Murkowski Secures Official Name Change of Alaska Pollock
Change Will Protect Both Fisheries and Consumers
Today the U.S. Food and Drug Administration updated its list of acceptable market names for seafood as a direct result of Senator Murkowski’s successful efforts to include a provision in the year-end budget bill to allow only pollock caught in Alaskan waters to be marketed as “Alaska Pollock”. This change is effective immediately.
“I have long fought to resolve this issue, and I am thrilled that this change has been made to protect both our fisheries and consumers,” said Murkowski. “Alaska is the gold standard of fish management. It is disingenuous and harmful to our fishing industry for Russian-harvested pollock to be passed off as Alaskan. Now consumers can be confident that pollock labeled as ‘Alaskan’ is caught only in our state’s healthy, sustainable waters.”
Background: Senator Murkowski has continuously worked to change the market name of pollock, preventing any future low-quality Russian pollock to be falsely marketed as “Alaskan” in U.S. stores nationwide.
- September 2014: Murkowski joined the entire Alaska Congressional Delegation and a group of bipartisan lawmakers to write a letter to the FDA requesting the change of pollock nomenclature.
- May 2015: Senator Murkowski reasserted her push to change the market name of pollock, penning an additional letter to the FDA Commissioner.
- September 2015: Murkowski and Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA) introduced bipartisan legislation to change the name of “Alaska pollock” to “pollock”.
- November 2015: In a HELP Committee hearing, Senator Murkowski questioned the nominee to be FDA Commissioner on his agency’s plans to change the market name.
- December 2015: Senator Murkowski successfully included a provision in the year-end budget bill to fund the government, that allows only pollock caught in Alaskan waters and U.S. waters out to 200 nautical miles to be marketed as “Alaska Pollock”.
