A non-government organization and a fishing company in Fiji in the South Pacific join efforts to carry out a new pilot project on satellite technology intended to encourage legal and transparent fishing operations.
This project — developed by World Wide Fund (WWF) in cooperation with tuna fishing and processing company Sea Quest consists in installing Automatic Identification System (AIS) transmitters on the firm’s tuna fishing vessels to demonstrate full transparency of its fishing operations.
This firm has had six AIS transmitters activated the whole day on the long-line albacore tuna fishing vessels since June this year, sending signals to the WWF database for the NGO to retrace the routes and activities of these vessels in order to ensure that boundaries of sensitive areas and no take zones are respected.
“Our cooperation shows that this MSC-certified tuna fishery is willing to make their fishing operations fully transparent, stated Alfred Schumm, WWF’s Smart Fishing Initiative Leader. I hope that the Sea Quest project will become a global example of how to make fishing transparent, and that it will trigger other companies to join us aboard.
Brett Haywood, owner of 200-employee firm Sea Quest, considers that the installation of this type of technology makes it possible for them to ensure safety and transparency of compliance with fishing areas are being addressed.
Other issues like illegal fishing, barcoding of fish, electronic monitoring of fisheries as well as satellite monitoring need to be part of a larger framework to be addressed through regulatory measures, the executive pointed out.
Haywood thinks the Maritime Safety Authority of Fiji may consider the implementation of AIS compulsory use on all Fiji flagged vessels so as to increase vessel safety at sea.
Sea Quest’s fishing vessels perform fishing activities using a selective, sustainable long line method and all fisheries in the Economic Exclusive fishing Zones (EEZ) of the waters of the country comply with Marine Stewardship Certification (MSC) standards. The company exports tuna mainly to the US and Japan and newly upcoming markets such as the EU, New Zealand and Australia.
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