Major U.S. retailers are being told to buy MSC certified tuna for their customers, but there is one major problem: there is still very little of the sustainably caught tuna available to purchase.
“We have a very simple purchase ask for companies that we work with,” says Bill Fox, Fisheries vice-president at the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) US. “Basically our number one policy is buy MSC certified tuna, but with the logo on the can to ensure that the tuna they’re getting is in fact MSC certified tuna.”
He estimates that currently only about 15,000 tons whole round tuna catch is available with the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) blue and white eco-label, out of the global tuna catch of 4.4 million tons, most of this being US pole and line caught albacore. These certified products mostly go to niche markets in Europe where they attain high prices, so there hasn’t been much success in getting penetration in the U.S. market, he says.
There is huge potential, however, for a sustainable supply of the lower priced skipjack tuna from eight Pacific island countries. The Parties to the Nauru Agreement (PNA) free school skipjack purse seine fishery – which produces half of the global skipjack catch – gained MSC approval last year. So far, no MSC certified PNA tuna has been delivered because the fishery is still waiting to get its Chain of Custody certification. This certification depends on the fishermen to catch according to MSC approved procedures, without the use of fish aggregating devices (FADs), and by keeping the certified skipjack catch completely separate from the tuna caught with FADs throughout the entire supply chain.
Last week, the PNA largely blamed the region’s boat owners for the delay and suggested their immense profits – from today’s record high raw material price of USD 2,350 CFR Bangkok for skipjack – as a reason for the lack of motivation to fish sustainably.
Once the MSC certified PNA tuna – co-branded as “Pacifical” – is available, Fox says the U.S. market should pick up because there will be a lot more competition. “We do have market pressure to buy MSC certified tuna.”
Besides working with retailers, Fox says WWF US also partners with the International Seafood Sustainability Foundation (ISSF), a coalition of tuna industry leaders and scientists, to help MSC tuna reach the market.
“When we helped to establish ISSF, the main goal from our perspective was to get all tuna fisheries globally in a condition to get MSC certified and then WWF’s role would be, once that happens, to work with the fisheries to get them certified.”
ISSF’s conservation measures are meant to eliminate all the barriers to tuna fisheries becoming MSC certified, says Fox. He says the time-bound measures are designed to ensure ISSF companies are buying from boats that fish sustainably.
When asked about the unsustainable fishing currently occurring in the PNA, where ISSF companies source their tuna, Fox said ISSF members are not fishers.
“The ISSF participating companies have very few boats. They’re primarily processors, distributors and retailers – they’re not fishers. In fact, companies that are predominantly fishing companies are specifically excluded from ISSF membership because that’s the sector that has to really reform in order to provide sustainable tuna fisheries.”
Most of the ISSF companies are either directly or indirectly involved in fishing activities in the PNA, however. For instance, Dongwon Industries, one of the world’s largest tuna catching companies with a fleet of 36 boats, is the parent company to StarKist and Dongwon F&B, both members of ISSF.
Fox says the vessels in question are flagged to the PNA countries and therefore, the PNA countries should be asked “why they can’t get their flagged vessels to fish according to the measures that they all agreed to during the MSC certification.”