Sealord urged to change its tuna

www.greenpeace.org.nz/tuna - Greenpeace launches a public campaign in downtown Auckland urging Sealord to stop buying tuna for its canned products from companies using fishing methods which kill endangered sharks, turtles, juvenile tuna and other ocean species.

Category:

Nonprofits & Activism

Tags:

• tuna can
• pacific tuna
• sealord
• britomart
• auckland
• sharks

[MDCVFIF]

@AlisonSykoraSealord Your company is in the wrong on this matter. Just look through the comments on this video to see the strength of public opinion against your position. Ignore the public if you want, but you will suffer commercially if you do. I, for one, will not be purchasing any Sealord products until you start fishing more sustainably.

[davefish7]

Before my children brightened my life I took it for granted I might be able to get my (now 6yrs old) son hooked up to a YF tuna. Sealord is a significant party to making that dream, well, a dream. It's going to be my mission to get a school project going on Pacific commercial fisheries and practices, with brands and companies named, so at least the kids will know what used to swim around out there, where it went, and who took it away from everyone. Wake up Sealord.

[9fisho]

The New Zealand Sport Fishing Council does not condone Sealords unacceptable method (purse seining on fish aggregation devices) which accounts for high levels of juvenile yellowfin tuna as bycatch in the Pacific Ocean. Sealord's decision to continue using tuna caught in this way is disappointing. Purse seine fishing without FADs gives a much "cleaner" catch that is less destructive to the precious juvenile Yellowfin Tuna stocks that we rely on so heavily to reach maturity for the better of all

[KingfisherNZ]

In the Pacific Ocean the main concern with the skipjack stock is the constantly increasing exploitation rate. In the western and central Pacific management area 1.6 million tonnes of skipjack was taken by purse seine in 2009 (a new record) and it keeps going up. That means a bycatch of non-tuna species of about 70,000 tonnes per year, which is dumped back in the sea (ISSF 5% bycatch on FADs). Sealord need to accept this is a significant problem that cannot be denied.

[KarliThomasGP]

Reducing bycatch is essential. When purse seiners use fish aggregation devices the bycatch of undersized tuna is 15-20% & the non-tuna bycatch is five to ten times higher than when seiners fish on tuna schools without FADs. That's unacceptable. Greenpeace asked NZ's main tuna bands to take the lead on this. Pams said yes and Sealord just started making excuses. The fact is, within 6 months the most sustainable tuna available on a large scale on NZ supermarket shelves will be Pams - not Sealord.

[AlisonSykoraSealord]

Sealord disagrees. The Earth Island Institute calls this campaign ‘unscientific and misleading in the extreme’ and the WWF back International Sustainable Seafood Foundation. Everyone agrees reducing bycatch is essential and work is being done on this. The report GP uses to ‘prove’ its point does not call for a ban, and actually states that neither skipjack or yellowfin tuna are overfished (these are the species used in our tuna products).

[silvaadub]

aw paw toonah

[gabesmalley]

So, I've never heard of Sealord before (I'm not in the country), but even the name implies a deep disrespect for the oceans....