Activists canvassed the area with a large banner reading "Don't
Buy, Don't Sell Redlist Fish" and handed out information leaflets
to customers. Another banner targeted the store directly, reading
"Costco: Wholesale ocean destruction."
"Greenpeace is at Costco today to let consumers know that
Canada's supermarkets are major accomplices in ocean destruction,"
said Kevin Hill, a Greenpeace oceans activist. "We are asking their
customers to help us convince Costco to stop the sale of Redlist
fish and begin selling sustainable seafood."
Today is day six of the Greenpeace confrontation campaign
against major supermarket chains. There were also activities in two
other cities today. During the campaign, activists will challenge
store management at grocery outlets in 19 cities in five provinces.
So far, Greenpeace has had activities at stores in Victoria,
Kelowna, Nelson, South Surrey, B.C.; North Bay, Peterborough,
Kingston, Hamilton, Ont.; Trois-Rivières, Victoriaville, Rimouski
and Chicoutimi, Que.
The London action follows the release of a new Greenpeace report
entitled Out of Stock, Out of Excuses: Ranking retailers on seafood
sustainability. The report ranks Canada's major grocery chains on
their sustainability efforts under seven criteria, including the
quality of their seafood policies and the number of Redlist species
sold.
The Costco chain received a failing grade in part because it
refuses to release a sustainable seafood policy. Greenpeace
delivered a copy of the ranking report to the store's manager.
"Costco has a poor ranking in the Greenpeace report because it
refuses to take action to protect our fish stocks from commercial
extinction," said Hill. "We want their customers to help us stop
Costco from fishing our oceans to death."
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Editor's Note:
A backgrounder and the full Out of Stock, Out of Excuses
report are available at the end of the news release "Ranking fails
all Canadian supermarkets on supporting sustainable seafood" on the
Greenpeace press centre:www.greenpeace.ca/press
The 15 Redlist species are: Arctic surf clams, Atlantic cod,
Atlantic haddock, Atlantic halibut, Atlantic salmon, Atlantic sea
scallops, Chilean seabass, Greenland halibut, New Zealand hoki,
orange roughy, sharks, skates and rays, swordfish, tropical shrimp
and prawns, and tuna.
For more information, please
contact:
Kevin Hill, Oceans Activist, (647) 502-4889 (on location in London)