ocean Wise says its recommendations are “based on rigorous scientific assessments and adhere to strict decision rules.” Its label is simple and either says a fishery is “recommended” sustainable or “not recommended.”
Ocean Wise works with more than 500 businesses at 2,500 locations in 13 countries. But its seafood certification logo and branding are largely focused on Canada. The organization relies on MSC-certified fisheries to make its recommendations, except under certain circumstances.
In a recommendation change notice seen by Glacier Media, Ocean Wise says it has been reviewing the southeast Alaskan fisheries since May 2024 after the three environmental groups made the formal objection to MSC.
The objection states that the MSC’s assessment body “did not sufficiently consider scientific evidence” related to:
- interception of fish headed to B.C., Washington and Oregon;
- bycatch of sockeye salmon at low abundance levels;
- how intercepted chinook salmon would impact endangered southern resident killer whales;
- and a “lack of appropriate record keeping” for sensitive stocks.
The Ocean Wise decision also leaned on a U.S. court decision in which an expert declaration said intercepted chinook represent five per cent of available prey, enough fish to stabilize the threatened southern resident killer whale population.
U.S. District Judge Richard Jones’s May 2023 ruling vacated permits that allowed fisheries in southeast Alaska to intercept hundreds of thousands of chinook salmon. The judge found the U.S. federal government’s plans to protect salmon from fishing were too vague and contributed to starving the southern resident killer whale population, violating laws protecting the endangered species. The fisheries have been allowed to continue as the case works its way through an appeals process.
Shortly after the MSC complaints process was launched in April, commissioner for Alaska’s Department of Fish and Game Doug Vincent-Lang told Glacier Media that any challenges to the sustainability of Alaska’s salmon fisheries should be heard through the bilateral Pacific Salmon Treaty — not through commercial eco-labels.
“We are convinced that our fisheries are sustainably managed,” the commissioner said at the time.
Dani Evenson, a policy advisor with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game commissioner, said it was surprising that Ocean Wise failed to check the facts.
"It calls into question the reliability of their assessments which consumers expect to be based on a well-informed, scientific, and impartial methodology,” said Evenson in an email.
“Instead, they attacked fisheries sustainably managed under the Pacific Salmon Treaty, the U.S. Endangered Species Act, the U.S. Marine Mammal Protection Act, and the State of Alaska’s sustainable regulatory framework. We are deeply disappointed.”
Greg Taylor, an independent fisheries consultant and member of Ocean Wise’s B.C. salmon advisory panel, said the decision to pull the sustainable certification for southeast Alaskan salmon was independent of the three environmental groups who filed the MSC complaint. What mattered, he said, was the evidence they presented.
“The science was overwhelming that it was not now achieving the level of sustainability that we perhaps initially thought it was,” added Mike McDermid, Ocean Wise’s director of fisheries and seafood.
McDermid said the merits of the science are so compelling that the Ocean Wise decision will stand regardless of what happens in the MSC adjudication process or in a U.S. court.
The decision will likely impact hundreds of buyers, including big chains like Sobeys, IGA, Safeway and Save-On-Foods. Most MSC-certified Alaskan salmon, however, are still going to be recommended, said McDermid, who used to work as a fishmonger in Vancouver.
“For us, this is not a political decision. We are not an advocacy group,” said McDermid. “This is a decision based on what’s best for stocks of salmon and other animals in the ocean. This is a conservation decision.”
Greg Knox, executive director of SkeenaWild Conservation Trust, said the delisting is “a big deal” because Alaska relies on eco-certifications and labels to sell their fish into certain markets at a higher price.
He said the decision will take market accessibility and priority away from Alaska. It will also allow organizations like his to show other eco-labels there is a problem with the southeast fisheries, and help make a case to purchasers and retailers to avoid the fish.
“Before this, all of the eco-labels out there had major issues and were recommending salmon fisheries that were very problematic,” said Knox.
“Now, we can go to the public and say, 'You can trust Ocean Wise.'"
