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Tyson Responds to Greenpeace
Attacks on Fishing Practices
Recently Tyson and others operating fishing trawlers in the Pacific
Northwest came under fire from Greenpeace in their report "Sinking
Fast." There were many blatant distortions in this report which can
be easily disproven. Greenpeace has traditionally found convenient targets
in larger corporations. At Tyson, we refute their standard modus operandi
which assumes big is always bad.
Contrary to what the Greenpeace management would have one believe, at Tyson
Foods, we have a strong interest in the long-term health and sustainability
of the North Pacific fishery. We've made a serious investment which simply
cannot be recouped by plundering the resource. It would be both undesirable
and economically unfeasible for us to take our vessels elsewhere as Greenpeace
has suggested we would.
Greenpeace tells us that fisheries are collapsing because of factory trawlers.
But the fact is, when fisheries collapse, they do so because of poor management.
In the North Atlantic fisheries referred to in their campaign literature,
large and small-vessel fishermen refused until it was too late to submit
to logical quota systems which limited the amount of fish caught. In addition,
monitoring and enforcement were inadequate until after the resource was
no longer sustainable. By contrast, the North Pacific Fishery Management
Council (NPFMC) has imposed and enforces a very responsible quota system.
As a result, this fishery is one of the healthiest in the world, and there
is absolutely no credible evidence to indicate groundfish stocks are being
depleted.
The NPFMC follows strict scientific advice in setting annual harvest limits
in the Gulf of Alaska and Bering Sea fisheries. An acceptable biological
catch limit (ABC), or biologically safe harvest limit, is established by
the Council's Scientific and Statistical Committee for each species of fish
each year. The total harvest is generally established at about two-thirds
of the total allowable biological catch limits, placing most species of
North Pacific groundfish in the underutilized category.
All fishing vessels, large and small, catch some non-targeted species, or
bycatch. The major difference is that large vessels carry federal fisheries
observers who collect data and assist with compliance with fisheries regulations.
Vessels under 60 feet in length are not required to carry observers. The
North Pacific trawl fleet is one of the most closely monitored fleets in
the world. If the trawl fleet is banned, it will in all likelihood be replaced
by a larger fleet of unmonitored vessels.
Tyson has participated in and/or contributed financially to every available
bycatch seminar and voluntary bycatch program since it acquired Arctic Alaska
in 1992. We funded research to avoid salmon bycatch by participating in
a voluntary assessment of $20 for each salmon incidentally caught in our
trawl nets. We also have an agreement to retain and freeze those salmon
for later donation to food banks. We use satellite equipment to provide
timely data to our captains in order to avoid areas of high bycatch. Tyson
was part of an industry-led effort to change the confidentiality regulations
allowing the National Marine Fisheries Service to post vessel names and
bycatch rates publicly to increase peer pressure on irresponsible operators.
Approximately two-thirds of the Tyson trawl fleet fishes primarily for pollock
and Pacific whiting using mid-water nets which limit non-targeted species
to less than two percent. Mid-water nets are designed not to come into contact
with the bottom.
Greenpeace also made some preposterous allegations concerning the size of
factory trawler nets, stating that up to a dozen 747 aircraft could fit
into these nets. This is patently absurd. There isn't a vessel in the North
Pacific fishery which uses nets like this and for Greenpeace to suggest
so is nothing less than libelous.
Interestingly, Greenpeace has expressed wholesale opposition to a fisheries
management tool which many scientists believe could be a very effective
means to avoid bycatch and reduce discards. Individual Transferable Quotas
(ITQ's) would change the current quota system, in which there is an open-access
race for fish, with every vessel catching as much of the total allowable
catch as they can until the quota is reached. Currently, fishermen are virtually
forced to work in unsafe weather conditions to compete in this race, which
actually penalizes operators, large and small, who try to avoid bycatch
and reduce discards. Many scientific groups, including the Environmental
Defense Fund, have recognized the potential value of a quota-based management
system utilizing tools such as ITQ's. However, because many of us fishing
in the Pacific Northwest have also recognized their potential value, Greenpeace
has taken an unyielding stance against them.
The Greenpeace report casts aspersions on the effects of the Magnuson Act,
which created the North Pacific Fisheries Management Council, listing among
other things conflicts of interest on the Council. Tyson Seafoods has no
direct representation on the Council and we have strenuously supported all
efforts to create standards which prevent conflict of interest within its
membership. It should also be noted that by the time the Magnuson Act was
implemented in 1976, the North Atlantic fisheries which Greenpeace cites
as models of its failure, had already been mismanaged and overfished.
Contrary to what Greenpeace has asserted, at Tyson, we're concerned about
our oceans. We want to be able to supply a hungry world with high-quality
seafood for a long time. We also want our children and theirs to inherit
a world which is as environmentally rich and diverse as ours. And that's
why we will continue to fish in an environmentally responsible manner.
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