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www.greenpeace.org.au
©Greenpeace/Hofford
Killed alongside the
skipjack tuna that
finds itself in your tin is
almost the entire cast
list of Finding Nemo.
Charles Clover
Canned tuna is Australia’s favourite
seafood, but our voracious appetite is
having a devastating impact. Almost all
of our tuna comes from the Pacific and
after only a few decades of industrial
fishing, most if not all of the commercial
tuna species are now exploited at
unsustainable long-term levels.
“Safcol’s future
depends on the health
and sustainability
of the ocean. We
know that fish stocks
around the world are
in decline and many
fishing practices
are destructive and
wasteful. The switch
to 100% pole and
line, and dropping
yellowfin for skipjack,
were in the end
obvious choices.”
Andrew Mitchell, CEO,
Safcol Australia.
1 What a waste: The hidden cost of canned tuna
We have a choice. Either we force
our favourite brands to change the
way they source their fish, or we face
the real possibility that our children will
be the last generation to have tuna in
their sandwiches.
Less well-known is the effect tuna
fishing is having on other species. As a
result of wasteful fishing methods, our
tuna catch is causing the widespread
death of endangered and threatened
marine animals – including sharks,
rays, dolphins and turtles – known
collectively as ‘bycatch.’ In tuna purse
seine fisheries using Fish Aggregation
Devices, or FADs, for every 10kg
©Greenpeace/Hofford
catch, up to 1 kg is bycatch and a
further 2kg is juvenile tuna – meaning
that it is too young to reproduce.
This bycatch is the
dirty little secret of
tuna brands.
The solution to reducing bycatch is
simple. The first and most urgent step
is to ban the use of FADs (floating
objects, often equipped with satellite
tracking, used to attract tuna) in purse
seine fisheries. Doing so would, at a
stroke, reduce bycatch by up to 90%.
Markets make a difference
Australia now imports most of its
seafood, the bulk of this as canned
tuna. Nearly all of this comes from the
Western and Central Pacific Ocean. As
a nation, we spend over $330 million
every year on canned tuna.
Most of our tuna is caught in the
national waters of our Pacific Island
neighbours by East Asian and
American fleets. It is then canned in
huge factories in Thailand before being
shipped to our supermarket shelves.
None of our canned tuna comes
from Australian waters any longer.If
Australian brands demand sustainable
tuna, producers will respond.
In the UK all supermarkets and all
major tuna brands have announced
they will no longer source tuna caught
with purse seines and FADs, making
the UK the world’s most sustainable
tuna market. Given it is also the
second largest canned tuna market in
the world, the impact in the water will
also be significant.
Australian brands are lagging behind.
While some are moving slowly in the
right direction, 8 out of 10 Australian
brands continue to source tuna caught
using purse seine nets with FADs.
Only one major brand – Safcol – has
dropped this practice fully by switching
to 100% pole and line caught tuna.
Greenseas, the second biggest tuna
brand in Australia, has made the
commitment to drop FADs from their
product by 2015.
But time is running out for tuna. UK
supermarkets have banned the FAD;
it’s time for all Australian brands to do
the same.
©Greenpeace/Hilton
FADS
FADs are floating objects, often
equipped with satellite-linked sonar
devices, which are used to attract tuna.
Tuna gather around the FADs, allowing
them to be scooped up in vast nets
known as purse seines. These purse
seines consist of a huge curtain of net
that encircles a school of tuna and then
closes when a line is pulled, much like
a draw-string purse. It is estimated that
around 70% of the total global purse
seine catch is taken using FADs.1
The problem is, FADs attract all
manner of marine life, not just tuna –
this gets scooped up too and is known
as bycatch.
The global tuna industry knows it has
a bycatch problem. The International
Seafood Sustainability Foundation
(ISSF) – which counts as its members
the global giants of the tuna trading
industry – agrees that when used
without FADs, “purse seine fishing has
©Greenpeace/Hilton
an average by-catch rate of less than
1 percent (0.5-1%).”2 When used in
combination with FADs, the bycatch is
typically ten times greater 3 – and can
be much worse.
