Lewis Smith, Times Online 12 Aug 08;
Labels stating that tuna is “dolphin-friendly” are misleading consumers into believing that the fish they are eating has been caught using environmentally friendly techniques, campaigners say.
The labels indicate only that the fishing methods employed to catch the tuna have avoided the incidental killing of any dolphins. The certification system fails to assess any other measure of sustainability.
Although dolphins have been afforded a degree of protection from tuna fleets, other marine creatures are still commonly caught and killed as bycatch from tuna fishing, particularly rare turtles and sharks.
Moreover, tuna are being fished out of existence because they are being caught in unsustainable numbers, according to a Greenpeace report, Tinned Tuna’s Hidden Catch, which calls for dolphin-friendly standards to be extended to other marine species.
The use of fish aggregation devices and purse seine nets (lures and a wall of netting that encircles a school of fish) comes in for special condemnation because of the quantity of bycatch and the number of juvenile tuna that get caught and killed. Ten per cent of the fish caught using the technique are unwanted bycatch, amounting to at least 100,000 tonnes around the world annually.
Conservationists recognise the positive effect that the dolphin-friendly labels had but believe that consumers need more information to judge which types of tuna are harvested sustainably. In Britain the fish is most commonly sold in tins and the assessment by Greenpeace of some of the main brands shows that Sainsbury, followed by the Coop, offers the most sustainable canned tuna. John West and Princes were judged to be the least sustainable, largely because of their reliance on aggregation devices and purse seine nets.
Spacer
Dolphin-friendly labels were a success because of their simplicity (Frank Pope, Oceans Correspondent, writes). If the tin had the stamp, you could eat the contents. Trying to eat fish that is not threatened with population collapse isn’t so easy. We need a new form of certification to help consumers to choose sustainable seafood.
A worldwide network of marine protected areas – where all fishing is banned – would give fishermen a simple rule: either you can fish here or you cannot. Even trawlers, the most destructive form of fishing, could win a sustainable seafood label if they could prove that they had not ploughed the seabed in a protected zone.
Dolphin-friendly labelling has shown that consumer choice can stop destructive fishermen. Now we need a simple sticker that says good or bad, not just for dolphins but for all life that depends on the sea.
Fishing for change
— Of the 23 commercially exploited tuna stocks, nine are rated as endangered or worse, three of which are considered vulnerable to being exhausted
— 70 per cent of tuna fishing is done using fish aggregation devices, which lure tuna to gather under a platform. From there they can be caught in huge nets called purse seines
— A tenth of everything caught in this way is unwanted bycatch
Source: Greenpeace
Dolphin-friendly tuna may not be environmentally friendly
Caroline Gammell, The Telegraph 13 Aug 08;
Dolphin-friendly tuna is not as environmentally friendly as consumers think, with "destructive" fishing practices placing other marine life at risk, research has revealed.
Pressure from shoppers forced the industry to change its methods to avoid trapping the mammals, but the "by-catch" caught up in the net is still a significant problem, Greenpeace said.
John West, the UK's largest seller of tinned tuna, ranked bottom of the environmentally friendly league because it relies on fishing methods which kill thousands of sharks and turtles a year.
They use fish aggregation devices (FADs) - huge nets that scoop up all forms of marine life - and for every 10 kg of tuna caught, they catch 1kg of other species.
The fishermen also catch juvenile tuna which are not suitable for use and kills off the stock before it matures.
According to Greenpeace's Tinned Tuna Hidden Catch report, John West "never tells consumers how the tuna was caught, imposes no restrictions on FADs for the majority of their catch and no support for marine reserves and more widespread use of tuna from stocks under specific threat".
In comparison, Sainsbury's own brand tuna proved the most environmentally friendly, using a pole and line to snare the fish.
David Ritter, from Greenpeace, said: "Thousands of turtles and sharks are killed every year while catching tuna to be put in tins. And John West - the biggest tinned tuna seller in the UK - is currently the worst supplier of the lot.
"Whilst the label on the tin may say 'dolphin-friendly', some tuna fishing methods can be hugely destructive.
"John West must stop selling tuna caught in this way. And, if the whole fishing industry is going to be truly sustainable, then they must support the introduction of large scale marine reserves across the world's oceans."
The Greenpeace report warned that tuna stocks were being over-fished and without effective management, the entire industry could collapse.
The UK is the second highest consumer of tinned tuna in the world, devouring more than 700 million tonnes of tuna in 2006.
Greenpeace urged consumers to stop buying tuna which was caught using FADs and to support retailers who have adopted sustainable catch methods.
A spokesman for John West said: "We are surprised by the comments made by Greenpeace and do not recognise the assessments made of our tuna procurement.
"John West cooperated with Greenpeace by responding to its questionnaire and does not understand how the statements in the press release and the report have been arrived at, based on the answers it provided.
"It is the company's intention to seek an open and constructive meeting with Greenpeace to gain clarification on the conclusions reached in its report and to share with them its examples of environmental best practice."
