Our Sustainability Stance
All Vital Choice seafood is sustainably wild-harvested

We limit our offerings to fish and shellfish from fisheries that are either certified sustainable, or considered sustainable by experts such as the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch program.

• Many Vital Choice seafood products come from fisheries certified sustainable by the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) and/or the state of Alaska's Responsible Fisheries Management (RFM) program. (Click to view our RFM Certificate.) These include our Salmon (frozen and canned), Sablefish, Halibut, Cod, Albacore Tuna, Alaskan King Crab, Oregon Pink Shrimp, and Maine Lobster. 

• Select Vital Choice products – Canned Albacore Tuna, Wild Antarctic Krill Oil, and High-Potency Omega-3 Therapy Oil – bear chain of custody certification by MSC, as indicated by an MSC logo on their Vital Choice page and product label. Our Wild Alaskan Sockeye Salmon Oil is moving from MSC-certification to certification under Alaska's RFM program. 

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 fillets, smoked salmon, and canned 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 from their bodies feed the people, animals, soils, and plants surrounding these rivers. Their pristine habitat and Alaska's strict fisheries management practices have combined to preserve this precious natural resource.

Unfortunately, the rivers and streams vital to the lifecycles of wild salmon are under threat from a proposed gold mine that could easily contaminate the rivers leading into Bristol Bay, home to the largest wild salmon run in the world.

We urge you to view this video, which features Alaskan fishermen opposed to the Pebble Mine.

The top watchdogs agree:
Wild salmon is sustainable and safe

Leading environmental organizations agree that the vast majority of Alaska's wild salmon runs are thriving, fully sustainable sources of these fabulous fish:

Oceana
"The United States has some of the best-regulated wild fisheries in the world, especially in Alaska, where stocks of wild salmon, halibut and other fish are all generally well managed." – Oceana CEO Andy Sharpless, in his book, Perfect Protein (page 184).

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.

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!

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, and the short documentary "Call from a Coast".