Ranking fails all Canadian supermarkets on supporting sustainable seafood

The report ranks the major chains on seven criteria, including: the quality of their seafood policies, the level of information they provide on how and where the seafood they sell is caught or farmed, and the number of Redlist species they sell. Greenpeace released the report in Montreal at a news conference today.

“Our analysis shows that major supermarket chains are still part of the problem of destroying our oceans and destroying seafood,” said Beth Hunter, Greenpeace oceans campaign coordinator. “Some chains have taken steps in the right direction, but all need to take bigger strides to ensure there will be fish in the future. Supermarkets are selling out our oceans and selling themselves out of stock.”

Greenpeace’s report gives the chains the following grades (out of 10): Loblaw 2.4; Sobeys 1.1; Walmart 1.0; Overwaitea 0.9; Federated Co-Operatives 0.9; Costco 0.7; Safeway 0.3; and Metro 0.1.

To underline the importance of protecting seafood stocks, Greenpeace will confront grocery stores in 19 cities in five provinces over the next few weeks. Greenpeace will bring the message to store managers and customers that Canadian supermarket chains must move quickly to implement sustainable seafood policies.

In the first supermarket report—Out of Stock: Supermarkets and the future of seafood—released last year, Greenpeace identified a Redlist of 15 species of seafood that are harvested by the most harmful fishing and farming practices. The report challenged supermarkets to protect the oceans by ending the sale of Redlist species and adopting strong policies.

Since last year’s report the situation in the oceans has worsened. For example, scientists have determined that one of Canada’s Atlantic cod stocks off western Newfoundland will never recover and other stocks show little sign of recovery since the cod fishery collapsed in the early 1990s. Around the world, fish such as bluefin tuna and orange roughy face similar declines.

In the new report ranking supermarkets, Loblaw received the highest overall score because it released a sustainable seafood policy that would see the company only selling sustainable seafood by 2013. However, the policy is short on detail and is not yet implemented, so Loblaw did not receive a passing mark. The Metro chain received the lowest ranking, in part because it has no plan to develop a sustainable seafood policy.

“Metro and several other supermarkets seem to find it acceptable to sell seafood that is overexploited, illegally fished or destructively farmed,” said Sarah King, Greenpeace oceans campaigner. They are making no effort to protect the oceans. There is an urgent need for all supermarkets to heed the message of our campaign: Don’t buy, don’t sell Redlist fish.”

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Editors: Greenpeace will release details of activities in each of the 19 cities as they happen. Details will not be released in advance.

For more information, please contact:
Alex Paterson, Media and Public Relations Officer, (416) 524-8496
Beth Hunter, Oceans Campaign Coordinator, (514) 569-8391

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