Skipjack fishermen plan to hold off until 2014 to switch to MSC

Pacifical, the brand set up to trade MSC certified skipjack tuna, is putting pressure on fishermen in the Parties of the Nauru Agreement (PNA) skipjack fishery to convert to Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certified practices, but the World Wildlife Fund's (WWF) vice president of fisheries Bill Fox fears it may be a losing battle.

The PNA fishery, which supplies 25 percent of the world’s tuna resource, became MSC certified in December of last year but has yet to actually produce any certified skipjack due to its lack of chain of custody (COC) certification.

Fishermen