Most of this is made up of sharks
and rays – although whales, dolphins
and turtles are also common
casualties. But the problem is many
times greater when you include the
bycatch of juvenile tuna from highvalue, at-risk species. According to
the ISSF, “purse seine fishing on FADs
can also lead to greater catches of
small tuna, typically of the bigeye and
yellowfin species. This can represent
15-20% of the catch…”4
Globally, it is estimated that FAD
associated bycatch in purse seine
fisheries may now be as high as
182,500 tonnes annually.5 This global
bycatch would fill the equivalent of
nearly 1 billion cans of tuna every year.6
Sharks and rays
Sharks and rays are the major nontuna bycatch victims and are being
killed in the hundreds of thousands
by tuna fishing with purse seines
and FADs.7 More than 75% of the
oceanic pelagic shark and ray species
are classified as threatened or near
threatened by the peak scientific
organisation for assessing threatened
species – the International Union for
the Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
These species are slow to reproduce,
making them highly vulnerable to
“Greenseas
customers expect a
sustainable product
and we recognise
the need to improve
our footprint. Purse
seining for skipjack
using FADs is having
an unsustainable
impact on bigeye and
yellowfin stocks, as
well as other marine
life, in the Pacific. We
feel it is important to
phase out FAD use, to
ensure the long-term
viability of Pacific
tuna fisheries.”
Heinz Australia (Owner of the
Greenseas tuna brand)
overexploitation.8 Being top of the
food-chain, sharks are especially vital
to the marine ecosystem.
Silky sharks and oceanic whitetip
sharks make up particularly high levels
of the bycatch in tuna purse seine
fisheries.9 Both are on the IUCN red list.
Cutting fins off sharks, often while they
are still alive and then throwing the
shark back in the ocean, is also still in
practice on many tuna fishing boats.
©Greenpeace/Hilton
What a waste: The hidden cost of canned tuna 2
Juvenile tuna and threatened tuna species
This year the IUCN
listed five out of
eight tuna species as
threatened or nearthreatened.10 This is
due to overfishing.
The reality of the current state of
southern bluefin tuna should serve as a
warning. As a species, southern bluefin
tuna was once plentiful in Australia
and formed the backbone of the local
canning industry. Now few people
have the licence to fish it, and quotas
are small. The Australian canneries
closed years ago. Bluefin now fetch
thousands of dollars per fish on the
lucrative Japanese sashimi market.
The bluefin population has essentially
collapsed and faces imminent
commercial extinction as a result of
overfishing. Southern bluefin tuna has
been listed as critically endangered for
over a decade.
Now bigeye tuna, also targeted
along with yellowfin by Australian
fishermen along the east coast, is
listed as vulnerable to extinction,
with its population at worryingly low
levels. Yellowfin too is deemed nearthreatened, meaning that without new
conservation measures it will slip into
the threatened category.
This wasteful catch of yellowfin
and bigeye is not only environmentally
irresponsible, it is also economically
short-sighted as the species are
worth more on the higher value fresh
fish market.
Canned tuna is usually skipjack,
which, while diminishing fast, for now
retains a healthier population. But
significant levels of bycatch of juvenile
tuna threaten the long-term health
of these stocks, as juvenile tuna are
taken out of the water before reaching
breeding maturity.
In 2009 the incidental catch of mostly
juvenile bigeye was 43,000 tonnes,
roughly two-thirds the size of the
targeted catch.11 So the canned tuna
on our shelves, mostly caught using
purse seines and FADs, is a major
factor in pushing yellowfin and bigeye
stocks further into depletion.12
Turtles
A recent study has shown that the
85,000 turtles officially recorded as
killed annually in global fisheries may
be a gross underestimation.13
The main sources of turtle deaths
are long line, gillnet and trawl fisheries,
but purse seines using FADs can
also be responsible for killing turtles.
