Sealord has ordered genetic tests on a popular tuna spread after an international study claimed it contained a species protected as a “recreational only†fish in Australia.
The results of a Greenpeace-commissioned study of 165 canned and pouched tuna products, drawn from 50 brands across 12 countries, allege a Sealord spread contained longtail - or tongol tuna – a species largely banned from commercial catches across the Tasman since 2006.
Brands purchased and tested by Spanish marine and food research centre, Azti-tecnalia, were Chop Chop, Greenseas, Pams and Home Brand. Not every can was able to have its contents identified to a species level and the Sealord spread was the only local sample where longtail was specifically reported by the Spanish lab.
“Sealord doesn’t source longtail, so we don’t believe the species is in this product,†said Alison Sykora, Sealord’s communications manager. “We are having products retested and working through our tracing records with our supplier to confirm the species.â€
The tinned tuna sent for testing by Greenpeace is produced in Thailand and sold in New Zealand supermarkets. Sykora said, based on a documents audit for the batch in question, researchers should have found yellowfin tuna.
Results from the new round of Sealord-ordered tests were first expected from Thailand on Christmas Eve. Sykora said last week testers had not been able to extract enough “clean†protein to determine the species and the samples were now being brought to New Zealand for further checks. A random sample of a different batch of the same product, sent to Niwa scientists, had found no longtail.
Sykora said Sealord was proud of its sustainability records.
“Despite us not using this species, this issue should not concern people who love tuna. Longtail is a tuna species that is commonly canned and used by many brands and manufacturers around the world. It is not an overfished species in areas where we source our tuna.â€
But Greenpeace New Zealand oceans campaigner Karli Thomas said that internationally there was “no reliable stock assessment for longtail tuna, so the use of this species in canned tuna is a concernâ€.
In Australia, where monitoring is under way to determine the size and distribution of the longtail population, the Fisheries Research and Development Corporation reports that the species is “heavily exploited†by underdeveloped countries, including Indonesia, Taiwan, Thailand and Iran. Global catches had more than doubled to 248,000 tons between the years 1985 and 2007.
“Because of their slow growth rate and restricted distribution, longtail tuna may be particularly vulnerable to overfishing, even under seemingly modest fishing pressure by coastal fisheries,†the report says. Australia has declared the fish “recreational-only†because of its importance as a sport fish.
Other reported irregularities from the Spanish lab included the discovery of two different species inside individual cans, different tins of the same product containing different species and, in some brands, a different species than indicated on a tin’s label. No New Zealand products were implicated in those practices.
