The following statement from the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) is issued in support of the certified PNA Western and Central Pacific skipjack tuna fishery regarding the fishery’s negligible interaction with dolphins.
This fishery, comprising purse seiners setting on unassociated, (non FAD) free schools of skipjack, was found to have successfully met the criteria of the MSC standard in 2011, following a full and independent assessment carried out by Moody Marine Ltd.
The information gathered during in the MSC assessment provides independent and peer reviewed evidence that the purse seine setting on unassociated (non FAD) free schools of the PNA fishery is not targeting, or harming any species of dolphin.
To meet the MSC standard a fishery must be able to demonstrate that it does not put at risk population levels of species caught incidentally (bycatch) including dolphins, other mammals and/or other endangered and threatened species.
In the Public Certification Report, Moody provides evidence from independent observer reports for their conclusion that impacts on dolphins are negligible:
Marine mammals: the observed catches of dolphins and other marine mammals in these fisheries are very low e.g. around 0.0009% for six different dolphin species. (Molony, 2005). The discard rate is very high (over 99%) and post-release survival likely to be high.