The Marine Stewardship Council’s Influence in the Indian Ocean: Lessons of Sustainability from the Maldives Pole-and-Line Skipjack Tuna Fishery

Abstract

The Maldives pole-and-line fishery has sustainably harvested skipjack tuna for millennia. In 2012, this fishery achieved conditional certification with the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC). To achieve this eco-standard, Maldives led a reform within the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission (IOTC), improving management standards and facilitating certification for surrounding fishing nations. This thesis draws on accounts from participants who have been involved in the MSC assessment process or currently work in IOTC fisheries. The experiences gained on a pole-and-line fishing trip and through the island atolls in the Maldives also contributed to informing concepts throughout this thesis. Eight interviews were conducted with relevant stakeholders, which were subsequently transcribed using NVivo 1.7.1 to draw on key themes found in the qualitative data. The results from this study have demonstrated that there have been an array of sustainability and market consequences following the Maldives’ obtention of the MSC certificate, such as an erosion of market premium for certified tuna and exacerbated fishing pressures throughout the Indian Ocean. The contributions made by the Maldives throughout this Regional Fisheries Management Organization (RFMO) – the IOTC, have laid the steppingstones for CTFO, Echebastar, and AGAC fisheries to also pursue the MSC eco-label. All other certified fisheries in the Indian Ocean are purse seine vessels from the European Union. The MSC fisheries standard has therefore been entrenched in IOTC fisheries, resulting in an array of socio-economic and environmental consequences for the coastal nations and distant water fishing nations of the Indian Ocean. Initial obtention of this standard by a small island developing state is an impressive feat and points to the leadership of the Maldives in fishery management; both on a local and global scale.