Page 4 - German article - UK translation

This also virtually eliminates the by-catch of sharks, dolphins or sea turtles. “That’s
why I consider the catch, the local processing and the consumption of tuna from here
to be ecologically compatible.”

It is mid-July when the Swabian Ursula Wagner and the British entrepreneur Redfern
meet in Horta on the Azores island of Faial. The place: a fishing cooperative. They
discuss, examine, look. Wagner strolls around the harbour, observes a dangerous
species of jellyfish floating in the water and makes friends with a local fisherman, with
whom she communicates with her hands. Next to her is Redfern, athletic, more the
outdoor rather than the indoor manager type. Highly focused, curious, probing. After
all, he gets his fish, which are then sold in tins and jars to Mrs Wagner in Swabia, from
this cooperative.

Quite a lot of effort for a tuna, you might say. On the other hand, tuna are not organic
carrots or tomatoes that can be grown in a biologically correct and sustainable way,
whether in Tuscany, on a Bavarian farm or on a balcony in Berlin-Kreuzberg. The
tuna issue is far more complex, starting with the fact that more than one type of tuna
exists.

Just as poultry stands for chicken, duck, goose or even pigeons, the term tuna is a
collective term. In addition, marine fish are one of the few products in which man
has made massive use of a biotope that is billions of years old. And that went well for
a long time. Our ancestors were already hunting tuna thousands of years ago. Rock
paintings from the Neolithic period show them with fish traps, nets, spears, and
fishing rods. They ate what they fished and fished what they needed to survive.
So, Hardcore Organics have existed throughout history.

In the middle of the last century, however, overexploitation began, a kind of organised
industrial campaign against the tuna. After a few decades, its stocks are now so over-
fished that they can no longer reproduce as fast as they are being eaten. “My clients
know a lot about the state of the sea”, says Wagner, as she stands on the Azores Island
of Faial on this summer day. And she looks very serious.