Supermarket Perimeter - January 2019 - 58

Seafood: Sustainable gains

We originally believed that simply building on a B2B
model would be sufficient. It certainly worked in Europe. But
in the last three or four years, we realized that to really move
the dial (in North America), we needed to do B2C as well."
Brian Perkins, Marine Stewardship Council

The Alaskan model

The Marine Stewardship
Council's seal of approval
is showing up on more and
more retail seafood packs.

Alaska's robust and transparent ﬁsheries management
process results in sustainable seafood and is a model for
the world, says Susan Marks, sustainability/certiﬁcation
advisor for the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute (ASMI).
"Alaska boasts having one of the world's few governments that is truly dedicated to sustainability," Marks
says. "It's a commitment that dates all the way back to
Alaska becoming a state in 1959, when Alaskans wrote
sustainability into their Constitution-calling for all ﬁsheries to be sustainably managed."
That, she says, will guarantee that Alaska will provide wild caught and sustainable seafood for generations
to come.
Alaska has a variety of comprehensive management
methods in place, Marks says. Without exception, every
aspect of its ﬁsheries is strictly regulated, closely monitored and rigidly enforced.

Whole Foods
empowers shoppers
to make sustainable
seafood choices
with a color-coded
rating system.

58 - JANUARY 2019

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Alaska's ﬁsheries management practices beneﬁt
from close collaboration among the state, federal, and
international organizations charged with protecting
ﬁsheries. This, Marks says, is bolstered by strict laws and
enforcement policies and procedures that ensure public
participation and transparency.
ASMI is the standard owner of Alaska Responsible
Fisheries Management (RFM), a third-party certiﬁcation
program for wild-capture ﬁsheries. RFM is a voluntary
and internationally accredited assessment of whether
a ﬁshery meets strict criteria to be certiﬁed as meeting
"responsible ﬁsheries management."
Like other wild-capture seafood certiﬁcation programs, Marks says, RFM provides credible standards for
both sustainable or responsible ﬁshing and for supply
chain traceability.

Retailers get on board
Retailers are responding to the increase in sustainable
sourcing. MSC's ﬁrst retail partner was Whole Foods
Market, whose fresh ﬁ sh products have featured the
MSC seal for two decades. In the past three to ﬁve
years, the number of retailers selling product bearing
the blue oval has increased signiﬁ cantly, Perkins says.
Kroger, Target, Walmart, Sam's Club, Safeway and
Albertsons are among the group's current industry
partners, and more are expected to join.
ASMI also reports an uptick in the number of
retailers calling attention to their sustainable seafood
offerings, Marks says.
They do this in a variety of ways, she says, including
labeling the source of origin for seafood, using Monterey
Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch recommendations, educating consumers via certiﬁcation, ecolabels and retailer
proprietary standards.
"The importance of sustainability of seafood as a
category has increased," she says.
Some retailers will start with a commitment to
source 25 percent to 50 percent of their seafood sustainably, Perkins says. Over the course of their partnership with MSC, they typically commit to increasing that
percentage, Perkins says.

MARINE STEWARDSHIP COUNCIL

MSC is optimistic that the gains that have already
been made in North America will continue. Consumers
are deﬁnitely on board. A recent study cited by Perkins
found that 64 percent of seafood consumers are concerned about sustainable sourcing.

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Supermarket Perimeter - January 2019

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