Surely you’ve heard of the Marine Stewardship Council.

The London-based organization formed with considerable fanfare about a decade ago to evaluate the world’s commercial fisheries and certify the best of them as sustainable and well-managed.

The idea is to encourage responsible fishing, to build consumer confidence and, of course, to boost sales of goods qualified to display the MSC label.

Alaska’s fishing industry jumped on the MSC bandwagon in a big way with the salmon, pollock, halibut, sablefish and Pacific cod fisheries winning certification.

But over the past year or so, questions have arisen as to whether the MSC effort is itself sustainable. Some fishing players, even those who have achieved certification, have complained that the MSC process is too long, too tedious, too expensive.

When Alaska’s diverse salmon fishery came up for recertification in 2005, state officials and salmon producers were alarmed when the MSC wanted to judge the fishery in 16 units, rather than as a whole. That raised the possibility that some parts of the salmon fishery would keep certification but not others – a potential source of confusion for consumers.

Recertification for salmon remains up in the air.

The flap with salmon spawned more trouble for the MSC from Alaska pollock producers, who prosecute one of the world’s largest and most valuable fisheries.

With that as background, The Highliner offers this confidential letter from October in which the MSC’s chief executive, Rupert Howes, pleads with the Alaska pollock and salmon producers not to carry out threats to pull out of the MSC.

Otherwise, he wrote, the entire MSC program could tragically end.

One wonders where things stand now.