Greenpeace on Tuesday posted its second video in as many weeks attacking the United States’ “Big 3” canned tuna brands, but this time the video targets longlining and the use of fish aggregating devices (FADs) to catch tuna, steering away from the cartoonish video it circulated last week.
The videos are part of campaign the environmental activist organization launched on 15 August. The first video features the animated mascots associated with StarKist, Bumble Bee and Chicken of the Sea mocking the industry’s “Tuna the Wonder Fish” campaign. After the video was posted, the three companies issued cease-and-desist letters demanding that Greenpeace pull its video off of the Internet.
But Greenpeace refused, instead posting a second video on the Internet on Tuesday depicting gruesome images of dead or dying turtles, birds, sharks and other marine animals caught in fishing nets, supposedly bycatch of tuna fishing.
The video decries longlining and FADs, and a female narrator concludes the two-minute clip by saying, “There is a better way to fish for tuna. Other markets, such as the United Kingdom, have already made the transition to more sustainable methods like FAD-free seine nets and pole-and-line fishing. Why can’t American companies do the same? It’s time to expose the canned tuna industry’s dirty little secrets.”
Click here to watch the video.
Also on Tuesday, Greenpeace delivered a letter to Chicken of the Sea’s La Jolla, Calif., headquarters demanding that it reform its “destructive” tuna-fishing practices, calling on the company, a subsidiary of Thai Union Group, to stop the use FADs in combination with purse seine nets as well as conventional longlines, to end the sale of yellowfin tuna, and to stop fishing in high-seas areas of the Central and West Pacific.
Numerous companies and industry groups, including the National Fisheries Institute, have lambasted Greenpeace for attempting to shakedown the tuna industry and for failing to initiate a constructive dialog and promote industry partnerships.
