Do you rely on labels such as the blue checkmark of the Marine Stewardship Council or other certification stamps to guide your purchase of sustainable salmon? Most people do, but few consumers know that when it comes to salmon, these certifiers generally fail to consider ecosystem science.
Even Marine Stewardship Council permits industrial-model fisheries with open-ocean, mixed-stock salmon harvests that are a major cause of both the coast-wide loss of wild salmon populations and the failure of many populations to rebuild or recover over time.
Researchers from Wild Fish Conservancy, Raincoast Conservation Foundation and the University of Montana are proposing an alternative framework for certifying commercially caught wild salmon. The alternative is explained in a paper recently published in the science journal FACETS titled: “Criteria for a good catch: A conceptual framework to guide sourcing of sustainable salmon fisheries.”
Chris Genovali – Times Colonist – April 15, 2018.
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