May 14, 2021 — American consumers are familiar with the “Dolphin Safe” label on their tuna cans, and they may soon be seeing “FAD-free” labels, too.
The Blue Marine Foundation, a London-based NGO focused on marine conservation, hosted a free online interactive roundtable on “Fish Aggregating Devices (FADs) in Responsible Tuna Fisheries” on Thursday, 6 May.
March 13, 2019 — The following was published by The International Seafood Sustainability Foundation:
Marine-science graduate students and postdoctoral researchers interested in helping to pioneer the next generation of sustainable tuna fishing initiatives — especially to reduce bycatch and protect ocean ecosystems — are invited to submit their ideas to the first-ever International Seafood Sustainability Foundation (ISSF) Seafood Sustainability Contest.
February 15, 2019 — An investigation by French state television broadcaster France 2 into the use of fish aggregating devices (FADs) to catch juvenile yellowfin tuna in the Indian Ocean, aimed to highlight the dark side of the industry to consumers.
Use of FADs has been widespread since the 1980s, but their use now sits at the center of global discussions on the long-term sustainability of tuna stocks and the ecological impact of tuna fisheries. An addition to being associated with the catch of juvenile tuna, FADs are linked to bycatch of vulnerable non-target species such as barracudas, sharks, and turtles, the modification of tuna habitat, damage to coastal habitats from lost and broken-up structures that end up on beaches, and interference with other maritime activities, France 2 reported.
FADs can be natural or artificial floating objects or rafts, which are often made from local materials such as wood, bamboo, pieces of net, twisted rope and floats. They can either be anchored in place or left untethered to drift on the ocean surface. GPS tags are used to facilitate location, and fishers use them as a highly-effective method of improving catch rates and reducing operating costs, as tuna are attracted to the debris.
According to the FAO, in spite of intensive research, the reason why fish are attracted to FADs remains a mystery, but it is possible that they are attracted to floating objects that provide a refuge from predators.
In the two-hour long documentary, entitled “Peche industrielle: gros poissons en eaux troubles,” (Industrial fishing: big fish in troubled waters), which was broadcast on Tuesday, 6 February, presenter Sophie le Gall told viewers that the long-term future of the fishery was under threat because many of the fish being caught are immature and have therefore not had the chance to reproduce.
November 28, 2017 — The following was released by the International Seafood Sustainability Foundation:
Using data from Regional Fisheries Management Organizations (RFMOs), scientific observer programs, and its own at-sea research and skippers workshops, the International Seafood Sustainability Foundation (ISSF) has published an updated report that documents purse-seine tuna fishing’s impact on “non-target” species. The bycatch species covered in the report are sharks, whale sharks, rays, finfish, sea turtles, and billfish. While they are not bycatch species, the report also touches upon catches of undesirably small bigeye and yellowfin tunas.
Organized by species and including graphics and a full bibliography, “ISSF 2017-06: A Summary of Bycatch Issues and ISSF Mitigation Activities to Date in Purse Seine Fisheries, with Emphasis on FADs”:
“A Summary of Bycatch Issues” is intended to be a useful reference for fishers and tuna companies, scientists, regional fisheries management organizations (RFMOs), government agencies, nongovernment organizations (NGOs) including conservation groups, and others interested in helping fisheries to be more sustainable.
Report Data and Insights Can Guide Conservation Efforts
The November 2017 report, authored by ISSF staff and collaborating scientists Victor Restrepo, Laurent Dagorn, David Itano, Ana Justel-Rubio, Fabien Forget, and Gala Moreno, is an update of a 2014 publication.
Not all non-target species are equally vulnerable to becoming bycatch in purse-seine fisheries, and bycatch rates for a single species can vary across oceans. For some species, other fishing methods have higher bycatch than purse-seine fishing. Here are some key findings in the report:
ISSF on Bycatch Mitigation
Since its inception in 2009, ISSF has dedicated resources and efforts to understanding bycatch issues in tuna fisheries (see “Related ISSF Activities” sections in the report). In addition to publishing scientific reports, ISSF hosts bycatch-mitigation workshops and publishes guidebooks and videos for skippers and other stakeholders. The Foundation also advocates science-based, mitigation measures to RFMOs through meetings and side events, position statements, and joint letters.