Research from the Pacific region
shows 750-2,500 purse seine turtle
deaths annually between 1994-2004.
Bycatch from fishing with purse seines
and FADs may cause problems for
Pacific turtle populations14 which are
found entangled in nets both below
the FADs and on top where they
frequently climb up to rest.15 All five
Pacific sea turtles are listed as critically
endangered, endangered or vulnerable
on the IUCN red list.16
All turtles are protected under the
Convention on International Trade
in Endangered Species (CITES),
Appendix 1, making international
trade illegal. Zero by-catch should be
3 What a waste: The hidden cost of canned tuna
©Greenpeace/Hofford
the goal of every fishery that comes
into contact with turtles. Remarkably,
resistance to change remains
entrenched. Industry is reluctant to
change if it results in a smaller tuna
catch. The summary of a 2009 ISSF
workshop with tuna experts and
skippers of purse seine vessels noted
with regards to bycatch mitigation
techniques that ‘if it is good for turtles
but bad for fishing, it won’t
be adopted’.17
©Greenpeace/Hofford
For each 1,000 tons of
yellowfin tuna caught
in FAD sets over three
years, fishermen
caught nearly 111,000
other individual
animals, including
turtles, sharks, rays
and marlins.18
1
2
PURSE SEINE
FISHING WITH FADS
RESULTS IN 10X
GREATER BYCATCH
THAN WITHOUT
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
FISH 4
EVER
SAFCO
L
COLES
JOHN W
EST
SEAS
GREEN
ALDI
IGA
SIRENA
CANNED
TUNA TRADE
GLOBAL VALUE
$2.7 BILLION
per annum
WOOLW
O
RTHS
SOLE M
ARE
THE SOLUTIONS:
• POLE AND LINE FISHING
• MARINE RESERVES
• PURSE SEINING WITHOUT FADS
70% OF GLOBAL
TUNA PURSE SEINE
TUNA FISHING
USES FADS
… and rising
OVER EXPLOITED
4.3 MILLION TONNES
OF TUNA CAUGHT
per annum
1.75M
1M
1966
1976
4.3M
3.2M
Sharks and rays
2.3M
1986
1996
75% of sharks and rays
are under threat and many
more are endangered.
2006
Shark finning is on
the increase.
TUNA CAUGHT (TONNES)
DESTRUCTIVE
PURSE SEINE
NETS WITH
FADS
200 m
2m
0.5 m
Turtles
6 of the 7 sea turtle
populations are in trouble.
Juvenile and threatened
tuna species
Purse seining on FADs is killing high
numbers of bigeye and yellowfin –
both over-fished and in rapid decline.
WHAT’S THE CATCH?
The fish that most purse seines
are trying to catch.
182,500
Tonnes of FAD bycatch
in purse seine tuna
fisheries per year.
That’s equivalent to almost
1 BILLION TINS
OF BYCATCH
5 OUT OF 8 TUNA SPECIES ARE THREATENED OR NEAR THREATENED
YELLOWFIN & ALBACORE
BIGEYE
ATLANTIC BLUEFIN
BLUEFIN
Near threatened
Vulnerable
Endangered
Critically endangered
Tuna
Skipjack tuna
WHAT’S BYCATCH?
Non target species caught by
indiscriminate fishing.
Larger bycatch
Top predators like
sharks and rays.
Even marine turtles
Juvenile
Including threatened
tuna species
Small bycatch
Other non target fish
©Greenpeace/Behring-Chisholm
©Greenpeace/Powell
Overfishing
“Taking an overall view,
at present it is clear
that the global catch
level for tuna will not
be sustainable unless
action is taken.”
John West (UK)20
Most canned tuna sold in Australia is
a small, relatively short-lived species
called skipjack. John West and
Greenseas are the brands that sell the
most of it. But the more commercially
valuable yellowfin and albacore tunas
are also sold in cans – brands like
Sirena and Sole Mare base their
business almost entirely on yellowfin.
