tuna

I’m here in Bangkok at a gathering of hundreds of tuna business officials, policy-makers and even a few environmental advocates like myself. It’s been a long week of discussion about the future of the industry, including a lot about what we all call sustainability fish for the future.

The sands in the tuna campaign have shifted again, and the oceans and tuna will ultimately be better off for it. Our Italian colleagues have just announced that the local tinned tuna brand Mareblu has committed to stop using Fads (fish aggregation devices) - the destructive marine minefields that have been blighting the oceans for decades.

After the huge success of our UK tinned tuna campaign, described by the Independent as "one of the most successful environmental campaigns in years", it was great to hear a big European tuna brand - Bolton commit to completely clean up its act.

Finally some good news for our seas.  Toño, the head of the Vidal family network, and focus of our recent investigation in to illegal fishing and subsides in Spain was found guilty of fraud and condemned to one year and eight months in prison.

Today we've released shocking footage of ocean life dying in gruesome ways at the hands of industrial tuna fishers in the Pacific Ocean. The footage was shot by a New Zealand helicopter pilot turned whistleblower, who undertook aerial reconnaissance for tuna boats in the Pacific in 2009.

Without fail, anytime I blog about more sustainable fish there will be at least one comment along the lines of ‘go vegan’ or ‘no one needs to eat fish anyway!’ That is of course fine and a viewpoint I (as a vegetarian of 25 years and counting) can certainly sympathise with.

Protecting tuna is not just about dressing up as sharks and exposing the companies selling unsustainable tinned tuna.

Our ship the Esperanza is currently on the high seas in the Pacific to find, document and take action against illegal and unsustainable fishing throughout this region.

After the success of the UK Change Your Tuna campaign, where all our major tinned tuna brands have now pledged to phase out the worst fishing practices, our New Zealand office has brought the campaign to Kiwi cans - upping the pressure on home-grown seafood giant Sealord this week, writes Nick Young of Greenpeace NZ.