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| Hagen Stehr |
Friend of the Sea will give awards two main tuna producers – Vito Gulli, CEO of Generale Conserve and Hagen Stehr AO Chairman of Clean Seas - for their efforts in sustainable seafood production on Friday 30 May, at the worldwide Infofish Conference in Bangkok, Thailand.
“Friend of the Sea Award aims at encouraging and motivating seafood companies to lower their impact on the environment and on the exploited stocks” explains Dr Bray, director of Friend of the Sea “Some tuna stocks are endangered, however some companies are also making efforts to keep their production sustainable. Furthermore tuna and pelagic species’ fisheries have generally a lower impact than white or groundfish fisheries, because of negligible impact on seabed, higher selectivity, species resilience. This is why Friend of the Sea decided to deliver this year the award at Infofish.”
The two winners of the Friend of the Sea Award 2008 come from the antipodes – Italy and Southern Australia – but they both share a life of experience in the tuna fishing, farming and processing business and convincement that tuna can be produced in a sustainable way.
Mr Vito Gulli is CEO of Generale Conserve, producing the ‘As do Mar’ premium range of pelagic products – tuna, mackerel and sardines – all of which are Friend of the Sea certified. In particular Generale Conserve’s tuna comes from the company Cofaco in the Azores. Fishermen of these Portuguese islands, half way between Europe and the US, use the Pole and Line method to catch tuna.