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AT last a tuna fishery that has full environmental approval - the Marine Stewardship Council has certified the PNA western and central Pacific free school skipjack tuna fishery as being a sustainable and well managed stock.
The MSC said that since entering assessment midway through 2010, the PNA skipjack fishery has demonstrated - through a rigorous, transparent, independent assessment process conducted by Intertek Moody Marine against the MSC Standard, and with the active involvement of many stakeholders – that the skipjack tuna stocks it targets are healthy. Also its free school fishing practices have minimal impact on the marine eco-system and that overall the fishery’s free school operations are sustainably managed.
While fishery uses "purse seine" nets to catch the fish, it does not adopt "fish aggregation devices" which commonly attract many other marine species that are then caught accidentally.
The MSC said that In addition to ruling out the use of the fish aggregation devices, the management of the scheme caps the total number of fishing days allowed and requires all vessels to have observers onboard while they are fishing.
The PNA fishery operates across the waters of eight Pacific countries including Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and Tuvalu, with the catch sold to Europe and North America where it is commonly canned and used in sandwiches and salads.
MSC Pacific Fisheries Manager, Bill Holden, congratulated the fishery on the certification of its free school skipjack tuna fishery adding: “The PNA countries have a well-deserved reputation for the progressive management of their tuna resources for the benefit of their people. They should be congratulated for undertaking, and meeting, such a scientifically rigorous assessment of the fishery’s free school skipjack fishing practices.”
“With tuna being one of the world’s most highly sought after and widely consumed seafood products, there is a growing demand for tuna fisheries around the world to achieve and demonstrate sustainability, as the PNA skipjack fishery has done."
“Increasingly consumers, and the seafood supply chain itself, are seeking out tuna products that can be verified as coming from a sustainable source. By gaining MSC certification for its free school operations, the PNA skipjack tuna fishery has put itself in a good position to capitalise on this growing movement, and we expect demand for their certified tuna products to be high.”
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