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John West is ‘paying the price’ for breaking its sustainability promise to consumers

Last edited 25 July 2016 at 3:50pm

25 July, 2016

Responding to Tesco’s announcement that within the week many John West tuna products will be off its shelves, Greenpeace Oceans Campaigner Ariana Densham said:

‘John West broke their sustainability promise to consumers and now they’re paying the price. We know that this move by Tesco is going to cost John West millions. How long will it take for them and their owner Thai Union to work out that stripping our oceans of life is a dead-end business strategy?’

Article tagged as: Fish Aggregation Devices [FADs], john west, sainsburys, sustainable tuna, tesco, thai union, unsustainable tuna, waitrose

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First Tesco, now Waitrose threatens John West with ban over broken tuna sustainability promise

Last edited 9 May 2016 at 10:59am

9 May, 2016

London, 9 May 2016 – Waitrose has become the latest UK retailer to slam John West over its sustainability record: telling the seafood giant that if it does not clean up its act, its tuna tins will be taken off the shelves.

The decision will pile pressure on the embattled tuna company, which accounts for a third of the UK market, following last week’s announcement by Tesco that John West would be banned if it continued using harmful fishing practices.

Article tagged as: Fish Aggregation Devices [FADs], indian ocean, john west, sainsburys, tesco, unsustainable tuna, waitrose

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From win to bin: our 2014 tuna league table

Posted by Ariana Densham — 28 February 2014 at 6:59pm - Comments

2014 Tuna League Table

The results are in!

Which tinned tuna brands win, and which ones are fit for the bin? This tinned tuna league table reveals exactly how the tins stack up.

Article tagged as: ASDA, cooperative, league table, marks and spencer, morrisons, princes, sainsburys, tesco, tuna

Is it about time fish-eaters were more adventurous? Sainsbury’s think so.

Posted by Willie — 13 June 2011 at 2:47pm - Comments

In Africa, safari-bound tourists are usually keen to bag ‘The Big five' - species which once people wanted to shoot with bullets, but are now ones we want to shoot with cameras. However, we're so keen to ‘bag’ these species, that tourists often overlook the other amazing wildlife all around them.

Article tagged as: consumerism, fishing, Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall, jamie oliver, richard benyon, sainsburys, supermarkets, sustainable fishing, waitrose

Tinned Tuna Update

Posted by Willie — 8 June 2009 at 4:42pm - Comments

Update, December 2009: John West introduces new sustainability policy »

Last year we published our tinned tuna league table, ranking the main retailers and brands on the overall sustainability of their canned tuna. Tinned tuna, which is normally skipjack (the most common variety), is a food cupboard staple in the UK, and we are the second biggest consumers in the world, so we can have a massive impact on improving the sustainability of the fishing that fills the tins.

As well as assessing the information given on the tins (some didn’t even tell you what species was inside!) we also evaluated the impact of how the fish were being caught, and the company's overall sourcing policies.

Article tagged as: bluefin, co-op, marks & spencer, oceans, sainsburys, skipjack, tinned tuna, tuna, yellowfin

Tesco takes shark-fin of the shelves

Posted by Willie — 8 April 2009 at 10:45am - Comments

This female Caribbean Reef Shark in Roatan apparently survived a finning - most do not © CC yukikokubo

Tesco have just announced that they're going to stop selling shark fins in their stores in Thailand.

This follows some bad press on the issue and subsequent lobbying by the Shark Trust to clean up their act.

Sharks are a dividing issue with people – some people love them and are fascinated by them, others are terrified of them. Whilst sharks have an ferocious and fearsome reputation, and any shark attack or alleged sightings of man-eating great whites off Cornwall make the news, we rarely hear of the impact we humans are having on sharks. And we are having an enormous impact.

Article tagged as: co-op, EU, sainsburys, sharks, tesco, thailand, tuna

Never mind the pollack

Posted by Willie — 7 April 2009 at 9:49am - Comments

Pollack - creative commons (copyright leibatiheim)
A pollack called Colin... what's in a name?

Sticks and stones will break your bones, but names will never hurt you. Unless you're at the fish counter it seems, where the retailers Sainsbury's have 'renamed' pollack as 'colin'.

No, it's not April Fools' Day - apparently customers had a bit of an issue asking for pollack. I guess in much the same way as Uranus started being pronounced 'Yoo-ran-uss' at some point in the last couple of decades to avoid embarrassment and puerile jokes.

Article tagged as: colin, orange roughy, overfishing, pollack, pollock, sainsburys