Pole and Line

Last Friday was the penguins' special day. Now this Friday is World Tuna day; and whilst the world's most popular fish might not be as cute as the waddling creatures, they are amazing wild species that are vital to the ocean ecosystem and deserve to have their story told.

Tuna are awesome. We don’t get to say that enough, so since it’s World Tuna Day, I want to make amends. These fish are majestic ocean wanderers, who have earned their place in history, but today they are sadly the icons of global overfishing & dodgy fishing methods, and a globally-traded commodity.

Busted: Tesco are dishing out fishy lies again. And they’re hoping that we’ll all swallow it, hook, line and sinker.

Once upon a time, well actually, three years ago, Tesco promised to help protect our oceans. Just like a knight in shining armour arriving to save the day, they suddenly switched and made the boldest public promise of all the tuna brands to clean up their tins just before we launched a tuna league table in which they were last.

Today I saw a tonne of tuna. Literally. I witnessed every tuna landed on a pole and line fishing trip in the Maldives. It was a relatively slow day, 1.3 tonnes of tuna to be precise. A good day starts around 5 tonnes, but conditions were rough out there. And competition was stiff from the other pole and line boats, known as dhonis, fishing near us.

You did it! Today John West, the last of the major UK players to resist a shift to sustainable tuna, finally committed to change their tuna. After more than 51,000 emails, a lot of negotiation, some interesting stickering initiatives, and becoming utterly isolated amongst the UK industry, John West have changed their policies.