The Parties to the Nauru Agreement (PNA) which includes the Federated States of Micronesia, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Tuvalu said it would seek ‘eco-label’ certification from the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) for skipjack tuna.
  A pre-assessment by Moody Marine Ltd recommended skipjack tuna caught by purse seine vessels in PNA waters setting on free schools of tuna (without Fish Aggregating Devices [FADs] or other devices) be subject to full assessment by MSC.
  This assessment process could lead to MSC certification of 40% of skipjack tuna caught in PNA waters.
  The MSC (Marine Stewardship Council) is an international non-profit organisation that was set up by WWF and Unilever to promote solutions to the problem of overfishing.
  The MSC, independent of its founding organisations when the MSC was incorporated as a legal entity in 1997, runs the only certification and ecolabelling programme for wild-capture fisheries consistent with the ISEAL Code of Good Practice for Setting Social and Environmental Standards and UN Food and Agricultural Organisation’s guidelines for fisheries certification.
  Together, the fisheries already engaged in the MSC programme record annual catches of close to 7 million metric tonnes of seafood, representing over 12 percent of global capture production for direct human consumption.
  The fisheries already certified catch close to four million metric tonnes of seafood—over 7 percent of the total global capture production for direct human consumption.
  Worldwide, more than 3,500 seafood products resulting from the certified fisheries bear the blue MSC ecolabel.
  The PNA has been dubbed ‘OPEC for tuna’ because it aims to control access to tuna in its waters and so increase economic benefits for Pacific Islanders. PNA waters supply around 25% of the world’s supply of tuna.
  Innovative PNA measures—such as competitive fees for fishing (days for fishing are traded and sold to the highest bidder) and establishing agreements for more jobs and income in Pacific Islands such as through joint ventures, crewing and on-shore processing —have enabled PNA leaders to secure greater economic benefits for its peoples.
  These economic gains are based on control of access to fishing through conservation measures—many of which are world firsts—such as the high seas pockets closure, controls on Fish Aggregating Devices (FADs) and the 100% coverage of purse seine fishing vessels with observers.
  The PNA has no dolphin bycatch and measures to limit the impact of tuna fishing on sharks and turtles. Here’s what the Presidential summit agreed on—
  • CONSERVATION & ECONOMIC RETURNS: to continue to conserve and restore tuna stocks while maximising economic returns and exploring arrangements to control output and limit effort
  • VESSEL DAY SCHEME (FOR PURSE SEINERS): to adopt the Vessel Day Scheme (VDS) where vessel owners can purchase and trade days fishing at sea.
  The VDS constrains and reduces catches of target tuna species, and increases the rate of return to PNA members from fishing activities through access fees.
  • HIGH SEAS AREAS CLOSURE: to close off additional high seas areas between 10 ºN and 20 ºS, 170 ºE and 140 ºW in the Western and Central Pacific by prohibiting purse seine vessels licensed by the PNA to operate in these waters (an area of 4,555,000 sq km)
  • ECO LABEL CERTIFICATION: Seeking certification of skipjack tuna caught by purse seine vessels in PNA waters setting on free schools of tuna (without Fish Aggregating Devices [FADs])
  PNA Director Dr Transform Aqorau, speaking at the Presidential Summit, said: “As long as it remains affordable, and mums and dads in Europe and the United States can make a quick lunch pack out of tuna, we will always have a readily available market for tuna.
  “We are one of the players in this global industry. 25% of the global tuna catch is caught in our waters.
  “We are therefore in a powerful position to influence and shape the global tuna market in ways that can improve the social and economic well beings of our people, if we want to, and have the courage to take the difficult decisions that will change the fishery.”