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On the trail of John West dirty tuna in the Indian ocean

Posted by Greenpeace UK - 18th April 2016


Today, the Greenpeace ship, The Esperanza, set sail in the Indian Ocean to peacefully tackle unsustainable fishing by the world’s largest tuna company, Thai Union (the owner of John West in the UK)

With some tuna stocks in the Indian Ocean, such as Yellowfin, on the brink of collapse due to overfishing, the expedition is exposing Thai Union’s suppliers’ destructive fishing methods which contribute to overfishing and harm a range of marine life including sharks and juvenile tuna.

Tackling the issues of unsustainable tuna fishing

Last year, we called on John West, the number one tuna brand in the UK, to honour its promise to sell 100 % FAD free tuna by the end of 2016.

Around the world, 300,000 of you joined the call for sustainable tuna, making sure Thai Union (the owners of John West) heard the message loud and clear. With only months left to meet its original sustainability commitment, only 2% of John West’s catch is being fished using sustainable methods. If it were not such a serious matter for the world’s oceans it could almost be described as a laughable effort.

That’s why today, Greenpeace sets sails to one of world’s main fishing grounds, the South West of the Indian ocean – where a large part of John West’s tuna catch comes from.

Get on board as we set sail

We’ll be sailing the East African part of the Indian Ocean. This is where the enormous French and Spanish fishing vessels try to catch as much fish as they can in the least amount of time. Many of these vessels supply John West. The unsustainable fishing method used by these vessels (so-called Fish Aggregating Devices or FADs), puts more and more pressure on tuna stocks. They also catch baby tuna, and all kinds of other marine life, including sharks, turtles, and throw them – dead or dying – back into the ocean. They call it “bycatch”. To make matters worse, they pollute the ocean with ‘ghost’ nets and an increasing amount of debris, which ends up washing up on beaches and coral reefs.

A change of tactics

If John West doesn’t want to stop this dirty tuna coming onto our shelves, then we as a movement are going to do it for them, by taking action from sea to shelf.

The Esperanza crew will document but also peacefully oppose John West’s suppliers who are using this destructive fishing method. We will prevent the indiscriminate harm caused to marine life. We set sail to find these fishing boats, expose their destructive method and clear the Indian Ocean of the FADs we find.

Stay tuned!

We’ll be posting updates about how you can get involved in the campaign – the first step is to help us track vessels that supply John West. Here’s how to do it.


Article Tagged as: Featured, Tuna, tuna