Tuna! The chicken of the sea! It’s cheap! You love it. Jessica Simpson had trouble at first, but ultimately figured out she loved it. Yum, yum, yuuum.

But according to a new study from the environmental crusaders at Greenpeace, more than 80 percent of tuna sold in the US “fails to meet fundamental sustainability standards.” We mention this here on LoCO, however, not to shame the tuna industry but to highlight a local company that appears to be trolling responsibly (a rarity ‘round these parts). 

As part of its tuna study, Greenpeace released a “2015 Canned Tuna Shopping Guide,” which ranked 14 prominent canned tuna brands based on their production practices. Top of the list? Wild Planet, a “go-to eco-brand, topping the ranks for its dedication to ensuring its tuna products are sustainable and responsible,” whose corporate headquarters just happen to be in McKinleyville. Founded in 2004, Wild Planet chronicles in great detail their fishing methods on their website where they feature multiple interviews (like the one below) with founder Bill Carvalho discussing the company’s methods:

Some reasons Greenpeace loves Wild Planet:

  • Wild Planet has a strong, fully implemented sustainable sourcing policy and provides information on its website to educate consumers about its products.
  • All Wild Planet products are pole and line or troll caught – two fishing methods with minimal impacts on other marine life.
  • Wild Planet supports protecting our oceans and has vowed not to source tuna from the proposed high seas ocean sanctuaries of the Western and Central Pacific.
  • The company provides important sustainability information on its canned tuna product labels, which allows its customers to know more about the tuna they buy.

Yay, sustainable tuna. But while enviros love Wild Planet, they were less than impressed by most of the canned fish on their list. Eight of 14 brands did not receive a passing grade on the Greenpeace list. Perhaps unsurprisingly, ranking at the bottom were the nation’s three largest brands — Bumble Bee, Chicken of the Sea and StarKist — which represent more than 80 percent of the US market. 

Compare Wild Planet’s glowing praise to Greenpeace’s review of 14th place — dead last on their list — StarKist Chunk Light Tuna: “This brand has something to hide, and we bet it’s ocean destruction.” They go on to claim that Starkist gets its tuna from fisheries that have track records of killing lots of other marine life as bycatch. 

“Starkist, owned by Dongwon, has the largest market share of any canned tuna brand in the US. Scraping the bottom of the ranking, Starkist’s failure to take sustainability seriously is trashing our oceans to offer cheap and dirty tuna nationwide,” Greenpeace concludes.

How reliable is Greenpeace’s study? This article on The Daily Meal quotes the National Fisheries Institute calling the study “non-scientific, non-transparent and completely subjective,” but Humboldt will accept the honor anyway and celebrate with a tunafish sandwich for lunch.