Following this week’s pledge to take action against Walmart regarding its seafood sourcing policy, Alaska Salmon Now has released findings from a new poll of US consumers.
The poll reveals support for Alaska, with 66% rating its quality very high, and 97% viewing it as more sustainable or as-sustainable as other seafood.
The poll was commissioned by Alaska Salmon Now, a collection of fishermen, consumers, and other representatives of the Alaska seafood industry that has advocated for Walmart to revise its policy to only purchase seafood certified by the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC).
Much of Alaska's salmon industry has voluntarily opted out of MSC's “costly and questionable” certification process, instead opting to show its commitment to sustainability by adopting the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization-based (UN FAO) Responsible Fisheries Management (RFM) programme.
The poll also found that 77% of US seafood consumers have no preference when MSC and RFM are offered as alternative certification options, but more than half (53%) of consumers believe only fisheries that are already fully sustainable should be certified, and do not agree with the MSCs ‘conditional certification’ for those fisheries on the path to sustainability.
Another finding from the poll showed that Alaskan-caught seafood is preferred to Russian-caught seafood (one of the most likely replacements for Alaska salmon in Walmart stores) by 87%.
The survey of 1,031 US seafood consumers was conducted by
