Overview
In 2016, the longliner fishery of Transmarina conducted a pre-assessed against the MSC v2.0 Standard. The unit of assessment considered for the analysis was: Yellowfin tuna (Thunnus albacares), Bigeye (Thunnus obesus) and South Pacific Albacore (Thunnus Alalunga), with longline vessels under the flag of Ecuador in the Eastern Pacific Ocean (EPO).
The Transmarina longline fleet has 2 industrial longline vessels between 42 and 50 meters length, operating in international waters in the FAO 87 zone, in the Galapagos Islands and within the EEZ of Ecuador. Vessels name: Altar 10 and 21.
The general settings and the fishing gear are similar to the Japanese fleet operating in the EPO. It is estimated that vessels deploy between 2000 and 3000 hooks during each fishing operation, with an average depth between 35 and 40 m. The catches include a wide range of retained species (up to 17 in total), most of which are sharks.
The pre-assessment was based on a previous analysis of the Ecuadorian purse-seine tuna fishery (MRAG Americas, 2015), which was adapted for the longline fishery and updated to the new version (v2.0) of the MSC standard. The Standard evaluates three principles.
In 2016, the longliner fishery of Transmarina conducted a pre-assessed against the MSC v2.0 Standard.
Achieve MSC v2.0 Standard certification by December 2023.
