Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Tuna Free Campaign

November 12 2012

November 12th 2012 was a big day for us. And by 'us' I mean Belgium, although most Belgians aren't aware of the day's crushing importance, yet.

November 12th 2012 was also yesterday, so that makes me a day late.

On November 12th, 2012, our NGO Sea First launched its Tuna Free Campaign, which in its least ambitious form aims to raise awareness on the imminent downfall of our good friend the tuna fish. In its most ambitious form it aims to shift the balance in favor of common sense by stopping the sale, consumption and catch of tuna altogether, but let's not get ahead of ourselves...

Five Really Good Reasons Not To Eat Tuna


  • For every one kilogram (or pound/grams/tonnes) of tuna, two kilos (or pounds/grams/tonnes) of sea turtle, shark, squid of even bird was caught with it. To put it differently: bycatch for tuna goes up to 60%, definitely when FAD's are involved.
  • If the tuna fish goes down, ecosystems collapse with it. This is bad.
  • Nearly every species of tuna is overfished, not only the bluefin tuna.
  • Catching tuna means big money. Little regulation means bigger money. Bigger money means mobsters are attracted to it like a fly to feces  Human and animal rights fly out of the window and some Japanese guy pays hundreds of thousands of dollars for a bluefin tuna. Mitsubishi and giant freezers are also involved.
  • Tuna isn't as healthy as you think. Keywords/abbreviations: mercury, plastic, food chain, PCB's. 

Due to not having had a lot of sleep the last couple of days, I will not elaborate any further on these reasons, for now. So this leaves you with a few options, one of which is taking my word for it, another is going to http://www.ecosia.org and start researching. Punch it.

PS: It's probably relevant to point out that the information on the Sea First website regarding the Tuna Free Campaign is all still in Dutch. If you'd happen to have one hundred thousand dollars in a sock somewhere, we'd be happy to use it contents to hire a crew for making this a global effort.


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