Vietnam’s Sea Delight, WWF team up

The World Wildlife Foundation and Vietnam-based fishing company Sea Delight have signed an agreement to implement better fishing practices involving two fisheries projects, longline tuna and handline-caught bottomfish.

The partnership will help improve the fishing practices of the fisheries that supply tuna, mahimahi, swordfish, escolar, snapper and grouper to Sea Delight for the U.S. and Canadian markets. It also aims to achieve Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certification for the fisheries.

The first initiative focuses on scaling-up the use of “circle hooks,” a type of fishing hook that significantly reduces bycatch of marine turtles and other bycatch, and in proving the information base and monitoring systems in tuna fisheries in terms of bycatch impacts.

The second aims at charting the fishing grounds of the high seas bottomfish handline fishery of South-Central Vietnam and to develop a catch documentation scheme for the fishery.

The ultimate goals for these initiatives are to have both national and regional fisheries authorities adopt the use of circle hooks for the longline tuna fleet as part of their fishery management plans, to develop a working fishery management plan for the bottomfish handline fishery and to bring both fisheries one step closer to entering into formal fishery improvement projects leading ultimately to MSC certification.

“According to a Vietnam hook manufacturer we recently spoke with, the fishermen in Binh Dinh province are getting very excited about circle hooks,” said Stephen Fisher, Sea Delight sustainability project coordinator. “It seems that the various efforts over the past few years to advance best practices in Vietnam are bearing fruit. We hope it may also be catalytic in bringing others to the table who are seriously interested in utilizing market forces to change the status quo of fisheries management in Vietnam.”

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