SEAFOODNEWS.COM by John Sackton June 8, 2015 — Twenty companies seeking access to the Marine Stewardship Council’s certification of the Alaska Salmon fishery, along with the existing Silver Bay client group that has denied access, will meet with a mediator today in Seattle.
The Mediation was sponsored by the MSC after the companies appealed to the MSC Board of Directors that the existing client group in Alaska, the Alaska Salmon Processors Association, had illegally under MSC rules denied additional companies access to the MSC certificate.
At present, twenty companies, including Alaska General Seafoods, Alaska Glacier Seafoods, Bering Pacific Seafoods, Big Creek Fisheries, Deep Sea Fisheries, Great Pacific Seafoods, Icicle Seafoods, Icy Straits, Kwikpak Fisheries, Leader Creek Fisheries, North Pacific Seafoods, Ocean Beauty, Pacific Seafood, Pavlov Fisheries, Peter Pan Seafoods, Snug Harbor Seafoods, Taku Fisheries, Triad Fisheries, Trident Seafoods, and Yukon Gold Fisheries, and possibly other eligible participants, seek access to the MSC certification awarded to the entire Alaska salmon fishery.
The applicant companies said in a statement that “A mediation between Alaska Seafood Processors Association (ASPA), the client group for the Alaska salmon MSC certificate, and the applicants seeking access to the certificate in time for 2015 harvests is scheduled for Monday, June 8. The mediation has been arranged at the request of MSC, and the purpose is to reach agreement on sharing of the costs incurred by ASPA and its predecessors in acquiring and maintaining the MSC certificate.”
The mediation proceedings are confidential.
This story originally appeared on Seafood.com, a subscription site. It is reprinted with permission.