Salmon labeling act signed into law

After failed attempts by the state and its fishing industry to get wild Alaska salmon products recognized as organic by the federal Organic Standards Board, Alaskans have passed a law that allows Alaskans to create a wild fish label of their own.

A bill introduced by state Sen. Jerry Ward, R-Kenai, was the third bill signed into law by Gov. Tony Knowles this session. The law will allow salmon and halibut products sold in Alaska to be labeled as "wild," as well as "antibiotic, hormone and dye free," provided the fish is harvested from an ocean or river and has not been raised in captivity. It is illegal to farm salmon in Alaska waters.

The bill was signed into law Wednesday, April 3, and Ward said last Friday that industry leaders from groups such as the United Fishermen of Alaska and the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute (ASMI) have already started discussing a labeling program in anticipation of the new law.

"What this bill does is it allows [the industry] to pay for their own label so that those people buying fish in Costco understand clearly which fish is fed antibiotics and treated with dyes," Ward said. "I know of a lot of people who are offended because they have not been told."

Ward said some consumers who routinely avoid additives in other foods were disappointed to learn that farmed fish are often fed antibiotics to prevent disease from spreading in their pens and, in the case of salmon, dyed so that it looks more appealing on the shelf.

"The fish farmers are almost all using hormones to get bigger fish and artificial chemicals to hide the dull coloring of farm-raised fish," said Ward. "I think the people of Alaska have a right to know whether their fish is wild or chemically enhanced."

The law will work in conjunction with existing state truth-in-labeling laws and make it illegal for a fish harvested from a net pen to carry the label. The state can't provide the same protection Outside, but Ward said the label will help seafood sellers everywhere market Alaska salmon.

Figures from ASMI claim 173 million salmon were caught by commercial fishermen in Alaska last year. Figures from the Commercial Fisheries Division of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game show 168 commercial-fishing permit holders reside in the Mat-Su census area.

Wasilla resident Dennis Anderson keeps a boat in the port of Kenai and targets red salmon on the lower Cook Inlet each summer. Anderson was disappointed last year when the decision by the federal Organic Standards Board made headlines. The new label could be helpful, Anderson said, especially if the industry can get more consumers Outside to believe the wild product is better and choose wild salmon before farmed salmon.

"Right now, I don't think [consumers] care," Anderson said, "Or if they do care, do they know the difference?"

Anderson also works as an airline pilot and said that Alaskans and West Coast residents generally have access to Alaska salmon, but the farther East he travels the less likely he is to see Alaska salmon in grocer displays.

"I get back east of the Rockies, I don't even get to see a red salmon on the shelf," Anderson said.

Wasilla resident Jonathan Parker concurred. Parker is a former Southeast Alaska troller operator who called the labeling effort "just one hurdle around the track" for the industry.

Farmed-fish processors have spent two decades perfecting packaging, distribution and marketing while the Alaska industry stayed focused on canning and freezing to ship to secondary processors, according to Parker, and the Alaska fishing industry still has catching up to do and questions to answer.

"How you going to get that fish to market and how are you going to compete with that beautiful-looking salmon?" Parker said. "People down South don't read the label -- they're looking at the fish."

Ward said he believed the label would raise awareness everywhere Alaska salmon is sold, and acknowledged industry's other hurdles.

"I don't know how to do this, but we have to get it from boat to throat in 72 hours and have number-one fish with no scrapes and no blemishes and people will pay for it and pay a premium for it," Ward said.