The majority of tuna stocks are in
decline and appear set to continue
on this downward trajectory as fishing
rates are very high. In 2009, 2,467,903
metric tonnes of tuna were caught in
the waters of the Pacific – the highest
ever recorded. This includes bigeye
and yellowfin tuna. Globally, yellowfin
tuna stocks are in serious decline,19
all four regional stocks of yellowfin are
declining and continue to be fished
at an alarming rate.20, 21, 22, 23 Yellowfin
tuna is fully-exploited and on the brink
of being overfished in a region of the
Western Central Pacific Ocean (WCPO)
where the majority of yellowfin catches
are taken.
Even previously healthy fisheries are
now under pressure. 1.8 million tonnes
of skipjack were caught in the WCPO
in 2009 – also a record. At first that
may look like good news but the
maximum sustainable yield for skipjack
— the upper catch limit that should
avoid decline — was set by fisheries
scientists at 1.35 million tonnes. Since
this maximum sustainable yield makes
no allowance for poor data or poor
management, that overexploitation
of more than 400,000 tonnes of fish
is an incredible risk. Without better
management, even stocks of the
healthiest remaining species, like
skipjack could suffer.25, 26, 27, 28
The increasing pattern of tuna
overexploitation and its associated
bycatch is exacerbated by the
enormous increase in the capacity
of tuna purse seine fleets and the
proliferation of FADs. Larger boats with
greater capacity are chasing fewer and
fewer fish.
Foreign purse seine ships fishing to
supply global markets can catch 3,000
tonnes of tuna in a single trip to the
Western and Central Pacific, almost
double the entire annual catch that some
Pacific Island nations make in their own
waters.29 The number of tuna vessels
continues to increase worldwide. For
example, the US flagged tuna purse
seine fleet in the South Pacific more than
tripled in size between 2006 and 2009.30
Empty seas, empty future
When it comes to destructive fishing
and dwindling tuna stocks, the Pacific
Island nations lose out threefold. If
overfishing continues, it will be the
Pacific Islanders who suffer most.
Firstly, a tiny fraction of the profits from
the tuna industry is returned to the
people of the Pacific. Pacific Island
nations, although home to the world’s
richest tuna31 fishing grounds, receive
only around 5% of the value of tuna
fished in their part of the world as
industrial fleets from distant waters
have taken the place of local industry.
5 What a waste: The hidden cost of canned tuna
This meager portion of the profit,
received through selling licences
to overseas fishers, is for many
Island nations their greatest revenue
source. Improving their cut of the
profits, through fairer licensing and
redevelopment of the domestic
industry, is key to long-term ecological
and economic sustainability.
Secondly, the bycatch of sharks,
turtles and other marine life is not
only environmentally destructive; it
represents an economic cost to
Pacific Island nations whose natural
wonders are popular with tourists.
Finally, practically all Pacific Islanders
rely on seafood as their principle
source of protein.32 With developing
economies and environments at the
frontline of climate change, Pacific
Islanders are among the least food
secure populations in the world.
Destructive and excessive fishing
is a humanitarian as well as an
environmental threat.
©Greenpeace/Hilton
©Greenpeace/Hilton
References
1 J. Hallier and D. Gaertner, ‘Drifting fish
aggregation devices could act as an
ecological trap for tropical tuna species’.
http://hal.ird.fr/docs/00/26/91/72/PDF/Hallier_
GaertnerMEPS7180_Prev2.pdf
2 ISSF, FAD: Fact Aggregating Document,
http://iss-foundation.org/wp-content/uploads/
downloads/2011/05/FAD-document.pdf
3Ibid.
4Ibid.
5 Calculation based on the FAO estimates that
total purse seine catches were 2.607.201
MT in 2007. 70% FAD with 10% bycatch.
