MELBOURNE, Australia, Feb. 3, 2016 /MANGO/ — Imagine a world without fish: John West Australia, WWF-Australia (WWF) and the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC), today announce that they have come together to make the single biggest brand commitment, to help end unsustainable fishing methods within the canned tuna industry in Australia, thanks to Pacifical, supplied by the world’s largest sustainable tuna purse seine fishery, controlled by the PNA (Parties to the Nauru Agreement).
The alliance with WWF, Pacifical and MSC is the result of years of the entities working together to find a way to overhaul John West’s supply standards within Australia, moving towards a more sustainable future for the world’s oceans.
WWF Australia CEO, Dermot O’Gorman, says, “Our oceans are in crisis due to a history of mismanagement by humanity. As a result of a collaborative effort by WWF, Pacifical, MSC and John West, Australians will now see over 100 million cans of clearly labelled Pacifical MSC certified sustainably sourced tuna in supermarkets. The magnitude of this – affecting a huge 43% of Australia’s canned tuna – makes this a world first. Sustainability in Australia has just taken a mighty step forward thanks to the leadership of John West Australia.”
“MSC is the world’s most credible sustainability standard for wild caught fish, a process which requires independent third party auditors to evaluate a fishery’s performance against the most robust sustainability standards available globally”, O’Gorman said.
The MSC certified skipjack tuna is being sourced from the world’s largest sustainable purse seine fishery Pacifical, controlled by the PNA (Parties to the Nauru Agreement). The 8 Pacific Island nations united within the PNA are world leaders in tuna conservation and management with many global firsts such as high seas closures to fishing, observers on 100% of purse seine fishing vessels, fishing day restrictions and the certification of its FAD-Free purse seine skipjack as MSC Sustainable in 2011. 50% of the world’s supply of skipjack tuna is controlled by PNA.
Populations of fish species utilised by humans have fallen by half, however Australia’s leading tuna brand is confident its position will aid in bringing awareness to the issue on a global scale.
John West Executive Director – Commercial, Graham Dugdale, says, “In 2012, we pledged that by the end of 2015, John West Australia would only source purse seine caught skipjack tuna caught using independently verified FADFree methods. After three years of extensive research, close collaboration with our supply network, Pacifical, MSC and WWF, I am proud to announce that this target has been met and exceeded. Not only are we sourcing FAD free but we have made sure it is MSC certified sustainable and completely traceable from ocean to can.”
MSC Asia Pacific Director, Patrick Caleo, says, “This is the largest offering of MSC labelled canned tuna in the world.
By completely transforming their supply chain to source from the MSC certified PNA fishery, John West is leading the way to help ensure our oceans stay healthy and teeming with life for generations to come. We are proud to be alongside John West as they make this significant change and congratulate them on this monumental move to help keep our oceans healthy.”
“Our commitment extends much further and aims not only to educate, but also ingrain this perspective. We must position ocean sustainability as the ‘norm’ and only option moving forward,” says Dugdale.
Henk Brus, Managing Director of Pacifical and Maurice Brownjohn, Commercial Director of the PNA office jointly state, “We congratulate John West for their commitment and decision to become actively and intensively involved in the trade of their sustainable MSC certified Pacifical Wild Tuna. Safeguarding that this fish is caught in the most responsible, social accountable and ethical way, and ensuring local PNA people benefit to the maximum extend from their own valuable resource, their principal source of income.”
2016 will see John West, WWF, Pacifical and MSC continue to lead this groundbreaking movement to ensure our oceans are healthy, forever.