All Vital Choice seafood is sustainably wild-harvested
- All Vital Choice wild salmon products — frozen and canned — come from wild Alaskan and British Columbia fisheries that are certified sustainable by the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC). Select Vital Choice products also enjoy specific chain of custody certification by MSC, which allows us to place the MSC logo on those products' packages and website pages.
- MSC also certifies as sustainable the fisheries that provide our wild Alaskan Sablefish, Alaskan Halibut, Alaskan Cod, and troll-caught Pacific Albacore Tuna.
Vital Choice seafood
ranks high on a leading sustainability scorecard
The Monterey Bay Aquarium rates the sustainability of wild and farmed seafood from various locales.
You can look up our offerings on their Seafood Watch page. The results of should prove reassuring!
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The State of Alaska certifies the sustainability of the fisheries that provide our wild Alaskan Salmon, Alaskan Sablefish, Alaskan Halibut, Alaskan Cod, Weathervane Scallops, Red King Crab, and Spot Prawns.
We will continue to limit our offerings to fish and shellfish from fisheries that are either certified sustainable, or considered clearly sustainable by experts in the field.
Wild Alaskan Salmon: A model of sustainability
The wild Alaskan salmon runs and and nearby British Columbian salmon runs that supply all of our flash-frozen Salmon filletsand smoked Salmon– and canned Wild Red™ Sockeye Salmon – are among the healthiest on earth.
Every year, tens of millions of Alaskan Salmon return to spawn in their natal rivers. And when their journeys end, the nutrients they provide feed the people, animals, soils, and plants surrounding each of these hundreds of migratory rivers. (Some call this delicate web of life “Salmon nation”.)
Their pristine habitat and strict fisheries management practices have combined to preserve this precious natural resource.
The top watchdogs agree: Wild salmon is sustainable and safe
In addition to the MSC, leading environmental organizations agree that the wild Alaskan
Salmon fishery is thriving and fully sustainable:
Farmed Salmon: Aquaculture gone wrong
Aquaculture is increasingly needed to help provide the world's people with healthy protein and fats.
Fish and shellfish farming can be done sustainably without risk to the environment and wild fish. And it is being done responsibly, especially with regard to US-based shellfish and fresh water fish farms.
But to date, the mostly Norwegian-owned farmed salmon industry has often devastated wild salmon stocks and eco-systems critical to the ocean food web ... harm verified by Norwegian government scientists, among others.
Even the former CEO of the world's largest salmon farming firm calls for removing farms from salmon migration routes, to prevent transfer of disease.
We recommend a video report concerning risks to wild salmon in British Columbia posed by salmon farms. For more information, see that video and others at CallingfromtheCoast.com. |
World Wildlife Fund
“The world's seas have sustained and nurtured humanity for millennia ... But today we are plundering the blue planet in a manner one observer has likened to the last buffalo hunt. The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) was founded in 1997 to promote responsible fishing practices worldwide. Alaska’s Salmon fishery was the first in the U.S. to meet the MSC’s environmental standard.”
Blue Ocean Institute
“Alaska Salmon are abundant, management is good, and their habitat is fairly healthy. In contrast, most Pacific Northwest salmon have problems with serious depletion and degraded habitat from dams and logging.”
Monterey Bay Aquarium
“We believe wild Salmon from a well-regulated fishery is the most environmentally sound choice. Alaska's wild salmon fishery is healthy and well-regulated”.
ENature
"You might be surprised to learn that it's more ecologically sound to eat certain stocks of wild Salmon than it is to eat the ubiquitous farmed variety. Salmon farming is doing more to threaten our native salmon populations than well-regulated harvests from the wild."
Oceans Alive/Environmental Defense
"Salmon caught in Alaska (chinook/king, chum, coho, pink, sockeye) are among the better-managed fish stocks in the United States. Alaskan Salmon populations are mostly healthy, and fish are caught with gear that does little damage to the environment."
Wild salmon beats farmed for nutritional quality
Few consumers are aware of the nutritional inferiority of farmed salmon.
While farmed salmon has about as much omega-3 fat as wild salmon does, farmed salmon are also (unlike wild salmon) high in pro-inflammatory omega-6 fats, derived from the grains and vegetable oils they are fed.
This matters both because omega-3 and omega-6 fats compete for absorption into our cells, and because the average American's diet is already extremely high in omega-6 fats, excess consumption of which has been linked to cancer risk and a range of health disorders.
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