Fishery Improvement Project
Last Update: September 2022
Specie:
- Brazilian croaker (Umbrina canosai)
FIP Stage according to CASS progress table: 3, the FIP is encouraging improvements.
FIP Rating according to MSC benchmarking tool: Initial (Y0, April 2022, 0.20)
FIP Rating according to SFP rating system: (Not yet available)
FIP profile at FisheryProgress.org: Brazil croaker- trawl & bottom gillnet (September 2022)
Fishery Location: South coast of Brazil. See the map below.
FIP Coordination: If you would like more information about the FIP or if you wish to support it, please contact Rochelle Cruz.
FIP Partners:
FIP Documents:
Publicly Announced Date: 2022
Background:
Beaver Street Fisheries and CeDePesca have signed an agreement to design a FIP with the goal of achieving a MSC certifiable status for the Croaker trawl and bottom gillnet fishery that takes place in southern Brazil.
Croaker (Umbrina canosai) is a demersal species distributed between Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) and Rio Colorado (Argentina), exploited mainly on the continental shelf of southern Brazil, and it has great economic importance.
According to a stock assessment conducted in 2006, the croaker stock was overexploited at the time. In addition, the MSC pre-assessment completed by CeDePesca in November 2021 showed that the fishery-specific management system is not enough to rebuild the stock nor to ensure that it fluctuates around a level consistent with its Maximum Sustainable Yield. Furthermore, at the start of this FIP, the harvest strategy is not well structured, there is no harvest control rule, and there has been no continuous fishery statistics program since 2008. This FIP will aim at improving fishery practices and policies in Brazil, so that stocks can be rebuilt to their optimal level.
In Brazil, fisheries are managed by the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Food (MAPA), through the Secretariat of Aquaculture and Fisheries (SAP). However, the Permanent Committee for the Management and Sustainable Use of Southeastern and Southern Demersal Resources (CPG), which had the objective of providing advice for sustainable exploitation of demersal resources –including croaker– was suspended in 2019. Recently, in April 2022, the SAP/MAPA published a list of the institutions that would compose the CPG. This FIP will aim at achieving the actual reinstatement of the CPG for Southeastern and Southern Demersal Resources and to ensure it meets in a regular fashion to address serious issues in the fishery.
In general, this FIP aims to address all the sustainability hurdles that were identified through the MSC pre-assessment, and Beaver Street Fisheries and CeDePesca are keen to join efforts with other stakeholders in the supply chain to achieve a certifiable status for fisheries.
FIP Objectives:
The ultimate objective of this FIP is to achieve the fishery’s certifiable status against the MSC standard by April 2027, in a socially responsible way. To this end, the FIP has the following objectives:
- Ensure the design and adoption of a harvest strategy that includes recovery objectives for the fish stock, harvest control rules and tools, appropriate control and surveillance measures and stock monitoring schemes by April 2027.
- Support the authorities in the re-establishment of the Permanent Management Committees at the national level by January 2023 and promote the adoption of decision-making processes that result in strategies to achieve the fishery-specific objectives using the precautionary approach by April 2027.
- Achieve the restart of government-led data collection programs and ensure the inclusion of aspects related to other components of the ecosystem (secondary species, ETP and habitats) by April 2024.
- As of April 2023, ensure that data is collected in quantity and quality sufficient to conduct regular risk analyses and to estimate the risk that the fisheries pose to other components of the ecosystem (primary species, secondary species, ETP species and habitats).
- Achieve the conduction of regular stock assessments by official research entities by April 2027.
- Comply with the requirements of the FisheryProgress’ Human Rights and Social Responsibility policy throughout the duration of the FIP.
Progress Update
2021
January– June 2021
In February, Beaver Street and CeDePesca signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) related to the implementation of Stages 0 – 2 of a Fishery Improvement Project for the Croaker (Umbrina canosai) fishery.
CeDePesca created, in April, the prospective profile on the FisheryProgress website.
July-December 2021
In November, CeDePesca concluded the Pre-Assessment against the MSC standard. The document showed that the specific fisheries management system is not sufficient to rebuild the stock nor to ensure that it fluctuates around a level consistent with its maximum sustainable yield and includes recommendations for improvements.
2022
January– June 2022
In March 22 th, Beaver Street Fisheries and CeDePesca signed the Specific Agreement N1, and the Action Plan was approved.
July– December 2022
In July, the profile of the Brazil croaker FIP was published on the FisheryProgress platform.
In September 6 th, Seafood Brasil, a communication platform aimed at the business of the fish production chain in Brazil, published an article on the start of the Brazil croaker FIP.