Dansk Supermarked Frustrated Over Lack of MSC Skipjack

A leading retailer in Denmark is expressing its frustration with the lack of sustainably caught skipjack tuna from a fishery that was certified as sustainable nearly a year ago.

With an annual turnover of more than USD 11 billion, Dansk Supermarked is the latest buyer in Europe to publicly show its support for the Parties to the Nauru Agreement (PNA) sustainable tuna, which is cobranded as “Pacifical.” The retailer joins the movement first initiated by Anova Seafood, a Netherlands-based frozen and fresh fish distributor, and Spar Austria, a major supermarket chain in Austria, who in recent weeks have urged fishing companies and processors in the PNA region to start catching and producing their skipjack tuna sustainably.

Back in December 2011, the PNA free school purse seine skipjack fishery was certified against the globally recognized Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) standard, but so far no certified tuna product has reached the market. The problem is that boat owners and canneries located in the PNA are not cooperating and the fishery is still waiting for its Chain of Custody (COC) certification as a result. COC guarantees the MSC certified tuna is caught without fish-aggregation devices (FADs) and is kept separate from non-certified catch throughout the entire supply chain.

For Dansk, which hopes to offer only MSC-certified fish products in its stores, the lack of the Pacifical tuna supply is disappointing.

“I was hoping now that everything would be in place and that we could get started because I know that we can sell a lot of MSC tuna products. We will put them on our shelves when it’s available, but we just need to have a supply,” says Søren Lund Thomsen, Dansk’s category purchasing manager. “It’s disappointing that we’re still waiting for things to get ready.”

Pacifical tuna meets the retailer’s sustainability commitments 100%, says Thomsen, who adds it is especially valued for its MSC logo.

“What is important for us is that somebody neutral comes in and gives it the stamp of approval that it is sustainable. It’s easy for me as a buyer to say that what I’m buying is sustainable, but it’s better if somebody who is not involved comes in and says it, like MSC.”

Compared to other eco-labels, both Dansk and the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) believe the MSC standard is the most credible and sustainable level that fisheries can achieve. With a broad view on sustainability and regard for the entire ecosystem, the MSC logo ensures that the PNA’s certified skipjack tuna is sourced from a well-managed fishery and caught with very little by-catch of other marine life, including dolphins, sharks, turtles, mantas and juvenile tuna.

Thomsen says the MSC brand is growing slowly among consumers in Denmark, but it has the potential to become widely popular. “It won’t be well known until we have more MSC certified products on our shelves, so until that happens, the consumers won’t know that it’s out there.”

“The aim for Dansk is to have all our fish – canned or frozen or fresh – sustainable. And number one, when we talk about sustainability is MSC. We’re not there yet, but that is what we’re working on and MSC is the obvious solution for us,” says Thomsen.

PNA Ministers Make Important Commitments – Crucial To Pacifical’s…

We promised to let you know this month about outcomes of the PNA ministerial meeting in Alotau, PNG. We, at Pacifical, trust that we will soon see real results of all these important decisions taken in terms of the sustainable management of our tuna resources.

Several important commitments were made by the Ministers; for Pacifical, these 3 were the most important ones:

• Establishing a PNA Observer Agency – To better coordinate the 100% independent observer coverage aboard purse-seine fishing vessels in PNA waters and timely data processing.
• Adopting the MSC Implementation Plan, including fast-tracking an agreement on Precautionary Reference Points and Harvest Control Rules for the PNA free-school skipjack purse-seine fishery, as required to maintain MSC Certification.
• Approving work on developing a FAD registration and tracking scheme in collaboration, e-forms from live data and other ongoing innovations with the Pew Environment Group.

That is all the news we have for you this time. If you have any questions, ideas, suggestions or remarks never hesitate to contact us! You will also find plenty of more information on our www.pacifical.com website, you will especially appreciate the variety of videos we have on Sustainable Fishing, Social Responsibility and our Pacifical People!

