Update on tinned tuna, June 2009: how have the retailers have responded to our report?
We already know that John West's website contains plenty of corporate puffery. After all, this is the company that claims to "only purchase fish which is caught with no harm to the marine environment" but which came a dismal last in our sustainability league table of tinned tuna brands. Yes, John West truly is John Worst on tinned tuna.
Their response to our criticism? Rather than tackling the issues, John West have opted for total denial that the use of purse-seining with fish aggregation devices (FADs) is a problem.
Perhaps the company should take a look at a press release (pdf) from the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and Western Pacific Regional Fisheries Management Council from April of this year, concluding that "bycatch of sensitive species groups, including sea turtles, seabirds, marine mammals and sharks, in purse seine and pelagic longline fisheries, and bycatch of juvenile and undersized tunas in purse seine fisheries, is problematic. Relatively little progress has been made to resolve the bycatch of sharks and whales in both longline and purse seine fisheries, sea turtles in purse seine fisheries, and juvenile/undersized tunas in purse seine fisheries."
John West's response also implies that the company aren't particularly interested in the fate of the world's sharks. A bit of a shame given that, according to the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission, who look at just one tuna fishing area, the eastern Pacific Ocean, 31,409 sharks were caught up in purse seine fishing on tuna fishing trips during 2007 (pdf), most dying as a result.
On the same web page, John West claims to be "totally transparent in its approach" and say that they are "still seeking contact" with Greenpeace in order "to gain clarity". As it happens, on the same day as the Tinned Tuna League Table rated John West the least sustainable in the UK, we wrote to the company inviting them to participate in discussions with Greenpeace at their earliest convenience, with phone, email and postal contacts enclosed. In the ten days since, this has been John West's only response:
You can also listen to it right now - just click the play button below.
We think the person you hear on the message is that of Adolfo Valsecchi, the chief executive officer of MW Brands, the private equity group that owns John West, but they didn't identify themselves. Whoever the caller was, he left no number and never phoned back. So much for John West seeking contact with us!
