The Marine Stewardship Council and International Seafood Sustainability Foundation have called for better harvest management strategies to protect Western Central Pacific tuna stocks.
The organisations have called on member governments of the Western Central Pacific Fisheries Commission to pass important conservation management measures to safeguard the long-term sustainability of the world’s most significant tuna stocks.
The ISSF has specifically asked the WCPFC to adopt comprehensive harvest strategies for Western Pacific skipjack and Northern albacore, including harvest control rules and the acceleration of the development of a harvest strategy for South Pacific albacore. The fishery is thge source of much of the canned tuna sold in UK supermarkets.
“WCPFC member countries must urgently adopt harvest strategies for Western Pacific skipjack and Northern albacore tuna and accelerate the adoption of one for South Pacific albacore next year,” said ISSF president Susan Jackson. “Harvest strategies are the best way to protect tuna fisheries and help sustain the ecosystem and economies that rely on them.”
The MSC explained that a lack of progress in delivering workplans for the implementation of harvest strategies is eroding the rationale for tuna fisheries in the Western Central Pacific Ocean meeting minimum requirements for available harvest controls.
“Failure by the WCPFC to implement harvest strategies would jeopardise the long-term health of these stocks and undermine the progress made by WCPO fisheries, which have worked hard to improve their sustainability and meet the MSC’s global standard for environmentally responsible and sustainable fishing,” said Robert Howes, CEO of the MSC.
These requests have been made ahead of the WCPFC’s 19th regular annual session from 27 November to 3 December in Vietnam.
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