The International Seafood Sustainability Foundation (ISSF) has adopted a new conservation measure requiring the coalition’s participating seafood companies to transparently report against progress in meeting the 5-year goal of the organisation’s new Strategic Plan.

Canned tuna

Canned tuna

ISSF participating tuna companies represent the majority of the world’s canned tuna production

ISSF Conservation Measure 2.5 - Transparency in Reporting Progress Against ISSF Five-Year Goal supports the goal of ISSF’s 2023-2037 Strategic Plan, “Continuously Improving Global Tuna Fishery Sustainability”, which states: “By the end of 2027, all tuna fisheries from which ISSF participating companies source can meet and maintain the MSC certification standard or there is a clear roadmap and timeline in place to meet this standard that is underpinned by the best-available science.”

Conservation Measure 2.5 was adopted on 19 April 2023 and is the newest addition to the organisation’s 33 independently audited measures. The first reporting deadline for the measure is March 2024.

“We are pleased that our Strategic Plan includes an explicit, timebound goal for the first time in ISSF’s history,” ISSF President Susan Jackson said. “Our newest conservation measure takes that concept one step further by verifying company-by-company reporting of progress in meeting that goal.”

Jackson continued: “ISSF participating companies walk the talk on transparency in their commitments, and this new measure that aligns company operations to our strategic target is no exception. We look forward to sharing the results of the independent audit of company conformance with this measure in next year’s edition of our Annual Conservation Measures & Commitments Compliance Report — a consistent and accessible resource for stakeholders seeking greater transparency in global tuna fisheries.”

The new measure states, to support ISSF in tracking progress towards its Strategic Plan’s five-year goal, seafood processors, traders, importers, transporters, marketers and other industry stakeholders will commit to publish by 15 March 2024, and update annually thereafter the percentage of their tuna purchases sourced from each of these categories:

  • Fisheries certified against the then-current MSC Standard and eligible to use the MSC label
  • Comprehensive fishery improvement projects (FIPs) that have made progress within the past 36 months or are in their initial year of listing
  • Comprehensive FIPs that have not made progress in the prior 36 months but have been publicly listed for less than 5 years
  • Fisheries that have entered full assessment for MSC certification but have not been in a publicly listed comprehensive FIP
  • None of the above

A. A roadmap and timeline to increase the percentage of their purchases from fisheries certified against the then current MSC Standard and eligible to use the MSC label

B. A roadmap and timeline to decrease the percentage of their purchases from Comprehensive FIPs that have been publicly listed for less than 5 years but have not achieved progress in more than 36 months

C. A roadmap and timeline to decrease the percentage of their purchase from the “none of the above” category

D. Disclosures made by ISSF participating companies under this conservation measure will satisfy the disclosures required for the exemption in paragraph 3 of ISSF CM2.4

ISSF participating tuna companies, which represent the majority of the world’s canned tuna production and include well-known brand names, are audited yearly by MRAG Americas on their compliance with ISSF conservation measures.

The April 2023 ISSF Annual Conservation Measures & Commitments Compliance Report showed a conformance rate of 99.75% by 25 ISSF participating companies in 2022.

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