PNA Is “Beyond Single Species Management” Say WWF, Greenpeace…

We are proud to be honored with the support of the three worlds’ most influential conservation organizations: Greenpeace, WWF and PEW. Recently they issued a joint statement in support of the PNA, this seldom happens, so we feel fortunate and are very thankful for it.

These 3 organizations found it necessary to publically express their open support to the PNA MSC certification after the negative statements about Pacifical and the PNA that made by the US based dolphin conservation group, Earth Island Institute. Emails and faxes with lots of false and fully inaccurate information to many people in the tuna industry were EII’s reaction after Pacifical refused to commit to the outdated one-species conservation standard of the dolphin group.

Here below are some parts of this joint statement:

“Pew, Greenpeace, and WWF wish to congratulate the Parties to the Nauru Agreement (PNA) for their increased commitments to the sustainable management of their tuna fisheries. PNA countries have taken steps that make them leaders in the implementation of the ecosystem approach to the management of tuna…

The PNA approach to fisheries management has gone beyond traditional single-species management, and more fully embraces the ecosystem approach….

Specifically, the PNA should be praised for further advancing international standards by committing to independent at-sea observers to verify catches of dolphins, sharks, whales, and turtles on purse seine vessels…”

Upcoming PNA Ministerial Meeting In PNG – EXTRA SPECIAL!

Next week an important PNA meeting takes place from the 29th of April till the 2nd of May in Alotau, Milne Bay Province, Papua New Guinea, where all the 8 PNA ministers of Fisheries will gather to review policies and managerial decisions, and look at the potential impacts of the outcome of the WCPFC meeting directly affecting the PNA nations and their goals in maintaining a sustainable fishery.

An attendance of about 100 members of the governments, fishing industry and environmental NGOs are expected.

This year the meeting will also combine the celebration of the First World Tuna Day and the 30th anniversary of the establishment of the PNA. On May 2nd the meeting will close with speeches on the meaning of World Tuna Day in each PNA country and they will also announce the award for the World Tuna Day Art and Talent Quest! It is encouraging that the PNA tuna industry has co-sponsored this event.

Next time we’ll let you know about the outcomes of this meeting.

The PNA / MSC Chain Of Custody, Innovating The…

We are getting closer and closer to the market introduction of the MSC skipjack tuna, caught and processed in the pristine waters of our PNA nations. I bet you must be curious to know when you can expect to see the first products on your store shelves? … Let us update you on that.

Before a MSC certified fishery can bring its product to the market, all stages of its supply chain need to be organized and set up to ensure that MSC fish is kept 100% separate, until it reaches the consumer, and the scheme is audited and certified against MSC standards. MSC calls this the group scheme Chain of Custody (COC).

Due to the massive surface that the PNA skipjack fisheries cover (40% bigger than Europe), and the fact that most purse seiners do not land directly to the canneries but are transhipped in PNA port to carrier vessels, to transport to the processor, this extension of the COC is a separate challenge. Setting up such a system has required major innovations in procedures on how tuna is being handled on board, transhipped and landed and how this system is managed and monitored. The PNA has taken up that challenge!

For our PNA free school skipjack fisheries, that means that we will show to an independent – third party – auditor that our supply chain or COC meets all the very stringent conditions of the MSC program: from the moment that the purse seiner leaves the port to go fishing, to the moment it has discharged the tuna at the coldstore.

Effectively, this requires that we make all the people involved in this operation -observers, captains crews and their company’s management- fully aware of what is exactly expected from them in their daily work, and held responsible.. Intensive training programs and extensive manuals, for each part of the supply chain, have been designed to assure that they are well informed, educated and tested. Throughout February, March and April, the PNA and Pacifical have joined efforts to instruct the PNA fishing and processing companies that have chosen to follow the rigorous MSC chain of custody standards and to fish MSC skipjack in PNA waters for Pacifical customers all over the world.

For the past few weeks, a total of 7 major fishing and processing companies have been internally audited and on the list there are still 5 more to go for the introductory phase. The strengths and weaknesses regarding MSC COC standards for each of these audited companies have been identified; they are currently making the necessary adjustments.

