SEAFOODNEWS.COM [SeafoodNews] July 22, 2015 — Oceana has started a campaign to get US officials to clear up seafood nomenclature issues and mandate “one name for one fish” for use on products labels, menus and other packaging.

Currently the FDA only requires the acceptable market name to be used for consumer-facing seafood labels, which Oceana says can cause confusion among consumers about the source and type of seafood they are buying and eating.

“Throughout the supply chain, seafood is often transformed from whole fish to fillet, shrimp to cocktail and crab to cake. The current seafood naming system makes it almost impossible for consumers to make informed choices about what they eat. For example, it’s difficult for seafood buyers to know if their ‘grouper’ sandwich is made with a more responsibly-fished black grouper caught off Florida’s Gulf coast or if it’s actually a vulnerable giant grouper from the Indo-Pacific, or even a critically endangered Warsaw grouper,” said Beth Lowell, Oceana’s senior campaign director.

Seafood labeling has become a point of contention for some domestically managed US fisheries like Alaska-caught walleye pollock. In this case, the acceptable market name for walleye pollock products sold in the US is “Alaska pollock.” This is regardless if the fish is caught in Alaska or Russia. For the Alaskan fishery the issue lies in the large difference between the sustainability and management practices of the Alaskan pollock fishery versus the Russian counterpart.

“As I have previously stressed, this change in nomenclature is necessary to minimize consumer confusion and avoid ongoing misrepresentation of the origin of pollock that is purchased and consumed in the United States,” Sen. Murkowski said in the letter sent to the FDA in May. “This problem has been compounded by the large volume of Russian-harvested pollock, 113 million pounds in 2012, that is sold to U.S. consumers as ‘Alaska pollock.’”

Oceana’s goal would be to eliminate the use of acceptable market names in favor of the scientific name. For pollock this would require all “Alaska pollock” be deemed just “pollock.”

“Requiring the use of species-specific names – one name for one fish – from boat to plate will help deter seafood fraud and illegal fishing. One name for one fish will benefit American consumers as well as the U.S. seafood industry, which is being undercut by illegal and mislabeled products. It will also protect endangered and vulnerable species, decrease the chance of eating seafood with health advisories such as for mercury and allow consumers to source sustainably caught seafood,” Lowell said.

This story originally appeared on Seafood.com, a subscription site. It is reprinted with permission.