Greenpeace International, ‘A Growing FAD’:
Kobe-II Bycatch Workshop, Brisbane 23-25
June 2010. It had previously been estimated
that total bycatch from the use of FADs
amounted to some 100,000 tonnes every
year: T. Dempster and M. Taquet ‘Fadbase
and Future Directions for Ecological Studies
of Fad-Associated Fish’, 2005. www.
spc.int/coastfish/news/Fish_News/112/
Dempster_112.pdf [accessed15.12.10]
6 16. 987,325,000 cans of tuna (i.e. almost 1
billion 185g cans)
7 M.D. Camhi et al (2009). The Conservation
Status of Pelagic Sharks and Rays. Report
of the IUCN Shark Specialist Group Pelagic
Shark Red List Workshop. Tubney House,
University of Oxford, UK, 19–23 February
2007 http://cmsdata.iucn.org/downloads/
ssg_pelagic_report_final.pdf
8 N.K. Dulvy et al, 2008, ‘You can swim but you
can’t hide: the global status and conservation
of oceanic pelagic sharks and rays’, Aquatic
Conservation: Marine and Freshwater
Ecosystems, 18: 459-482 (2008). http://
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/aqc.975/
pdf [accessed 16.10.12]
9 M.D. Camhi et al (2009). The Conservation
Status of Pelagic Sharks and Rays. Report
of the IUCN Shark Specialist Group Pelagic
Shark Red List Workshop. Tubney House,
University of Oxford, UK, 19-23 February
2007. http://cmsdata.iucn.org/downloads/
ssg_pelagic_report_final.pdf
10www.iucnredlist.org/
11 WCPFC Scientific Committee 7, Prospects
for effective conservation of bigeye tuna
stocks in the Western Central Pacific Ocean,
Pohnpei, Federated States of Micronesia,
9-17 August, 2011.
12 University of Hawaii, ‘The Associative
Dynamics of Tropical Tuna to a Large-Scale
Anchored Fad Array’,2008.
http://www.soest.hawaii.edu/PFRP/biology/
holland_itano_png.html
13 ‘The total reported global marine turtle
bycatch was~85,000 turtles, but due to the
small percentage of fishing effort observed
and reported (typically<1% of total fleets), and
to a global lack of bycatch information from
small scale fisheries, this likely underestimates
the true total by at least two orders of
magnitude’, Wallace et al, 2010. ‘Global
patterns of marine turtle bycatch’. http://
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1755263X.2010.00105.x/full [accessed 9.12.10]
14 D. Bromhead et al, ‘Review of the impact of
fish aggregating devices (FADs) on Global
Tuna Fisheries’, 2003
15 J. Franco et al , Design Of Ecological Fads,
2009. www.iotc.org/files/proceedings/2009/
wpeb/IOTC-2009-WPEB-16.pdf
16 IUCN Red List Categories: Vulnerable: high
risk of extinction in the wild; Endangered: very
high risk of extinction in the wild; Critically
Endangered: extremely high risk of extinction
in the wild. www.iucn.org/about/work/
programmes/species/red_list/about_the_red_
list/ [accessed 16.12.10]
17 ISSF Meeting on mitigation of bycatches in
the Tuna Purse seine Floating Object fisheries
– Final Report AZTI Sukarrieta, Spain, 24-27
November 2009. www.iss-foundation.org/
FileContents.phx?fileid=e7f00ec6-01eb-4ba79ede-42f229199955 [accessed 16.12.10]
18 M. Hall, Inter-American Tropical Tuna
Commission reported in Forbes. http://www.
forbes.com/2008/07/24/dolphin-safe-tunatechpaperplastic08-cx_ee_0724fishing_2.html
19 Seafood Watch Seafood Report,
‘Yellowfintuna’. www.montereybayaquarium.
org/cr/cr_seafoodwatch/content/media/
MBA_SeafoodWatch_YellowfinTunaReport.
pdf Seafood Watch Seafood Report,
‘Bigeye tuna’. www.montereybayaquarium.
org/cr/cr_seafoodwatch/content/media/
MBA. SeafoodWatch_BigeyeTunaReport.
pdf Western Pacific Fisheries Management
Council, Press release, 21 August 2007.
