March 9, 2015 — Greenpeace on Monday launched its first-ever ranking of 14 U.S. canned tuna brands based on “fundamental sustainability standards,” and gave failing grades to eight, including the market’s top three brands: Bumble Bee, Chicken of the Sea and StarKist.
The group said it examined the impact of the brands’ sourcing practices on the environment, including fishing gear, illegal fishing practices like shark finning, traceability and even human rights practices in the fishing industry.
“Consumers should know that popular and trusted canned tuna brands are contributing to ocean destruction at an alarming rate,” said Graham Forbes, leader of Greenpeace’s seafood markets campaign. “While the biggest brands have thus far refused to offer sustainable tuna, the silver lining here is that other companies are stepping up to provide ocean safe options for their customers.”
Greenpeace contends that more than 80 percent of the tuna sold in the U.S. market comes from unsustainable, destructive sources. Greenpeace’s 2015 Canned Tuna Shopping Guide looked at 14 U.S. national and private label brands and concluded that most lack measures to address both sustainability and human welfare and labor issues. Companies that did not respond to Greenpeace's questionaires were downgraded for lacking transparency.
The rankings earned an immediate response from the National Fisheries Institute, which referred to the effort as a veiled fundraising exercise and criticized the scoring methodology as “totally arbitrary.”
Read the full story at SeafoodSource.com