Food / Environment
Tuna / Sustainable Fishing

Greenpeace ranks best tuna brands for 2017

Burgess COMMENTARY

Peter Burgess

Greenpeace ranks best tuna brands for 2017 Katherine Martinko Katherine Martinko (@feistyredhair) Living / Green Food April 18, 2017 Share on Facebook Greenpeace tuna ranking 2017
© Greenpeace

The annual Canned Tuna Ranking assesses fishing practices and social responsibility to determine which brands are sustainable and which should be avoided.

When is the last time you examined a can of tuna? A lot of information is packed onto the labels of those small tins, but it’s important to decipher and understand it thoroughly before deciding which brand to buy. Fortunately for shoppers, Greenpeace wants to make this as easy as possible. Its annual Canned Tuna Ranking was released today, and it assesses the ethical and environmental practices behind the 20 most popular tuna brands in the United States.

Results for 2017 are mixed. Many large grocery retailers have made progress over the past year, responding to customers’ demands for responsibly sourced tuna. Whole Foods, Hy-Vee, Wegmans, Giant Eagle, Albertsons, ALDI, Ahold Delhaize, and Kroger have all cleaned up their store brands and others sold on their shelves. The four best tuna brands are currently Wild Planet, American Tuna, Whole Foods, and Ocean Naturals, in that order.

Unfortunately, Greenpeace reports that the three biggest tuna companies – Chicken of the Sea, Bumble Bee, and StarKist – have shown little improvement on sustainability and social responsibility. These brands continue to be sold by Walmart, Target, H-E-B, Costco, and Supervalu, which accept the industry’s low standards without demanding a better product.

What should shoppers look for on a can of tuna?

Greenpeace explains in its Decode the Can guide:

Pole and Line Caught is the best option. It is “a fishing method that catches tuna one-by-one with the use of a pole. Usually several fishers line the perimeter of a boat and catch tuna at the same time using baitfish.”

No Longlines is always good. It means the tuna has been caught “without using longlines, which stretch for miles with thousands of hooks that can cause the drowning of species incidentally caught like seabirds, sharks, and turtles.”

Troll Caught is a safe option. It is a “method of fishing where one or more jigged fishing lines are towed through the water behind a slow-moving boat. It is a selective method with minimal catch of other marine life.”

Handlines mean that a single line is held by a fisher to catch tuna one by one.

FAD-free or 'free school caught' means that no ‘fish aggregation devices’ (FADs) have been used to attract tuna and other marine species artificially. This is very important to note.

When choosing a species, skipjack is preferable because its stocks are the most abundant. It’s often labeled as ‘light tuna’ on the can, but check ingredients to be sure. Avoid yellowfin, tongol, and bigeye. Albacore should only come from the Pacific, where stocks are in much better shape than elsewhere.

Stay away from:

Phrases that mean little, such as “dolphin-safe,” “ocean-safe,” “friend of the sea,” “responsibly or sustainably caught,” “wild caught,” etc. Look for precise details about how the tuna was caught and what species it is.

You can read the full guide here.

Related on TreeHugger.com:

Pacific bluefin tuna should be protected under Endangered Species Act Greenpeace tackles destructive tuna fishing in the Indian Ocean Tuna stocks down 74% – can the world respond in time? Tags: Fish | Fishing | Food Safety | Food Security | Greenpeace
--------------------------------------------------------------
I was the CFO of an international fishing company in the 1970s, and it was in this job that I realized how important it is to respect the environment and natural capital in order to have sustainable profits, environment and society. I’m calling on Chicken of the Sea to lead in the global tuna industry including the US market. As Thai Union’s largest brand, your actions will help to move the global seafood industry in a more positive direction that respects workers and the oceans. Chicken of the Sea must: Show how it will provide 100% responsibly-caught products. Demonstrate that its responsibility standards are being met across all supply chains. Stop sourcing its tuna from destructive fishing methods that needlessly kill vulnerable marine life. Embrace transparency by showing customers how and where its tuna is caught. Stop sourcing from vessels that transship at sea, as this practice is often associated with illegal fishing and human rights abuses. The global tuna industry is out of control. In a relentless search for profits, tuna suppliers have been caught doing anything to save a buck — including forcing people to work on fishing boats for little or no pay under horrific working conditions. Destructive fishing practices overfish the oceans while capturing and killing thousands of sharks, sea turtles, and other untargeted animals. Chicken of the Sea, owned by the largest tuna company in the world — seafood giant Thai Union — could help change this. In response to our global campaign and your support, Thai Union is exploring ways to ensure its products are responsibly caught, but it is up to us to ensure the company acts now. Chicken of the Sea claims to be sustainable, but needs to do more to support those claims. While Chicken of the Sea has once again failed Greenpeace’s canned tuna ranking, you can push them to show the leadership on sustainability and human rights that will help change the seafood industry forever. Take action today and tell Chicken of the Sea to lead by committing to sell only tuna that is responsibly-sourced. Thanks for taking action! Now support all of our campaigns for a green and peaceful future by making a donation today. Greenpeace is an independent organization that does not take money from corporations or government. We rely entirely on financial support from people like you to do the important work that we do.