International Seafood Sustainability Foundation

This post was originally published on Atuna.com

By Susan Jackson

13 January 2012

The markets have been eager to learn more about the Parties to the Nauru Agreement (PNA) unassociated purse seine set skipjack fishery, especially now that it has secured Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certification.  Many groups have offered well-deserved support for the progress, and there has been positive press, but little attention has been paid to the details and the next steps.

The certification was made with conditions, which are benchmarks and accomplishments the fishery must achieve during the next five years in order to maintain certification. Like all MSC-certified fisheries, the PNA fishery must be managed with the help of harvest control rules – used by fishery managers to maintain sustainable catches and prevent the overfishing of a stock. These well-defined mandates include reference points that identify an acceptable level of fishing, as well as a population size that a stock should never fall below. The PNA must manage fishing in its waters by taking into account catches in waters outside of PNA control as well and if the fishery cannot do the work itself, the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC) must adopt these rules.

A practical detail that has been left out of the conversation is that as of today, the fishery’s chain-of-custody – a key component of product traceability – has not been certified.  Proper chain-of-custody supervision is critical in preventing illegal fishing as well as mislabeling; and MSC requires it.  Specific to the PNA, there needs to be credible monitoring to ensure that fishers and processors keep tuna caught in free swimming school sets in a specifically defined area of the ocean and by specific boats separate from tuna caught with other methods, areas and boats not included in the certification.  As most vessels make both types of sets in a fishing trip and the trip may cross into uncertified areas, this separation and monitoring must be maintained through all stages of fishing, unloading the vessel, and processing.

We’ve offered our support for the PNA as it attempts to meet the high expectations set as a result of the certification process and we’ll be the first to partner on science-based initiatives.  With MSC certification secured, the PNA unassociated purse seine skipjack fishery becomes the largest tuna fishery to ever have completed such an open and transparent assessment process. The result is one pathway toward sustainability.

In 2010 fishers caught more than 1.6 million tons of skipjack tuna in the western and central Pacific Ocean, and 2.4 million tons around the globe. The PNA MSC certified fishery aims to catch just under 275,000 tons of it, according to the assessment report and WWF. We can’t afford to forget about the work that still needs to be done. The sustainability of PNA’s fishery depends upon it.