Major Brands Tuna U-Turn

A campaigner protesting outside Princes Liverpool Head Office

By Ben Aulakh

British food giants Princes and ASDA have bowed to public pressure and vowed to scrap the use of indiscriminate tuna catching methods by 2014.

A recent Greenpeace campaign against Princes use of environmentally damaging FAD’s has been successful, with the company committing to phasing out their use by 2014.

Supermarket ASDA has also promised to match Princes by promising to only sell tuna caught by pole and line by the same date.

Fish Aggregation Devices, or FAD’s, are anchored objects used to attract tuna, which are then caught by massive purse seine nets.

They have been heavily criticised for attracting sharks, turtles and even dolphins, which are often caught up in the nets and killed.

A release from Greenpace said, “We've made incredible progress since the beginning of the year on this issue.

“This latest announcement brings both companies in line with the likes of Sainsbury's, Marks & Spencer and Waitrose which have removed Fads from their supply chains.”

More than one in three tins of tuna sold in the UK bear the Princes name; the company also recently came bottom of a tuna league table, published by Greenpeace, making it the least sustainable British company selling the fish.

Greenpeace also heavily criticised company for its misleading labelling stated that it was ‘fully committed to fishing methods which protect the marine environment and marine life.’

The charity said that because of Princes use of purse seine nets and FAD’s, the claim was ‘patently untrue.’

However the firm has recently been praised for supporting the creation of a marine reserve in the pacific ocean.

Photograph by Kristian Buus, from www.greenpeace.org.uk/blog.