Page 76 - KATE_JOHNSTON_2017

campaigning. In relation to the tinned tuna industry, the ecological problem is articulated as

33
a problem of destructive industrial fishing practices, use of FADs , bycatch, illegal fishing,

and the fishing of vulnerable tuna species. The international response to this ecological crisis

extends beyond inter-governmental bodies to numerous environmental NGOs and private

governance. For example, Greenpeace has led a rigorous campaign naming and shaming

tinned tuna brands through a ranking system. Greenpeace has pressured industry into

changing sourcing and labelling practices, and advocates for brands that fulfill the

34
Greenpeace sustainability criteria . Private forms of fishery governance, such as

sustainability certification schemes, emerged in the 1990s (Auld 2014, p. 186) and now as

much as 17 percent of the world ocean-capture production is certified (Washington &

Ababouch 2011, p. xiii). Since it began in 1996 MSC has become the leading global certifier.

Between 2009 and 2014 the number of MSC certified fisheries doubled, with 216 listed in

2014 (MSC 2014, p. 7) and by 2016 there were 286 across 36 different countries, resulting in

35
20,000 labelled products (MSC 2016a, p. 7) . Further highlighting the significance of
certification, the Globefish (Food and Agriculture Organisation [FAO] 2012) report states

that in 2012 retailers committed to selling sustainably sourced tuna was a key factor in global

tinned tuna markets.

These forms of environmental governance (institutional structures, monitoring

regimes, expert figures and knowledge) are components of a sustainability assemblage. They

contribute to the articulation of problems and their solutions. These components also function

to define and spread the term sustainability, along with expert scientific knowledge and

values of production and consumption. In other words, diverse elements – technologies,

discourses, institutions, markets, knowledge, experts and values – are in a process of

assembling around, and part of defining, sustainability problems and solutions, and also

function to generate, define and circulate the term sustainability.

64