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people in and across diverse cultural enclaves around the globe. Each tin is also implicated in

the ecosystems on which the commodity relies: such as the diverse marine habitats in the

oceans that skipjack swim through; the seabeds where tin is increasingly mined; and the

numerous terrestrial environments where ingredients, such as oil, are produced. Furthermore,

as the second largest seafood product (after prawns and shrimp) traded globally in terms of

value and volume (Campling 2012, p. 257), tinned tuna has wide consumer appeal across

diverse socio-economic groups.

Economically my collection of tins is wide-ranging. The cheapest is a 185 gram Coles

Smart Buy Tuna Chunks in Vegetable Oil. Its label is simple – white with black and red

writing and an image of tuna chunks on a cracker. At the other end of the economic and

gastronomic spectrum is the Ventresca di Tonno Rosso di Mattanza, a soft, fatty and delicate

flesh of the belly of Atlantic bluefin from the tonnara. Through its rectangular shape and

charcoal colour, with embossed gold writing and an illustration of men hauling tuna from the

sea, the tin signifies its artisan and gourmet status. Two of the men represented on the label

are recognisable local heroes in Favignana, where I picked up the tin for €30 in 2012. This is

a rare tin, explains Antonio who runs a family business making and selling preserved tuna

products, because the tuna is from the final mattanza in 2007, and like a piece of artwork,

will rise in value. While I could write about the other twenty tins in my collection, the tin that

initially sparked my research interest is the ‘responsibly fished’ Coles Tuna Chunks Hand

Caught by Pole and Line (hereon referred to as Coles eco tin). Unlike most other tins in 2012,

this one made an ethical claim, which was reinforced by the graphics. This tin pointed to a

fast growing movement towards sustainable tinned tuna that would come to occupy a

significant space on Australian supermarket shelves, in corporate responsibility statements,

on environmental NGO agendas and in the media. Its recent appearance and the rapid spread

of similar sustainable tuna products led me to inquire into the cultural and ecological

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