Towards the end of last year Greenpeace members were asked to go into local supermarkets to survey the tuna products that were stocked on the shelves. That exercise helped create the 2011 Tuna League Table which focuses on which companies used sustainable and marine friendly methods in obtaining our tuna chunks! At the time of the survey the number one supermarket retailer, Tesco, came an humiliating last place.
In January Greenpeace was all set to bring this to the public's attention and coincide with 'Hugh's Fish Fight' series of TV programmes on Channel Four. Investigations showed that Tesco's tuna mainly came from the use of Fish Aggregating Devices (FADs) and Purse Seine Nets which also catch other oceanic species such as turtles, ray and dolphins as well as juvenile tuna and other rare tuna species - most of which are thrown back into the ocean dead.(see video below). Tesco bosses obvioulsy came to their senses and decided the case against them was too strong and they hastily enacted a spectacular policy u-turn which promises that all Tesco tuna will be caught by Pole and Line methods by the end of 2012. This means Tesco escaped being last place in the Tuna League Table and elevated them to a more respectable fourth place. Read more about this here.
So whose at the bottom of the league table and now the target of Greenpeace's campaign on tuna? PRINCES. Despite a flood of emails from supporters of the campaign Princes suppliers persist with barbaric fishing methods which is killing other marine life. Their response to the emails makes a range of claims towards sustainable practices but there is little commitment towards a more ethical policy of pole and line fishing. Read more about this here. So if you have not already done so, you can can join the 26,500 people who have sent an email to Princes to register your protest and boycott Princes products for a more ethical supplier, such as Sainsbury, M&S, Waitrose, Co-op etc. Every action helps and hopefully Princes will see sense and follow Tesco's lead.
Of course, the only way to protect our marine environment and stocks of fish like tuna is to change the way we manage the oceans. We need to reduce fishing to sustainable levels, abandon destructive fishing practices and set aside large areas as marine reserves – national parks at sea – where no fishing takes place and stocks are allowed to recover. Greenpeace continues to fight on with this key agenda.
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