World: Progress on harvest strategies urgently needed to safeguard tuna stocks

Progress on harvest strategies urgently needed to safeguard tuna stocks in the Western Central Pacific. The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) is calling on member governments of the Western Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC) to pass important conservation management measures for tuna stocks at the 19th Regular Session of the Commission, taking place in Da Nang, Vietnam from 27 November to 03 December. These measures will safeguard the long-term sustainability of the world’s most important tuna stocks by committing fishing nations to pre-agreed actions to safeguard tuna stocks should they ever decline below sustainable levels. Progress on agreeing harvest strategies is increasingly critical to the ongoing certification of these fisheries to the MSC’s global standard for sustainable fishing. A lack of progress in delivering workplans for the implementation of harvest strategies is eroding the rationale for tuna fisheries in the Western Central Pacific Ocean (WCPO) meeting ...