The speech below was given by Mr. Maurice Brownjohn, Commercial Director of the PNA Office, at the official MSC certification ceremony for the PNA free school skipjack purse seine fishery, which was held yesterday in Fiji.
At the ceremony of the official MSC certification to the PNA
It is with great honor to receive today the MSC certificate of registration for the PNA MSC Free school skipjack purse seine fishery; but in attaining MSC certification, it is not just the result of 2 years work, but rather a tribute to the 30 years of PNA governance of tuna resources and thousands of years of the PNA peoples as guardians of their tuna resources in this vast ocean.
PNA are 8 island nations: Palau, FSM, RMI, Kiribati, Tuvalu, Nauru, Solomon Islands and PNG; 2 of these are the smallest island economies on earth. The fishery covering 14.3 million km 2.
For most, tuna is their only economic resource. Yet it is interesting that several foreign industry groups strongly opposed this certification to the end, evidently the PNA initiatives are seen as a threat to their commercial interests in our resources and the maintenance of their fishing practices.
The introduction of FADs commercially a few decades ago to the region, whilst increasing production of the fishery, and allowing smaller boats to fish, it has also been the trend with the larger ocean roaming fleets coming into the region.
Economically the typically smaller FAD fish, offers less than optimal returns due to typically smaller size and reduced processing recoveries. Also there is the incidental waste of non target species also aggregated.
Free school fishing, tends to be a more pure fishery, mature skipjack and yellowfin, and with minimal interactions with non target species. There is almost no mortality of species of concern and more typically being larger sexually mature fish, it assists stock sustainability, better prices, better processing recovery and economic returns.
More importantly free school caught skipjack serves the growing market demand for FAD free tuna products as an alternative option to pole and line caught, which in itself has environmental issues from bait fisheries impacts.
PNA MSC free school skipjack certification offers not just acknowledgement of the PNA governance and conservation and management measures, but the chain of custody also under independent certification it will offer 100% segregation of catch, rigid chain of custody from the setting of the net through to the consumer, backed by 100% physical separation, 100 % observer coverage and near real time data management. No other tuna certification scheme or endorsement can offer even a fraction of the confidence that PNA MSC free school skipjack, is just that! - “free schoolâ€; (no fad, no whale, no turtle or dolphin interaction, no wasted catch, no mixing with non eligible fish).
Already there are premiums paid for “free school†by the tuna industry. However with the MSC logo, through the PNA chain of custody and combined with the PNA co-brand “Pacificalâ€, PNA should see premiums back to the catchers, processors and the PNA people. Additionally global promotion of the PNA nations, PNA fisheries , PNA industry and PNA Peoples, as well as traceability from consumer back to the actual crew of the catching vessel, through serial numbers on every can.
Increasingly PNA is looking to see it’s peoples are actively participating in the fishery; from catching to processing, and with Pacifical and MSC, PNA enters the market place with associated brands promoting it as a co brand.
2012 is the year of the PNA. We launch this the 30th anniversary year with a world first, MSC certification for the free school purse seine skipjack tuna fishery.
But what is the scale of this certification? PNA waters annually produce about 1.0 million Mt of skipjack, this is about 70% of the WCPO catch, and about 50% of global catch. Although this sounds a lot, it is confirmed sustainable and near optimal economic harvests levels. This harvested from an area of water 40% larger than Europe.
In recent years the free school component of this catch has been about 440,000mt since the PNA FAD closures seasonally. It is hoped increased economic incentives [e.g. MSC premiums] to target free school, the potential is conservatively put at up to 500,000mt. However in the first years maybe a conservative 10 % is projected by PNA to be MSC traded as vessels join the scheme and crews trained.
To put the 500,000 Mt of eligible MSC skipjack a year, into perspective: if placed nose to tail would run from PNA waters to European markets at least 10 times. This would fill over 1.0 billion x 185g cans of tuna each year, enough to serve 4 billion meals. Bringing extremely healthy high protein sustainable produced food to every corner of the world, at an affordable price and with least environmental impact.
Unlike for beef, chicken or farmed fish, we are talking about purely wild catch, for which we need no farms, no antibiotics, no massive amounts of feed, energy or water to grow, and with no water or land pollution.
All PNA – as guardians for our people and the world - need to do is to continue to manage and catch Skipjack in a sustainable way – consistent with MSC principles - and then this highly productive and fast growing skipjack resource will be able to continue to provide us with healthy food and opportunity for our children and their children!
