Bumble Bee New MSC Tuna Line Welcomed By Greenpeace ff

Bumble Bee Foods, U.S. parent company of Clover Leaf Seafoods, announced at the Brussels Seafood Show that the company will introduce a new “Wild Selections” brand of Marine Stewardship Council certified tuna products. The line will contain MSC certified albacore and skipjack tuna.  In response to the announcement, Greenpeace Canada’s oceans campaign coordinator Sarah King said:

“The move by Bumble Bee Foods to introduce a new brand of canned tuna products that take less of a toll on our oceans is a step in the right direction, albeit one that is long overdue by the canned seafood giant. While this step shows Bumble Bee’s recognition that seeking more sustainable alternatives is necessary in order to keep up with a changing market, Greenpeace cautions that simply adding additional tuna products as opposed to replacing existing harmfully fished tuna means Bumble Bee’s overall impact on our oceans is not decreasing, but growing.”

Earlier this week, Chris Lischewski the CEO of Bumble Bee said “The introduction of Wild Selections is a natural step in the work that Bumble Bee has been involved in to support responsible global fisheries management. As a founding member of the International Seafood Sustainability Foundation working alongside WWF and other leaders in marine resource management, we saw a great opportunity to introduce a line of MSC-certified products that would help further our collective mission to promote sustainable fishing practices and to protect fisheries stocks for generations to come.”

Also Bill Fox, vice president and managing director of fisheries at World Wildlife Fund, made positive comments:  “The introduction of the MSC-certified Wild Selections product line demonstrates Bumble Bee’s deep commitment to sustainable seafood.”

King of Greenpeace reacts: “This announcement (by Bumble Bee) also disregards its major canned tuna brand in Canada, Clover Leaf. As Bumble Bee expands its product selection in the U.S., Greenpeace urges Clover Leaf to share its plans on how it will ensure Canadian customers are also provided with more sustainable products.”

The announcement by Bumble Bee comes during the week of the European Tuna conference and the European Seafood Exposition, and also an important ISSF meeting in Brussels which all three together gathered many tuna professionals and NGO’s from around the globe, and therefore provided an excellent platform.

Last week, Greenpeace’s 2013 Canned Tuna Sustainability Ranking was released  in which the action group rated Clover Leaf in last position. Greenpeace motivated this by saying that the Canadian company – part of Bumble Bee- showed “unwillingness to map out how it plans to stop sourcing tuna from destructive fisheries and unhealthy tuna stocks”, and the brand was accused of not showing any notable progress over the last year.