Posted on 26 February
2010
Koror, Palau. Eight
Pacific nations yesterday announced they
would seek sustainable seafood certification
for up to 40 percent of their skipjack tuna
fishery, potentially bringing a significant
source of canned tuna into the range of
sustainable seafood choices available to
global consumers.
The announcement that
Marine Stewardship Council Certification
would be sought for the fishery exploiting
free swimming schools of skipjack came from
the first Presidential Summit of Parties
to the Nauru Agreement, a joint fisheries
agreement between Papua New Guinea, Solomon
Islands and the Federated States of Micronesia,
Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Palau, Nauru
and Tuvalu.
The size of the potentially
certifiable skipjack catch is about 330,000
tonnes. With much of the fishery overlapping
with the ecologically significant Coral
Triangle area, WWF expects to be significantly
involved with the assessment.
“This step by the ministers
of PNA countries to improve their skipjack
tuna fisheries and promote responsible fishing
through MSC is an important development
for the conservation and responsible management
of tuna stocks in the Coral Triangle region,”
said Dr. Jose Ingles, leader of WWF’s Coral
Triangle Tuna Initiative.
“WWF will press for
issues to be addressed throughout the assessment
process and by the Western Central Pacific
Fisheries Commission, the regional fisheries
management organization that manages fisheries
in the area.”
Certification is not
being sought for any fishing involving the
use of fish aggregating devices (FADs).
The MSC evaluation will
only assess skipjack tuna caught in purse
seine fisheries in unassociated sets, a
fishing technique with the lowest likelihood
of catching other overfished species such
as juvenile yellowfin and bigeye tunas.
This distinct section of the fishery catches
approximately 364,000 tons of skipjack tuna
per year in the Western and Central Pacific.
“If successful, this
certification also brings new hope for heavily
exploited juvenile yellowfin and bigeye
tuna in the Coral Triangle, which are mostly
caught in skipjack tuna fisheries and hopefully
encourage other fisheries, not only tuna,
to shift to unassociated sets or perhaps
find better solutions to address the juvenile
bycatch issue ” Ingles added.
The bycatch of juvenile
yellowfin and bigeye tuna has plagued the
Coral Triangle for decades, contributing
to the decline of tuna populations in this
resource-rich region and on which the food
security and livelihoods of millions depend.
Other important issues WWF will press for
include the need for rigorous traceability
ensuring the fish sold is traceable to the
particular fisheries.
“Certification of tuna
products reflects the growing demand for
responsibly-caught seafood by consumers
willing to pay a premium. This impels players
from the supply chain to step up their efforts
and get in on the act of responsible fishing,”
Ingles said. “WWF will ensure that sound
conservation and management principles are
taken into account at every step of this
third party auditing process.”
The Coral Triangle—sometimes
known as the nursery of the seas—is the
most diverse marine region on the planet,
matched in its importance to life on Earth
only by the Amazon rainforest and the Congo
basin.
Defined by marine areas
containing more than 500 species of reef-building
coral, it covers around 2.3 million square
miles of ocean across six countries in the
Indo-Pacific – Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua
New Guinea, Philippines, Solomon Islands,
and Timor-Leste. It is home to 3,000 species
of reef fish and commercially-valuable species
such as tuna, whales, dolphins, rays, sharks,
and 6 of the 7 known species of marine turtles.
The Coral Triangle also
directly sustains the lives of more than
120 million people and contains key spawning
and nursery grounds for tuna, while healthy
reef and coastal systems underpin a growing
tourism sector. WWF is working with other
NGOs, multilateral agencies and governments
around the world to support conservation
efforts in the Coral Triangle for the benefit
of all.
