Sealord asks Greenpeace to stop misleading the public

Media Release
30 August 2011

Sealord asks Greenpeace to stop misleading the public

Sealord has written to Greenpeace asking the activists to remove misleading information that illegally uses Sealord trademarks.

In an open letter from lawyers Russell McVeagh, Greenpeace has been asked to remove any materials with Sealord trademarks and materials containing defamatory statements.

According to Sealord General Manager NZ Marketing, David Welsh, the company is standing up to the pressure group which is misleading the public on issues of sustainable tuna fishing.

“Sealord tuna is sustainable. Bycatch is very low: 0.16% of catch is sharks and non-tuna species make up 1 – 2% of the catch in the Western Pacific,” he said.

“Greenpeace is using our trademarks to mislead the New Zealand public and create publicity. This is wrong."

Sealord is not the only organisation that rejects the campaign. The global Dolphin Safe environmental group, The Earth Island Institute describes the Greenpeace comments about turtles as ‘misleading in the extreme’.

Greenpeace have refused to join a global group to make improvements to tuna fishing – instead they are attacking New Zealand businesses.

“All food production has impacts, and the fishing industry is lower than most landbased farming. The people at Sealord work very hard to improve the way we do things and that will be our focus moving forward,” said Welsh.

ENDS

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