Whales lured to slaughter in fishing nets
Malcolm Holland The Daily Telegraph November 18, 2011 12:00AM
Helicopter pilot blows whistle on tuna industry
Helicopter pilot blows whistle on tuna industry
A pilot who spots tuna schools has spoken out about the techniques used by fishermen.
GRAPHIC footage has emerged showing the suffering of whales, dolphins, rays and turtles caught in fishing nets meant for tuna.
With disturbing echoes of Japan's whale slaughter in the Antarctic, the video shows pilot whales writhing in agony as they are hoisted above the decks, and a harmless manta ray - still alive - being sliced up by a crew member.
Even an adult whale lies tied up on the deck.
Conservation group Greenpeace released the video yesterday in a bid to show the true cost of a cheap can of tuna. It was shot three weeks ago in the Pacific by helicopter pilots working for a Korean tuna fleet, who were so horrified by what they witnessed they turned whistleblower.
The ships use a method called purse seine netting to encircle entire schools of tuna which have been attracted to fish aggregating devices (FADs). Greenpeace said they also lure all manner of other marine life.
"Consumers have the right to know what is destroyed and discarded in order to fill their cans with tuna," Greenpeace International oceans campaigner Sari Tolvanen said .
"This shocking video is a wake-up call. We as consumers can demand that retailers give shelf space only to responsibly caught tuna."
The entire UK canned tuna market has committed to not source tuna from operations using FADs after a public backlash, and major tuna canning companies Greenseas and Safcol have done the same in Australia. Greenseas recently pledged to stop using FAD-caught tuna by 2015.
Greenpeace said brands such as John West and generic labels had refused to make any such commitments.
Conservationists want tuna to be caught by pole, hook and line, limiting the bycatch to almost zero. Woolworths yesterday would not commit to an outright ban on FAD-purse seine netted tuna but said that it offered pole and line-caught tuna in its private label brands. "Woolworths was the first supermarket to develop a sustainable seafood sourcing strategy and we immediately delisted several fresh fish lines including yellowfin tuna when the strategy was launched in March this year," a spokeswoman said.
The spokeswoman said Woolworths stocked 18 products certified as sustainable by the Marine Stewardship Council.
Coles has also started to sell pole and line-caught tuna but did not reply to inquiries last night.
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