Activists set up a banner inside the store reading "Don't Buy,
Don't Sell Redlist Fish" and prevented the sale of Redlist seafood
by locking it down.
Outside, more activists distributed information leaflets to
customers, raised another banner reading "Costco: Wholesale Ocean
Destruction," and set up a 10-foot tuna skeleton replica.
"Greenpeace is at Costco today to let consumers know that
Canada's supermarkets are major accomplices in ocean destruction,"
said Sarah King, a Greenpeace Oceans Campaigner. "We want Costco to
stop selling Redlist fish and begin implementing policies that
promote the sale of sustainable seafood."
The action at Costco 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. Costco came in sixth out of eight in the
Greenpeace ranking in part because it has no plan to develop a
sustainable seafood policy.
"Costco received a failing grade because it refuses to take
action to protect our fish stocks from commercial extinction," said
King. "We want their customers to help us stop Costco from fishing
our oceans to death."
Today's action in Kelowna is part of a Greenpeace campaign to
confront grocery stores in 19 cities in five provinces over the
next few weeks to underline the importance of protecting seafood
stocks. On Monday, four Greenpeace activists were arrested at a
Safeway store in Victoria during an action. This week, there have
also been demonstrations in North Bay and Peterborough, Ont., and
Trois-Rivières and Victoriaville, Que.
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Editor's Note:
Photos of the action are available upon request.
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:
Raina Delisle, Media and Public Relations Officer, (250)
891-7246 (on location in Kelowna)
Sarah King, Oceans Campaigner, (778) 227-6458 (on location in
Kelowna)