The second Greenpeace Australia Canned Tuna Guide shows that public pressure on tuna companies has succeeded and Australians can now buy pole and line-caught tuna.
This positive result in the Australian tuna market was announced at an event featuring lifeguards from the Australian TV series ‘Bondi Rescue’ urging consumers to choose sustainable tuna and maintain healthy oceans.
Major brands such as Aldi and IGA have started labelling tuna cans with the exact species and location it was caught, a significant step forward in transparency.
“Before Greenpeace’s tuna guide, most people did not know where their tuna came from and that turtles, sharks and juvenile tuna get killed in tuna nets due to use wasteful FADs, fish aggregation devices,” said Greenpeace oceans campaigner Genevieve Quirk. “Since the launch of the first guide, in March, thousands of people have demanded that tuna companies behind major tuna brands take action for the future of our oceans, and have started to listen.”
IGA supermarkets and independent stores have started stocking Fish 4 Ever, a new brand in the Australian market that uses pole and line-caught skipjack tuna.
Pole and line is a more selective and sustainable way of catching skipjack tuna than setting purse seine nets on fish aggregation devices.
“I was horrified to discover that my favourite tuna brand was wiping out juvenile tuna, turtles and sharks,” said Greenpeace ambassador and ‘Bondi Rescue’ TV lifeguard, Brad Malyon. “I spend most of my life in the ocean. Usually, I’m protecting people from the dangers of the ocean, but the oceans also need protection from us.”
According to Greenpeace, 11 out of 12 brands in the Australian tuna guide still kill turtles and sharks and decimate stocks of vulnerable bigeye and yellowfin tuna while fishing for skipjack tuna with Sirena and John West Australia at the bottom of the ranking even keeping their consumers in the dark on how their tuna is caught.
“We became aware of the issues surrounding overfishing five years ago and wanted to offer Australians a sustainable option,” said Sandy Abram, Co-Founder of First Ray and distributor of Fish 4 Ever. “We fully support Greenpeace’s work in this area and are extremely excited to have our Fish 4 Ever skipjack tuna rated as Australia’s most sustainable tinned tuna.”
“In recent years consumer pressure has helped put sustainably-caught tuna on supermarket shelves in Europe and now also in Australia,” said Greenpeace International oceans campaigner Sari Tolvanen. “Time and tuna are running out and tuna brands everywhere must abandon destructive purse seine FAD-caught tuna altogether and transition to better fishing methods such as pole and line and FAD free purse seine tuna.” said Sari Tolvanen of Greenpeace International.
To see the updated Greenpeace Australia Canned Tuna Guide visit: www.greenpeace.org.au/tuna
