A major dispute is unfolding around trawling in Alaska’s pollock fishery, which supplies fish used in products such as McDonald’s Filet-O-Fish and is processed into items like fish sticks and imitation crab. Multiple outlets report that the nets used to catch Alaska pollock can also capture other marine species, raising concerns among some stakeholders about bycatch.
The fishery is described as large and ecologically complex: Alaska pollock is characterized as one of the world’s biggest fisheries. The industry and companies tied to the supply chain say their practices are intended to reduce environmental impacts. However, critics focus on the fact that trawls that target pollock do not catch only pollock, but also species such as salmon and other marine life.
Coverage across outlets centers on the tension between the economic scale of the fishery and competing assessments of its environmental effects. While reporting agrees on the core issue—bycatch during pollock trawling—sources vary mainly in emphasis on the industry’s stated mitigation efforts versus the impacts critics highlight.
