Working Toward Sustainable & Eco-Safe Tuna
by Campaign for Eco-Safe Tuna
October 2, 2014
Consumers are ever more conscious of how their choices affect their health and our world. And truly sustainable and eco-safe products are becoming more widely available on supermarket shelves. Nevertheless we have a long way to go before our world's fisheries are fully sustainable.
In an article in National Geographic, Miguel Jorge of 50in10 writes, "I want to know that the fish I buy is not only good for me but also being caught in a way that keeps the oceans healthy." It is why, he explains, it is so important for there to be transparent and verifiable systems for certifying the origins and sustainability of tuna and other seafood.
Without these systems to prevent illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing (IUU fishing), there's no way to be certain that the tuna we buy from the grocery store is caught legally. In the United States particularly, Earth Island Institute has bullied the industry into accepting their falsely named "dolphin-safe" label. However, certification for this label requires only a ship's captain's self-certification that no dolphins were harmed in the catch of the tuna. They have no system for tracking or verifying these self-certified claims, which is how so much illegally caught fish can make its way onto our supermarket shelves, deceiving consumers who think they are supporting legitimate conservation.
What's more, the damage done by illegal fishing goes beyond overfishing stocks of tuna. As noted in an article by Seafood Source, "Working toward sustainable tuna stocks," "our appetite for [tuna] can also put species such as sharks, turtles, dolphins and rays at risk, when indiscriminate catch methods such as fish aggregation devices (FADs) are used." Research has led to several supermarkets in the United Kingdom to institute policies that ascertain the origin and catch methods of the tuna on their shelves. And while this is a great step, more research and advocacy is needed now to ensure that these groceries fully enforce their own policies as promised.
It's not just about the damage done to our marine eco-systems either. Miguel Jorge notes in his article, "IUU fishing remains a serious problem for the industry and for the millions of people who rely on tuna for jobs, and food, and it will remain so until we can transparently trace catches from the sandwich all the way back to the boat."
It's past time to stop illegally harvested tuna from reaching our supermarket shelves. We need transparent and verifiable ways to certify sustainably-caught, eco-safe tuna.
