>>Ministry declares WWF assessment inaccurate, seeks answers
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World Wildlife Foundation (WWF) of Vietnam has agreed to temporarily remove tra fish from their 2010 consumer red list guides in several European countries.
The information was announced in a press release dated December 11, by WWF Vietnam which said: “While waiting for the results of the reassessment, WWF Vietnam has agreed with the recommendation of the General Department of Fisheries to remove Vietnam’s Tra fish out of its red list.”
It is said that Mark Powell, who heads the WWF International Global Seafood Programme, will visit Vietnam this week to answer technical questions related to WWF’s evaluation methods and procedures which had led to placing Vietnam’s tra fish in the red list.
Pham Anh Tuan, Deputy Director of the General Department of Fisheries, in an interview with VOV, said that he would talk with the WWF about placing tra fish on the WWF red list to reach a conclusion to the dilemma.
“The WWF must correct the false information if it was not based on any scientific evidence. Vietnam has cooperated with the WWF and will announce the conclusions of the joint effort,” said Tuan.
The WWF’s assessment of Vietnam’s tra fish breeding has been called unreasonable. It was based on one region which means it is not persuasive when it comes to assessing all of Vietnam’s Tra fish products, Tuan added.
Earlier, WWF put tra fish onto its consumer “red list”, urging buyers to avoid it in many European countries, explaining that tra fish farms pollute the natural environment around them because nutrients, medicines and pesticides are washed into the surrounding rivers and lakes which lead to high risk of disease and infection of other kinds of fish. The Vietnamese General Department of Fisheries strongly opposed the WWF’s assessment criteria of tra fish, saying it was presented inaccurately.
