The scope of certification by the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) for salmon in the Vityaz-Avto-Delta salmon fishery in West Kamchatka, Russia, has been extended to include fish caught in the Pymta River so that two Russian fishing companies can benefit from the certification.

Fishing companies Kamber and Pymta will also share the costs of maintaining the certificate. Together, they harvested 37,531 metric tons of salmon in 2018, with 90 percent of the total harvest being pink salmon.

Current volume in the VA-Delta fishery without the area extension is at 95,046 metric tons.

Three species of salmon are caught in the fishery: pink, chum and coho.

The extension of the fishery was only assessed under one of the three principles of the MSC "as the remaining components of the fishery are unchanged." However, the fishery still did not missed the mark on several performance indicators and will need to meet certain conditions set by the MSC.

The MSC recently came under fire for its wild salmon certifications as environmental organizations alleged the standards were "very low."

The remarks came after the group holding the MSC certificates for the British Columbia sockeye, pink and chum salmon fisheries voluntarily dropping out of the eco-label program, blaming a lack of commitment to the fishery from Canadian fisheries managers.