Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 13
Case Study 3: MSC Certification of
the Alaska Pollock Fishery
Jim Gilmore
13.1
Introduction
This chapter examines the experiences of the US Alaska pollock industry in seeking
certification of the world's largest whitefish fishery under the Marine Stewardship
Council (MSC) programme. The MSC initiative is an ambitious undertaking that
intends to provide a single international sustainability standard against which any
wild capture fishery, if it is inclined, can be assessed. The global diversity of fish
species, fishing methods and management systems, presents an enormous challenge
to the MSC as it strives to provide a programme that is practical, consistent and
affordable to the range of interested participating fisheries.
Although the MSC was formed in 1997, the robustness of the fishery assessment
process was not truly tested until early 2001 when environmental non-governmental
organisations (NGOs) objected to the positive certification determination for New
Zealand hoki and petitioned the MSC not to allow assessments of the Alaska pollock
and South Georgian toothfish fisheries to proceed. Notwithstanding these early
efforts by certain NGOs to preclude an Alaska pollock assessment by the MSC
programme, the fishery assessment proceeded. The 4-year long Alaska pollock
assessment process brought to light more deficiencies in the MSC programme than
in the fishery, and the At-sea Processors Association (APA) considers that each of
these problem areas needs to be corrected before the Alaska pollock industry can
confidently submit the fishery for reassessment in 2010.
This chapter identifies and discusses three principal areas of concern that have
arisen out of the experience of the Alaska pollock industry with the MSC programme
during the extended assessment process. First, the MSC programme cannot achieve
reasonable assessment timelines and costs until an adequate number of certification
bodies are recruited into the programme. Second, the scoring of fisheries under as-
sessment must be consistent across candidate fisheries and reflect the performance
of the fishery against a clear and stable sustainability standard. Third, the MSC
must strike a balance between refining its programme through practical experi-
ence as opposed to changing its policies and procedures in an effort to enhance its
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