Publication Name
PNA Tuna
Author(s)
Transform Aqorau
January 2012 is historic for the Parties to the Nauru Agreement (PNA) and for our Pacific region. In gaining a globally recognized eco-label, that of the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC), the PNA fulfils its aspiration of being the world’s largest sustainable tuna purse seine fishery.
The label will apply to all skipjack tuna with documentation proving is caught without using Fish Aggregating Devices (FADS) on free schools of tuna in the open ocean.
It has been many years of hard work of our fisheries officials, of our leaders taking difficult decisions despite immense pressure from outsiders to overfish, and of our own local industries and community organizations supporting the PNA to attain this goal. We did it even though we are small nations facing the powerful, and even though we were shut out of the global tuna industry through our place in history, in our geographic isolation and in the global economy. Now we are players in a major global industry, as I like to say when the Pacific talks tuna, the world listens.
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The market is competing for options to give consumers and retailers sustainable tuna. With the IUCN stating five key species of tuna are overfished or vulnerable, politicians and international organizations can no longer support arguments to keep overfishing with any semblance of science or reason. And thanks to the PNA’s determination to assert its rights, the international community recognizes our custodianship of our vast 14 million square kilometre area of ocean.
To read the full opinion article, MSC Sustainable Certification for PNA Tuna a Historic Date, PNA Director Says visit the PNA Tuna website
