Page 34 - IB April 2023

Fishing Industry Association of Papua New Guinea Tuna Purse

Seine Vessels Achieve FISH Standard for Crew Certification

Certification is First for FISH in the Western Central Pacific Region

On 22 February 2023, working & living conditions;
another milestone was in addition to having a
achieved by the Fishing comprehensive traceability
Industry Association of Papua system that includes several
New Guinea (FIA PNG), social accountability Key Data
its members and associates Elements (KDEs) that support
regarding social accountability the FISH standard for Crew
and human rights of crews certification and increase
onboard its fishing vessels. our transparency. Our FIA
Independent and third-party PNG fishing and processing
recognition was granted to companies comply with the
FIA under the FISH Standard Global Dialogue on Seafood
certification for Crew welfare Traceability (GDST) KDEs
and safety onboard fishing too.
vessel. By 2020, FIA PNG developed
After extensive policy and its Social Accountability and
procedure review, on-site Crew Welfare procedure and
vessel inspections, and face- audit tools with a holistic
to-face interviews of staff, approach to preparing its
captains, and crew members, Sylvester Pokajam, President & Chairman of the PNG Fishing Industry Association speaking to the local media about fleet, crew awareness, and
SGS auditors (www.sgsgroup. the FISH standard certification. crew conditions onboard for
com) awarded the FIA PNG this recognition. Mr Pokajam
tuna purse seiners FISH certification. The FIA PNG vessels are owned stated that, “It has been a journey of almost 4 years, it was not easy. FIA
by member companies; Trans-Pacific Journey Fishing Corp, Bluecatch (PNG) is glad and proud to see our members cooperated with our office
Corporation, TSP Marine Industries, Domingo Teng, Frabelle Fishing to have improved services. Our local PNG national crews and Filipino
Corporation and Starcki Venture Corporation. crews are now getting the benefits of awareness, decent working and
FISH stands for: Fairness, Integrity, Safety and Health for crews. living conditions onboard where their welfare and safety are being met.
It was developed to assure seafood buyers that the fish they are buying Even though, some issues of performances of recruitment agencies are
and selling is harvested by crews that are: needed to be reviewed but it is work in progress.”
1. Recruited and hired ethically He further added that, “Globally, retailers can share and verify our
2. Treated with respect on the vessel performances as the leader in the Pacific Region and the first tuna fleet
3. Paid properly globally to get this recognition of FISH certification. We at the FIA
4. Have processes to address grievances, etc. Office have three auditors that have already been doing trainee work,
This is the result of a long due diligence process that started in 2018 auditing our members’ fleet”.
with the development of FIA PNG Responsible Sourcing Policy (RSP) Mr Pokajam acknowledged and appreciated the support of the
commitment. Later in 2019, Seafoodmatter carried out the first onboard National Fisheries Authority through financial and technical to help
assessment of Crew welfare and Social Responsibility (Seafoodmatter increase the awareness at the national level.
labor benchmark tool) on Frabelle Fishing Corporation purse seiners This is just the beginning, the hardest part just started, we must ensure
and carrier. that these conditions are maintained in every single tuna purse seiner
“We are proud to be the first to attain FISH certification in our of our FIA PNG members which are more than 45 tuna purse seiners.
region. The fourth pillar of FIA PNG’s Responsible Sourcing Policy is We are working and building capacity with internal auditors to deploy
crew welfare, an area we have worked hard on for a number of years them soon.
implementing policies and practices across our member companies while Mr Pokajam appeals to relevant Government authorities to assist in
partnering with outside experts to identify best practices,” said Sylvester ratifying some of the international obligations that PNG is a party to.
Pokajam, FIA PNG’s President & Chairman. “FISH certification, whose In this case, the ILO Convention 188. The objectives of the Convention
audits have worked to further improve our practices, was the next logical were to ensure that fishers have decent conditions of work on board,
step in our journey. This independent process demonstrates we have conditions of services rendered, accommodation and food, occupational
achieved, and maintain, the highest levels of performance with respect safety and health protection, medical care and social security. It is
to crew treatment, compensation and onboard conditions.” applied to all fishers and fishing vessels engaged in commercial fishing
According to Mr Pokajam, “Our RSP is an assurance model based operations. This ratification will no doubt give the necessary impetus
on first, second, and third-party audits, verified by regional and and additional recognition to this initiative that FIA PNG has embarked
national agencies inspecting different areas related to our crew’s decent on.

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