Victory for Tuna Campaign!

12/04/2011 at 6:41 pm · Filed under Agriculture, Fishing, and Hunting, Conservationist Action, Human Action, Political and Corporate Action, Stories of Hope, Wildlife and tagged: FADs, Fishing, Greenpeace, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Morrisons, Sainsburys, Tesco, Tuna, UK, Waitrose

www.independent.co.uk 12th April 2011

In one of the most successful environmental campaigns in recent history, the way British supermarkets source their tuna has been radically overhauled. Morrisons is the last major UK supermarket to announce a ban on purse seining around fish-aggregating devices, or FADs, effective in 2013. The announcement, which brings Morrisons in line with the two other major British supermarkets Tesco and Asda targeted in a national campaign to bring an end to the practice. The drive to stop the use of FADs was largely led by celebrity chef Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and Greenpeace. Prior to their work, only Sainsburys, Marks and Spencers, and Waitrose sourced their tuna by the more sustainable pole and line method of fishing. FADs are floating islands that attract large shoals of tuna. They also attract other species though including other fish, sharks, dolphins, and turtles. Large fishing boats then scoop everything aboard using a purse net. All those species that are not tuna are then discarded overboard dead. This is called ‘by-catch’. The UK is the second biggest consumer of tuna after the USA.

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