Area 71 (Pacific, Western Central)

The US Pacific Tuna Group FIP covers the Eastern Tropical Pacific and Western Tropical Pacific tuna stocks for the three major species: skipjack tuna (Katsuwonus pelamis), yellowfin tuna (Thunnus albacares) and bigeye tuna (Thunnus obesus) for a total of 6 Units of Certification. Gear type is Purse Seine and fishing method includes both FAD associated and unassociated sets.

The US Pacific Tuna Group consist of seven fishing vessel management companies and 13 large-scale tuna purse seine vessels (IATTC Class 6 – over 400 ton carrying capacity) and is partnered with the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) according to a signed MOU.

The Indonesian Longline Tuna FIP is being launched in November 2019. In the beginning, the FIP consisted of 17 Indonesian fishing and tuna processing companies, and the Indonesian Tuna Longline Association (ATLI). The number of participants is now 41 companies as is in January 2023, with 22 fishing companies and 19 tuna processing companies. The FIP intends to make national level change in policy and change in the water for the entire longline fishery. The FIP aims to improve fishing practices for Indonesian Longline fishers operating in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. The FIP also aims to meet the increasing demand for tuna caught by Longlines that operate in a responsible and sustainable manner by complying with the management measures issued by the National Government, and the IOTC and WCPFC. The scope of the fishery includes Yellowfin (Thunnus albacares), Bigeye (Thunnus obesus), Albacore (Thunnus alalunga) and Swordfish (Xiphias gladius) in the Indian Ocean, and Yellowfin and Bigeye in Western Central Pacific, within the Archipelagic Waters, ZEE and on the High Seas.

This FIP is made up of a fleet of 33 tuna purse seine vessels, flagged either to USA, Republic of Korea, Taiwan, Papua New Guinea, Kiribati, Nauru or the Federated States of Micronesia. The vessels fish in the WCPO for the three tropical tuna species (with most of the catch being made up of skipjack). They deploy FADs, and fish on FADs and other floating objects, as well as setting on free schools.

Sea Delight, Hong Ngoc Seafood, and CeDePesca are implementing the Vietnam swordfish – handline FIP with the goal of attaining an MSC-certifiable status for the fishery by December 2024.

Swordfish is a highly migratory species of fish found throughout most of the world’s oceans. This FIP focuses on the Western and Central North Pacific Ocean (WCNPO) swordfish stock, under the management of the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC) and the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission (IATTC), fished by the Vietnamese handline fishery.

The Vietnamese handline fishery began operating in late 2011. The fishery primarily targets large tunas — such as yellowfin and bigeye — in offshore areas within the Vietnam Economic Exclusive Zone (EEZ), although swordfish and other large pelagic species are also taken. Fishing is conducted on wooden handline vessels with a length of 15 to 23m carrying four to 6 fishers, including master.  Handliners attract fish using bait (mostly squid or small scads) and lights, with vessels usually operating up to four lines, each with two hooks.

The fishing fleet is composed of 2,000+ handline vessels.  The vessels are licensed at the provincial level but any management measures (i.e. capacity management and operational restrictions) are generally imposed at a national level.  All fishing currently occurs within the Vietnam EEZ.

All catch is initially landed in Vietnam, with higher quality catch exported as both whole fish and processed product. The remainder is retained for local consumption and processing.

Key problems/issues at the beginning of the FIP:

According to the MSC Pre-Assessment of the fishery (MRAG 2017), the main obstacles to sustainability were:

• No explicit limit or target reference points are defined by which to manage the exploitation of the stock more robustly.
• There is not a well-defined harvest control rule in place for swordfish, although there are rules and management tools available from other fisheries in the Western Central Pacific Fishery Commission (WCPFC) area for reducing catch or effort in the swordfish fishery should critical limits be approached.
• Currently, there is not sufficient information to rule out the finning of sharks.
• There is poor information on catches in the fishery.
• There is little information regarding bycatch and ETP species in the fishery.
• The fishery management system in Vietnam does not explicitly embody the precautionary approach and certain provisions of conservation and management of the WCPFC need to be addressed by the national legislation.  
• There are no fishery-specific objectives for swordfish at the national level.
• There is no management plan for the fishery.
• There are shortcomings in addressing illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing in the country.