Bycatch

Tell the government to buy sustainable fish

Posted by Willie — 9 March 2011 at 5:46pm - Comments
Hugh and Jamie during filming of the Fish Fight series
All rights reserved. Credit: Daphne Christelis / Greenpeace
Hugh and Jamie during filming of Fish Fight outside Westminster

"Greenest government ever." That’s the phrase that’s already been used to slap the current UK administration a fair few times. It’s an ambitious claim, but it seems even on the black-and-white issues UK ministers can’t quite bring themselves to go green.

Article tagged as: bycatch, government, overfishing, sustain, sustainable fish

You did it! Princes will indeed change their tuna, and so will Asda

Posted by jamie — 9 March 2011 at 12:48pm - Comments

It's with enormous pleasure that I can reveal that Princes has (finally) got the message that bycatch is killing the oceans and has announced that it will clean up its tinned tuna.

Article tagged as: ASDA, bycatch, fads, john west, morrisons, princes, successes, tinned tuna, tuna

Skipjack tuna is cheap and plentiful... or is it?

Posted by jamie — 1 March 2011 at 11:41am - Comments
Tuna and bycatch caught in the east Pacific
All rights reserved. Credit: Alex Hofford/Greenpeace
Tuna and bycatch caught in the east Pacific

Of all the tuna species, skipjack is seen as the most plentiful and the most sustainable. The speed with which it reproduces and matures has meant stocks are more resilient to our industrial fishing fleets than its bluefin and bigeye cousins, and has guaranteed its place in the sandwiches and baked potatoes of the nation. Or at least, that has been the case until now.

Article tagged as: bycatch, IATTC, overfishing, pacific ocean, skipjack tuna, tinned tuna, tuna

Princes tuna: 'the tin full of sin'

Posted by jamie — 22 February 2011 at 5:40pm - Comments
Nice PR? Princes tinned tuna rebranded
All rights reserved. Credit: Alex Hofford/Greenpeace/B Darvill

Now I'm back in the office and finally warmed up after yesterday's trip to visit Princes in Liverpool, I've been able to browse through some of the slogan suggestions which have been sent in. There are some absolute crackers in the 1,000-plus ideas we've received.

Article tagged as: bycatch, destructive fishing, princes, tinned tuna, tuna

Sharks ask Princes: if you found Nemo, would you kill him too?

Posted by jamie — 21 February 2011 at 9:17am - Comments

Update, 9 March 2011: both Princes and Asda have committed to removing tuna caught using fish aggregating devices in combination with purse seine nets from their supply chains by 2014. Read more >>

By the time you read this, I'll be at the head office of Princes in Liverpool where a frenzy of sharks is demanding an end (a fin-ish?) to the dreadful fishing methods that kill other marine species like sharks, rays and even turtles which Princes relies on for its tinned tuna.

Article tagged as: bycatch, FAD, oceans, princes, rays, sharks, tuna, turtles

Sales for 'sustainable' seafood soar, but is the problem shifting elsewhere?

Posted by jamie — 18 January 2011 at 5:28pm - Comments

It's been a good week for seafood sales. The Guardian reports that supermarkets have been doing brisk business in "sustainable seafood", particularly those featured in the various Big Fish Fight shows on Channel 4.

Article tagged as: big fish fight, bycatch, discards, oceans, supermarkets, sustainable seafood, tinned tuna, tuna

Tesco escapes last place in new tinned tuna league table with spectacular policy u-turn

Posted by jamie — 9 January 2011 at 10:40am - Comments
Tesco was bottom of our tinned tuna league table before a nifty u-turn
All rights reserved. Credit: Cobb / Greenpeace
Tesco was bottom of our tinned tuna league table before a nifty u-turn

Update, 9 March 2011: both Princes and Asda have committed to removing tuna caught using fish aggregating devices in combination with purse seine nets from their supply chains by 2014. Read more >>

Having got wind of our new tinned tuna league table (see below) and the fact that it was going to come last, Tesco has done a spectacular u-turn. After being the subject of a Greenpeace investigation, it has radically improved its policy on the fishing methods it will permit for its own-brand tuna.

Article tagged as: bycatch, fads, oceans, princes, purse seining, reports, successes, tesco, tinned tuna, tuna, tuna league table

Get ready for the Big Fish Fight

Posted by jamie — 7 January 2011 at 11:24am - Comments
Hugh and Jamie during filming of the Fish Fight series
All rights reserved. Credit: Daphne Christelis / Greenpeace
Hugh and Jamie during filming of Fish Fight outside Westminster

We're only a few days in to 2011, but already this year is shaping up to be a big one in our campaign to end the plunder of the oceans.

Article tagged as: aquaculture, big fish fight, bycatch, channel 4, discards, hugh fearnley-whittingstall, oceans, tinned tuna

Tinned tuna industry polices itself, and it smells so fishy

Posted by Willie — 24 May 2010 at 4:17pm - Comments

There's a well-known model of how dodgy big business deals with campaigns against them. To summarise, it goes a bit like this:

  • Company X gets some bad press for doing something wrong, especially bad press if it kills lots of charismatic megafauna;
  • Company X initially retaliates saying, 'It's all lies, honest';
  • Company X then admits it isn't all lies, but comes up with some way of kicking the issue into the long grass, usually some commission or foundation (ideally with a word like 'conservation' or 'sustainable' in its title) or some interminable period of gathering research, in the hope it all blows over and people forget what they were upset about.

Article tagged as: bycatch, oceans, overfishing, princes, tinned tuna, tuna
Syndicate content

Follow Greenpeace UK