The Seafood Champion Award finalists were announced in Hong Kong on the 4th of September and the winner will be presented at the 11th Seaweb Seafood summit, to be help 9-11 February 2015 in New Orleans, USA.

Fishing & Living is proud and excited to be a finalist for an international award that recognizes individuals, companies and organizations for outstanding leadership, innovation, advocacy and vision for promoting and pushing forward environmentally responsible seafood. It is a great honour to be part of this competition organized by Seaweb, a non-profit organization that promotes healthy oceans for the world. Fishing & Living also congratulates MDPI, our partner NGO in Indonesia, who have also been nominated as a finalist in the Vision Category. See story on MDPI website.

Since 2010, Fishing & Living has be actively involved in fisheries improvement projects (FIPs) as well as community development initatives in fisheries where Anova sources tuna. Concerned with the environmental health of the fisheries they sourced from in Indonesia, Anova partnered with WWF to implement FIPs and began the process of working toward MSC certification of Indonesian Handline Yellowfin tuna and better fishing practices in longline fisheries. Anova’s Fishing & Living team wasn’t satisfied with focusing just on the environmental health of the fisheries. They wanted to help the fishing communities as well. What emerged was a novel approach to sustainability driven by the core tenants of Fishing & Living- that truly sustainable fisheries address not only the environmental aspects of the fishery, but also the local community development and the wellbeing of the fishermen.

As Anova expanded to other tuna fisheries, F&L took the opportunity to adapt its model to the needs of other fisheries. Since 2012, F&L has actively supported the WWF lead Vietnam FIP and in January 2013 F&L started leading the charge towards FIPs in the Pacific Islands. It took on the role of FIP leader for the Cook Islands, providing support in developing FIP Action Plans, improving logbooks and training crews for improved ETP interactions. Plans are currently being made to implement tuna FIPs in the Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Fiji and Mauritius as well.

Anova’s F&L wants to show the seafood industry that concern for the environment and fishing communities is the best route to sustainability.

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What are target and limit reference points?

A Reference Point is a benchmark value that helps managers decide how the fishery is performing and is often based on an indicator such as fishery stock size or the level of fishing. Fisheries scientists conduct a fishery stock assessment to provide estimates of a fishery stock size and fishing mortality over time. Reference Points serve as a standard to compare those estimates based on our understanding of the biological characteristics of the targeted species. Reference points can mark a limit, which represents a level that managers aim to avoid, or a target, which managers strive to achieve and maintain.

Limit Reference Point– similar to a red light. When you approach it, you stop. It is a fishery stock size or level of fishing that managers do not want to reach or exceed. It typically considers only the biological state of the stock.

Target Reference Point– similar to a green light, but more like a bull’s-eye on an archery target. It is a fishery stock size or level of fishing mortality that we aim for. It incorporates biological, ecological, social, and economic considerations. It should never be lower than the Limit Reference Point and should be sufficiently higher to ensure managers have a buffer to account for uncertainty.

What are Harvest Control Rules?

A Harvest Control Rule is a pre-agreed action to be taken by a management body designed to achieve a medium or long-term target reference point while avoiding reaching a limit reference point. Simple Harvest Control Rules can be described as an “if, then” statement. An example of a very simple Harvest Control Rule would be “if the fishery stock level falls below the target level, then the level of fishing must be reduced by 20 percent.” Managers may additionally agree in advance what the specific management actions are to reach that 20 percent reduction in the level of fishing, such as a regional closure or gear restriction.

Why are Harvest Control Rules and reference points important?

Using pre-established Reference Points and Harvest Control Rules minimizes excessive decision debates on allowable catch or effort levels from the complicated annual political negotiation that is currently common, allowing managers to act quickly and decisively when the fishery reaches a pre-defined state (e.g. limit or target reference point).

What is a Harvest strategy?

A Harvest Strategy represents the basic guidelines that stipulate how managers go about setting general harvest levels or allowable fishing levels. The choice of Harvest strategy affects the yield from the fishery and the risk of overfishing. Efforts to define Reference Points and Harvest Control Rules help to clearly inform the Harvest Policy.

Extracted from WWF Fishing within Limits factsheet, 2012

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The 11^th WCPFC annual commission meeting took place on the first week of December (1-5 December). Fishing & Living attended the conference, supporting the adoption of harvest control rules and target reference points for tropical tunas. Fishing & Living is part of 2 industry coalitions (MSC P1 alignment group and SFP Tuna Roundtable) to push for improvements in tuna fisheries management at the regional level. One of these groups activity is to send letters to the WCPFC, requesting for specific improvements and changes to be made to current management measures. These letters can be viewed here and here.

Final WCPFC outcomes were met with frustration, as the five days of negotiations have resulted in little action. With a lack of any substantial positive news, conclusions left a void created by the WCPFC’s failure to manage tuna fisheries to be filled by investors and traders, such as Anova.

Regarding tropical tuna (Skipjack, Bigeye and Yellowfin tunas), the current conversation measures (CMM 2013-01-LINK) was not changed, despite the scientific advice for the need to reduce Bigeye catches by 36%.

