Posted by jossc — 19 November 2008 at 4:11pm
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OK so I'm a day or two off the pace with this story (courtesy of a long weekend - well even we need a day or two off once in a while), and didn't find out about Monday's tuna direct action in Paris until I showed up at the office again today. So what did I miss? Well, our French colleagues took the opportunity to protest against France's leading role in decimating Mediterranean bluefin tuna stocks by dumping five tonnes of tuna fish heads outside the door of the French Fisheries Ministry.
Timed to coincide with coincide with the opening of the annual meeting of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT), in Marrakech, the action targetted France (as opposed to Italy or Spain, the two other worst offenders) in this instance because French Premier Nicholas Sarkozy currently holds the EU presidency. He has been using it to shape the EU position in favour of the short-term interests of his fishing industry above the need to save the Mediterranean bluefin tuna stock from collapse.
Posted by bex — 14 November 2008 at 6:28pm
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"While the environmental threats facing Africans
are urgent and critical, Africa is in a position to leapfrog dirty
development and become a leader in helping to avert catastrophic
climate change and protect the natural environment. We are here to help
make that happen."
Amadou Kanoute, Executive Director of Greenpeace Africa.
Greenpeace Africa is here! Marking a whole new era for Greenpeace, we opened our first African office yesterday, in Johannesburg. In the coming weeks, we'll be opening two more - one in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and the other in Senegal.
Posted by jossc — 17 October 2008 at 2:07pm
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Apo Island Marine Sanctuary, Philippines
Latest updates from the impressive ProtectPlanetOcean web site provide convincing support for Greenpeace's long-held contention that marine reserves provide the best long-term solution to the problems of overfishing and pollution which threaten the world's marine ecosystems. In case you've forgotten marine reserves are protected areas, national parks at sea where no fishing or other extractive industries (such as oil, gas or gravel extraction) are permitted.
The site has pulled together studies of 124 marine reserves around the world - scientific peer-reviewed research published in academic journals - to provide a clear picture of what has happened where reserves have been established.
When we said a few weeks ago that customers of the Nobu chain of high-class sushi restaurants wouldn't be aware that the bluefin tuna being served there was endangered, we never thought they would respond to our complaint in quite such a literal manner. But now diners can clearly see which dishes include tuna from endangered stocks because it's written on the menu. As reported in the Sunday Telegraph and as a result of Greenpeace's investigative work and subsequent discussions with Nobu, customers at the up-market eatery will now be able to clearly identify the endangered species on the menu.
We already know that John West's website contains plenty of corporate puffery. After all, this is the company that claims to "only purchase fish which is caught with no harm to the marine environment" but which came a dismal last in our sustainability league table of tinned tuna brands. Yes, John West truly is John Worst on tinned tuna.
Since we started out a decade ago, we
have striven to only serve fish from
sustainable sources, adopting the strong
ethical stance of Loch Fyne Oysters who
remain our main supplier. This year is Loch
Fyne Restaurants' tenth anniversary.
Loch Fyne Restaurants is proud to join
Seafood See Life and promote the use of
sustainable fish. The restaurant sector -
with a few exceptions – has been slow to
take responsible fish sourcing seriously,
and from an industry perspective it's easy
to understand why. Fish sells well.
What do you do as the owner of a sushi bar when you realise that worldwide fish stocks are in crisis? I was presented with this problem when one day in 1998 I walked into my restaurant, Moshi Moshi to find that there was no bluefin tuna on the belt because it had become so scarce it was on the road to extinction.
After much soul searching, and many discussions with Greenpeace and WWF, I embarked on a strategy that would make Moshi Moshi's fish procurement as sustainable as possible. The first thing I did was to take blue fin tuna off the menu. The second thing I did was to go down to Cornwall to speak to the local fishermen.
What I came away with was a deal: Moshi Moshi would buy the fish directly from the boats, offering a higher price than the middlemen, if the fishermen guaranteed to use the most sustainable fishing practices.
Colman's in South Shields has been described as "the nearest thing to an eco-chippy you're likely to find", a fish and chip restaurant which only serves wild fish from sustainable grounds, uses additive-free vegetable oil and sends its waste fat to be made into bio-fuel. Noted for its welcoming atmosphere, Colman's has featured regularly for the past few years in the Times' Top 10 UK Fish and Chip Shops, and was voted Best UK Takeaway at the BBC Food and Farming Awards 2007.
