For the first time ever, a Russian fishery has received MSC certification as sustainable.
The Pacific pink and chum salmon fishery on the Kuril Island of Iturup is run jointly by the Russian government and Gidrostroy, a private stock company.
“Gidrostroy’s commitment to sustainable fisheries is a turning point for the fisheries sector and a sign that sustainability has arrived in Russia”, said Sergei Didenko from the Sakhalin Salmon Initiative Center.
The Marine Stewardship Certification program recognizes and rewards sustainable fishing and promotes the best environmental choices in seafood.
Like certain salmon fisheries in Alaska, the Iturup Island fishery has committed to implement a number of management changes as part of the MSC process, the World Wildlife Fund noted in a press release. Those changes include taking steps to minimize the potential impact of hatcheries on wild salmon populations— hatchery salmon can place wild salmon populations at risk in several ways including mixing of hatchery and wild stocks, ecosystem and genetic impacts, and disease transfer.