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Regardless of whether or not the Abel Tasman would have fished sustainably, and

putting aside debates about how to measure sustainability, these conflicts illustrate the central

and controversial position of this term. In addition, the size of this fleet complicates the

association of sustainability with small scale and artisan fisheries. The controversy also

demonstrates that, in the words of Oliver Edwards of the blog GoodFishBadFish,

sustainability ‘can mean a lot of different things to different people’ (2012). Furthermore,

sustainability is mobilised to differing political ends. And it is in these oppositional

interactions that sustainability becomes grounded. It is also a good example of a dingpolitik,

wherein people gather because of their concern over a matter rather than because of

traditional political alliances or ideologies. To further explore sustainability as a dingpolitik I

draw on participants’ responses to my question ‘what is sustainability?’

Greenpeace and sustainability certification

While Greenpeace differentiates itself from eco certification groups, such as Friends of the

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Sea and MSC , their underlying assumptions are similar. That is, they assume a product can
be entirely sustainable if it meets certain criteria. Their differences are thus based on degrees

of sustainability and their emphasis on particular criteria. Giorgia Monti an ocean campaigner

for Greenpeace Italy, says that Greenpeace agrees with certifiers in principles ‘but then if I

look at the things that you [Friends of the Sea] certify there are a lot of things you certify that

I don’t agree are sustainable’ (2013, pers. comm. 24 June). For example, in 2014 the two

leading global certifiers MSC and Friends of the Sea certified a yellowfin fishery in the

Maldives (MSC 2015). On the other hand Greenpeace recommend choosing skipjack and

albacore over the less sustainable yellowfin (Greenpeace 2012).

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