Greenpeace’s Australian canned tuna campaign has netted another win for the oceans – supermarket giant Coles has pledged to ban destructive fish aggregation devices (FADs) which indiscriminately kills sharks, rays, baby tuna and endangered turtles.“If sharks celebrated Christmas, this is the present they’d be asking Santa for,” said Greenpeace oceans campaigner Nathaniel Pelle.
Coles will follow the lead of John West, which last week announced a phase-out destructive fishing methods by 2015 in response to a six week targeted consumer campaign.
According to their statement, “by 2015, Coles will end the sourcing of tuna from unsustainable methods such as the use of FADs in purse seine tuna fisheries and only sell tuna caught using environmentally responsible methods such as pole & line and free school, and unassociated purse seine fishing.”
“The majority of Australian canned tuna companies, including John West, Greenseas, Sirena, Safcol and Coles, have all now committed to responsible fishing methods,” said Pelle. “That leaves Woolworths as the only big brand still hooked on destructive fishing. Smaller brands Aldi and IGA are also yet to budge.”
The shift in the Australian tuna market comes a week after foreign fishing nations failed to protect the world’s largest tuna fishery at the Western Central Pacific Fisheries Commission meeting in Manila.
“Politics once again failed our oceans at the Pacific tuna commission, with greedy fishing powers such as Taiwan, the EU and China refusing to reduce their plunder of Pacific resources. Meanwhile, consumers are leading the charge and making real change in the ocean by voting with their wallet,” said Pelle.
Greenpeace is campaigning for a complete ban on FADs and the creation of marine reserves in international waters to protect Pacific tuna.
Greenpeace Canned Tuna Guide:
http://www.greenpeace.org.au/tuna