The UK is the second largest consumer of tinned tuna in the world, consuming the equivalent of more than 778 million tins in 2008 alone. Eating more tinned tuna than anyone else in Europe, the UK accounts for 36% of the EU import market.
Around 70% of the UK’s tinned tuna is sold through supermarkets and 30% through the catering sector. Retailers and suppliers in this country must therefore take considerable responsibility for the global environmental consequences of current fishing practices for tuna.
Japanese-owned giant faces mass product recall bid over misleading tinned tuna claims
9 January, 2011
Princes – who sell more
tinned tuna than any other company in the UK –
have been caught using a fishing method which is responsible for catching sharks
and turtles, and possibly even dolphins, a new report reveals
today.
The food and drink
company, owned by Japanese giant Mitsubishi, has been ranked bottom of an
environmentally friendly tinned tuna league table, compiled by Greenpeace, due
to their use of destructive fishing methods to catch its tinned
tuna.
Find out which tinned tuna is the most environmentally friendly, and which brands are responsible for catching sharks, turtles and possibly even dolphins in their nets.
Posted by jamie — 29 November 2010 at 5:00pm
-
Comments
Oceans campaigner Oliver Knowles, Greenpeace delegation lead at the recent ICCAT meeting in Paris, sums up his feelings about the rather poor outcome.
This year, ICCAT had the opportunity to do two things: rescue bluefin tuna from the edge of commercial extinction and salvage its reputation for inaction. It has now failed on both counts.
Once again, ICCAT's 10-day meeting has resulted in a new fishing quota for bluefin, this time of 12,900 tons - a tiny reduction on last year's quota of 13,500 tons. Come May, sanctioned by the very organisation which is supposed to "conserve" tuna, destructive purse-seine fishing vessels in the Mediterranean will cast their nets again on this hugely depleted species.
Let's put a marker down here and now - the governments and delegates at this ICCAT session must be noted in history as those people that have failed this magnificent species.
Posted by jamie — 23 November 2010 at 1:22pm
-
Comments
The tunamobile makes its debut at the ICCAT tuna meeting in Paris (c) Chauveau/Grenepeace
Oliver Knowles, oceans campaigner at our international office, wrote on Making Waves last week about the start of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT meeting) in Paris.
I'm on my way to Paris right now, where some important days for bluefin tuna are going to be taking place later this week and next. Fisheries managers and representatives from countries around the world are about to come to together at the annual meeting of ICCAT - the body that is meant to manage tuna populations in this area of the world. The challenges facing bluefin tuna have never been more plentiful and more serious.
The big question that will soon be answered - can those meant to protect bluefin tuna deliver meaningful change after years of mismanagement?
Bigeye and yellowfin tuna are fully exploited or over exploited in all oceans
- they are in serious trouble in the Western and Central Pacific Ocean,
where they were relatively healthy just a few years ago. Stocks of the
magnificent bluefin, the most iconic and valuable of all tuna species,
are on the brink of collapse. In 1999, Greenpeace recorded an 80 percent
decline in Mediterranean bluefin.
In 1999, Greenpeace recorded an 80 percentdecline in Mediterranean bluefin And it's getting worse. Advances in technology mean that large ships - floating factories - are now able to take as much tuna in two days as whole countries can take in a year. Increasing practices of tuna ranching are further aggravating the crisis.
The UK eats more tuna than any other country except the USA. No wonder - it’s the UK’s most popular tinned fish. But tuna also provides a critical part of the diet of millions of people
across the globe. Sadly, rampant overfishing is pushing some species,
like the magnificent bluefin tuna, to the brink of extinction. Our
appetite for cheap tinned tuna also puts other species like sharks,
turtles and rays at risk through indiscriminate catch methods. We work
to promote sustainable fishing methods, and to stop the fishing of
endangered tuna species.
