Indian Ocean Albacore Tuna Longline FIP
Overview
The Indian Ocean Albacore Tuna Longline FIP aims to improve fishing practices for longline vessels operating in the Indian Ocean that land albacore and supply Bumble Bee Foods. Bumble Bee sources albacore tuna from these vessels through the Taiwanese-founded company FCF Fishery Company, Ltd. (FCF), who acts as a broker for the fishing vessels, with Bumble Bee exporting the product to North American markets. While the target stock is healthy and management is well-document and well-implemented, the fishery lacks explicit harvest control rules and harvest strategies, which are fundamental tools to limit the risk of overfishing. Additionally, the fishery lacks independent observers, electronic monitoring, and qualitative information about bycatch, making the fishery’s effects on the surrounding ecosystem difficult to assess.
What We're Doing:
- Convening fishery stakeholders to generate support, participation, and funding, including matching funds and in-kind contributions, for improvement efforts.
- Reviewing and updating a 2018 pre-assessment of the fishery to identify priority environmental challenges, including a lack of information about fishery interactions with endangered, threatened, or protected (ETP) species.
- Developing a FIP workplan to address the concerns found during the pre-assessment and pre-assessment update.
Project News and Additional Resources:
Fishery Improvement Project Information:
| FIP Status: | Prospective FIP (tracked fully on FisheryProgress.org) |
| Project Launch: | January 2019 |
| Location: | Indian Ocean |
| Participants: | Ocean Outcomes, Bumble Bee Foods, LLC, FCF Fishery Company, Ltd. |
| Species: | Albacore tuna (Thunnus alalunga) |
| Gear Type: | Longline |
| Volume: | To be determined as FIP develops. |