Commercial vessels catch about 4.7 million tons of tuna annually. Purse-seine vessels dominate large-scale tuna fishing, harvesting about 64% of the tropical tuna catch (skipjack, yellowfin, and bigeye tuna). Many purse seiners use Fish Aggregating Devices (FADs) or other floating objects to attract tuna to their nets, although they also may pursue sets on free-swimming tuna schools. More than half of the total tropical tuna landings globally are made by sets on FADs or other floating objects.
Bycatch occurs across most major tuna fishing methods — including longline, gillnet, and troll — and all fishing methods can affect the marine environment in multiple ways beyond bycatch.
“ISSF 2017-06: A Summary of Bycatch Issues and ISSF Mitigation Activities to Date in Purse Seine Fisheries, with Emphasis on FADs” can be downloaded from the ISSF site.
For more information on tuna stock health, see ISSF’s Status of the Stocks. For more information on FAD fishing and bycatch, see ISSF’s Questions and Answers about FADs and Bycatch.
The International Seafood Sustainability Foundation (ISSF) has conducted 10 Skippers Workshops in Spain since 2009, and will hold the 11th October 16-20 in Sukarrieta
October 16, 2017 — MADRID — The following was released by the International Seafood Sustainability Foundation and the Organization of Associated Producers of Large Tuna Freezers (OPAGAC):
The Spanish tuna fishing fleet remains one of the most receptive and active worldwide in adopting International Seafood Sustainability Foundation (ISSF) best practices for mitigating bycatch — a commitment reflected in the fleet’s high attendance at ISSF Skippers Workshops each year and as revealed in ISSF Technical Report 2017-03: ISSF Skippers’ Workshops Round 6.
ISSF’s recommended best practices include using non-entangling Fish Aggregating Devices (FADs) and following handling-and-release techniques for non-target species (e.g., turtles and sharks) to maximize their survival. The Spanish fleet has consequently increased the number of its vessels with specific tools for bycatch mitigation, such as stretchers or loading nets.
Since 2011, the Spanish fleet also has been instrumental, together with the French, in contributing to ISSF’s non-entangling FADs research and development — an example followed by additional fleets more recently in the development and testing of biodegradable FADs.
From training to practice
The Spanish fleet’s acceptance and application of key ISSF best practices is directly related to ISSF vessel outreach, specifically via its Skippers Workshops. According to ISSF Technical Report 2017-03 — co-authored by ISSF staff and consulting scientists, including those from AZTI, which has facilitated these workshops since 2009 — nearly 25% of all persons who have participated in ISSF workshops since they began are affiliated with the Spanish fleet.
At an August 2016 workshop in Spain, at the headquarters of the Port of Vigo Shipowners Cooperative (ARVI), more than 90 professionals participated. That year, ISSF conducted 14 workshops in seven countries, including Spain, with the participation of 343 skippers from 12 purse-seine fleets and another 216 people, including crew members and other professionals from the fishing sector.
Of the 2,736 tuna fleet professionals in the world trained at ISSF workshops to date, 664 — 63% are skippers and 19% are crew members — have participated in one of the 10 workshops that ISSF has given in Spain. The rest of the professionals affiliated with Spanish vessels participated in workshops held in countries where the fleet has a presence, such as Ecuador and Panama.
The next Skippers Workshops will be held on October 16-20 in Sukarrieta (Vizcaya), the site of the one of the earliest ISSF workshops. More than 50 participants are expected, and one of the event’s key topics will be biodegradable FADs — on which ISSF works in collaboration with the tuna fishing industry and other strategic partners.
