Why Your Tuna Can Might Be Making a Claim It Can't Back Up
Not every “sustainable” claim on a can of tuna means the same thing, and that gap matters more than most shoppers realize. American Tuna, a pole & line albacore and wild salmon company founded in 2004 by six fishing families in San Diego, catches every fish one at a time and backs its claims with third-party certification instead of a marketing line on the can. This guide on sustainable tuna labels explained walks through what separates a verified claim from a self-declared one, and what to actually check before a can lands in your cart.
So what does sustainably caught tuna mean in practice? It should mean a fishery audited against measurable standards for stock health, environmental impact, and management. In reality, that phrase shows up on packaging with no standard behind it more often than most people expect. Two cans can carry nearly identical wording and mean two very different things.
Certified vs. Self-Declared: The Difference That Actually Matters
There's a real difference between a claim a company makes about itself and a claim an outside party has verified. A certification means an independent body — not the seafood brand — checked the fishery against a published standard and signed off on it. A self-declared claim means the company wrote the word on its own packaging, with nobody outside the building checking the work.
The Federal Trade Commission has flagged this exact gap. Broad, unqualified claims like “sustainable” or “eco-friendly” are hard to substantiate, since they can reasonably mean different things to different shoppers, according to the FTC's Green Guides. That's greenwashing seafood labels in action — language chosen to sound responsible with no way to check it. Closing that gap is what sustainable tuna labels explained is really about.
What MSC Certification Actually Verifies
The Marine Stewardship Council runs the certification behind American Tuna's fishery, and no company can apply the logo to its own packaging. A fishery has to score at least 60 on each of 25 performance indicators, and average 80 across three principles, before an independent, accredited auditor will certify it, according to the Marine Stewardship Council. Those principles cover stock health, impact on the surrounding marine environment, and effective, legal management.
Certified fisheries get audited every year of a five-year cycle, not once at the start and never again. American Tuna's North Pacific fishery was the first tuna fishery in the world to earn MSC certification, and every can in the lineup traces back to it. Read more about what that standard covers on the sustainability page.
MSC Certified vs. Dolphin Safe: Two Different Labels, Two Different Jobs
The comparison of MSC certified vs dolphin safe comes up constantly, and the two labels aren't interchangeable. Dolphin Safe addresses one specific issue: whether dolphins were encircled or harmed while the tuna was caught. MSC certification is broader — stock health, environmental impact, and fishery management, audited annually by an outside party.
American Tuna's product carries both, plus IPNLF certification for its one-by-one fishing method — but a can that only says “Dolphin Safe” hasn't necessarily been checked for stock health or bycatch of anything besides dolphins. For a closer look at what the MSC mark verifies, read this explainer on what MSC certified actually means.
Why Fishing Method Changes the Sustainability Math
Fishing method drives a lot of the difference between cans. Pole & line and troll fishing catch one fish at a time, so a crew can see and release anything that isn't the target species before it comes aboard. Purse-seine nets can encircle an entire school at once, and a purse seiner fishing near a fish-aggregating device also catches whatever else has gathered around it.
That shows up in the numbers. Pole-and-line fisheries generally run bycatch rates under 1%, while purse-seine sets using fish-aggregating devices can pull in 15% to 20% non-target catch, according to Oceana. American Tuna fishes exclusively pole & line and troll — see how that plays out in the blog post on bycatch reduction or the comparison of pole & line vs. net-caught tuna.
How to Choose Sustainable Canned Tuna: A Buying Checklist
Here's how to choose sustainable canned tuna without needing a marine biology degree. A few checks take less than a minute in the aisle:
- Look for an actual certification logo, not just the word “sustainable” in green type. MSC's blue fish label, Dolphin Safe, and IPNLF marks all mean an outside group signed off — a line of marketing copy doesn't.
- Check who verified the claim. “Certified by the Marine Stewardship Council” is checkable. “Sustainably sourced” with no attribution isn't.
- Look for the fishing method on the can — pole & line, troll, and FAD-free purse seine all carry different bycatch profiles, and a brand confident in its method usually prints it.
- Ask if the can is traceable. A brand that can point you to the vessel and catch date behind a specific can has nothing to hide.
American Tuna's full lineup carries MSC certification and can-level traceability on every product. Shop American Tuna to see the pole & line albacore and wild salmon lineup, or browse the tuna collection directly.
Traceability: How to Verify a Claim All the Way to the Boat
Certification answers whether a fishery meets a standard. Traceability answers a different question: can this specific can be traced to the boat that caught it? American Tuna prints a can code on every product, linking it to the vessel, since all the fish are caught by US-flagged boats.
Type that code into the trace your tuna lookup and the vessel name comes up — an actual boat, not a regional generality. That's transparency beyond what a sustainability label alone can offer, and it's a check a shopper can run from a phone in the aisle. Read more in this piece on traceable canned tuna, or find a retailer carrying it on the find us page.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does sustainably caught tuna mean, exactly?
It should mean a fishery has been measured against a specific standard — stock health, environmental impact, and management — and verified by an outside body, not just described that way on the package. That's the bar American Tuna's MSC-certified fishery meets every audit cycle — the practical meaning behind sustainable tuna labels explained.
Is MSC certification the same as Dolphin Safe?
No. Dolphin Safe checks one thing — whether dolphins were harmed in the catch. MSC certification checks stock health, environmental impact, and fishery management together, verified through annual, independent audits.
How can I verify American Tuna's certifications myself?
Check the can code through the trace your tuna tool for the specific vessel, or look up the North Pacific albacore fishery directly on the Marine Stewardship Council's public register at msc.org. The MSC blue label, Dolphin Safe mark, and IPNLF certification all appear directly on the can.
Where can I buy American Tuna?
American Tuna is available online at americantuna.com and through retailers listed on the find us page. Every can sold carries the same MSC certification and vessel-level traceability, no matter where it's purchased.
Ready to Choose Tuna You Can Actually Verify?
If a sustainability claim on a can matters to you, check for the certification, the fishing method, and the traceability behind it. American Tuna backs all three, on every can.
Shop American Tuna or call us at (866) 817-0497.