Written by Natalia Freitas, for Atuna.com
The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) assessment of the PNA Western & Central Pacific skipjack tuna free school (unassociated/Non-FAD) and log set (non-artificial) purse seine fisheries is attracting a lot of attention due all the business opportunities that a green supply of tuna can provide. MSC is aware of the importance of the Pacific area for the industry and intends to expand the certification through its tuna fisheries.
The MSC project manager for the Pacific Fisheries, Mr. Bill Holden, talks about the current work being done at PNA assessment and impacts the certification could bring to the tuna industry.
Bill Holden
Atuna.com: How far along is the full assessment of PNA skipjack? How long do you believe the whole process may take?
The MSC assessment of the PNA Western and Central Pacific skipjack tuna has reached the stakeholder and site visit stage - which is really just the start. The certifying body (CB) has published an assessment timeline on the MSC website and I don't see any reason why the assessment should not run to this schedule. (Which is scheduled to end April 2011.)
What are the major setbacks for the certification so far?
The CB is in the process of gathering information and data on the fishery and I am unaware of any setbacks or issues to date. There is a great deal of stakeholder interest in this assessment from the fishing industry, governments and NGOs. So I suspect the assessment team will have volumes of useful information to analyze from their meetings with stakeholders.
What do you feel to be the industry’s expectations for the certification?
I am aware there is plenty of interest in the markets, from processors and retailers. They all want to know when and how they will be able to get skipjack from this fishery should the assessment recommend the fishery to be certified and I expect that interest to grow as the assessment progresses. Also other purse seine fisheries around the world are paying attention to the assessment as the outcome could have implications for their own fisheries.
Any future activities MSC Pacific would like to disclose?
Obviously with the interest from markets globally for MSC certified tuna products I have a lot of work planned, both short and long term. The Pacific Ocean produces approximately seventy percent of the world’s tuna supply. This provides plenty of opportunities for these fisheries to be recognized as sustainable through the MSC program and we hope that the support being shown to the PNA Group will encourage them to join the program.
