Environmental Engineering Reference
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equivalent to the score of 80 for that PI. In 15 PIs, Alaska pollock failed to achieve
a score of 80. However, in 12 of the 15 cases, the fishery received a score of 79.
APA's view is that this set of scores demonstrated that the assessment team
navigated a contentious process by seeking compromise, perhaps at the expense
of a scientific evaluation of the fishery against the PIs. Consistent scores of 79
suggest the assessment team members recognised that the Alaska pollock fishery's
international reputation as a responsibly managed fishery was deserved, but that
the team attempted to placate NGO stakeholders by imposing conditions on the
fishery.
The MSC has been criticised by both client fisheries, including APA, and NGO
stakeholders for inconsistent fishery assessments. The MSC has responded with
several initiatives intended to address such criticism, and those efforts are dis-
cussed in the final section of this chapter. As the Alaska pollock client, APA under-
stood that active US NGO stakeholder participation would likely result in a more
thorough examination of the fishery than previous MSC applicant fisheries might
have experienced. Indeed, we recognised that raising the bar in the quality of the
Alaska pollock assessment established a precedent beneficial to strengthening the
MSC programme overall and, from a parochial standpoint, could further enhance
customer and consumer confidence in the sustainability of the Alaska pollock re-
source. However, there is a significant difference between some fishery assessments
because of an inconsistent application of the MSC standard (see Chapter 10). In
APA's view, Alaska pollock was held to a sustainability standard that was higher
than had been applied to other applicant fisheries up to that time. Few fisheries in
the world can match the Alaska pollock fishery when it comes to, among other
characteristics, extensive fisheries survey research, sophisticated stock assessment
modelling, comprehensive monitoring and enforcement of fishing activities, use
of a precautionary approach to management, adoption of marine-protected areas
to minimise fishing impacts on the environment, incorporation of ecosystem con-
siderations into management decisions and an open and transparent management
system. APA's experience led us to conclude that the Alaska pollock fishery was
not assessed against a fixed standard but against a standard that fluctuated depend-
ing upon the expectations of the NGO stakeholder groups and the extent of their
influence within the assessment process.
The Alaska pollock assessment team's report, including the proposed condi-
tions, had immediate, adverse ramifications for the MSC. On 22 September 2004,
Dr William Hogarth, the Assistant Administrator for Fisheries of the National
Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), the US federal fisheries science and manage-
ment agency, wrote to the MSC:
This letter is to inform the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) that I am directing the
Science and Research Directors and Regional Administrators of the National Marine
Fisheries Service (NMFS) to no longer participate in private certification processes
of evaluating fisheries against their standards of sustainability, such as performed by
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