UK supermarkets are still stocking canned tuna from unsustainable sources, according to a new report by a group of conservation charities.
Blue Marine Foundation, French NGO Bloom Association and Greenpeace UK have published the results of their six-month investigation – The UK’s Tuna Blind Spot – which shows that there are huge disparities between the sustainable sourcing policies of UK retailers and the less rigorous brand names they also stock.
Only one of the UK’s top ten supermarkets – Marks & Spencer – was able to demonstrate that none of its canned tuna is caught using harmful drifting fish aggregating devices.
“Drifting FADs are a scourge that do untold damage to fragile marine habitats and important tuna stocks,” explained Jess Rattle, head of investigations at Blue Marine Foundation and the author of the report.
“UK retailers are well aware of this – many of them acknowledge how harmful drifting FADs are in their own-label sourcing policies, but then turn a blind eye to the tins of brand-name, FAD-caught tuna on their shelves.”
Several other retailers including the Co-op, Waitrose, Sainsbury’s and Morrisons all have tuna sourcing policies that clearly prohibit the use of drifting FADs.
However, this concern for sustainability extends only as far as their own-label products and no further, say the charities, with all four supermarkets also found to be selling brands which source tuna from fleets that use drifting FADs in the Indian Ocean, where two out of three tropical tuna stocks are overfished.
Worst of all is Iceland which sells only brand-name tuna. Whilst market leaders Tesco and Aldi source from MSC-certified fisheries, the charities argue this is no better, alleging that more than half of MSC-certified tuna comes from fisheries that use FADs.
All three charities are therefore calling on UK retailers to stop promoting these unsustainable practices by not entering into any new supply agreements for tuna caught using drifting FADs. This policy should extend to both own-label tuna and brand-name tuna products. This message was communicated to all ten UK retailers in August.
