Seaweek: canned tuna

This week is Seaweek. So, a few fishy posts.

I've been trying to figure out if there are any canned tuna products I feel happy buying.

Background:

The Greenpeace fish red list and Forest & Bird Best Fish Guide both highlight tuna as fish to avoid eating because of low numbers.
When you look at the details, some species of tuna (bluefin, yellowfin, bigeye and others) are worse off, while skipjack tuna are more plentiful. But it depends on how they are caught.

Greenpeace's While Stocks Last report says:

"Anyone buying tuna should select skipjack tuna, but make sure it is either from the New Zealand fisheries (where the cooler waters avoid the bycatch of other tuna species) or from Pacific catches that use trolling or pole and line. Skipjack from
the Pacific purse seine fisheries, particularly those using fish aggregation devices (FADs) should be avoided because of large catches of juvenile bigeye and yellowfin that school together with skipjack."

Albacore tuna are not as good as skipjack, but more plentiful than some of the other tuna species.

With this criteria in mind, I've been checking out the canned tuna in the supermarket:

Ocean Pure - White albacore - location of fishing not explicit (assume NZ?) - hook and line caught (dolphin-friendly) - canned in Blenheim
Factsheet from Natural and Organic Imports

They don't yet have a website up at www.oceanpure.com

Talleys - White albacore - NZ-caught - fishing method not stated ('dolphin-friendly')- appears to be packed in Vietnam
http://www.talleys.co.nz/seafood.htm

Greenseas - Skipjack - Western Pacific Ocean - purse seine caught
http://www.greenseas.com.au/environment.asp


Sealord - Skipjack - Western Pacifc Ocean, Indian Ocean - purse seine caught
http://www.sealord.biz/faq.asp?id=147

Not enough information:

ChopChop! Tuna - Davies Foods - species, source, fishing method unstated - manufactured in Thailand.
http://www.daviesfoods.co.nz/Chop-Chop-Tuna.html

Trident - I haven't found any info to date.


Nothing seems perfect. Ocean Pure might be the best option of this lot, but for now I'm going to keep on avoiding buying canned tuna.

NB I've found it hard to find out adequate information. As a general note, Te Ara/The Encyclopedia of New Zealand says "Most canned tuna in New Zealand is imported skipjack or yellow tuna."
http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/oceanic-fish/2/1