According to Julio Morón, Managing Director of OPAGAC, “ISSF engagement is essential so that our crew members and, specifically, skippers of vessels are familiar with and can carry out activities ranging from the use of non-entangling FADs to the release of bycatch, which are part of the foundation of fishing that respects the marine environment and resources.
Further, all Spanish tuna purse-seine vessels are on the ISSF’s ProActive Vessel Register (PVR), which audits vessels to show how they are meeting specific measures for sustainable fishing.”
According to Víctor Restrepo, ISSF Vice President, Science and Chair, ISSF Scientific Advisory Committee, “Close collaboration between scientists and skippers has made it possible to conduct significant research projects, such as those on the Albatún 3 and Mar de Sergio purse-seine vessels in the Western Pacific and the Atlantic, respectively, and which will be key to the BIOFAD project in testing new biodegradable FADs in the Indian Ocean.”
Read more about ISSF Skippers Workshop outcomes in the ISSF report, “ISSF 2017-03: ISSF Skippers’ Workshops Round 6,” co-authored by ISSF staff and consulting scientists.
November 2, 2016 — The following was released by the International Seafood Sustainability Foundation:
Washington, D.C. — The International Seafood Sustainability Foundation (ISSF) announced today the adoption of new and amended conservation measures to facilitate continuous improvement across global tuna stocks and to reflect ISSF participating companies’ commitment to driving positive change. The measures address the use of non-entangling fish aggregating devices, or FADs; product traceability; and fishing capacity management — directly impacting how nearly thirty global seafood companies do business with vessels on the water, at the processing plant, and in the marketplace.
“When it comes to the global tuna fishing, industry must play a leading role in ensuring the long-term sustainability of global tuna stocks,” said ISSF President Susan Jackson. “With as much as 75 percent of the world’s tuna processing capacity conforming to multiple measures for sustainability best practices — and being transparently audited against those measures — ISSF can make real progress toward its goal of sustainable fisheries for the long term.”
Non-entangling FADs: Mitigating Bycatch in Tuna Fisheries
Scientific studies show that FADs, when constructed with materials such as loose old netting, can entangle vulnerable species such as sharks. To address this issue, ISSF scientists developed the ISSF Guide for Non-Entangling FADs. Research indicates that vessels fully implementing non-entangling FADs can completely eliminate shark entanglement — saving many thousands of sharks across ocean regions. While some tuna fisheries management organizations have already made the transition from traditional FADs to non-entangling FADs, others have not.
To support of the global transition to non-entangling FADs, ISSF adopted Conservation Measure 3.5 Transactions with Vessels that Use Only Non-entangling FADs. The measure stipulates that ISSF participating companies “conduct transactions only with those purse seine vessels whose owners have a public policy regarding the use of only non-entangling FADs” and that the policy should refer to the ISSF Guide for Non-Entangling FADs. The measure became effective October 18, 2016 and vessel owners have six months from that date to develop and publish their policies, which must require deployment of only non-entangling FADs within twelve months.
Product Labeling: Expanding a Commitment to Tuna Traceability
Adequate tuna product traceability records are necessary to enforce compliance with existing and future conservation measures, and also to eliminate illegal, unregulated and unreported (IUU) fishing. Formalizing a commitment by the world’s leading tuna companies to make this information publicly available strengthens industry transparency.
ISSF adopted Conservation Measure 2.3 Product Labeling by Species and Area of Capture, which states that participating companies will identify 1.) all species of tuna and 2.) the ocean of capture for tuna contained in a product on all labeling or through a publicly available web-based traceability system, for all branded tuna products. The measure applies to all product labeling as of January 1, 2018.
Committed to Effective Capacity Management
“Unmanaged fishing capacity is the quickest path to overfishing. We continue to be concerned that there are too many tuna fishing boats on the water, causing overfishing of some tuna stocks,” said ISSF President Susan Jackson.
“That’s why ISSF has refined and expanded its capacity management conservation measures, through which the tuna industry — following scientific and environmental group recommendations — is urged to do business with only those vessels that already are on the water, unless new vessels are replacing existing boats that are taken completely out of service.”
