By Natalia Freitas     for atuna.com

In the Western Central Pacific region the Parties of the Nauru Agreement (PNA) have recently announced to be taking Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) full assessment to obtain possible certification of its FAD-free purse seiner skipjack fishery. This fishery covers an estimated 300.000 M/T of skipjack annually.

PNA Director Dr. Transform Aqorau said: The PNA exists to maximize the economic benefits to Pacific Islanders from sustainable management of our tuna. Seeking MSC certification is an important step towards this goal so that consumers of our tuna can recognize the value of our work here to control access to tuna resources for the benefits of our PNA members. We look forward to the MSC assessment.

Mr. Aqorau added about the economic benefits that the PNA expects to gain from the certification: We believe that consumers want to know that tuna they consume is from a fishery that is sustainably managed. This of course will make the fishery more valuable and sellable. We sincerely believe that consumers worldwide are increasingly demanding that fish products they consume do not damage the ecosystem and for this reason, we believe that going for certification would ensure that the tuna resources are managed properly and will assist us to receive the optimal long term economic benefits from those resources.

In a short interview with the PNA commercial director, Mr. Maurice Brownjohn, more details about the MSC assessment process and of future actions planned to follow the certification.

Atuna.com: The MSC press release said that only tuna fished on free schools would be entering the assessment, correct?

Mr. Brownjohn: Yes, this means only purse seiners fishing on non FAD associated schools of skipjack.  Skipjack is the primary target species for purse seine catches.

It seems quite a big project to undertake, considering all the countries involved. Who will be holding? the certification? Which boats will carry MSC certified fish?

The PNA Office will be the client for the assessment process.  When PNA starts the full assessment we will work with the certifier to identify the full client group and mechanisms of sharing the certificate.  This will be early in the assessment and will be made publically available on the MSC website.  Purse seine vessels that catch fish in accordance with the conditions of the fishery certification will be eligible to consider their catch as from a MSC certified fishery.

Any idea of how long it will take for the completion of the assessment?

The full assessment process should be completed in about one year from the start.  At that time if the full assessment of the fishery is positive, it will be recommended for certification as sustainable against the MSC Standard.

PNA skipjack is mostly canned, will the cans be carrying the MSC logo as well?

When this fishery achieves MSC certification all receivers and suppliers in the chain of custody will be required to obtain Chain of Custody certification to promote traded product from this fishery as MSC certified.  The retailers that achieve Chain of Custody certification for sustainable skipjack tuna from the PNA waters (if it is MSC certified) will be eligible to apply the MSC logo to these cans of tuna. The PNA will also be looking at its own branding options promoting the fishery.