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Dead tuna heads for deadbeat tuna managers

Taking Tuna out of the Can

07 October 2008

Retailer's roles in rescuing the world's favourite fish. Global tuna stocks are in big trouble. Tuna is one of the world’s favourite fish, the staple protein in the diet of millions, and the fish at the core of the luxury sashimi market. Perhaps the best known example is the Southern Bluefin Tuna. Since industrial scale fishing of southern bluefin tuna began in the 1950s, the biomass of reproducing fish has been reduced by some 95% and the species was listed as endangered by the IUCN in 1996 . The depletion of the other major global tuna stocks has been recorded by fisheries scientists over many years. Today, there is the real possibility that commercial extinction is imminent for some stocks of these valuable and iconic species.

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Achievements with European supermarkets by June 2008

10 July 2008

In October 2005 Greenpeace UK published a league table that ranked UK supermarkets on the basis of their seafood sourcing policies – this laid the ground-work for Greenpeace’s sustainable seafood campaign.

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Facts about 5 major tuna suppliers

23 April 2008

Mitsubishi Corporation (UK/Japan), Ricardo Fuentes e Hijos (Spain), Dongwon Industries and Dongwon F&B (Korea), Moon Marine (Taiwan/Singapore), Azzopardi Fisheries (Malta)

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o2805061/2 29 May 2006 - Mediterranean Sea, Spain Greenpeace divers with underwater banner reading 'Where have all the tuna gone' in Balearic Islands, Spain - a breeding ground for the bluefin tuna. ©Greenpeace/Gavin Newman Enlarge Image

Where have all the tuna gone?

15 May 2007

Up to two metres long, weighing as much as 700 kilograms, able to sprint as fast as a horse and dive a mile in minutes with a metallic flash, the tuna is one of the kings of the ocean. Like us, it is warm-blooded. Its ability to regulate its body temperature lets it migrate across oceans, swimming thousands of kilometres each year and making it an ideal survivor in a range of conditions. But the tuna cannot survive the ravages of the fishing industry, which is waging a relentless war on its once plentiful kingdom. Urgent action needs to be taken. 2007 may be the last opportunity to save one of the most valuable fish species from commercial extinction.

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Diver by the tuna tow nets in the Mediterranean. Enlarge Image

The mismanagement of the bluefin tuna fishery in the Mediterranean

15 November 2006

Over the past few decades, the inability of Governments to guarantee the sustainable exploitation of bluefin tuna stocks in different parts of the world has resulted in their severe depletion. Overfishing has already led to important decreases in bluefin tuna catches from the southern bluefin tuna stock (Thunnus maccoyii) in the South Pacific and from the western stock of the northern bluefin tuna population (Thunnus thynnus) in the West Atlantic, which is now the subject of a strict recovery plan. With the decline in catches in these two fisheries, the eastern stock of the northern bluefin tuna population has become the most important bluefin tuna fishery worldwide. Catches in this fishery take place mainly in the Mediterranean Sea.

Earlier this year, Greenpeace presented a detailed report about the state of the northern bluefin tuna population, with a particular focus on the eastern stock. The report “Where have all the tuna gone? How tuna ranching and pirate fishing are wiping out Mediterranean bluefin tuna”, analyses the state of this sub-population as well as the causes of its present mismanagement, particularly in the Mediterranean region.

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