OPINION: Data-driven fisheries management for future generations

As commissioner of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, I am proud to work every day with people who make Alaska’s fisheries a global model of sustainability and fisheries management. It takes all of us — from the deckhands on commercial fishing boats, to my staff here at the department, to Alaska families reporting their subsistence numbers — to uphold the data-driven, science-based management practices that set Alaska’s fisheries apart.

We prioritize scientific research and data collection, ensuring that the department has the information necessary to make smart management decisions. To this end, Fish and Game deliberately invests in regular surveys, various assessments, and monitoring of fish stocks, allowing the department to set fishing quotas that balance the long-term health of fish populations with economic and cultural priorities benefiting all Alaskans.

Recently we have been witnessing unprecedented change in our oceans. Managers, fishermen, and scientists alike have many questions about the future. Fish and Game’s focus on science-based fisheries management works to ensure the long-term survival of our fish stocks and realization of community and economic benefits thanks to healthy and robust fish populations in most of the state. This involves the enforcement of limited entry and fishing quotas to prevent overfishing while incentivizing conservation and stewardship among fishermen. Additionally, this sometimes means reduction of bag limits and other appropriate seasonal and area limits to fisheries are needed to protect spawning or otherwise vulnerable stocks. In short, sustainability is enshrined in our state constitution.

For generations, consumers the world over have known that buying Alaska seafood means supporting healthy marine ecosystems and fisheries that support thriving coastal communities. However, other international fisheries management systems do not always share the State of Alaska’s commitment to sustainability. To protect the integrity of the claim of sustainability across the global industry, it is up to organizations such as the Marine Stewardship Council, or MSC, an organization that evaluates and sets standards for sustainable fishing around the world, to act with integrity and uphold its own standard, even when doing so means missing out on profits.

Unfortunately, the MSC has failed at this duty in recent years, as it has observed Russian actions in Ukraine, assessed the implications for its Russian client fisheries, and chosen a path of accommodation and appeasement. It is why I wrote them a letter detailing our concerns with their continued certification of Russian fisheries. In the letter, I pointed out that the MSC has preserved its own revenue stream from Russian fisheries while providing indirect support for the Putin regime and his brutal war of aggression all the while applying strict standards to Alaska’s fisheries with the hope that they will eventually establish equity. This creates an unlevel playing field, and more importantly, gravely misleads consumers and markets who believe that the seafood they are buying is certified to the highest environmental and ethical standards. In essence, their certification of Russian seafood denigrates the certification they give to Alaska fisheries. Nonetheless, the State of Alaska remains committed to the highest levels of sustainability and will continue to value science and process when making management decisions.

The actions of the MSC continue to prove why Alaska’s homegrown, third-party Responsible Fisheries Management, or RFM, certification program is a better value for the seafood industry. Unlike MSC, RFM prioritizes sustainable fisheries management over corporate profits by applying consistent certification standards to all fisheries. Not a single Russian fishery is RFM certified, and it should remain that way as long as those fisheries are tied to the Putin regime.

Here in Alaska, our commitment to management and sustainable practices isn’t driven solely by market benefits or cold profits. Our motivation stems from respect for the resource, respect for harvesters and consumers, and respect for all Alaskan communities depending on the longevity and health of fish stocks today and well into the future.

Doug Vincent-Lang is the commissioner of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.

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