Princes – who sell more
tinned tuna than any other company in the UK –
are going to stop using a fishing method which is responsible for killing
sharks.
And supermarket chain
Asda have today also announced that they will shift to greener fishing methods
for their canned tuna.
The move follows a
campaign waged by Greenpeace, who earlier this year placed Princes at the bottom
of a tinned tuna sustainability league table.
Over half of the
UK tinned tuna market is now
committed to using less damaging ways to catch their fish. And today’s
announcements are given extra importance because Princes and Asda are owned by
corporate giants Mitsubishi and Walmart.
John West is now stranded
as the UK’s most environmentally unfriendly
tinned tuna company, and a clear target for green
campaigners.
The damaging fishing
method which Princes and Asda will drop, but which John West continue to employ,
uses vast nets called ‘purse seines’ along with fish aggregating devices (FADs).
FADs are floating objects often equipped with satellite-linked sonar devices.
Tuna instinctively gather around them, but FADs also attract a host of other
species, including sharks, that are then scooped up by the purse
seines.
Besides John West,
Morrisons is now the least sustainable of the supermarket own-brands. They also
continue to use FADs and purse seines to catch the bulk of their tinned
tuna.
Sainsbury’s, Waitrose and
Marks & Spencer have already
stopped selling tuna caught this way. And in January Tesco promised to follow
suit after pressure from Greenpeace and chef Hugh
Fearnley-Whittingstall.
Just a few weeks ago,
Greenpeace campaigners in Liverpool climbed onto the Liver building, home to
Princes’ offices, while others dressed in shark costumes and blared out the
theme tune to hit movie ‘Jaws’ through a stereo
system.
David Ritter, head
of Greenpeace’s oceans campaign, said:
“Today’s announcements by
Princes and Asda are great news for sharks and other marine
life.
“Just a couple of months
ago, only a minority of tinned tuna retailers had stopped using FADs, but in
just a short of amount of time there’s been a huge shift across the bulk of this
industry.
”The majority of the
UK market have now distanced
themselves from the destructive methods still being used to catch John West and
Morrisons tinned tuna. Surely these two will now feel the heat of consumer
pressure if they refuse to change their practices.”
ENDS
Greenpeace press office: 020 7865 8255
