America's Pacific Island Summit: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

On September 28-29, the United States hosted its first-ever Pacific Islands Summit at the White House. Pacific Island leaders and observers, hailing from over a dozen states, participated in the event and signed an eleven-point “Declaration on U.S.-Pacific Partnership” in which they pledged to jointly tackle various challenges such as climate change, economic growth and sustainable development, maritime security, and the pandemic. This historic summit was hardly an absolute success, however, and should be put within its proper context. Indeed, there were good, bad, and even ugly takeaways that hold significant implications for American strategy in the region going forward. Continue reading here (Source: The Diplomat).

Pacifical Becomes First Seafood Industry Platform to Pass the New GDST Capacility Test

Pacifical has become the first seafood industry platform to pass the new Global Dialogue on Seafood Traceability’s (GDST) capability test.

GDST was established in 2017 as an international platform to create the first global seafood traceability standards. The new capability test verifies if software or online platforms can deliver on promises of GDST compatibility.

Pacifical is a global tuna market development company created to handle the distribution and marketing of Marine Stewardship Council-certified skipjack and yellowfin tuna caught in the exclusive economic zones of the countries belonging to the Parties to the Nauru Agreement. In 2013, Pacifical piloted blockchain technology that enabled full tuna traceability and catch verification. The result in 2021 was a partnership with GDST to beta pilot Pacifical’s IT system called SmarTuna with GDST’s capability test. Continue reading here (Source: SeafoodSource).

ISSF Publishes Position Statement for Tuna Meeting

ISSF publishes position statement for tuna meeting. The International Seafood Sustainability Foundation (ISSF) has published its position statement in advance of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) annual meeting November 14-21, 2022. ISSF is advocating for action to ensure that bigeye and yellowfin tuna stocks are maintained at sustainable levels.

ISSF also is pushing for expanded FAD management measures, adoption of harvest strategies for western and eastern Atlantic bluefin tuna, stronger management and mitigation measures for sharks, and the development of standards for electronic monitoring and reporting to support more comprehensive observer coverage for Atlantic tuna fisheries. Continue reading here (Source: Fish Focus).

Sustainable Fishing and Logging Remain A Key Objective of APEC

Underlined as essential to the priority of ‘Balance’ in the APEC theme for 2022 of “Open.Connect.Balance.” by host Thailand has been sustainability, or ensuring that economic practices carried out by the cooperation can be maintained into the future.

Two matters highlighted as pertinent to sustainability by Thailand this year were fishing and logging, major and important facets of the Asia-Pacific economy that are immensely dependent on natural resources. Continue reading here (Source: Bangkok Post).

Alcampo Launches Sustainable Own-Brand Tuna In Spain

Auchan’s Spanish subsidiary, Alcampo, has launched sustainable canned tuna certified by the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) under its private-label brand in Spain.

The skipjack tuna originates from the Indian Ocean and is caught by the Basque fishing company Pesqueras Echebastar, which earned its sustainable fishing certification in 2018.

The fleet consists of six purse-seiner ships that land the tuna in the Seychelles islands and elsewhere in the Indian Ocean. Continue reading here (Source: European Supermarket News).