A decision by the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) to recertify the Bering Sea/Aleutian Islands (BSAI) and Gulf of Alaska (GOA) flatfish fisheries as sustainable is being challenged by commercial, sport, and environmental entities.
"Calling a fishery sustainable when its bycatch and habitat impacts are bankrupting the future of our ocean and fishing communities undermines the credibility of the MSC label," said Linda Behnken, executive director of the Alaska Longline Fishermen's Association, in a statement issued by the group on Dec. 29. "Alaskans are calling for an end to bottom trawling. MSC needs to listen to the public and rethink its process."
Karen Gillis, executive director of the Bering Sea Fishermen's Association, contends that MSC's certification of the Amendment 80 fleet raises serious questions about how sustainability is defined. "At worst, it enables greenwashing by giving industrial trawling a pass while ecosystems and coastal communities pay the price.
"When industrial trawl fleets receive sustainability labels while small-scale fishermen and subsistence users bear the consequences, the system is failing the very people and ecosystems it claims to protect," she said.
The BSAI and GOA flatfish fisheries are a significant part of the state's multi-billion-dollar seafood industry, with the estimated value fluctuating annually
Objectors noted that the flatfish fishery includes Amendment 80 bottom trawlers, which fish under the Bering Sea Aleutian Island Fishery Management Plan, as well as other bottom trawlers in the Gulf of Alaska. The Amendment 80 fleet is a group of about 10 large, non-American Fisheries Act trawl catcher/processor vessels that fish in the BSAI, targeting specific groundfish species such as Atka mackerel, Pacific cod, rock sole, yellowfin sole, flathead sole, and Pacific Ocean Perch. They manage their catch through cooperatives and Limited Access Privilege Programs under Amendment 80, which was established in 2006.
MSC officials have defended their decision, saying on Jan. 7 that claims of greenwashing or that stakeholders were not involved in the certification process are inaccurate. "The MSC assessment process requires third-party assessors to publicly post annual audit schedules, re-assessment timelines, comment periods, and certification deadlines on fisheries.msc.org," said Laura McDearis, program director for MSC's United States offices. "Information on how to engage with an MSC fishery assessment and become a registered stakeholder is readily available on our website (How to engage with a Fishery Assessment)," McDearis said.
That link on the MSC website says that details can be found on MSC's
Track a Fishery website, a site that Jackie Marks, the entity's public relations manager, acknowledged "is not the most user-friendly website, even for me." Marks said the site is under review and there will be improvements on it in the near future.
Information provided on the MSC website invites anyone interested in
participating in an assessment to contact the third-party certification body, and that all relevant information will be considered. Input must be provided during the early stages of the assessment, known as the Announcement Comment Draft Report, to be considered a registered stakeholder. Parties critical of the completed recertification of the flatfish fishery said they were never advised that the flatfish fishery at these locations was even up for recertification.
Each fishery has a page on the MSC website including the client and the assessor, and it is up to those who want to provide comment to register their interest with the third-party assessor chosen by MSC, Marks said. For the flatfish fisheries, the assessor was MRAG Americas, whose USA headquarters are based in Florida. An Alaska representative of MRAG Americas declined to comment. MSC provided its responses primarily via email.
Chris Woodley, executive director of the Groundfish Forum, said on Jan. 9 that the MSC's final public report shows that three SalmonState representatives were at a meeting with the assessment team and an MSC representative on April 29, 2025.
Every major fishery in Alaska, including salmon, halibut, and black cod, is certified by MSC using the same process, with independent auditors assessing and scoring fisheries against the MSC standard, he said.
"The MSC assessment explicitly reviews halibut and crab bycatch in the Bering Sea flatfish fishery and concludes that bycatch is tightly constrained by enforceable limits, 200% observer coverage, and real-time catch data / management," he said.
" There is no suggestion in the MSC assessment or any stock assessment that flatfish trawl bycatch is impeding halibut or crab stock sustainability."
There were no objections to the recertification of the flatfish fishery because no one, particularly in Alaska, even knew this was happening, according to Jackie Arnaclar Boyer, ocean justice program coordinator for SalmonState. Boyer and others described the MSC certification process as extremely long, highly technical, with over the top complicated reports that are impossible for a layperson to fully understand. "The public participation window is short, and if you miss the window, you can't participate later in the process," she said.
Kevin Whitworth, director of the Kuskokwim River Intertribal Fish Commission, said that he found the sustainability certification not only wrong but endangering to Alaska Native subsistence harvesters, their food security and their way of life. "Hundred-plus-foot-bottom-trawlers in the Amendment 80 fleet are operating in the same waters off the Kuskokwim Bay as our subsistence hunters and fishers, who will travel over 10 miles offshore in small open skiffs to harvest food for their families," Whitworth said. He also contends that the Amendment 80 fleet is responsible for vast amounts of seafloor habitat destruction and bycatch, imperiling the integrity and biodiversity of the ecosystem which serves as community food stores for rural Alaskans. Issuing a sustainability certification for this fishery "brushes these threats to our region under the rug," he said.
The flatfish fishery has been MSC certified for more than 15 years and stakeholders have had, and still have, the opportunity to register at any point, McDearis said.
MSC maintains that its Peer Review College selects potential peer
reviewers who must go through a specific training process to qualify.
For the flatfish recertification process, MSC selected MRAG Americas, based in Florida. MRAG Americas did not respond to a request for comment.
