PNA To Work On A Sustainable Tuna Catch By Purse Seinersff

By Atuna

The eight Island states in the Pacific Ocean joined under the Parties of Nauru Agreement (PNA) are working on the development of further catching and control methods that will become effective later this year to deliver a sustainable supply of FAD-free skipjack for the canning industry caught by purse seiners.

According to sources in the industry the initiative forms part of the general PNA-policy to ensure a sustainable catch of tuna for future years in the PNA waters and beyond. This represent one of the main tuna catching areas with around 25 percent of the worldwide supply.  In the last years the PNA countries have lead the Pacific with conservation and management measures in order to guarantee future tuna stock in their waters with measures on licensing and closing large areas for tuna fishing.

The PNA is known to be working on a MSC certification program for the catches of free swimming schools of skipjack tuna by purse seiners. Setting nets on free schools of skipjack results in the catch of larger size mature tunas, and a minimal by-catch of non-targeted species. Scientific data has shown that the method is much preferred over FAD fishing which results in higher levels of juvenile tuna and non target species.  PNA also have policies to ensure the safe release of  sharks and turtles which may be accidentally caught.  The possibility of a sustainable purse seine fishery opens new ways of delivering sufficient amounts to satisfy growing demand for sustainable canned tuna.

Last week after a fierce UK campaign by Greenpeace against tuna caught with the use of FADs by purse seiners, several retailers in the UK market announced that they would switch exclusively to pole and line fished tuna , a method that results in practically no by-catch at all. John West Foods stated that it will commit itself to sourcing 20 percent of its UK tuna products from pole-and-line catch by August this year. The UK Co-Operative Group said that it even wants to go for 100 per cent pole and line by the end 2013.

Also Tesco with almost a 30% market share in consumer sales says it will only source pole and line by 2012.

At this moment, pole and line fishing of tuna represents just a small part of the supply to the canned tuna processing  industry. “We are aware that there is a limited supply of pole and line caught tuna”, says a spokesman of the Co-operative. “But we will work with our suppliers to open up new and further develop current pole and line fisheries to ensure the required volume is available.”

However, many experts in the industry, even including organizations like Greenpeace, have serious doubts that pole and line fished tuna can become a sufficient alternative substitute for the current main supply of purse seine caught tuna. As a result Greenpeace stated that purse seine fishing can be applied as a second best alternative from a sustainable point of view. ‘Pole and line fishing - which itself must be conducted at sustainable levels - is an alternative way of catching tuna in a less destructive way, but so is purse seining without FAD’s, which can also reduce levels of by catch by up to 90 per cent’, Greenpeace stated in a released comment last week.