Confirmed: Bad tuna dumped

By DOROTHY MARK
RD FISHING Ltd in Madang has admitted it has been dumping tuna not fit for human consumption.
Vice-president and general manager Arnel Gonato confirmed a Facebook post regarding the dumping of hundreds of tuna near the company facility at Vidar outside Madang.
“The fish were discomposed and not fit for human consumption,” he said.
Gonato said disposal of the decomposed tuna was part of normal operation processes of the company which were approved by National Fisheries Authority.
“They cannot be used as fish meal or for human consumption,” he said. Gonato said tuna caught from every fishing trip went through certain cooling processes after they were unloaded.
During that process, the tuna developed certain chemical compositions which meant they could not be sent to RD Tuna Canners for cannery processing, fishmeal or human consumption.
“That is why we have to bury them with approval from the National Fisheries Authority,” Gonato said, adding that burying fish was “environmentally-friendly”.
There was a situation in 2016 where students from Gaubin Community Health Workers’ College suffered food poisoning after eating such fish,
The fish were sold at the school campus by a fisherman.
Gonato said the tuna was buried to avoid a similar situation.
He said the Facebook post circulated and shared in various discussion groups and page had “one-sided information”.
Gonato said the tuna buried were not undersized fish but bad for human consumption.
“Our nets are designed to catch the right-sized tuna required for processing,” he said.