We meet the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) Principles and Criteria for Sustainable Fishing. Our fishery is well managed and sustainable.
AAFA is the first tuna fishery in the world to achieve MSC certification.
In 2007, we were officially certified by the Marine Stewardship Council – MSC, an independent standard-setting organization that ensures fish are caught according to strict methods that avoid overfishing and bycatch (the unintended capture of other fish, seabirds, and marine mammals).
The MSC certification is based on three principles.
- Principle 1 – Sustainable target fish stocks: A fishery must be conducted in a manner that does not lead to over-fishing or depletion of the exploited populations and, for those populations that are depleted, the fishery must be conducted in a manner that demonstrably leads to their recovery.
- Principle 2 – Environmental impact of fishing: Fishing operations should allow for the maintenance of the structure, productivity, function and diversity of the ecosystem (including habitat and associated dependent and ecologically related species) on which the fishery depends.
- Principle 3 Effective management: The fishery is subject to an effective management system that respects local, national and international laws and standards and incorporates institutional and operational frameworks that require use of the resource to be responsible and sustainable.
Measurable results are the name of the game
We became the first tuna fishery in the world to be MSC certified and as a result of that we had a forum to tell the world we were here.
Natalie WebsterDirector of Operations, AAFA
If we want our grandchildren to have tuna on their dinner plates and in the sea, sustainable tuna fishing practices must be adopted
Meredith LopuchCommunity Fisheries Programme Director with WWF-US.