Port Moresby 20 August 2023; In September 2022 FIA PNG joined Seafoodmatter to assess the information collected during a fishing trip that is covered by the FISH standard for Crew (Fairness, Integrity, Safety, and Health).
The Seafoodmatter benchmark labor tool developed in 2014 and updated in 2020 was replaced by a FISH standard checklist based on ILO convention 188 and with worker voice requirements (e.i WIFI availability onboard).
This FIA PNG assessment paper presents, analyzes, and shares the inclusion of innovative Key Data Elements (KDEs) in the FIA PNG Integrated Fisheries Management System (iFIMS) towards developing an assurance platform for the social accountability certification of the tuna fleet – FISH standard and our FIA PNG Responsible Sourcing Policy (RSP).
This assessment does not cover tuna processing industries, as the focus is solely on
work on board tuna fishing vessels.
Objectives:
We aim to start this project to develop an assurance model for our FIA PNG Fleet Crew's decent working and living conditions, in addition to the FISH standard for Crew certification.
We intend to demonstrate control over several Events or Key Data Elements (KDE) of social accountability onboard our tuna fleet supported by iFIMS.
We want to implement an auditing tool per FIA PNG MSC trip that includes Social Accountability KDE in our certificate per fishing trip.
In October 2022, we proposed to our tuna fleet members and the iFIMS teams to assess the feasibility of adding several events in the Integrated Fisheries Management System (iFIMS) as events of compliance against IUU, FIA PNG RSP and the FISH for Crew certification on fishing trip basis.
A proposal including ToRs was developed and approved by our chairman. A checklist was developed specifically for this project and several FIA PNG Technical Working Group (TWG) members voluntarily offered to provide feedback and review the proposal.
This is the initial step based on the information available and the experience of the FIA PNG RSP due diligence implementation.
A working group was developed for this project with Industry representatives, tuna purse seiner’s representatives, IT, National Fisheries Authority representatives, and FIA PNG staff representatives who were part of the KDE feasibility desktop assessment. Some important timelines are:
On the 1st of November, a kickoff meeting was organized with the working group and FIA PNG staff.
The project was shared with the TWG members at the 11th FIA PNG TWG meeting carried out on 17th of November 2022
After agreeing to proceed, a Checklist and ToRs were developed and sent to our FIA PNG Chairman for information.
Our FIA PNG Sustainability Director and Seafoodmatter’s founder developed a checklist with 31 KDEs associated with the FISH standard for Crew and the FIA PNG RSP
On the 1st of December, the KDE checklist was sent to our working group members
From December 2022 to February 2023, the feedback was received, and data was collected.
On the 9th of March 2023, the results were discussed with the working group online meeting.
After this discussion, our Sustainability director will write a report with the meeting outcomes.
On the 18th of March, the recommendations were sent in the report to our FIA PNG Chairman
In July 2023 the FIA PNG shared this document with several stakeholders and NGOs. After their comments, FIA PNG members authorized and decided to publish it on our website.
Discussion:
There are agreements and disagreements in some proposed KDEs, the discussion and rationale assessed the practicality of the KDE, the strength of the verifiable evidence, the availability of the evidence, the sources of this information (authorities, FIAO, regulators), and also the needed resources to fill this information on the iFIMS.
Conclusion of KDE:
Based on the initial discussion with the working group members, the later analysis including legally supportive verifiable evidence and the comparison with FISH standard and FIA PNG SR&CW (RSP) requirements, we can conclude that we need a few documents already available to support the inclusion of these KDEs in our iFIMS per fishing company initially and later per fishing vessels.
The documents needed to support these 23 KDEs on Crew Welfare per fishing trip are, Please check the detailed report and the KDEs here
For any questions please contact: contact@seafoodmatter.eu
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