Tuna Best Practise Recommendations for Companies:- 

• Companies should look very carefully at equipment and gear – that’s what we can influence the most, avoid gear that has a reputation for by-catch of juveniles, by catch of endangered species, high by-catch of non-target species (other fish, mammals, sharks, etc). 

• Companies should avoid fish caught in breeding areas of both the target fish and by-catch fish – for example skipjack tuna purse seiners setting on FADs actually catch a large number of juvenile yellowfin and big eye because they operate in known nursery grounds for these.  Stop buying from boats in those areas. 

• Encourage local artisan fisheries, especially pole and lines.  This better fishing method gives more back to the community but has been devastated by the long distance foreign boats working within coastal waters of developing countries.  Companies should make efforts to restore, support and build up local fleets.  Fish4Ever refuses to work with long distance foreign fleets.  
• Companies should avoid illegal fishing and likely illegal fishing; they should monitor the lists of boats on banned lists produced by the FAO, Regional Tuna Authorities and Greenpeace but should also avoid fish from areas that are known to have high levels of illegal fishing.  Indifference is complicity. 

• In the UK there is something called KVI, or Key Value Item, which is a product on which supermarkets, for competition reasons, sell below cost.  Canned tuna is a KVI.  Selling tuna too cheap puts pressure on the whole supply chain to cut corners, to fish badly and not respect other values. It subsidises un-sustainability. Supermarkets committed to sustainability should pledge to no longer sell canned tuna at unreasonably cheap prices. 

•  Companies should stop using the term dolphin-friendly.  It has caused a great deal of confusion as it suggest that’s the only concern with tuna is dolphin by-catch and that is in fact hardly an issue at all – whereas total stock levels, impact on other endangered species, impact of by-catch and discard are all major conservation concerns with tuna.  We are

   

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• launching the greatdolphinfriednlyswindle.com website to highlight this fact.  Consumers have effectively been misled.  The large retailers and vendors should agree to stop using this term altogether.  Companies should say where and how their fish is caught, not just where it has been packed.  This would allow for better transparency. 

• Tuna should not longer be sold under the generic term “tuna” but as the specific species packed in the can.  We are also going one step further by encouraging different culinary uses for the different tuna to try and encourage people to value and want to pay for a quality product. 

• Companies need to support and fund NGO’s and sustainability initiatives. The larger the company, the bigger the impact.  The political system needs the pressure of civic or economic society to push through the sustainability agenda.  Scientific advice, for starters, should be respected. One very important NGO fight at present is to promote marine parks globally with no fishing zones.  This is widely regarded in expert circles as an excellent way of not just conserving the environment and bio-diversity but helping stocks regenerate.