www.wpcouncil.org/press/2007.08.21%20
Press%20Release%20on%20WCPFC%20
SC3.pdf and www.iss-foundation.org/tsm
20 WCPFC (2009). The Commission for the
Conservation and Management of Highly
Migratory Fish Stocks in the Western and
Central Pacific Ocean. Scientific Committee
Fifth Regular Session, 10–21 August 2009,
Port Vila, Vanuatu. Western and Central
Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC),
Kolonia, Pohnpei. www.wcpfc.int/doc/
summaryreportpre-edited-version
21 WCPFC (2010). The Commission for the
Conservation and Management of Highly
Migratory Fish Stocks in the Western and
Central Pacific Ocean. Scientific Committee
Sixth Regular Session, 10-19 August 2010,
Nuku’alofa, Tonga. Summary Report. Western
and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission
(WCPFC), Kolonia, Pohnpei. www.wcpfc.int/
node/2751
22 IATTC (2010). The Fishery for Tunas and
Billfishes in the Eastern Pacific Ocean
in 2008. Fisheries Status Report No 7.
Inter-American tropical Tuna Commission
(IATTC), La Jolla California, USA. www.
iattc.org/PDFFiles2/FisheryStatusReports/
FisheryStatusReport7ENG.pdf
23IOTC (2009). Report of the Eleventh Session
of the IOTC Working Party on Tropical
Tunas, Mombasa, Kenya, 15-23 October
2009. Indian Ocean Tuna Commission
(IOTC), Victoria, Seychelles. www.iotc.org/
files/proceedings/2009/wptt/IOTC-2009WPTTR%5BE%5D.pdf
24WCPFC (2010). Summary report of the sixth
regular session of the scientific committee.
http://www.wcpfc.int/node/2751
25IOTC (2009). IOTC Report of the Twelfth
Session of the Scientific Committee, Victoria,
Seychelles, 30 November-4 December,
2009 IOTC-2009-SC-R[E]. www.iotc.org/
files/proceedings/2009/sc/IOTC-2009-SCR%5BE%5D.pdf
26ICCAT (2008). Skipjack executive summary.
In: Report of the 2008 ICCAT yellowfin
and skipjack stock assessments meeting.
Florianópolis, Brazil, 21–29 July 2008.
SCRS/2008/016 – YFT & SKJ Assessment.
www.iccat.int/Documents/SCRS/ExecSum/
SKJ_EN.pdf
27IATTC (2010). Fishery Status Report 7.
Tunas and billfishes in the Eastern Pacific
oceans in 2008. Inter-American Tropical Tuna
Commission. La Jolla, California 2010.
www.iattc.org/PDFFiles2/IATTC-80-05-Tunasand-billfishes-in-the-EPO-2008.pdf
28WCPFC 2010. The Commission for the
Conservation and Management of Highly
Migratory Fish Stocks in the Western and
Central Pacific. Ocean Scientific Committee
Fifth Regular Session Port Vila, Vanuatu 10-21
August 2009. Summary report.
http://www.wcpfc.int/meetings/2009/5thregular-sessionscientific-committee
29WCPFC Area Catch Value Estimates 2009.
http://ffa.int/node/425#attachments [accessed
16.12.10]
30www.ntsb.gov/events/forum_fishing_vessel_
safety/Background/2010%2004%2030%20
DHS%20Distant%20Water%20Tuna%20
Fleet%20Report.pdf [accessed 14.12.10]
31World Bank 2008, quoted in
Island Business, 2011 http://www.
islandsbusiness.com/islands_business/
index_dynamic/containerNameToReplac
e=MiddleMiddle/focusModuleID=19010/
overideSkinName=issueArticle-full.tpl
32UN FAO, http://km.fao.org/FIGISwiki/index.
php/FishStatJ_download
What a waste: The hidden cost of canned tuna 6
“The balance of power
between the fishing
fleets and tuna has
shifted too far in favour
of the fleets.”
Profesor Callum Roberts,
University of York
Greenpeace Australia Pacific
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