January 13, 2026 — The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) and the Groundfish Forum – a trade group representing trawl catcher-processors in Alaska – are pushing back against claims by a coalition of NGOs that the recent recertification of an Alaska flatfish fishery amounts to “greenwashing.”
A coalition of several NGOs, including SalmonState, the Bering Sea Fishermen’s Association, and Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association, claimed the recent recertification of the Bering Sea Aleutian Islands and Gulf of Alaska flatfish fishery lacked transparency and was undertaken with little input from stakeholders. Both MSC and Groundfish Forum said those claims are inaccurate, and misrepresent the process MSC and MRAG Americas, the third-party auditor that certifies fisheries to the MSC standard, went through.