Fish Tales Foundation's Project in Indonesia

During one of his travels, the co-founder of Fish Tales (Bart van Olphen) came across the pole and line skipjack tuna fishery in North Sulawesi, Indonesia. It was therefore this fishery that popped up when Fish Tales wanted bring skipjack tuna to the market. Fish Tales exclusively sells pole and line caught tuna as this fishing method is the most sustainable ecologically speaking, but also because this method is labour intensive and supports the small-scale fishing community. There was only one problem: the fishery was not certified by the internationally recognized sustainability certificate MSC. So this is where the Fish Tales Foundation came in handy.

The Indonesian skipjack fishery was already participating in a Fishery Improvement Project with the IPNLF, meaning the fishery was making progress to meet the standards of MSC. The Fish Tales Foundation joined and funded the final stages of the certification process. In 2019, the Indonesian pole and line skipjack tuna fishery received the MSC certificate!

In the fishing industry in Indonesia, however, there’s a risk of human rights violations and unfair working conditions. The Fish Tales Foundation therefore partnered up with the fishery, processing facility on land, Fair Trade, the IPNLF and the Indonesian Pole & Line and Handline Fishing Association to assess, and where necessary, improve the labour conditions. This has been a lengthy process, but the fishery and processing facility got rewarded in 2020 with the FairTrade certificate. This delicious skipjack can be found in the supermarket by the end of this year.