When is Alaska pollock not really Alaska pollock?
When it is listed as such by the Food and Drug Administration, which governs what every seafood product will be called in U.S. commerce.
For pollock, one of the most widely eaten seafoods in the U.S., the FDA applies the "Alaska" moniker to all fish of that species on its market list, regardless of where it is caught.
"So if the fish is caught in Korea or Japan or Russia, it still can be sold as Alaska pollock in the United States. That's not the case with Alaska salmon or halibut or Alaska crab," said Pat Shanahan, program director for the trade group Genuine Alaska Pollock Producers. Alaska's Bering Sea/Aleutian Islands region extending to 200 miles offshore produces 3 billion pounds and is usually considered the largest food fishery in the United States..
"That's why we are called the Genuine Alaska Pollock Producers," she quipped. "It's not enough to say we're just the Alaska pollock producers, because we could be from Russia."
Pollock largest food fishery in U.S.
The Food and Drug Administration's Seafood List discourages the use of "geographic descriptors" in market names, but for more than 25 years that standard has not been applied to Alaska pollock. No one seems quite sure how that came to be, but it likely stemmed from the Bering Sea pollock fishery boom that began in the early 1980s with a flood of new fish tagged "Alaska" by federal bureaucrats.
Pollock from Alaska has become the nation's largest food fishery, accounting for 11 percent of Americans' fresh and frozen fish consumption. Recent surveys of U.S. consumers by the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute showed that the Alaska brand is the second most recognizable brand at the nation's top casual dining and fast food sectors. (Oreo is No. 1.)
A nationwide GAPP survey by the Genuine Alaska Pollock Producers showed the "vast majority said they would feel misled if their fish was labeled from Alaska and it wasn't," Shanahan said. "People want to know where their food is coming from. They want to support well-managed U.S. fisheries and have confidence in product safety and quality. Right now, they don't have that choice."
Golden or brown king crab?
Alaska and Russian fisheries are held to very different standards, said market expert John Sackton of Seafood.com. "The Alaska Bering Sea pollock fishery is recognized as one of the best managed and closely monitored fisheries in the world," Sackton said. "All kinds of bycatch, habitat and eco-system protections are in place. That is not the case for the Russian fishery."
Likewise for fish processing. Russian-caught pollock may see chemicals and water added to the final products, which may be frozen several times before going to market.
"It enters the U.S. market at a lower price, and the damage is done," Sackton said. "It turns consumers off to the genuine Alaskan article."
The GAPP group has been pushing the labeling change with the FDA for a year.
"Our request is to remove the name Alaska from the FDA market name. If they do that, only fish that is from Alaska would be able to be labeled Alaska pollock. It really is a no brainer," Shanahan said.
The FDA list of acceptable market names is updated continuously, including 19 changes over the past year, Sackton said. The fish issue picked up steam this month when a bipartisan bill introduced by U.S. senators from Alaska and Washington requested the pollock name change on federal seafood rosters.
Included in the bill is a request to change the name of Alaska "brown" king crab to "golden" on its seafood list.
"Golden is the legal name used by the managing agencies and the marketers, and the state and industry petitioned the FDA a year ago," said Linda Kozak, a consultant from Kodiak.
For Alaska pollock, the name change would provide clarity and consistency in the market. For king crab, it would substitute a more-appealing word.
"It's like the difference between labeling it dog salmon and 'Keta,'" Kozak added. "Which do you think a customer would prefer?" Kozak added.
Good news, bad news for crabbers
Catch numbers for Bering Sea crabbers reflect a mix of good and bad news. Crabbers were anticipating a cut in the catch quota for Bristol Bay red king crab, but at 10 million pounds, it's down just 6 percent.
An upswing of tanner crab catches has reached nearly 20 million pounds, an increase of 5 million pounds.
But the harvest quota for snow crab of 40.6 million pounds is a 40 percent drop from last season. Bering Sea crab fisheries open Oct. 15.
Crab shares clarification
New "active participant" rules for owning catch shares of Bering Sea crab apply to crew/skippers only and do not affect vessel shares, as I implied last week.
"In the past there were no restrictions as far as participation and future ownership. But a federal requirement went into place this year that says if you are not participating now and don't participate in the future, a revocation of crew quota could occur by July 1, 2019," said Jeff Osborn at Dock Street Brokers in Seattle.
That has prompted an uptick in listings of crew shares and pushed down prices by roughly 20 percent. Vessel shares represent 97 percent of the crab quota, Osborn said.
Laine Welch is a Kodiak-based commercial fishing columnist. Contact her at msfish@alaskan.com.