Over the last decade or so, more than 140 seafood certification schemes have been developed around the world. You are probably aware of the MSC (Marine Stewardship Council) program or the Monterey Bay Aquarium “Seafood Watch” program; they are but two of many. Almost all of the certification schemes establish their own standards, which may or may not align with other schemes. Many schemes have also changed over time based largely on the goals of their major donors rather than science-based management. Recognizing the problem, several years ago the World Bank asked the United Nations FAO to address the issue. It should be noted here that the UN/FAO already has a sustainable fisheries code of conduct and other underlying agreements that have been successfully negotiated by all 170 plus members. The UN FAO did not want to be in the business of establishing and enforcing a global benchmark, so the German government, several NGO’s, the seafood industry and other supply-chain stakeholders spent the last three years developing the benchmark. It was finalized late last year. Now, any certification scheme can submit its program for evaluation against the GSSI standard. The foundation of the GSSI standard is the UN FAO Code of Conduct and related agreements. (More here: www.ourgssi.org) The GSSI benchmark is based on a similar UN-based effort in the late 1990s to establish a Global Food Safety benchmark. Given the food industry’s experience with the food safety benchmark, we expect a fairly rapid rate of adoption for the seafood sustainability benchmark. It seems like the seafood industry has pivoted from “access to the resource” issues to “access to the market” concerns. Personally, I have worked on this issue for about three years now. I think it is going to have benefits that we have not even recognized yet; particularly in the developing world.

The Working Group on Seafood and Energy is a policy/advocacy coalition that includes Tribal, Seafood Industry and Environmental group representatives who all share a concern about climate change, ocean acidification and the changing marine ecosystem.

The only thing more complex than the ocean ecosystem are the regulations and market-forces that govern the way in which we interact with it. We have successfully represented our clients in these regulatory and market environments for more than twenty years. We specialize in commercial fishing and coastal community regulatory affairs, regional/national and international marine ecosystem policy-making, infrastructure development, business planning and management, economic analysis and strategic marketing.

The Pacific Northwest Crab Industry Advisory Committee (PNCIAC) is the officially sanctioned industry advisory committee to both the North Pacific Fishery Management Council and the Alaska Board of Fish. I have served as Chairman (2004-2012) and Co-Chairman (2012-Present) for more than eleven years; a period that covers the development and implementation of the Bering Sea crab "Catch Shares" program and the industry effort to reduce global IUU crab fishing.

The North Pacific Crab Association represents all of the major Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands crab processors and several Alaska Native Community Development Quota (CDQ) organizations that are also dependent upon the health of the Bering Sea crab resource.

Founder and Executive Producer of the SeaAlliance campaign; a social and traditional media campaign in support of coastal communities and sustainable fisheries.

The Bering Sea fisheries were largely developed by Seattle-based pioneers, but few benefits accrued to the Alaska Native communities along the Bering Sea coast. Congress created six Community Development Quota organizations to address this issue; I was President of the For Profit subsidiary of one of the six groups (The Central Bering Sea Fishermen's Association of St. Paul Island). During my tenure, we created the Halibut Cooperative, we acquired ownership interests in six major harvesting platforms and a major crab processor; and successfully developed the "community protection" provisions of the Bering Sea crab Catch Shares program.

As a result of the break-up of AT&T in the 1980’s GCI was founded as a competitive long-distance service provider for Alaska. I had a relationship with GCI Alaska prior to 1988, while I was Vice president of Alaska’s largest advertising/public relations firm where GCI was a client. I left the agency to join GCI Alaska during it’s critical regulatory battle to provide in-state long distance service between Alaska communities. At GCI I was responsible for strategic communications planning, advertising and public relations; and I participated in the development of GCI’s Five-Year Business Plan process.

Now Bradley Reid Communications, Inc