Marine Stewardship Council

The At-sea Processors Association is the representative client group for the certification of both Gulf of Alaska (GoA) and Bering Sea Aleutian Islands (BSAI) pollock fishery under the Marine Stewardship Council’s sustainable fishery standard and ecolabel. Certification requires a rigorous third party review based on three guiding principles of:

1. sustainable fish stocks

2. minimizing environmental impact

3. effective management

The MSC fishery standard is recognized by the Global Sustainable Seafood Initiative (GSSI), which benchmarks certification programs against FAO guidelines. The BSAI and GoA pollock fisheries were first certified in 2005, with successful re-certifications occurring in both 2010, 2015, and 2020. The current third party Conformity Assessment Body (CAB) responsible for the pollock assessments is MRAG Americas.

The combined BSAI and GoA fisheries were re-certified under the MSC fishery standard v2.0 on December 17, 2020, the final certification report and other assessment documents can be found HERE. For further details on the MSC program and to view past certification documents and certificates for the BSAI pollock fishery HERE. And for the GoA pollock fishery HERE.