Page 35 - IB April 2023

Fisheries

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 FISH SURVEYS IN YOUR POCKET
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 By Sera Tikotikovatu-Sefeti species identification; reports and outputs are developed to
vessel inspections, and face- audit tools with a holistic facilitate the analysis and provide feedback to stakeholders,”
to-face interviews of staff, approach to preparing its The era of filling out paper forms, mountains of paperwork, he said.
captains, and crew members, Sylvester Pokajam, President & Chairman of the PNG Fishing Industry Association speaking to the local media about fleet, crew awareness, and and cabinets full of documents containing fish catch surveys Ikasavea was originally launched in 2020 but now there is a
SGS auditors (www.sgsgroup. the FISH standard certification. crew conditions onboard for could be nearing an end with the increased uptake of the push to increase its usage.
com) awarded the FIA PNG this recognition. Mr Pokajam Ikasavea app. Thanks to the advance in technology, this app has collected
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 The Pacific Community (SPC) developed the app in response more data than in the past through e-reporting, according to
Corporation, TSP Marine Industries, Domingo Teng, Frabelle Fishing to have improved services. Our local PNG national crews and Filipino to concerns about the lack of a central repository for storing the team at SPC.
Corporation and Starcki Venture Corporation. crews are now getting the benefits of awareness, decent working and and retrieving catch surveys. Ikasavea enables users to enter SPC Senior Coastal Fisheries Scientist, Dr. Andrew Halford,
FISH stands for: Fairness, Integrity, Safety and Health for crews. living conditions onboard where their welfare and safety are being met. and analyse survey data collected from vendors’ market and is leading training in use of the app with stakeholders across
It was developed to assure seafood buyers that the fish they are buying Even though, some issues of performances of recruitment agencies are roadside stalls. the region.
and selling is harvested by crews that are: needed to be reviewed but it is work in progress.” According to SPC Coastal Fisheries Information and Da- “Currently, fisheries officers from 12 countries and territo-
1. Recruited and hired ethically He further added that, “Globally, retailers can share and verify our tabase Manager, Franck Magron, “The app was designed to ries are using the application and the web modules for various
2. Treated with respect on the vessel performances as the leader in the Pacific Region and the first tuna fleet facilitate a major improvement in the ability to collect badly types of surveys.
3. Paid properly globally to get this recognition of FISH certification. We at the FIA needed data on coastal fisheries catches across the region.” “Training and support for use of the application continue to
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”. The app, which is available on Android devices, supports be rolled out to other countries and territories as requested,”
with the development of FIA PNG Responsible Sourcing Policy (RSP) Mr Pokajam acknowledged and appreciated the support of the surveys of fish and invertebrates for sale at the market, at the Halford said.
commitment. Later in 2019, Seafoodmatter carried out the first onboard National Fisheries Authority through financial and technical to help wharf or on the beach, landing surveys, catch and percep- By 2022, there were more than 5200 market stalls and 1900
assessment of Crew welfare and Social Responsibility (Seafoodmatter increase the awareness at the national level. tion surveys with communities, and socio-economic surveys, fishing trips (landing) surveys across the region. Penetration
labor benchmark tool) on Frabelle Fishing Corporation purse seiners This is just the beginning, the hardest part just started, we must ensure Magron added. and further improvements are expected to increase with the
and carrier. that these conditions are maintained in every single tuna purse seiner Users can enter data straight from their tablets or smart- training of more fisheries officers. The app continues to be
“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. phones, without the hindrance of paperwork. The app can improved through feedback from users and other facilitators
region. The fourth pillar of FIA PNG’s Responsible Sourcing Policy is We are working and building capacity with internal auditors to deploy also be accessed offline and synced at a later time with the of data collection.
crew welfare, an area we have worked hard on for a number of years them soon. web database. Halford adds: “The application is mainly for fisheries au-
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. According to Magron, the app ensures that “data is avail- thorities in the region but is open to NGOs and the academic
Pokajam, FIA PNG’s President & Chairman. “FISH certification, whose In this case, the ILO Convention 188. The objectives of the Convention able to fisheries officers immediately after synchronisation. world.
audits have worked to further improve our practices, was the next logical were to ensure that fishers have decent conditions of work on board, It also employs AI tools to make surveys more efficient. “Several research projects are using the application for
step in our journey. This independent process demonstrates we have conditions of services rendered, accommodation and food, occupational “A key advance from traditional data collection approaches data collection, but this is relatively new.”
achieved, and maintain, the highest levels of performance with respect safety and health protection, medical care and social security. It is is that catch data can be collected through pictures that are A community survey module of Ikasavea has also been de-
to crew treatment, compensation and onboard conditions.” applied to all fishers and fishing vessels engaged in commercial fishing automatically analysed by artificial intelligence (AI) and vali- veloped in partnership with the University of Wollongong and
According to Mr Pokajam, “Our RSP is an assurance model based operations. This ratification will no doubt give the necessary impetus dated via the web interface,” he said. is currently being rolled out in the associated countries.
on first, second, and third-party audits, verified by regional and and additional recognition to this initiative that FIA PNG has embarked Using pictures reduces data collection time and improves
national agencies inspecting different areas related to our crew’s decent on.

Islands Business, April 2023 35