The largest producer of tinned tuna in the world, Thai Union, and Global Seafood Assurances (GSA)[1] will take the treatment of workers’ rights on board set out in the Responsible Tuna Fishing standard (APR) of the Spanish tuna fishing fleet as an example to incorporate them in their social certification systems for fishing activities. For this purpose, both organisations have signed a collaboration agreement with AENOR, which currently certifies the 380,000 tonnes of tuna captured by the 47 vessels grouped […]
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Spanish tuna association, AGAC, has asked for its tropical tuna catch to be independently assessed against the rigorous Marine Stewardship Council (the MSC) Fishery Standard. The fishery, Association of Large Tuna Freezers, uses purse seine gear to reach up to 8% of the total catches of yellowfin, bigeye and skipjack tuna from the Indian, Atlantic and Pacific oceans. The fishery has been in a fisheries improvement project for five years, before deciding to enter the MSC’s sustainability assessment. The MSC […]
Leer más →According to a study by Deloitte and released by the European tuna fleet, the major corporate suppliers of Western Pacific-fished canned tuna for European supermarkets are especially lax in watching out for and prosecuting violations of workers’ human rights in their tuna production chain, and their processes include no mechanisms of any kind for identifying modern slavery on board tuna vessels, even though such practices are becoming more and more frequent, especially in Asian fleets. In fact, according to the […]
Leer más →The Spanish tuna fleet, represented by the Organisation of Associated Producers of Large Tuna Freezers (OPAGAC), has signed the Sustainable Ocean Principles, a framework for responsible business practices in the marine environment across all sectors and geographies. The Principles are part of the UN Global Compact, which OPAGAC joined in January 2019, making it the first Spanish fleet to do so. In signing the Sustainable Ocean Principles, OPAGAC, which is a member of the UNGC Action Platform for Sustainable Ocean […]
Leer más →The Spanish tuna fleet united under OPAGAC believes that the time has come for Europe to open a debate and reflect in depth on the criteria the EU has currently established for fish product imports from Chinese fleets, due to the latest information made public by different NGOs and various Asian media outlets, on the degrading treatment of their crews, including burials at sea of sailors who, allegedly, fall victim to COVID-19. The denounced facts occurring on the Chinese ship […]
Leer más →The Indian Ocean’s dolphin populations may have declined by more than 80% since 1950 because of the use of drift gillnets to catch tropical tuna. So says a study[1] conducted by an international group of scientists in which Miguel Herrera, deputy manager of OPAGAC,[2] participated. It estimates that 4.1 million small cetaceans, fundamentally dolphins, were caught in drift gillnets as bycatch between 1950 and 2018. The study concludes that dolphin populations in the Indian Ocean today add up to only […]
Leer más →Last Tuesday in London the Spanish tuna fleet shared its APR sustainable fishing standard (“APR” stands for “Responsibly Fished Tuna” in Spanish), currently the only such standard in operation anywhere in the world that addresses both social and environmental sustainability. It is in fact the social side of the Spanish model that has drawn the attention of over 40 North-American NGOs from the Conservation Alliance for Seafood Solutions, who also want to develop a standard that encompasses the social side […]
Leer más →In June Spanish consumers will be able to buy the first tins of tuna bearing the AENOR Conform Responsibly Fished Tuna seal off Spanish distributors’ shelves, right on schedule according to the forecasts made last October by the Spanish tuna fleet organisation OPAGAC. Garavilla, the canning company that owns the Isabel brand, and Sálica, the canning company that owns the Campos brand, will be the first to offer products with the new seal. End consumers can rely on the seal […]
Leer más →The Spanish tuna fishing fleet has begun the process to assess all its fisheries to the MSC Standard for sustainable fishing, including operations in the three oceans (Pacific, Indian and Atlantic oceans) and for the three species it captures (Yellowfin, Skipjack and Big Eye). The objective of the fleet, grouped under OPAGAC, is to obtain the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certification. Independent auditors from Lloyd’s Register hired by OPAGAC will evaluate its fishing activities according to science-based standards set […]
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