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fleets and fishermen dispatching the catch. At the Trapani library (Biblioteca Fardelliana) I
conducted secondary research into historical aspects of Sicilian tonnare and tuna trade. I
visited Marsala from where twenty of the thirty Italian tuna fishing fleets operate and where
as much as 80% of the Italian Atlantic bluefin from longline fleets is brought ashore. In
Marsala I interviewed two representatives of the main processing plant at the port.
Outside of Italy I interviewed Greenpeace ocean campaigners in Australia and Japan.
I conducted research in Tokyo’s Tsukiji market, attended a tuna auction and experienced the
local bluefin tuna gastronomic culture. In Australia, in addition to Greenpeace, I interviewed
the regional CEO of the MSC. I also attended MSC events at Taronga Zoo and on the Central
Coast. From 2012 to 2016 I regularly returned to several major supermarkets in Sydney’s
inner west, central and east to observe changes to tinned tuna products.
Materials
My empirical encounters also included a wide range of documents, devices, campaigns and
policies. In a similar way to the work of Head et al. (2012) my research took place across a
network of things, which I call a sustainability assemblage. My primary research data
therefore included sustainable tinned tuna guides, campaigns, certification, material tins,
fishery policies, an appeal to the EU, along with a range of UN documents on sustainability
and fisheries. As well I tasted tuna from Italy to Japan, and observed scientific tools and
techniques for measuring tuna stock. I kept up to date and analysed the Australian, UK and
Italian Greenpeace tinned tuna campaigns via regular website checks from 2012 to 2016. I
followed these campaigns in social and mainstream media. I analysed the representations of
tuna and sustainability in at least ten different products and companies that featured regularly
in Greenpeace’s tinned tuna campaigns. I undertook a discursive analysis of sustainability
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