During the initial conceptual steering committee meeting of the Tuna Champions program it was identified, and supported by marketing specialists, to focus on a single species, in this case the SBT. If this was done well, it would minimise dilution of the messaging and improve the uptake and momentum of increased stewardship in that particular fishery. It was noted however that the messages would likely ‘spill over’ into other species, particularly other tuna species as the practices being promoted were applicable to them. Then further, that the messaging and recognition of the value of stewardship as it relates to recreational fishing practices would spill over more broadly to other species. This effect has now been realised with fishers that target other tuna species already organically sharing and promoting the message of tuna champions and more broadly, several other recreational stewardship programs have been developed or are currently in the funding or conceptual phases including Shark Mates, Snapper Stewards and a program in Tasmania promoting stewardship in the recreational fishery targeting Sand Flathead.

The recent recognition by the Federal Government of the success of the Tuna Champions program was highlighted in the commitment to fund an extension of the program announced with the launch of the 2021 Federal budget.

This funding will facilitate the need to broaden the program to the next level by increasing the scope of the project to now focus on more key tuna species in Australia, including Yellowfin Tuna and Longtail Tuna. The geographic distribution of these species and the recreational fisheries that target them will increase the breadth of the program across Australia with both these species commonly caught on the east and west coasts and Longtail Tuna caught along the top-end of Australia, including the Northern Territory.

After discussions with MSC, ASBTIA applied for MSC and completed the pre-assessment (ACDR) for SBT caught in the Great Australian Bight (GAB) for farming. An approved CAB, Marine Resources and Assessment Group (MRAG) completed the ACDR (attached) and identified three possible challenges to certification. First was that the MSC Standard requires the product to be “landed.” This was resolved because SBT caught for farming is officially deemed “landed” by AFMA and CCSBT. Second was the SBT listing under the EPBC Act 1999 – the same problem faced by Orange Roughy East (ORE). ASBTIA has applied to the Australian Minister for Environment for SBT to be delisted in 2021.

Another major problem is that the MSC Standard requires the SBT stock to be “at least an 80% probability that the true status of the stock is higher than the point at which there is an appreciable risk of recruitment being impaired” (MSC Standard SA2.2.1.1 and SA2.2.1.2). The Standard notes that: “Where proxy indicators and reference points are used to score Principle 1 (Pl 1.1.1), the team shall justify their use as reasonable proxies of stock biomass for the PRI and/or MSY.” The Standard also notes that “The recent trends in fishing mortality rate may be used as a means of scoring stock status.” (SA2.2.4). Currently the CCSBT MP is tuned to a 70% probability of rebuilding the stock to the interim rebuilding target reference point of 20% of the original spawning stock biomass by 2035, which does not meet the MSC Standards.

As soon as this problem was identified by MRAG in the ACDR – ASBTIA had detailed discussions with AWE and CSIRO on how this barrier could be overcome. The view that SBT could not pass the MSC Principle 1 without this being resolved was then supported by the ISSF analysis in February 2021 (see www.iss-foundation.org) CSIRO noted that the problem could be addressed by a project – but that it required use of data and analysis which evolved from the meetings of the CCSBT Extended Scientific Committee (ESC) but were not published or used in the ESC annual Reports (see www.ccsbt.org)