Earlier this year, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s Fish Fight campaign raised public awareness of the relentless destruction of our international fisheries. I think it’s fair to say most of us were shocked as Hugh revealed the impact of our nationwide appetite for tuna, or specifically, the purse seine nets used to catch the fish.
The call for change and clearer labelling was certainly heard by the supermarket brands, who demonstrated agility and responsiveness with swift introductions of pole-and-line-caught only policies. For big players in the canned tuna market, the story is very different.
John West is giving itself until 2016 to phase out unsustainable fishing practices (no rush then!). But that’s not to say they’re sitting back and doing nothing, oh no. They’re busy building a campaign, along with a rebrand, to highlight the fact that all tins now carry a code that consumers can enter into their website to find out where in the ocean the fish was caught, and by which boat. No reference, though, to the method of fishing.
Whilst everyone else changes their policies, John West spends a fortune changing their packaging, but not much else... yet.
Despite saying they’re now offering a pole-and-line product, we couldn’t find any in our local Tesco or Sainsbury’s.