NEW TUNA FIP AIMS TO PASS MSC STANDARD BY 2025

New tuna FIP aims to pass MSC standard by 2025. Key Traceability – a UK based company specialising in auditing and advising seafood supply chains – has announced that the ‘Marpesca Purse Seine Tuna Fishery’ managed by the Panamanian seafood Marpesca has been listed as a comprehensive fishery improvement project (FIP) on Fishery Progress, recognising its efforts towards sustainable fishing.

The fishery targets bigeye (Thunnus obesus), skipjack (Katsuwonus pelamis) and yellowfin (T. albacares) tuna on the high seas in the Eastern Pacific Ocean (EPO) and occasionally in national Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs). There are a total of five purse seine vessels included in the FIP, which are flagged to Ecuador, Nicaragua and Panama, managed regionally by the IATTC.

The fishery aims to meet the following objectives:

• Sustainable Fish Stocks– To ensure tuna and other primary species catches across the Eastern Pacific Ocean do not exceed sustainable levels.
• Minimising Environmental Impacts– To promote the ecosystem-based approach to fisheries management.
• Effective Management– To strengthen governance systems in Flag States, the RFMO and the Eastern Pacific Purse Seine Tuna fishery.
• To meet a pass of the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) Standard by January 2025.

“The launch of the Marpesca Purse Seine Tuna FIP is an important component of our sustainability policy and demonstrates our commitment to ensuring the long-term sustainability of our fishing fleet,” said Jose Luis Siero, Operations Manager, Marpesca

The FIP’s primary focus is to improve FAD management within the fishery to ensure the fishery has no serious or irreversible harm on ETP species, the habitat or the ecosystem. These improvements to FAD management will help drive the fishery towards the MSC standard. The FIP will work with the IATTC, (which oversees the management of tuna regionally) to develop and implement robust and precautionary harvest strategies which are responsive to statuses of target stocks, including best practice harvest control rules to reduce exploitation rate. The FIP will also work with national authorities on improving compliance and enforcement in the region.

“This project must be used to make improvements across the three MSC principles to create a sustainable future for tuna in the EPO. This commitment by Marpesca to a FIP shows enterprise in response to the current pressures tuna fisheries are facing globally,” said Tom Evans, Science Manager and FIP Coordinator, Key Traceability.