MSC pre-assessment made available

Project participants confirmed

Workplan made public

The FIP ent ICCAT advocacy letters on behalf of the FIP to all flag states and the RFMO detailing our asks and needs of for our fishery to move towards MSC assessment ahead of the upcoming annual meeting November 2024.

The FIP is developing a plan to address the quality and quantity of data recorded via the EM system. 

The FIP met with the Southern Seabirds Trust and has committed through a signed NDA with them, FCF and the Taiwan Wild bird Federation have jointly launched a port-based project aimed at conducting onboard interviews and visits to understand the seabird mitigation measures and their practices onboard, while providing the most timely guidance. 

FCF published its 2024 vol.1 engagement letter with the FCF supply chain, this details the specific initiatives related to sustainability include EM, waste management, and bait management.

The FIP has implemented a waste management policy that aims to mitigate the impacts of ghost gear fishing. 

The FIP is engaging with SharkGuard in an effort to participate in a pilot study to reduce shark interactions through SharkGuard technology.

The FIP hosted a training workshop with ISSF that focused on managing bycatch in longline fisheries, emphasizing MSC principles and ISSF on conservation measures. 

The FIP sent a position statement ahead of the 2023 ICAAT virtual meeting.

A waste management policy has been implemented across several FIP vessels in an effort to mitigate impacts due to ghost gear/ gear abandonment.

The FIP has begun to conduct data analysis from the information obtained from EMS onboard vessels. 

The FIP met with the Taiwanese Fishery Authority (TFA) and the Overseas Fisheries Development Council (OFDC) to discuss their involvement with FIPs and MSC, as well as human and electronic observer data and integrating data from existing EM systems.

The FIP has sent a letter to the Namibian authorities to collaborate on improving management scores. 

The FIP continues to install EMS onboard vessels

The FIP has published their ETP management strategy

The FIP has updated its Fins Naturally Attached policy which highlights and clarifies that shark finning in the fishery is prohibited and sharks must be landed with their fins naturally attached.

A skipper training was organized by Key Traceability in which skippers were trained on species IDs, best practices and mitigation techniques, appropriate data collection methods, electronic monitoring and waste management; 4 skippers in total were trained. 

The FIP's position statement has been circulated to the flag states ahead of the November 2022 ICCAT meeting

The FIP has received updated observer data from 2016-2020; no main species are recorded.

The FIP continues to work with TNC on a bulk procurement of EMS that will be implemented fleet-wide; this progress is ongoing. 

The FIP has hosted two separate meetings in April 2022 to improve engagement with the stakeholders and fishers within the FIP.

FIP reported vessels implementing FCF Tuna Sustainability policy 

The FIP has completed an external review of the new Panamanian Fishing Law.

A bycatch handling checklist has been developed and distributed across the FIP to inform if all vessels have the required equipment to carry our best practices of ETP management.

PSA has been conducted for bait species; the fleet has been found to use North Pacific saury and Japanese sardine. 

The FIP is collecting fishery specific catch data using a catch data template; catch data requests have been sent to flag states to obtain histotic observer data. 

FIP has sent advocacy letters to ICCAT to all flag states and the RFMO 

Increase to PI 2.3.3; EM data demonstrates that the fishery is highly selective with target species making up the majority of the catch. Limited ETP species were identified within the catch.

The FIP has produced an ETP policy that requires that sharks be landed with fins naturally attached. 

The first bigeye ICCAT stock assessment has been made available