‘The Decision: A Tuna Fishery’s Quest for Sustainability’ shows how Echebastar became the world’s first large scale tuna fishery using fish aggregating devices to achieve Marine Stewardship Council certification.
“Being sustainable is a decision,” said Kepa Echevarria, chief executive of the family-owned business. “You can decide to do it, or you can decide not to do it… but to do it is the only way.”
Little did he know that he and his fishery would have to spend the next 12 years on one of the longest and hardest journeys of his life, innovating and reshaping his fishery before it could be classed as certified sustainable.
It took Echebastar two certification attempts to pass all twenty-eight of the assessment criteria and reach the ‘global best practice levels’ needed to meet the MSC’s Fisheries Standard for environmental sustainability.
What made the quest particularly arduous was the fishery’s use of drifting FADs, a controversial technique which has been linked to destructive practices such as bycatch of threatened species and environmental damage.
The film shows how the fishery has transformed, using more biodegradable materials and eschewing entangling nets and reducing bycatch.
“People really didn’t believe that fishing on FADs could be done in a sustainable way… a FAD fishery had never been certified before,” said Alberto Martín, senior fisheries outreach manager at the MSC.
“When a fishery such as Echebastar gains certification they also engage into a huge commitment of improvements.”