Now that the training sessions and internal audits are almost finished, trial trips are being prepared to assess onboard the performance of the catching procedure and separation of the skipjack in different wells. The first trial trip was already done last year, and now the final trials will follow this coming month, which with transhipping will last an average of 45 days.

As always, we will keep you posted!

Why do we put Observers on Board and not…

Educating and training onboard observers, who accurately monitor all procedures on the tuna purse seine vessel, is an essential component in managing tuna fisheries. PNA observers are employed by their governments, and are fully independent, switching between boats, and almost year round at sea. Managing and guiding these hundreds of observers, and collecting the massive amounts of data they collect on their trips, is of great importance.

People have asked why not apply modern technology and have onboard observers replaced by onboard cameras? That would be a lot easier? After all, there are closed circuit video systems in place in some countries that do monitor the fishing vessel.

Onboard observers have a great advantage over cameras; they can accurately see everything that happens on the ship, and can report this to the fishing authority during –as well as- right after the trip. They can estimate the quantity of the catch, the sizes of the fish, identify species, the fishing method and the level of by-catch, and many other factors.

Cameras can possibly take over part of this job, but are only effective when all the footage recorded during a trip is later reviewed also by an educated and specialized independent reviewer. This in itself can also be a very labor-intensive and costly process. If tapes from a dozen onboard cameras are not all completely reviewed right after discharge by an independent authority, most of the information could become less useful for management and scientific purposes.

This is why the PNA and Pacifical are investing a lot of time and effort in additional training and educating observers in the criteria that need to be met for fish to become MSC eligible.

Chain Of Custody – Why is it so important?

Chain of Custody (COC) basically means that there is a process or system in place assuring that, when skipjack tuna is caught, it is confirmed as really free school, all the criteria on the sustainable approved fishing method and area is met and that this tuna is kept totally separate from any unsustainable catch, from the moment it’s caught till it reaches the final consumer.

For the MSC certification, the PNA has designed a rigorous process which establishes a consistent method along the Pacifical skipjack tuna supply chain to verify and supervise that the skipjack caught and used by Pacifical is sourced from MSC certified FAD-free tuna vessels participating under the PNA MSC free school skipjack scheme.

“We expect to have our COC certified by MSC April 2012” says Mr. Maurice Brownjohn, commercial manager of the PNA Office. Before the PNA can also get its COC certified by MSC, it will need to execute a massive training operation throughout a region which is 40% bigger than the European Union, and involves a large amount of tuna purse seiner vessels.

First of all, independent PNA on-board observers have to be trained to fully understand and be able to verify the MSC criteria and COC rules. At the same time captains and the crews of fishing companies have to be trained in the precise procedures and criteria for sustainable fishing. Carrier companies –which transport the tuna from the purse seiner to the final unloading port– will also be trained; as well as the staff of the receiving cold storage.

We hope that by April 2012 we get green light from certifiers that not only is our skipjack stock healthy, and our methods are sustainable, but also the way we distribute from boat to shelf is 100% reliable and fully traceable.

YEAH! PNA Free School Skipjack Officially MSC Certified

What we had been hoping for has finally happened: our PNA free school skipjack fishery has been MSC certified!

We just received the official MSC announcement yesterday, January 9th 2012, and wanted to wait for this official statement before sharing it with you. In fact the approval was already sent by the independent adjudicator, Ms. Melanie Carter, on December 13th 2011 after a long journey of objections by the ISSF and other tuna industry groups.

We want to thank you for all the support you’ve shown throughout this long process in 2011. Knowing all along that Pacifical could count on your constant interest gave us enough confidence throughout the development of the MSC certification to continue working for our purpose, we finally did it!

Within a couple of months the distinctive blue MSC logo, along with our Pacifical co-brand, will accompany our skipjack tuna cans indicating that this tuna comes from well-managed and sustainable fisheries.