ISSF announces new conservation measures in support of its existing capacity measures 6.1 Transaction Ban for Large-Scale Purse Seine Vessels not Actively Fishing for Tuna as of December 31, 2012 and 6.2(a) Requirements for Inclusion in Record of Large-Scale Purse Seine Vessels Fishing For Tropical Tunas. The new measures address investments in and purchases from purse seine vessels not in compliance with the preceding capacity measures.
The first of those new measures, 6.2(d) Investment in Purse Seine Vessels Not in Compliance with ISSF Conservation Measures 6.1 and 6.2(a) states that ISSF participating companies that are investors in any new vessel that does not meet all of the conditions in Conservation Measures 6.1 and 6.2(a) shall buy out and scrap existing capacity of large-scale tuna purse seine vessel(s) that corresponds to the full capacity of the new vessel. “New vessels” includes vessels owned, partially or fully:
The second of the new capacity measures, 6.2(e) Purchases From Purse Seine Vessels in Fleets With Other Vessels Not in Compliance with ISSF Conservation Measures 6.1 and 6.2(a), states that participating companies shall refrain from transactions in tuna caught by large-scale purse seine vessels owned by business organizations or individuals that also own large-scale purse seine vessels not in compliance with measures 6.1 and 6.2(a).
Finally, in additional support of efforts toward capacity management, ISSF amends one of its conservation measures regarding the ISSF ProActive Vessel Register (PVR). If purchasing tuna from large-scale purse seine vessels, ISSF participating companies must ensure that 100% of those vessels are on the PVR. Further, measure 7.2 Threshold Requirement for PVR Listing states that to be listed on the PVR, all large-scale purse seine vessels must be in compliance with all ISSF capacity measures and listed on the ISSF Record of Large Scale Purse Seine Vessels.
Amendments to Measure 7.2 Threshold Requirement for PVR Listing now stipulate that, in order to be listed on the PVR:
All ISSF conservation measures are available for review in full at: http://iss-foundation.org/knowledge-tools/publications-presentations/conservation-measures-commitments/
October 7, 2016 — On 14 September, SeafoodSource published an article reviewing a scientific paper written by Producers’ Association of Large Tuna Freezers (OPAGAC), a Spanish industry organization, criticizing the policies of the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) in regard to fish aggregating devices (FADs). MSC responded with a letter to SeafoodSource addressing the reasons behind its policies. SeafoodSource replied to MSC to ask three follow-up questions regarding issues not explicitly discussed by the organization in its letter. Here are MSC’s responses:
SeafoodSource: Does MSC consider the use of FADs an “unsustainable” method of fishing?
MSC: Certification to the MSC Fisheries Standard is based on comprehensive assessment of the impacts of a particular fishery and the environment within which it operates. Therefore, because of the variations in the impacts that different FADs and fishing techniques can have in different marine environments, the MSC Fisheries Standard does not include specific requirements for FAD use, nor does it prohibit the use of FADs. However MSC requirements that any impacts on bycatch species are sustainable mean that fisheries using FADs with high or unknown levels of bycatch can struggle to achieve certification. There are currently no purse seine fisheries certified to the MSC Fisheries Standard for tuna caught using drifting FADs. However, there are some purse seine fisheries on free schools (“unassociated” with floating objects) that are certified, and two MSC certified fisheries which catch tuna associated with anchored FADs.
PAGO PAGO, American Samoa — May 3, 2016 — A new fishery rule that the federal government is moving to implement is expected to deal another financial blow to the US purse seiner fleet, which is already faced with stiff competition from foreign vessels such as the Chinese fleet, who are subsidized by their government, China.
US National Marine Fishery Service (NMFS) has proposed a rule which would require Observers to be on board US purse seiners fishing in the western and central Pacific ocean (WCPO).
