The Echebastar Indian Ocean purse-seine skipjack tuna fishery has formally achieved Marine Stewardship Certification after five years of trying.
Bermeo, Spain-based Pesqueras Echebastar first applied for MSC certification for its five purse-seiners landing tuna in the Seychelles in 2013, but its application was denied after non-governmental organizations, including WWF, objected.
The company reapplied in 2016 but was once again challenged by WWF. However, in October, an independent adjudicator dismissed most of WWF’s objections.
To be certified, Echebastar agreed to incorporate added measures to improve the sustainability of its practices, including 100 percent observer coverage and revised fish-aggregating device (FAD) design to minimize silky shark and turtle bycatch. In addition, Echebastar has committed to work with the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission and authorities from the Seychelles to guarantee the implementation of an additional eight conditions of certification over the next five years. The conditions are intended to lessen the fishery’s impact on endangered, threatened, and protected species, devise new strategies to reduce the impact of FADs on coral reefs, and collect improved scientific data on the impacts of the fishery on ecosystems.
“This certification is the culmination of many years of leadership and improvements by the fishery and the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission” MSC Science and Standards Director Michel Kaiser said. “It reflects the positive changes that have been made to improve stock management, reduce bycatch, and increase confidence in reporting. This has taken hard work to achieve. To maintain certification, the fishery has committed to achieve further challenging improvements which, if successful, will continue to safeguard ecosystems and habitats in the Indian Ocean.”
The Echebastar fleet uses free-school and drifting fish aggregating devices (FADs) in the Indian Ocean and catch around 15,000 tons of skipjack tuna per year. The Echebastar fishery is the first using drifting fish aggregating devices (dFADs) to be assessed against the revised MSC 2.0 standard.
Photo courtesy of Pesqueras Echebastar
