Feature story - September 12, 2006
Major Scandinavian food retail chains Netto Sweden, Lidl Sweden and Axfood (Willy's/Hemköp) have promised to quit buying cod from the Baltic Sea. At least a third of the cod caught and landed in the Baltic is stolen, and pirate fishing is making the recovery of certain populations impossible.
Shy youth Young Baltic cod hiding on the seabed behind floating seaweed.
Cod are severely over fished in the northern European seas and most are caught before they are two years old and have even had a chance to reproduce.
"This is an important step towards saving the endangered cod
stock of the Baltic", said Ida Udovic, Greenpeace ocean campaigner
on board the Arctic Sunrise. "It's good that large retail chains
are now taking action where our politicians have failed."
The Arctic Sunrise is in the Baltic Sea highlighting the issue
of pirate fishing throughout the region. We're demanding a network
of marine reserves to shut down the pirate trade, and allow vital
cod stocks to recover.
Details of the deals
Axfood AB
, one of the largest food retailers in Scandinavia agreed to
withdraw a batch of frozen cod filets from their shelves at their
100 Willy's stores since the producer Västkustfilé could not
guarantee that the products do not contain fish caught
illegally.
Lidl Sweden
, according to previous Greenpeace demands, will only buy cod
that is landed in Norwegian and Icelandic harbours to minimize the
risk of buying illegally caught cod from the Barents Sea.
Netto
, will stop buying Baltic cod as of today.
Only a beginning
"It is incredible that any company could continue to buy cod
from an endangered stock that could be illegally caught." added
Udovic.
Yet, many other fish retailers continue to be complicit in the
trade of illegally and unsustainably caught Baltic cod. For
example, ICA group
has said it will continue buying Baltic cod, and
Bergendahlsgruppen/City Gross
has still not even answered our requests for information.
Marine reserves
Marine reserves make controls much easier than the current
patchwork of regulations that have made proper enforcement almost
impossible. In addition all fishing vessels in the Baltic should
have a device onboard enabling electronic surveillance, controls
ashore and off shore should increase and a black list for all
vessels caught cheating should be established.
Arctic Sunrise weblog
Read updates from the Arctic Sunrise in the Baltic.