From now on, MSC certified FAD free tuna caught in schools will be a sustainable alternative option to pole and line caught tuna; supplying the world with mature skipjack and reducing by-catch to the maximum level lead by our PNA nations, and doing away with bait-fish problems. Also our skipjack is caught by purse seiners, which allows us to serve a much larger group of consumers with sustainable tuna.

With MSC certification onboard, we set sail to start delivering sustainable tuna as well as giving our people the right of getting benefit from their own resources. “We live in this region, we live and breathe tuna and for many of our members, they have nothing else but tuna” said Dr. Transform Aqorau, director of PNA.

This journey has just started and after certification there is a lot of work to be done. PNA and Pacifical are now in the process of starting to get the fleets organized to fish based on MSC procedure and chain of custody (CoC). We are also getting appointments with several of our exclusive partners to confirm details in regard to specifications.

It is worth to mention that in the start-up period the amount of MSC tuna that Pacifical will have available is going to be limited. So we will be able to serve only a selected group of highly dedicated retailers, food service and food processing companies. With time the amount of free school skipjack available will rise as more fishing companies and vessel owners participate in our CoC.

Right now there are about 265 tuna vessels in total in PNA waters. Some of them are already actively working with Pacifical and enthusiastic with the idea of having separate wells for free school skipjack. We are expecting a lot more to join within this year!

Eventually we could be catching 500.000 metric tons of free school skipjack in the PNA, which would fill 1.4 billion 185g cans of tuna every year, enough to serve 4.2 billion meals, bringing extremely healthy high protein sustainable produced food to every corner of the world, at an affordable price and with least of environmental impact!

Other than beef, chicken or farmed fish, we are talking about a purely wild species that requires no farming, no antibiotics, no massive amounts of feeds and water, and therefore causes no water or land pollution.

As PNA, as guardians for our people and the world, all we need to do is to manage and catch it in a sustainable way –according to MSC principles- and this highly fecund and fast growing skipjack will be able to provide us healthy food for generations to come!

We look forward to having the first Pacifical MSC certified skipjack on the shelves in Europe at the start of summer this year!

How Global Warming Makes Tuna an even more important…

Global warming and pollution are killing the coral reefs in our coastal areas. These coral reefs are basically habitats that provide food and resources for our fish species. The destruction of the coral reefs is causing anxiety with coastal fishing communities that depend on the catch and consumption of reef fish. Now they are being forced to find alternative sources of food and income, so they are facing a serious threat and challenge!

The good news is that our islands have some alternatives already and tuna is an important one for them.

Unlike reef fish, tuna is not a coastal fish; therefore creativity will be needed to attract them to the coast. One way to do that would be to use small anchored coastal FADs to attract tuna closer to the shore and to encourage some communities to grow fish in freshwater ponds.

The use of FADs at a coastal scale where you have 2-3 fishermen in a boat cannot, of course, be compared to the use of hundreds of FADs by the large super seiners in the high seas.

Pacifical People were already hooking tuna 42.000 Years Ago!

Recent discoveries have shown how important tuna is for the people of the Pacific. It is hard to imagine that 42.000 years ago, tuna was already caught with man-made fishing hooks. They made them out of bones; however it is not yet clear for what kind of species the hooks were used for.

Recent excavations on the island of Timor have found remains of tuna and other deep water species in a cave excavated in one of the pacific islands. This cave is to date the earliest evidence for ocean fishing!

How smart these people were to design tools that would catch deep seas species in order to provide their tribes with healthy protein… Let’s not forget people back then did not have boats to explore the seas, instead they used hooks made out of bones to catch several deep water species, such as tuna. Just imagine these people battling with a 100 kgs hooked yellowfin. The bones found revealed they did indeed catch some big fish.

42.000 years later, Pacifical is committed to conserve these same precious tuna stocks, which will hopefully remain as a major source of food and income for the Pacific Islanders for another 42.000 years. But let’s first concentrate on what we can do ourselves during our life time!