SUVA Jan. 16 (Xinhua) -- A skipjack tuna fishery operated by eight Pacific Island nations has been certified as sustainable to the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) standard.

The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) said this will promote the future health of tuna stocks in the region, bring major benefits to the fishing industry, and have positive impacts on consumers around the world.

The certification has been awarded conditionally to the Parties to the Nauru Agreement (PNA) purse seine free-schooling skipjack tuna fishery, managed by the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC) Convention.

The PNA free-school skipjack catch equates to an annual harvest of 275,000 metric tons, roughly the same weight as 490 fully- fuelled Airbus A380s - at a value of about 1.3 billion dollars at retail price.

Consumers, in the near future, could see close to 1 billion 148-gram cans of tuna from this MSC-certified sustainable fishery on supermarket shelves.

"The Western and Central Pacific skipjack stock holds about 10 per cent of the world's tuna stock. This is the largest tuna fishery to have achieved MSC certification, a standard that will help ensure this valuable fishery can achieve a healthy state," said Mark Schreffler, fisheries policy officer, WWF-Western Melanesia Program.

Seremaia Tuqiri, WWF-South Pacific Fisheries Policy Officer based in Fiji, said Monday that the actions taken by the PNA raises the fisheries conservation bar in the Pacific and hopes that it will create a momentum for other Pacific Island countries to follow.

"The MSC standard is a rigorous one. It provides the opportunity for countries and communities that are keen to certify their fisheries to take stock of management practices, identify the gaps, and ensure that these are rectified," he added.