Last updated: 28 June 2008

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Fishery species

Clam (Meretric lyrata)

MSC assessment status

The certification body, Moody Marine Ltd., has announced that the Ben Tre Clam fishery is now entering the information gathering phase of the assessment. The primary objective of this stage is to collect information on the fishery and in particular speak to representatives of the fishery, fishery management bodies and other stakeholder of the fishery. Meetings will be carried out over the period 31st July – 4th August 2008.

Any stakeholder with information on this fishery that should be considered in the assessment, or who wishes to meet with Moody Marine, should contact Dr Andy Hough.

Please see the assessment download section for a copy of the document.

The assessment will evaluate the fishery for compliance with the MSC’s Standard for well-managed and sustainable fisheries through the point of the first draft of the assessment report.

The assessment will use newly developed methodological guidance based on a precautionary risk assessment approach, to compensate for lack of information. The MSC will use this report and reports from other assessments of small scale and data deficient fisheries in this project to evaluate the new approach and to inform a decision on future adoption of the guidance as a component of the MSC’s assessment process.

This fishery is also undergoing a parallel assessment using the 'conventional' MSC assessment methodology. Please refer to the MSC Fisheries in Assessment pages for further information.

Fishery management

The Fishery is located in the Ben Tre Province, Vietnam and is managed on national and provincial levels. At a national level, the Ministry of Fisheries sets regulations such as limiting the amount of area in which clam management and harvesting is permitted etc. At Provincial level, the Fisheries Department of ben Tre sets by-laws controlling minimum landing size, equipment restrictions etc. Within the Ben Tre province, clams are managed in three coastal districts of Binh Dai, Ba Tri and Thanh Phu.