Unalaska, AK – The Marine Stewardship Council has certified Alaska's flatfish fisheries for complying with its environmental standard. Trawl-caught species like arrowtooth flounder, Alaska plaice, and sole will now be able to bear the council's blue eco-label. The label is meant to help consumers select sustainable products with low environmental impact.

Kerry Coughlin, the Marine Stewardship Council's Americas Regional Director, says that flatfish caught in the Bering Sea and Gulf of Alaska area now meet the council's requirements for sustainability.

"Our standard's basically three principles. That includes the health of the stock - that it has to be maintained or growing going forward. That there's no harm to the ecosystem. And that's there's ongoing good management of the fishery," says Coughlin.

But Jon Warrenchuk, a marine biologist with the conservation group Oceana, disagrees with the sustainability certification. He says that fisheries are being rewarded for merely cutting down on bad behavior.

"It's a good idea in concept to have some environmentally friendly or green labeling of seafood," says Warrenchuk. "But this particular label is somewhat misleading in that it can give certification to fisheries for simply being the best of the worst."

Warrenchuk says that the method for catching flatfish does lasting damage to ocean habitats. He also expresses concerns about bycatch in the trawl fisheries.

"We have to take a hard look: Is it really worth catching a hundred million pounds of flatfish if you're going to waste ten million pounds of halibut?" says Warrenchuk.

Coughlin maintains that effects on the bottom habitats have been minimized and that bycatch has been reduced.

"The certifier looked closely at that and determined that the trawl fishing did not have an effect on the marine ecosystem, including bottom habitats," says Coughlin.

The Best Use Cooperative, a coalition of fishing companies that requested the MSC certification, says that it has taken efforts to reduce both habitat destruction and bycatch. The cooperative's president Bill Orr, who is also vice president of the Seattle-based fishing company Iquique U.S., says that action by the North Pacific Fisheries Management Council made certification easier, but that gear has also improved in recent years.

"We've spent a lot of time on developing the fishing gear so that it is more selective by using devices that exclude halibut, for example," says Orr. "We've been able to dramatically reduce our halibut bycatch and mortality."

Orr says that MSC certification is becoming economically vital for fishing companies, and that the MSC eco-label is becoming an industry standard.

"One thing it does is promote the image of our fishery as sustainable and one that is eco-friendly," says Orr. "The MSC logo is becoming more and more demanded by our customers, particularly those in Europe."

In 2004, the MSC first certified the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands pollock fisheries and provoked many of the same complaints from conservation groups about the sustainability of trawling. Though pollock has maintained its MSC certification, it has become harder to find in the intervening years. Warrenchuk says that bycatch levels have also fluctuated since the MSC certified the pollock fishery.

"It peaked during the certification process, but has been on the decline since about 2008," says Warrenchuk. "But it was stamped and certified while the bycatch was out of control."

The Marine Stewardship Council will review the flatfish fishery certification annually and will repeat the certification process in five years.