Paolo Bray, founder and director of Friend of the Sea, was invited as a speaker to the recent Infofish Pacific Tuna Forum in Papua New Guinea. His presentation introduced the work done by Friend of the Sea worldwide and the number of pole and line, handline and troll fisheries for tuna approved and found compliant with the scheme’s strict requirements. Tuna fisheries have been approved in the Azores, Brazil, Ireland, Maldives, Senegal, South Africa, Sri Lanka and Philippines.
Dr Bray also described the recently approved PNG purse seine fishery of company Frabelle. The fishery is targeting, in the Western Pacific, not overexploited stocks of skipjack and yellowfin. Frabelle’s purse seiners, which participate to a national onboard observers program, are very selective, catching 98% tuna and only a minor percentage of other not endangered species. Fishermen undergo an intensive awareness program on handling any accidentally caught endangered species. Bray was also invited to visit and meet with the PNG National Fisheries Authority and could verify firsthand the high level of management and enforcement of the local fishery.
“A zero discard policy, a bigeye catch reduction program, waste management, social accountability and carbon footprint reduction make the Frabelle fleet an example to be followed by all purse seine fleets worldwide” explains Bray “Friend of the Sea supports recent positions of John West and Asda in the UK which (Intrafish) ‘refuse to follow others and make broad statements on moving towards sourcing exclusively from pole and line fisheries’. Friend of the Sea invites tuna purse seiners to apply for certification, reminding some of the minimum requirements: target stock not overexploited; full time on board independent observers program; zero discard policy; bigeye catch reduction program; measures in place to reduce catch of juveniles; Earth Island Institute Dolphin-Safe approval.”