The proposal was issued last week under authority of the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Convention Implementation Act. It is a three-pronged proposed rule, which includes a move to establish restrictions in 2016 and 2017 on the use of fish aggregating devices (FADs) by U.S. purse seine vessels in the WCPO; and to establish limits in 2016 and 2017 on the amount of bigeye tuna that may be captured by U.S. longline vessels in the WCPO.
According to NMFS, this longline vessel big eye tuna proposal would not apply to American Samoa and the other two US Pacific territories, as they have their own federal programs.
NMFS says the proposed action is necessary to satisfy the obligations of the United States under the Convention on the Conservation and Management of Highly Migratory Fish Stocks in the Western and Central Pacific Ocean (Convention), to which it is a Contracting Party.
NMFS is now seeking public comments on the three-pronged proposed rule-making, and deadline for comment submission is May 12. Details are available online on federal portal: www.regulations.gov.
April 5, 2016 — WASHINGTON — On April 6, the International Seafood Sustainability Foundation (ISSF) will expand its global series of skipper workshops to China for the first time since the Foundation began the unique platform for knowledge exchange in 2009. The Shanghai workshop is the result of a collaboration between ISSF and the China Overseas Fisheries Association (COFA) and will engage tuna purse seine fishers, crew members and fleet managers in an event that seeks to share best practices for sustainable tuna fishing and mitigate fishing’s impact on the marine ecosystem.
“ISSF skipper workshops have reached more than 900 skippers to date, covering nine fleets in 2015 alone,” said Dr. Victor Restrepo, Vice President of Science at ISSF and chair of its Scientific Advisory Committee. “With roughly 790 large scale purse seine vessels operating today, we know we are engaging a substantial portion of the purse seine capacity on a global basis. Expanding these workshops to the Chinese fleet is an imperative next step as we work toward the global development and adoption of best practices for bycatch reduction and more in the world’s tuna fisheries.”
“We are pleased to welcome ISSF to Shanghai to help us continue to make improvements to ensure that bycatch is mitigated, that there is better compliance by Chinese tuna fishing fleet on bycatch measures adopted by t-RFMOs, and that tuna stocks remain healthy,” said Zhao Gang of COFA.
Dr. Jefferson Murua, with the Marine Research Division of Azti-Tecnalia, will lead the workshop in Shanghai. For seven years, ISSF has commissioned scientist presenters to traverse the world in an effort to share best practices with tuna fishers in every port. The outreach focuses on purse seine fisheries, where the use of fish aggregating devices (FADs) is often employed, and emphasizes the importance of maximizing the survival of species. Particular attention is paid to species like sharks and rays, and reducing waste from small tuna and other fish species. The workshops are also an important opportunity for scientists to dialogue with fishers about what techniques and tools may be most successfully implemented given the variable dynamics of the world’s tuna fisheries. These interactions, in turn, help inform ISSF’s bycatch research priorities as ISSF continues to identify and advance sustainable fishing practices. Previous skipper workshops have been held in Panama, Ecuador, Mexico, Spain, Ghana, the Seychelles, Mauritius, Micronesia, the Marshall Islands, USA, Korea, Indonesia, Philippines, American Samoa and more. Additional workshops in 2016 will target the fleets of Indonesia, China, Spain, Ecuador, Ghana, USA and Venezuela.
In addition, all ISSF participating companies – tuna processors and marketers that represent around 75% of the world’s tuna processing capacity – are required to purchase tuna from vessels whose skippers have reviewed these best practices, either by attending a workshop in person or taking advantage of ISSF’s additional skipper outreach materials, specifically ISSF skipper workshop videos or skippers guidebooks, both of which are available in multiple languages. Participating companies are audited against this commitment annually, the results of which are shared in the aggregate in an annual compliance report as part of ISSF’s annual report.
This multi-faceted effort – from on-the-ground workshops to company commitment and compliance auditing and reporting – are part of ISSF’s holistic work to help tuna fisheries make continuous improvements as they edge closer to becoming more robustly sustainable and capable of meeting the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certification standard without conditions.