Greenpeace targets Princes HQ with direct action
A Greenpeace spokesman said that volunteers climbed onto a Royal Liver Building balcony at 8am this morning and hung up ‘dead’ fabric sharks; other campaigners handed out leaflets to Princes’ staff and played the Jaws movie theme tune on a stereo.
Owned by Japenese multinational Mitsubishi, Princes is the UK’s biggest canned tuna company, and the company recently brushed-off criticism from a recent Greenpeace report criticising the company what it alleges are “reckless fishing methods”, including the use of high-yielding FADs or 'fish aggregating devices', rather than catching tuna singly on lines.
A 2003 Australian study cited by Greenpeace concluded that FADs (used alongside massive nets called purse seins) catch 1kg of species such as rays, turtles and sharks for every 9kg of tuna; the campaign group has also attacked Princes for inadvertently netting endangered tuna species such as big eye, where it only intends to catch skipjack.
NGO aims to make Princes ‘change ways’
Asked what Greenpeace hoped to achieve as a result of the action, and whether its direct methods risked upsetting Princes further, spokesman Joss Garman (who took part in today’s demonstration) told FoodManufacture.co.uk:
“We’ve had no response to requests made during petitioning and meetings from Princes’ bosses, and we believe this kind of peaceful action as a tried and trusted method works to make companies change their ways.
“The classic example is Nestlé, which until recently [March 2010] used palm oil from endangered Indonesian rainforests [through its supplier in that country Sinar Mas] but stopped as a result of our action.”
A Princes spokeswoman said the firm was disappointed that Greenpeace had chosen to take action, rather than listen to what the company had to say: "We have been in ongoing discussions with Greenpeace, and recently requested a further meeting to discuss a number of additional sustainability commitments we have recently made.”
