In its new ad campaign Sealord says it looks after the ocean - because the sea means everything, that they take sustainability seriously, always take a conservative approach and aim to leave the oceans in a better condition than how they find them.
That all sounds great, but unfortunately it's stretching the truth.
In one video they say "Sealord tuna comes from stocks where the fish numbers are healthy". But yellowfin tuna has all but disappeared from New Zealand waters, and our own Government has been sounding the alarm internationally about declining commercial and recreational catches. What’s more, Sealord’s tuna is caught using one of the worst tuna fishing methods – a deadly combo of fish aggregating device (FAD) and giant purse seine net which catches and kills endangered sharks, turtles, juvenile tuna and lots of other ocean life, and threatens tuna stocks.
That is not a conservative approach, it is not taking sustainability seriously and it will not leave our oceans in a better condition than they are now. Many of the species caught as bycatch around FADs are in serious decline.
It seems that for Sealord, sustainability is mostly about the sustainability of their image.
Before claiming that they live for the sea, Sealord needs to change its tuna to FAD free.
Until then their talk about being sustainable just sounds like a tall story.
So we’ve grabbed a copy of the ad and made our own version that tells a bit more of the story than Sealord wanted told.
It’s a bit cheeky - but it had to be done!
Note:
We mean no disrespect to the people in this video. Sealord have run this advertising campaigning knowing the unsustainability of their tuna products and the damage that FADs are doing to ocean life. The people of Nelson and other fishing communities around the world deserve to be fishing in to the future. Only healthy oceans will provide long term jobs for the fishing industry.