Indonesian and Korean tuna longline fleets fail FOS certification

Seventeen Indonesian longline vessels fishing for yellow fin tuna in the Indian Ocean have been audited, and were found to be non-conforming with the Friend of the Sea sustainability requirements, reports www.megafishnet.com with reference to Friend of the Sea.

The major Korean tuna longline fleet has also been audited and several FOS non-conformities were raised.

In both cases the vessels had no independent onboard observer program. Therefore, no reliable data was available about the level and quality of discards or the implementation of any appropriate seabirds and endangered species by catch reduction method.

The practice of shark fining of up to 5.000 sharks per fishing trip has been confirmed in some of the Korean vessels. This includes the killing of endangered shark species (64 of which are on the IUCN Red list).

"It's a shame that marine species risk of extinction for a bowl of soup." comments Paolo Bray, the Executive Director of Friend of the Sea "President Obama has taken an important step by signing the Shark Conservation Act in January of this year. Other countries should now follow his example."
 

For more information, please contact:

Executive Director - Mr Paolo Bray
Friend of the Sea
Tel: +39 348 565 0306
Email: paolobray@friendofthesea.org
http: www.friendofthesea.org