Greenpeace says it is putting new pressure on New Zealand brands selling tinned tuna caught using methods said to be “wiping out Pacific fish populations and killing endangered marine life”.
The new campaign, directed at Sealord, John West , Greenseas and the own brand products of New Zealand’s two supermarket chains - Home Brand, Signature Range, Select and Pams - is asking consumers to demand commitments from them to source sustainably-caught tuna.
“The message to tuna brands here in New Zealand is ‘change your tuna’ before empty oceans put them out of business,” says Greenpeace New Zealand Oceans Campaigner, Karli Thomas. “We’re challenging companies to start sourcing truly sustainable fish and stop selling tuna that has been caught using destructive Fish Aggregation Devices, floating death traps that catch everything in their paths, including sharks, turtles and tuna so young that they haven't had a chance to reproduce. Kiwis deserve seafood sourcing standards that will defend our oceans, not tuna baron profits.”
The main method of catching skipjack tuna, the most common species used in canned tuna, is purse-seine fishing using Fish Aggregation Devices, or FADs. Greenpeace says that destructive fishing methods are driving populations of Pacific marine life to dangerous levels, putting the region’s food security and economic prosperity at risk. All Pacific tuna stocks are in decline, including bigeye and yellowfin, which are the most at risk. According to the organisation, scientists have advised that fishing needs to be cut by up to 50% in the Pacific to allow bigeye tuna to recover.
Greenpeace is calling on New Zealand tuna brands to stop the decline of tuna stocks and protect endangered ocean life, as brands elsewhere have opted, to defend the oceans. In recent months, all but one of the UK’s major canned tuna brands have announced they will stop using tuna caught by purse seiners using fish aggregation devices.
