THE Annette Islands Reserve (AIR) salmon fishery, located in southeast Alaska in the U.S., has entered full assessment to be considered for Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certification.

It is the first indigenous peoples-managed fishery to seek MSC certification. If successful, this salmon fishery will join all other Alaska salmon fisheries in being eligible to use the MSC ecolabel, which indicates fish from a sustainable and well-managed fishery.

The AIR fishery is managed by the Metlakatla Indian Community Council in conjunction with the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA). It is the only tribally-managed fishery in the state of Alaska. Settled in 1887 by Trimshian peoples from what is now British Columbia, Canada, the Annette Island Reserve was established as a federal Indian reservation by U.S. presidential proclamation in 1891.

The Annette Island Reserve includes Annette, Ham, Walker, Lewis, Spire and Hemlock Islands south of Ketchikan, Alaska. The Council and BIA have management authority over the fisheries in the reserve, which runs from the shoreline out to 3,000 feet from shore. Beyond that, fishing is managed by the State of Alaska Department of Fish and Game.

The AIR fishery assessment will include five species: Pink Salmon (Oncorhynchus gorbuscha), Chum Salmon (Oncorhynchus keta), Coho Salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch), Sockeye Salmon (Oncorhynchus nerka) and King Salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha). AIR fishers currently employ 53 gillnet vessels, averaging 25 to 36 feet in length, and 12 seine vessels, averaging 52 to 58 feet. Together, they catch approximately 2,948 metric tons of salmon each year.

“We pride ourselves on being a 100 percent native-owned and operated fishery,” said Jeff Moran, fisheries manager for the Metlakatla Indian Community. “It’s important to us to preserve the fishing legacy we inherited from our ancestors and manage it in a way that sustains this and future generations. Assessment to the MSC standard provides us with a valuable fishery management tool, and also helps us demonstrate to our customers that we are maintaining fish stocks and healthy habitat.”

Brad Ack, Americas regional director for MSC, said, “We’re really pleased to welcome the first tribally-managed fishery into the MSC programme. The Metlakatla Indian Community has a long and rich fishing heritage and this fishery has been managed by them for over a century. It is the only part of the Alaskan salmon fishery not currently included in the MSC certification, and by entering full assessment, the Metlakatla are seeking to demonstrate that they meet the same rigorous standard for sustainability as the rest of the salmon fishery in the state.”

Approximately half of the salmon caught in the AIR fishery is processed in Metlakatla by Annette Island Packing Company, which was established in the early 1900s and is operated by the Metlakatla Indian Community. They produce primarily frozen fillet and headed and gutted salmon for European markets. The other half, mostly from the seine harvest, is sold to processors off the island.

Scientific Certification Systems (SCS) has been contracted by the fishery to conduct the independent, third-party assessment, which is expected to take 12 to 14 months to complete. SCS will convene a team of scientific experts to assess the fishery against the three core principles of the MSC’s standard for sustainable and well managed fisheries: the sustainability of the fish stock, its impact on the environment and the management system in place.