Inglese III - Oral Report

presentation will be strictly related to sustainability with a particular focus on tuna

market and the marine ecosystem.

So, first of all I will introduce the topic by illustrating the problems existing in tuna

market, then I will move to explain which are the species at risk and the most used

destructive fishing methods, for concluding with the possible solutions of the

problem.

So, let’s start:

INTRODUCTION

In Italy, but also in many other parts of the world, despite some little improvements,

there are still too few canned tuna producers who have decided to adopt well-defined

principles of sustainability.

In recent years several studies and researches carried out by different organizations,

have highlighted the problem. According to a survey conducted in 2008 in the Italian

supermarkets to check what information were available on tuna cans, it has been

possible to find a total lack of transparency: in fact, only some of them indicated

simply the common name of the specie on the tag, while there were rarely

information about the origins of the tuna and in any case nothing about the fishing

method.

In 2010 Greenpeace performed a genetic test on hundred cans coming from different

countries, including Italy, which revealed that unaware consumers could buy cans of

the same product not containing the same specie of tuna and sometimes containing

various species mixed together in the same can.

Among the reasons of this problem, certainly there’s the use of damaging fishing

methods which, catching young specimens, leads to confuse tunas of different

species that are practically indistinguishable after the freezing and the other

treatments on the fishing boat and only few consumers know that an excessive and

indiscriminate fishing practice puts in peril not only tuna populations but also the

whole marine ecosystem. But before talking more deeply about fishing systems and

the other animals in peril, let me show which are the tuna species most at risk.

TUNA SPECIES AT RISK

A group of researchers have recently announced that five of the eight commercial

species of tuna are now at risk of extinction.

As you can see, among most threatened ones we find the Bluefin Tuna, now on the

verge of collapse, and the Bigeye Tuna which is at mid-term risk, while the Yellowfin

Tuna is the most consumed in Italy and among the overexploited species since the

fishing management adopted doesn’t follow principles of prevention which guarantee

fishing sustainability.

DESTRUCTIVE FISHING METHODS

In fact, (moving to the other slide), although there are fishing methods which have a

low impact on the ecosystem, the majority of canned tuna is caught through

destructive fishing methods such as boulters and FADs (which stands for Fish

Aggregating Devices).

Shortly I illustrate them to you:

Boulters are very very long nylon cables with lots of shorter fishing lines and baited

hooks, while Fish Aggregating Devices are floating objects used together with purse

seines, that are very large nets, specifically designed and located to attract tunas.

So, they allow fishers to find them more easily, but the problem is that they not only

attract tunas, but also lots of other animals such as sharks, rays, turtles, swordfishes

and sometimes dolphins that indiscriminately finish up in tuna cans. This is also due

to the fact that these systems are anything but selective and many fishers absolutely

don‘t care about making distinctions.

Fishing methods of this kind are practiced also because there are almost never

independent observers who check and ensure the employment of measures directed

to minimize the impact of these activities. Moreover, there’s the outlaw fishing which

is a serious problem also for the local communities who are stripped of their

resources.

ALTERNATIVES AND CONCLUSIONS

For concluding, it’s important to be aware of this problem because it makes

consumers part of the destruction of marine ecosystem without knowing or having

the possibility to choose. Possible alternatives could be (1) to eliminate dangerous