First it was the United Kingdom. Then it was Australia and New Zealand.
Now Greenpeace is taking its message to Canada, targeting one the country’s No. 1 canned-tuna brand.
On Thursday, the environmental activist organization launched a campaign urging Clover Leaf Seafoods to source only fish harvested in a sustainable, environmentally friendly manner. Greenpeace is pressing the company to no longer source tuna caught on a longline or in a purse seine using fish aggregating devices (FADs) because of high bycatch rates of marine species such as sharks, sea turtles and sea birds.
Greenpeace also launched a website parodying Clover Leaf and mocking its Take 5 recipe campaign. On the website, the group changed Clover Leaf’s tagline from “Love the taste every time” to “Taste the waste every time.” This week, Greenpeace volunteers, posing as Clover Leaf employees, handed out tuna-less cans and a magnet with the website address to passersby in downtown Montreal and Vacouver.
Greenpeace’s campaign against Clover Leaf comes nearly four months after it released a report ranking 14 of Canada’s canned-tuna brands according to whether the fish is harvested in an environmentally friendly manner. Greenpeace awarded only two companies a passing grade: Wild Planet Foods (65.1 percent) and Raincoast Trading (50 percent). Clover Leaf ranked 11th, with a failing grade of 27.8 percent.
Clover Leaf is owned by San Diego-based Bumble Bee Foods.
