Sustainable Seafood Markets

Seafood consumption by Canadian consumers has remained relatively stable in recent years, but as the fourth largest seafood exporter in the world, we have one of the most active fishing and aquaculture industries on the planet. While about 85 per cent of our seafood (by value) leaves the Canadian market, our restaurants and supermarkets offer quite a seafood spread, with all types of species from local, national and distant waters.

But the selection of species found in our retail market comes with a high environmental cost. In addition to over-fished stocks, much of the fishing gear used to catch our delicacies is destroying critical ocean ecosystems and catches non-target – and often endangered – species such as sea turtles, seabirds and marine mammals. Distant water fleets and pirate vessels fishing unfairly and illegally put further pressure on stocks and the food security of coastal communities. These impacts (compounded by wider environmental impacts, particularly with regard to climate change) are weighing hard on ecosystems and people around the globe.

The lack of proper labelling on seafood products in the Canadian market makes the consumer’s search for sustainable seafood a difficult one. As key players in the seafood supply chain, retailers have an important role to play in ensuring their customers only have one seafood choice: fair and sustainable products.

Sourcing seafood sustainably can be a complicated process requiring careful attention to all of the potential negative impacts. For this reason, Greenpeace has developed a Redlist of seafood from fisheries or farming practices which are the most damaging and in need of immediate attention. The Redlist consists of “what not to eat” and “what not to sell” and focuses on species that we’re asking consumers to avoid and ones we’re urging supermarkets to remove from their shelves.

View the redlist
Dowload the report "Out of Stock: Supermarkets and the Future of Seafood"