A first-of-its-kind case study on the living conditions on board the Papua New Guinea (PNG) tuna fleet has revealed how third-party certifications can help benefit workers.
The study was performed by the Fishing Industry Association of Papua New Guinea (FIA PNG), which collaborated with the Australian National Centre for Ocean Resources and Security (ANCORS) and the University of Wollongong to analyze data on non-conformities found during its crew welfare certification process.
PNG’s tuna fishery achieved FISH Standard for Crew certification in 2023, after a lengthy auditing process starting in May 2022. FISH, which stands for Fairness, Integrity, Safety, and Health, is a third-party accreditation for labor practices on board wild-capture fishing vessels.
Through its certification process, FIA PNG identified non-conformities to the crew welfare standard, and those non-conformities were what FIA PNG invited an investigation of.
“This research aimed to provide insights into the third-party audit process for FISH standard certification of the FIA PNG tuna fishery, including the most commonly encountered compliance issues and the industry response to findings of non-compliance,” FIA PNG said in a release.
The paper investigated five main issues: Lack of policies and procedures, lack of communication between employer and crew, contract-related issues, different treatment of local crew, and concerns regarding health and safety.
Across the research, the white paper determined that, in the absence of formal governance requirements, third-party tools like FISH can help meet the goal of achieving social accountability in the fishing industry.
“We suggest that private certification can be a useful addition to the suite of tools that seek to achieve social accountability in the fishing industry,” the paper said.
FISH Standard CEO Mike Kraft told SeafoodSource papers like the one investigating FIA PNG are “especially valuable” to labor certification standards – especially as they are relatively new compared to similar labor tools that focus on land-based social issues...
