News

Dr. Eny Buchary, a member of the Fisheries Advisory Council since 2013, was involved in the recent award of the world’s first Fair Trade certified marine capture fisheries product from small scale tuna fisheries in Maluku, Indonesia. The "Komite Fair Trade Tuna Assilulu” is located in a remote fishing village called Assilulu, in the north east of Ambon, a Moluccan island part of Indonesia. The Komite was formed in April 2014, and it represents three Fisher Associations and 89 individual fishermen from five different villages. The three associations, Tuna Lestari Assilulu, Tuna Sejahtera Assilulu and Sinar Asia Assilulu, were the three first Fair Trade Certified Fisher Associations during the 2014 Autumn. They received their first premium payment in December the same year.

Fishermen aligned with the Komite use single-hook handlines, and refrain from applying fish aggregation devices, as to reduce bycatch (this is nearly non-existent).  Read more about this initiative here.