Hugh's Fish Fight: Save Our Seas

Supermarket statements on King Prawns and fishmeal.

The Co-operative

20 November 2012

A spokesperson for The Co-operative Food said: “The sustainability of the fishing industry, both in our country and across the world, is of the upmost importance to The Co-operative.  We are committed to providing our customers with responsibly-sourced fish and are currently investigating the issues raised with our supplier.”

Morrisons

26 November 2012

This subject concerns one of our suppliers. There are commercial issues which limit what we can talk about in terms of supplier relationships, meaning it would be difficult for us to discuss them in a broadcast interview. We as a matter of policy don’t talk publicly about relationships with individual suppliers and this is good business practice. As a result, I’m afraid we won’t be able to carry out this interview with you for your series

Tesco

22 February 2013

We are committed to ensuring sustainability across our supply chain. We source 100% pole and line own-brand canned tuna, promote alternative British species on our fresh fish counters and were the first supermarket to introduce long-term contracts for our dairy and livestock farmers, welcomed by the NFU.
 
Reducing reliance on fishmeal is a complex industry-wide issue but we’re actively looking at how best to tackle it. We’re working with our largest prawn supplier in Thailand on developing trials which limit the use of fishmeal and we have set up a working group on fishmeal involving other major UK supermarkets.
 
We also work with the Sustainable Fisheries Partnership who independently audit the sustainability of our fisheries.

 

Hugh's Fish Fight, series 1

Tesco's Right to Reply

We welcome third party monitoring and the Sustainable Fisheries Partnership is independently reviewing our fisheries.
 
Re: pole and line, we are examining issues such as bait sustainability and ensuring that food safety standards, from the boats that catch our tuna to the processing factories which can it, meet our stringent requirements.
 
We are committed to selling a wide range of fish (around 40 species on our fresh fish counters alone) and our counter staff are trained to advise customers on trying different varieties.

Pole and line:

“We're absolutely committed to responsible fishing. We've moved from 10 to 25% pole and line and want to go much further. But changes must be carefully thought through – for example, it’s important that we thoroughly research potential impacts on bait sustainability and food safety standards.”

Labelling:

“We're constantly reviewing our labelling to give our customers better and clearer information and we expect to make further changes to our tuna labelling in the coming months.”

Ghana:

“We are not currently taking tuna from this supplier, nor was the tuna in the film destined for Tesco. All the canned tuna we sell is independently certified as 100% dolphin friendly by the Earth Island Institute. They monitor this supplier regularly and have not found any evidence of dolphin or turtle mortality. However, we always welcome third party scrutiny so we're launching an independent investigation before we consider resuming supply."
 

TTV RIGHT TO REPLY

TTV Limited say:
 
1. It is fact that dolphins and tuna do not associate with each other in the Atlantic ocean.  Accordingly, catching dolphins and tuna in the same net is impossible.  This fact is supported by the reports and audits of the Earth Island Institute. Earth Island approved TTV as a “Dolphin Safe Fishing and Processing Company” by Earth Island in May 2009.
 
2. In the very unlikely event that a turtle is caught in the nets they are returned to the sea immediately both alive and unharmed.
 
3. Sharks are not an important by-catch in the Atlantic ocean but they too are always returned to the sea immediately both alive and unharmed.
 
4. All of their vessels display clear and prominent notices (using both text and graphics) confirming that it is prohibited to catch seabirds, dolphins, whales, sharks or turtles.
 
5. The only by-catch species of fish caught by the Company’s vessels are fish which are not prohibited catch.  Such by-catches amount, on average, to less than 0.5% of the total catches.
 
It also says that it is fully aware of the impact on the environment of its fishing practices and works to reduce any negative impact it may have, including working closely with the International Seafood Sustainability Foundation.