Friend of the Sea certifies Irish troll tuna fishery

According to Dr Bray, director of Friend of the Sea, “several sustainable tuna fisheries have already been approved and products certified. The first one was the Azorean pole and line fishery for skipjack, then came the short bottom lines for yellowfin in Sri Lanka. The Philippines and Senegalese Pole and Line fisheries also got approved recently and we are assessing pole and line fisheries in Brazil, Ghana and the Maldives. Our strong collaboration with the Earth Island Institute Dolphin-Safe project has clearly helped us with earning the trust of the tuna industry.”

The current ICCAT assessment for the North Atlantic albacore stock indicates that the stock recently rebuilt to levels near BMSY. Ireland catches less than 10% of the total - approximately 500t out of the total 36,000t caught in the North Atlantic. Ireland is fully compliant with the specific TAC, having fished approx. 500t in 2007: less than 10% of 2006/7 TAC. The current total allowable catch (TAC) for the Northern albacore stock is 34,500t and reported catches are over the TAC because of over catching of the much bigger Spanish fleet. Friend of the Sea hopes that the approval of the Irish fleet will in turn motivate Spanish fishermen to respect TAC in future years in order to also obtain Friend of the Sea recognition.

Troll fishing uses pelagic gear and does not impact the seabed. Furthermore only artificial lures are used, thus the fishery does not impact other fish stocks for live bait. Trolling targeting tuna is considered to have a low or negligible discard rate. (0,5% from the FAO Discard database – data from tuna troll fisheries in New Zealand, Maldives and Saudi Arabia). Independent auditors which inspected the Irish fishing vessels reported that no bycatch or discards occurred. Observers from BIM (Irish Sea Fisheries Board) are often aboard the vessel during the trip to observe, monitor and advise.