Assessing the Sustainability of Pacific Salmon
State of the Salmon supports rigorous and scientifically credible third-party assessments of commercial salmon fisheries. Since 2004, State of the Salmon has offered constructive suggestions on how to improve and advance application of the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) and other standards. Third-party assessments, if properly conducted, can improve public understanding of the status of salmon fisheries as well as encourage best management and sustainable fishing practices. State of the Salmon engages directly as a stakeholder in certifications, reviewing assessments and annual surveillance audits through the transparent public review process that is a foundation of the MSC standard. We also work directly with fisheries, providing technical assistance to identify and implement practical solutions to help fisheries meet internationally recognized best practice standards.
Certification Status of Pacific Salmon Fisheries
To find out the current status of salmon fishery assessments and see how we are helping identify ways to improve sustainability click here.
About MSC
The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) is the leading eco-label certifying the sustainability of wild capture commercial fisheries worldwide. To date, over 250 commercial fisheries are in the MSC certification process, including salmon fisheries in all of the major salmon producing regions of the Pacific: Alaska, Russia, British Columbia, US Pacific Northwest and Japan. Thousands of MSC-labeled products are sold in dozens of countries, representing annual retail sales of US $2.5 billion and growing. While consumer awareness of the MSC eco-label is increasing, many consumers and stakeholders remain unaware of the important management performance results of the MSC assessments that can be found within the certification documents. The Visual MSC tool helps stakeholders visualize the MSC assessment results for broad public understanding.