Every year, millions of tonnes of tuna are landed at ports worldwide, providing food and supporting the livelihoods of people. However, strong demand, combined with overcapacity of fishing fleets, creates growing pressure on tuna, leading to a decrease of tuna stocks fished at sustainable levels.
The Common Oceans Program aims to reverse this trend by promoting more responsible and sustainable tuna fishing. It works to ensure that all major tuna stocks are fished at sustainable levels, that compliance with management measures is improved and to preserve biodiversity by reducing negative impacts caused by tuna fisheries on marine ecosystems.
From 2014-2019, it helped reduce the number of major tuna stocks experiencing overfishing from 13 to 5 in collaboration with the world’s five tuna regional fisheries management organisations (RFMOs) and a large number of partners – including intergovernmental organizations, civil society and the private sector.
In the coming years, the Common Ocean Program will step up efforts to support further reductions in catches from stocks that are subject to overfishing, including tackling illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing (IUU) fishing, while enhancing the contribution to biodiversity conservation.
Key activities
Improve tuna fisheries management
Ensure that all major tuna stocks are fished at sustainable levels advancing the use of harvest strategies.Promote the ecosystem approach to fisheries management in tuna regional fisheries management organisations (RFMOs).
Promote sustainable fishing practices with incentives such as better market conditions for sustainably sourced fishery products.
Tackle illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing
Make enforcement of fisheries regulations more efficient with training in monitoring, control and surveillance.
Improve compliance with fishing regulations by promoting innovative tools like electronic monitoring and traceability systems.
Reduce impacts of tuna fisheries on the environment
Decrease bycatch by improved monitoring of catches of sharks, rays, cetaceans and seabirds and promoting best practices in bycatch mitigation techniques and alternative gear.
Lower environmental impacts by advocating the adoption of ocean-friendly fishing devices.
Partners
In collaboration with: Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels (ACAP), BirdLife International (BLI), Conservation International (CI), INFOPESCA, International Seafood Sustainability Foundation (ISSF/ISSA), International MCS Network (IMCSN), International Pole and Line Foundation (IPNLF), International Whaling Commission (IWC), Marine Stewardship Council (MSC), US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Pacific Community (SPC), Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Agency (FFA), PEW Charitable Trusts, Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP), The Nature Conservancy (TNC), The Ocean Foundation (TOF), World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF).
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Facts and figures
Landed tuna catches in 2019 amounted to 5.3 million tonnes
724 000 tonnes of catches come from stocks that are subject to overfishing
6 out of the 23 major commercial tuna stocks are experiencing overfishing
96 countries in five tuna RFMOs are involved in the conservation and management of tuna species