Jim From London Reports ...
It's great to see the Greenpeace team making waves in the Med. Before I left Greenpeace I saw the campaigners in the oceans team spend many a late night planning how to really make a difference in turning around the doomed plight of the Atlantic Bluefin. This hard work is beginning to paying off, as I found to my surprise when I strolled back from work last week. Passing a luxurious fish shop on my way home from the Underground, I noticed the freshly cooked tuna steaks in the window and huge loins of succulent pink tuna chilling on ice behind the counter. I couldn’t' t help but ask what species the tuna was...

" Bluefin" the fishmonger replied proudly, to which my face dropped in horror. As far as I was concerned it could have been ivory, tiger paw or rhino horn that was being touted to passersby in this central London shop. Almost all the worlds tuna stocks are depleted, but the bluefin is in a dire state, decimated through illegal over fishing, but anyone can still legally buy and sell it with impunity.

Smilingly, I asked the manager of the shop if he realised just how perilous the fate of this magnificent tuna species really is, to which (bizarrely) he replied "oh yes!", and pointed to a newspaper article he had pinned to his wall - an 'Independent' piece on the Greenpeace campaign to save the bluefin tuna, that had featured in the UK press only the week before.

I was slightly flabbergasted to say the least. "Well if you know what state these fish are in, then why are you still selling it? (I reasoned through slightly gritted teeth). So the conversation went on, and basically the man couldn't explain himself. We left on good terms after I hurriedly scribbled down some fish websites designed to help fishmongers and consumers alike to buy fish from healthier and better managed stocks. We shook hands and I told him that - thankfully- I was now regularly commuting past his shop and thus I would now be able to keep an eye on his tuna buying practices. The fishmonger laughed, rather nervously, and I departed.

Well yesterday we had another article in the UK press about the perilous state of the bluefin stock. I cut it out and handed it to him again on my way back from work. This time he pulled me aside and said, "I think you're right mate. When the stocks can be managed properly then we can sell it, but not until then".

The littlest of victories, but all this exemplifies what each of us can achieve wherever we are based. You don’t have to be in the Med on the Rainbow Warrior to save the tuna. In fact when you think about it, all the hard work by the Greenpeace team on the ocean is pointless unless we take it to the industry, the retailers, politicians and fellow consumers alike. Essentially we are all campaigners, and we need to push people to turn this devastation of the industry around.

Now that bluefin is off the fishmongers menu, next week I will break my moribund commute across London by having a brief chat with a new found friend - a rapidly wisening fishmonger; and now that Bluefin is off the menu, I might even get on to questioning the origin of his King Prawns...

- Jim