South Pacific Albacore and Western and Central Pacific Yellowfin Tuna Longline FIP
Overview
This project was initially developed and implemented by Ocean Outcomes and is now managed and maintained by Key Traceability. View current and any additional project information on the Key Traceability website.
The South Pacific Albacore and Western and Central Pacific Yellowfin Tuna Longline FIP aims to improve fishing practices for longline vessels operating in the Pacific Ocean that land albacore in Fiji and supply Bumble Bee Foods. Bumble Bee sources albacore tuna from these vessels through the Taiwanese-founded company FCF Fishery Company, Ltd. (FCF), much of which is canned and exported to North American markets. While the fishery’s target stocks are healthy and management is well-document and well-implemented, the fishery lacks independent observers, electronic monitoring, qualitative information about bycatch, and explicit harvest control rules and harvest strategies which are fundamental tools used to limit the risk of overfishing. This FIP is one of two projects between Bumble Bee, FCF and O2 focused on ensuring sustainable Chinese and Chinese Taipei longline fisheries; the other is for longline vessels in the Indian Ocean. The goal of both FIPs is to achieve a certifiable status by mid-2024.
What We're Doing:
- Convening fishery stakeholders to generate support, participation, and funding, including matching funds and in-kind contributions, for improvement efforts.
- Reviewing and updating a 2017 pre-assessment of the fishery to identify priority environmental challenges, including a lack of information about fishery interactions with endangered, threatened, or protected (ETP) species.
- Developing a FIP workplan to address the concerns found during the pre-assessment and pre-assessment update.
- Expanding coverage electronically to participating FIP vessels which will support effective fisheries management practices through better data collection, to be used to monitor fisheries, assess fish populations, and inform science-based management for target, bycatch and threatened species at the regional level.
- Working with the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission, which oversees the management of tuna regionally, to develop and implement robust and precautionary harvest strategies which are responsive to statuses of target stocks, including best practice harvest control rules to reduce exploitation rate as needed.
Project News and Additional Resources:
- MSC Pre-Assessment Report Bumble Bee Seafoods albacore and yellowfin longline tuna
- Scoping Document and Initial Workplan: South Pacific Albacore and Western and Central Pacific Yellowfin Tuna Longline Fishery Improvement Project
- Ocean Outcomes Expanding Portfolio of Tuna Work Across Northeast Asia
- Training Tuna Vessel Owners on Best Practices in Fiji and Taiwan
- New Tuna FIP to Drive Improvements on Hundreds of Chinese and Chinese Taipei Longline Vessels
- Bumble Bee Foods and FCF Partner with Ocean Outcomes to Improve Longline Tuna Fisheries
Fishery Improvement Project Information:
| FIP Status: | Comprehensive FIP (tracked fully on FisheryProgress.org) |
| Project Launch: | January 2019 |
| Location: | South Pacific Ocean |
| Participants: | Ocean Outcomes, Key Traceability, Bumble Bee Foods, LLC, FCF Fishery Company, Ltd., Clover Leaf Seafoods |
| Species: | Albacore tuna (Thunnus alalunga), Yellowfin tuna (Thunnus albacares) |
| Gear Type: | Longline |
| Volume: | 15,000 metric tons |
| Documents: | Pre-assessment / Scoping Document / Workplan |