This year the PNA put forward a proposal to change CMM 2013-01, the main conservation measure for tropical tuna (Skipjack, Yellowfin, Bigeye tuna). This proposal suggested:

1)      The development of a mechanism to charge for FAD sets instead of the 4^th month of FAD closure

2)      A shift forward of high seas FAD ban to 2016, instead of 2017

3)      A limit on the number of sets per vessel made on FADs

4)      Set a limit at 531days for high seas purse-seine effort

5)      Ban of at-sea transshipment of Longline caught Bigeye

6)      Ban Longline high seas fishing during the FAD closure

7)      A 5% longline observer requirement on the high seas

Opponents to the proposal, consisting mainly of Distant Water Fishing Nations (DWFN), argued that the commission should give a chance for the existing measure to work as the longer FAD closure just began in 2015. Another argument was that the proposal was not science-based and that other issues with the measures should be fixed first such as compliance and loopholes for Small Island Developing States (SIDS) that weaken the overall measure.

A stock assessment for Pacific Bigeye will be conducted in 2015 which will provide a more up-to-date picture of the stock, as the last stock assessment (2014) is based on out-dated data. Bigeye stock status will continue to be a major driving issue in the WCPFC.

Another failed outcomes include the continued ineffective and inefficient practice of having a year to year compliance process (as opposed to a multi-year established process). This also means that the process will remain closed (i.e. not open to observers), which a serious transparency issue that makes it harder to hold violators accountable. WCPFC is the weakest RFMO in this regard.

Other positive outcomes included:

1)      A new shark conservation measure which will require all tuna longliners to either: mot use wire trace as branch lines and leaders OR; not use branch lines running directly off the longline floats or drop lines (known as shark lines)

2)      A basic measure to develop Harvest Control Ruleswas passed, even though no agreement could be reached on setting a Target reference point for Skipjack.

3)      A measure to set up a trial for a “Port Coordinators” program

4)      A FAD management group was established

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At this years Seafood Summit in New Orleans,  Anova’s Fishing  & Living program was awarded for the Seafood Champion Award for Innovation for advancing sustainable fisheries by incorporating community development and the wellbeing of fishers in their work to achieve environmental goals. Through Fishery Improvement Projects and fisher education, Anova is contributing to bringing the Indonesian Handline Yellowfin towards Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certification.

When Anova Food, LLC launched the Fishing & Living (F&L) Initiative in 2010, the core values of the Anova team meant it would be a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) program unlike others. Concerned with the environmental health of the fisheries they sourced from in Indonesia, Anova partnered with WWF to implement FIPs and begin the process of working toward MSC certification of Indonesian Handline Yellowfin tuna and better fishing practices in longline fisheries. Anova’s team wasn’t satisfied with focusing just on the environmental health of the fisheries. They wanted to help the fishing communities as well. What emerged was a novel approach to sustainability driven by the core tenants of Fishing & Living- that truly sustainable fisheries address not only the environmental aspects of the fishery, but also the local community development and the wellbeing of the fishermen.

In a nation like Indonesia, where artisanal fishermen have limited understanding of responsible fishing and how to compete on the global market, the first steps towards MSC involved teaching young men and women from local universities the framework of sustainable and responsible fishing practices. These new “agent of change” were then placed in small villages to train local fishermen and create permanently staffed Fishermen Centers at landing sites.

For a large archipelagic nation, collecting catch statistics in artisanal and remote fisheries such as handline has been one of the greatest challenges to achieve sustainability. Therefore, working with a small USAID grant and Anova’s own funding, F&L took on the task of collecting fishery data in sites nationwide. As a result, F&L brought about a robust and growing supply of accurate and reliable information that is now used by the Indonesian government for fishery management purposes. By taking on this role, F&L became a leader in mobilizing and engaging a range of stakeholders: from fishermen and local suppliers to universities, government and NGOs.

© FairTrade USA

F&L has distinguished itself from other seafood sustainability initiatives through its conviction that fisheries improvements go hand in hand with community development. As result, F&L has implemented social programs directly tied to fishing communities and the marine environment: beach clean-ups, safety-at-sea guidebooks, conservation awareness and alternative livelihood programs. There have also been efforts beyond the water’s edge with donations to local schools and orphanages such as books, sporting equipment, water filtration systems and English classes.

Driven by its vision for improved life in fishing communities, F&L has been actively involved in the development of the first capture fisheries FairTrade standard and setting up a pilot project for its implementation. F&L was key to forming fishermen associations and helping fishermen meeting FairTrade requirements. This project will enable Anova to bring the first FairTrade fish to market. To continue the implementation of this project, F&L is now funding a local NGO (MDPI), a direct result of F&L’s presence in Indonesia. One the outputs of FairTrade for fisherman and their community will be larger financial rewards, to be re-invested in development projects. Further contributing to this aspect, F&L provides handling and quality enhancement trainings, yielding lower spoilage rate and higher incomes.

World Ocean Day

F&L’s has also been a champion of sustainable tuna to Anova’s clients. Given its unique position as the sustainability arm of a seafood company, F&L is changing the seafood appetite of North America to something more sustainable and contributing to aligning market demand with sustainability needs.

As Anova expanded to other tuna fisheries, F&L took the opportunity to adapt its model to the needs of other fisheries. Since 2012, F&L has actively supported the WWF lead Vietnam FIP and in January 2013 F&L started leading the charge towards FIPs in the Pacific Islands. It took on the role of FIP leader for the Cook Islands, developing FIP Action Plans, improving logbooks and training crews for improved ETP interaction. Plans are currently being made to implement tuna FIPs in the Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Fiji and Mauritius as well.

Anova’s F&L wants to show the seafood industry that concern for the environment and fishing communities is the best route to sustainability. It is for pioneering this approach that Anova’s Fishing & Living initiative won the SeaWeb Seafood Champion Award for Innovation.

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