What’s in the Tin?
by Campaign for Eco-Safe Tuna
February 6, 2013
Have you ever worried that the fish you’ve been served is not the fish you ordered?
Well you might be on to something, according to the ocean conservation group Oceana, whose December 2012 report reveals widespread fraud in seafood labeling in New York City:
“39 percent of the 142 seafood samples collected and DNA tested from grocery stores, restaurants and sushi venues were mislabeled, according to the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) guidelines.”
While even the most inexperienced of diners can taste the difference between beef and lamb, it’s hardly as simple when it comes to fish. Therefore, stores and restaurants perpetrate a literal bait and switch; selling you one fish but serving you another, typically a cheaper and lower value fish. This is especially— and unfortunately—true for tuna. From the report:
"94 percent of the “white tuna” was not tuna at all, but escolar, a snake mackerel that has a toxin with purgative effects for people who eat more than a small amount of the fish."
Translation: If you ingest more than a few ounces of escolar, or “white tuna,” you could be destined for a long reign atop the porcelain throne.
But the fraud in labeling doesn’t end with New York City. Oceana found appallingly high mislabeling rates all over the country, including Miami (31 percent), Boston (48 percent), and Los Angeles where, with 55 percent of its seafood being mislabeled, you are better off just closing your eyes and picking at random.
Worse still, after the January 11 episode of This American Life, you might want to just write off calamari altogether.
The epidemic of seafood mislabeling has spread like wildfire throughout the country. As it turns out, according to Oceana, the nearest national chain supermarket might just be the safest place to buy your seafood. But while that might be the case for most seafood, tuna continues to be mislabeled; only for a different reason.
The “dolphin-safe” label stuck on tuna cans misleads consumers about where their tuna comes from and whether dolphins were harmed during its capture. Although you don’t have to worry about accidently eating dolphin, as 22 percent of Americans consumers actually believe the “dolphin-safe” label guarantees, current U.S. tuna fishing practices pose a serious threat to dolphins and other marine species.
Fishing vessels in the Western Pacific Ocean rely primarily on FADs, a marine life magnet that attracts troves of additional species that become bycatch and are killed when pulled up with the tuna. This practice decimates the world’s populations of sea turtles, sharks, juvenile tuna, rays and even dolphins.
You might not be consuming bycatch from your supermarket’s tuna, but it still leaves a haunting imprint on the contents of your can. Greenpeace New Zealand has an excellent info-graphic that breaks down the effects of FADs and what really goes into your can of tuna. We suggest you check it out.
