Alaskan Sole and Flounder Fishery Seeks

Marine Stewardship Council Ecolabel

PRESS RELEASE:  The Best Use Coalition[1], a newly formed Alaska flatfish industry fishing cooperative is now seeking certification of the Gulf of Alaska and Bering Sea & Aleutian Islands flatfish fisheries under the Marine Stewardship Council’s (MSC) [2] standard for sustainable and well-managed fisheries. The flatfish fishery, which encompasses a number of flounder and sole species, seeks to join an growing line of Alaskan fisheries including  Alaskan pollock, salmon, halibut, sablefish and longline cod that are already certified as sustainable according to the MSC standard.

“Flatfish like sole and flounder may have a lower profile but they are an important part of Alaska’s groundfish catch, worth $163 million in 2006, third in value behind pollock and cod,” said John Gauvin, a fishery economist who works on science and management issues for the flatfish industry in Alaska and is leading the effort for the Best Use Coalition.  “More importantly, flatfish are managed by the same strict, science-driven standards that have made Alaska fisheries known as among the best managed in the world.  Catches are held at or below scientific limits, none of these stocks are overfished under the National Marine Fishery Service guidelines, and fishing is strictly regulated to prevent excessive bycatch of other species.”

In light of the significant steps to improve the sustainability and management of the flatfish fisheries of Alaska, industry members are eager to have the fishery evaluated against the MSC’s standard for well managed and sustainable fisheries. 

Rupert Howes, Chief Executive welcomes the fishery's decision: "I'm delighted to see the Alaskan flatfish fishery entering full assessment. This is a significant decision by an important fishery."

Through the scientifically robust and transparent approach offered by the MSC’s certification process, the flatfish fisheries will be assessed for the stock levels, impact on the marine environment and the management plan for the fishery.

The assessment will be carried out by independent certifier Moody Marine [3].

For more information about the flatfish fisheries of Alaska, please go to: www.bestusecoalition.org.  For more information on the Marine Stewardship Council and the assessment process, please visit www.msc.org.

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[1] Best Use Coalition: The Best Use Coalition (BUC) is an umbrella group of fishing companies that fish for a dozen species of flatfish in the Bering Sea. The BUC is in the process of forming a fishing cooperative that will manage the target and incidental catch quotas allocated to the member companies under the soon to be implemented Amendment 80 allocation system. Under A. 80, companies wishing to form a fishing cooperative can pool their catch allocations (determined through a formula based on historical catches). Like the American Fisheries Act for pollock, the members of the cooperative will be able to escape the race for fish and fish when and how fishing makes sense, subject to all the other regulations of course.  The member companies of the BUC are: Iquique US, Fishermen's Finest, Tremont Fishing Co, United States Seafood, Jubilee Fisheries, Kodiak Fish Co., O'Hara Corp., Cascade Fishing, Ocean Peace Inc. These companies worked together on Amendment 80 as a coalition of companies with the greatest dependence on flatfish fishing in the Bering Sea. Some, but not all are members of the Groundfish Forum and all are members of the H&G Workgroup.

[2] Marine Stewardship Council: The MSC is an international non-profit organization that was set up in 1997 to promote solutions to the problem of overfishing. The MSC runs the only widely recognized environmental certification and eco-labeling scheme for wild capture fisheries. In total, around 70 fisheries are engaged in the MSC programme. Together they record annual catches of over 4 million tonnes of seafood. They represent 42 percent of the world’s wild salmon catch, 40 percent of the world’s prime whitefish catch, and 18 percent of the world’s lobster catches for human consumption. Information on all 24 fisheries certified to the MSC standard and up to date lists of all 850 seafood products bearing the MSC eco-label are available on the MSC’s website at www.msc.org.

[3] Moody Marine: "Moody Marine is an accredited MSC Certification Body that has carried out fourteen of the twenty-four fishery certifications completed to date. Moody Marine is accredited to undertake both Fishery and Chain of Custody assessments and has fishery certifiers based in UK, North America, Scandinavia and Australia, and Chain of Custody auditors around the globe. In operation since 1999, Moody Marine has fishery clients in eighteen countries over seven continents"