Wednesday, July 1, 2026

Pollock wars

The state of Alaska is objecting to Marine Stewardship Council recertification of Russia's Western Bering Sea pollock fishery.

Here's a letter from Alaska Fish and Game Commissioner Doug Vincent-Lang to MSC Chief Executive Rupert Howes.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

pretty rich that DVL expressed concerns of the impact of Russian Trawl By Catch on Alaska origin salmon populations but also contends that the US pollock fleet has no impact on Alaska origin salmon populations, while fishing near Alaska river systems......

Anonymous said...

Issue is that MSC certificated Russian Pollock Fishery at bycatch levels three times the US Fleet and does not verify what they actually are.

Anonymous said...

They don't actually fish near the river systems. They fish on the shelf and catch kings that are feeding in the Bering Sea. If you look at king migration patterns and where bycatch occurs, there's more Yukon in the russian fishery than Alaskan. I know this is hard for some people to understand because they just hAtE tRaWl and can't see anything else. If you think taking 1% of a run has an impact, then I hope you don't fish for salmon. The Kusko subsistence fishery has a 30% harvest rate, for example, and harvested 47,000 kings last year.

https://cdnsciencepub.com/doi/abs/10.1139/cjfas-2012-0233