Overview
What is a Completed FIP?
Completed FIPs are those that have independent verification that they have achieved their environmental objectives and/or graduated to MSC full assessment or other program assessment. Completed FIPs no longer report on their environmental performance but may choose to voluntarily report on their social performance.
Date of Completion: Aug 2020
Explanation of Completion: This fishery has been recently assessed against the MSC Fisheries Standard – it resulted in the certification of the yellowfin tuna stock, which was one of the three Units of Assessment (for more information on this process, kindly check the Completion Link below). Since the other two UoAs (skipjack and bigeye tuna) were not certified, a new FIP was launched to work towards achieving the MSC requirements that were not met during the full assessment.
This profile was completed by achieving certification of 1 tuna species, only including yellowfin tuna, and a new profile was created to address continued improvement for skipjack and bigeye tuna: Eastern Pacific Ocean skipjack and bigeye tuna - purse seine (AGAC).
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This FIP encompasses all global tropical tuna stocks of three species: bigeye tuna (Thunnus obesus), skipjack (Katsuwonus pelamis) and yellowfin tuna (Thunnus albacares) for a total of 13 Units of Certification. In the case of this specific sub-FIP for the Eastern Pacific Ocean, we deal with three stocks of tunas - one each for skipjack, bigeye tuna, and yellowfin tuna.
Because of the set-up of FisheryProgress, the overarching FIP was broken into four sub-FIPs according to the relevant RFMO (IATTC, ICCAT, IOTC, and WCPFC). The reasoning behind this division is that each RFMO has different scores and actions for the various MSC principles, in particular for Principles 1 & 3. Had we grouped all RFMOs together, we would not have been able to present or track the various activities and timelines in a cohesive, clear and comprehensive manner.
This FIP is working towards completing the following objectives by fall 2021:
- Achieve MSC certification for the OPAGAC industrial purse seine tuna fleet in three oceans and four RFMOs, within the next 5 years.
- Unify the industrial purse seine fishery into one MSC unit of certification instead of the misleading current division of free and associated schools.
- Bring together leading industry and environmental partners to work collaboratively towards sustainability of the fishery and ensure fair market access.
- Have RFMOs adopt Harvest Control Rules (HCR) for stocks of tropical tuna species, including support to the process of Management Strategy Evaluation based on the best science available.
- Adoption of robust ad-hoc rebuilding strategies, in line with MSC standards, for stocks not subject to HCR (where required).
- Influence the various RFMOs to adopt an ecosystem approach to fisheries management.
- Assist RFMOs in the adoption of best practices concerning the use of drift fish aggregating devices (dFADs), through provision of information in support of informed scientific advice.
- Drive real changes in the fleet to minimize the impact of the fishery on non-target species and improve survivorship of sensitive species such as turtles, sharks, and any other sensitive bycatch.
Note: The Indicator Scores presented on this website are based on the MSC Performance Indicators (PI) for the species in worst shape in the fisheries. The way FisheryProgress.org is currently set up does not allow for the entry of PI scores for more than one stock or species. In this case, two species have a yellow ranking (bigeye tuna and yellowfin tuna) but the stock of skipjack is in green.
FIP at a Glance
| 11% | 50% | 39% |
This pie chart represents completed environmental actions. Non-completed environmental actions may contain completed sub-tasks that are not illustrated here. For more information on environmental action progress visit the Actions Progress tab.
- Complete
- Incomplete
TraceabilityIUUEcosystemOther