Source: Greenpeace UK Blog
We had huge success earlier this month getting both Princes and Asda to clean up their tinned tuna. But the battle against the butchering of our oceans isn’t over: John West and Morrisons are still not off the hook (ahem).
John West (aka John Worst) is, despite being the second biggest UK tinned tuna brand, now the worst tinned tuna supplier in the UK. This is thanks to their continued use of the highly-destructive pairing of fish aggregation devices (FADs) and purse seine nets.
This combination catches not only the tuna that ends up in the tin, but also bigeye tuna (which is at risk of extinction), many other species including sharks, rays and turtles, not to mention juvenile tuna as well.
By continuing to use this killer combo, John West now lies at the bottom of our tinned tuna league table, closely followed by Morrisons, since Princes promised to change their tuna earlier this month. Princes pledged that by 2014 all their tinned tuna will be caught by pole and line or FAD-free purse seine nets. Asda quickly followed suit, promising to match Prince’s strategy.
The shifts by these companies are particularly significant because they’re part of two multinational corporations, Mitsubishi and Walmart respectively. Greening their tuna supply chains not only creates internal pressure for other arms of these conglomerates to improve their practices but also gives a push to other companies such as Thai Union, owner of John West.
The progress made by these big brands, and the fact that Morrisons and John West are still resisting significant change, was recently raised in the House of Commons by shadow fisheries minister Willie Bain.
On 17 March, Bain called on fisheries minister Richard Benyon to “give a guarantee to persuade the remaining retailers selling unsustainably fished tuna to reflect the views of the 661,000 people who signed the Fish Fight petition and end fishing practices that damage the biodiversity of our oceansâ€.
Benyon blithely committed to this by responding, “Yes to all thatâ€. However, on Tuesday the minister backtracked on this, so the onus remains on us to engage directly with the laggards in the tuna industry.
We’ve had ongoing contact with John West but, while we continue to work for concrete change from them, please do keep the pressure on. Email managing director Paul Reenan and get him to sign up to more sustainable fishing methods too.
Stickers explaining that “this product kills more than just tuna†have been appearing on tins of Morrisons’s tuna
And don’t forget that Morrisons is still using shark-murdering methods too for its own-brand tuna tins – the last remaining supermarket in the UK still wedded to using the indiscriminate death-traps that are FADs.
Our team has yet to meet Morrisons face-to-face and learn exactly why its top brass can’t make the same commitment. No doubt there’s an excellent reason why they knowingly use a destructive fishing method rejected by all their competitors, and I for one can’t wait to hear it.
