Thirty-three Marine Stewardship Council-certified tuna fisheries in the region managed by the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC) may lose certification if the WCPFC fails to adopt management procedures at its upcoming 19th Regular Session, scheduled to take place in Da Nang, Vietnam from 28 November to 3 December, 2022.
The WCPFC is a regional fishery management organization (RFMO) that manages highly migratory fish stocks in the Western and Central Pacific Ocean. At the upcoming meeting, the WCPFC is expected to consider a proposal to adopt a management procedure for skipjack tuna. WCPFC members previously made a commitment to adopting a management procedure in the future, but has not yet put one into practice.
“In addition to continuing to meet minimum requirements, all tuna fisheries in the WCPFC have timebound conditions to implement stronger harvest strategies with well-defined HCRs [harvest control rules] by June 2023 to remain certified to version two of the MSC fisheries standard,” MSC Chief Executive Rupert Howes said. “An agreement to adopt harvest strategies for skipjack at the upcoming meeting could close this condition for MSC-certified skipjack fisheries.”
Management procedures, also known as harvest strategies, are pre-agreed frameworks for making fisheries management decisions – such as setting limits on catch or fishing effort. This science-based approach helps ensure sustainability by regulating fisheries based on computer-tested models that estimate how many fish are in the water and how many can be caught without overfishing. However, it may do so at the cost of short-term economic pain for fishers, or political fallout for leaders who implement them.
The management procedure proposal met objections during the August meeting of the science management dialogue from the Parties to the Nauru Agreement (PNA), comprised of eight Pacific Island countries and territory of Tokelau, which collectively copntrol some of the world’s most-productive skipjack fishing grounds. The PNA is seeking to delay implementation of a skipjack harvest strategy for up to six years. The PNA group has said it supports the management procedure but sought the delay to give WCPFC member-states more time to become familiar with the management procedure before applying it. That position has been backed by the Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Agency (FFA), which is made up of 17 countries in the Pacific region and which recently submitted a formal proposal to delay implementation of the management procedure rule.
The PNA uses a “vessel-day scheme” under which fishing vessels pay based on the number of days they operate in the exclusive economic zones of its members. This is a total allowable effort system, rather than the total allowable catch system that would be used in the MP. That difference is a large reason the PNA has opposed any management changes– it may be difficult for the PNA to maintain stability in the number of vessel days sold without some modification to the outcomes of the management procedure.
However, the MSC has warned that to ensure ongoing certification, WCPFC delegates must reach agreement on two key conservation management measures – the Draft Conservation and Management Measure on a Management Procedure for WCPO Skipjack Tuna, and the Proposed Amendment to CMM 2014-06 on Establishing a Harvest Strategy for Key Fisheries and Stocks in the Western and Central Pacific Ocean. An agreement on the two measures would implement a harvest strategy for skipjack tuna, and demonstrate progress towards delivering harvest strategies for other tuna stocks within the region. The MSC said the outcomes of the meeting will be considered collectively by the conformity assessment bodies responsible for certifying of all 33 MSC-certified tuna fisheries in the region to determine whether they provide the evidence needed to support ongoing certification.
Although the WCPFC skipjack stock is currently healthy, Global Tuna Alliance Executive Director Tom Pickerell said the future of the stock is increasingly a factor and concern for market leaders.
“The market, including Global Tuna Alliance partners, has evolved; they are no longer just looking at the current status of stocks,” Pickerell said. “While obviously important, robust long-term management is increasingly seen as vital in long-term decision-making by businesses.”
Photo courtesy of Frans Delian/Shutterstock
