Seafood

Supermarkets are one of our strongest connections to the oceans.  United States consumers buy about half of their seafood at the fish counter, and conservation efforts have often concentrated on the individual shopper. Unfortunately, there is rarely enough information available for consumers to be able to choose sustainable options—rather, the supermarkets themselves must take responsibility and ensure that what they sell is sustainable.

The Greenpeace Carting Away the Oceans (CATO) report evaluates and ranks supermarkets on their sustainable seafood policies.  This year's report reveals the dramatic leaps in rank made by industry leaders, as well as the continued unsustainability of the bottom-feeders.

Greenpeace’s CATO report has evaluated supermarket sustainability since 2008, and up until this year no retailer had earned a green rating.  This year, for the first time, the CATO report features two retailers—Safeway and Whole Foods—that have earned green ratings, vaulting them to the top of the list.

The ratings evaluate retailers using a variety of factors—including the sale of "red list" seafood, engagement with conservation initiatives, transparency of supply, and the establishment of cohesive internal policies—to score each retailer on a scale of 0-10.

Of the twenty featured supermarkets, Harris Teeter, Aldi, and Delhaize also showed significant movement toward sustainability.  Publix and Winn-Dixie (now owned by BI-LO) continue to rank at the bottom, as they have in each year the CATO report has been released.

Carting Away the Oceans report