Washington, DC – 08/11/2010 – The Pew Environment Group today criticized a proposal asking the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) to certify as sustainable a fishery that threatens vulnerable marine species including bluefin tuna, blue marlin, short-fin mako sharks and loggerhead and leatherback sea turtles.
Day Boat Seafood, a wholesaler, has applied to the MSC in hopes that the independent seafood certification organization will put its “sustainable” label on swordfish, yellowfin and bigeye tuna caught on surface longlines in the waters off northeast Florida. An MSC label on fish acts as a marketing tool that can increase sales of the product. If the MSC certifies this fishery, other companies similar to Day Boat can catch swordfish, bigeye and yellowfin tuna on surface longlines in this particular region and also could have their fish certified as “sustainable.”
Surface longline boats set hundreds of hooks on lines that stretch up to 40 miles. This indiscriminate fishing gear catches and kills thousands of other animals, including threatened and endangered sea turtles, and iconic fish such as bluefin tuna, white marlin and sailfish. Longline fishermen are prohibited from keeping many of these animals, so they throw them back into the ocean. Many of them die. Even many of the target swordfish and tuna are tossed overboard – dead or dying – because they are too small.
Read the complete story from The PEW Charitable Trusts.