From the outside looking in, I would suggest the adjudication process wasn’t necessarily a political move. I would hazard to guess that the NGO groups involved in the attempt to disrupt and deny Alaska’s MSC certification failed in their efforts probably due to their rhetoric being longer than their data.
I was peripherally involved with the MSC process back in my former life (pollock) and at the time, I was struck by how formal and data-driven the MSC process is for any particular species under audit.
Is there any genetic stock-specific data to support these interceptions? Not that I’ve read about. Those S.E. Seine fisheries occur in areas that are milling grounds for fish from many different areas. We know that. But your average Alaskan seiner is already under significant economic duress (crash of the pink return last year etc) so without firm marching orders from a revised treaty, they’re not going to voluntarily withdraw
And in the words of an acquaintance with many years of experience in the salmonid trenches who has watched this kabuki play unfold, in his view, the downward economic spiral associated with the Alaskan fisheries in general probably offers more potential for saving some fish than all the science and its application ever will.
Another comment he made that seriously weakens the BC fish interception argument is with reference to a year like this one where the Skeena sockeye (and steelhead) returns were relatively good. He pointed out that the BC domestic fisheries hardly put a dent in the Skeena (and Nass) sockeye population in Canadian waters. That does not jibe with the NGO claims that BC’s domestic fisheries have been almost wiped out by the S.E. Seine fleet.
And these NGO groups are noticeably quiet about what is essentially a completely unregulated in-river First Nations fishery that has claimed for decades that they have essentially zero steelhead by-catch in their drift nets. DFO enters those zeros in their log books without blinking an eye. It’s BC’s dirty little secret….so much easier to point fingers at those big bad Alaskans.
Excuse my cynicism but the Raincoast Conservation Foundation and Watershed Watch Salmon Society guys seems to leave anything associated with those unregulated FN fisheries out of their narrative and prefer to point fingers up north. Why?
The answer probably rhymes with that real estate mantra that has always been associated with good value…..Donation. Donation.Donation.
