Greenpeace Confronts Coquitlam Extra Foods over Failure to Protect Seafood

Activists canvassed the area outside the store, part of the Loblaw chain, with banners, handed out information leaflets to customers and set up a 10-foot tuna skeleton replica.

One banner was raised to target the store directly, reading “Galen: Green Grocers Don’t Sell Redlist Fish.” Galen Weston is the executive chairman of Loblaw, parent company of Extra Foods, and has recently been featured in ads pushing an environmentally friendly image for Loblaw.

“Greenpeace is at Extra Foods today to let consumers know that Canada’s supermarkets are major accomplices in ocean destruction,” said Jessie Schwarz, a Greenpeace spokesperson. “We are asking customers to help us convince Loblaw to stop selling Redlist fish and start selling sustainable seafood.”

The Redlist, developed by Greenpeace, includes 15 species that are unsustainably fished and farmed.

The 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.

“While Loblaw recently developed a sustainable seafood policy, it has some major flaws,” said Schwarz. “The Loblaw chain received a failing grade in part because it sells 13 Redlist species.” Greenpeace delivered a copy of the ranking report to the store’s manager.

Today, day six of the Greenpeace confrontation campaign against major supermarket chains, also included activities in London, Ont., and Quebec City. During the campaign, activists will challenge store management at grocery outlets in 19 cities in five provinces. So far, nine Greenpeace activists have been arrested. Successful activities have also been conducted in Victoria, Kelowna, Nelson and Surrey, B.C.; North Bay, Peterborough, Kingston and Hamilton, Ont.; and Trois-Rivières, Victoriaville, Rimouski and Chicoutimi, Que.

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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 on the Greenpeace press centre:www.greenpeace.ca/press

The 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, swordfish, skates and rays, tropical shrimp and prawns, and tuna.

Photos of the action are available upon request.

For more information, please contact:
Raina Delisle, Media Relations Officer, (250) 891-7246 (on location in Coquitlam)

Jessie Schwarz, Greenpeace Spokesperson, (778) 668-5545 (on location inCoquitlam)