Whole Foods will stop selling swordfish and tuna which come from unsustainable fisheries. (Photo: WholeFoodsMarket/FIS)

Whole Foods Market to stop selling red-rated swordfish and tuna

UNITED STATES
Wednesday, April 13, 2011, 04:20 (GMT + 9)

Whole Foods Market will stop selling all unsustainably caught swordfish and tuna by Earth Day – on 22 April.

The deadline was announced last September as part of a larger move to shift toward fully-sustainable seafood in the chain’s stores across the nation. 

Since 1999, the company has been working with the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC). Now, Whole Foods will offer shoppers transparent information about the sustainability status of non-MSC certified, wild-caught seafood through color-coded, science-based sustainability ratings designed by Blue Ocean Institute and Monterey Bay Aquarium.

“Shoppers are flexing their buying power to prompt change and help reverse trends of overfishing, exploitation and depletion in so many fisheries,” said David Pilat, global seafood coordinator at Whole Foods. “We are thrilled to have found fisheries that can provide better environmental choices to support the ecological health of our oceans and the abundance of marine life for generations to come.”

The market’s seafood buyers are now purchasing tuna and swordfish only from green- and yellow-rated fisheries, such as those using handlines, which have low to no bycatch. 

This sustainably caught tuna is for the first time being sourced from the Maldives, where fishers use a low-impact pole and line method. Elsewhere, tuna is usually caught with nets or longlines, which ensnare juvenile tuna and produce a bycatch of threatened or endangered species such as sea turtles, sharks and seabirds; such fisheries have a red-rating.

Whole Foods buyers have also formed partnerships with some small green-rated swordfish fisheries in the US and are looking to expand the trend.

“We are not only committed to amazingly fresh seafood but to making sure that fish stocks can be replenished so that we can keep fishing responsibly for many years to come,” said Scott Taylor, co-owner of Day Boat Seafood, a Florida-based supplier to the market chain. 

Whole Foods Market’s color-coded ratings work as follows: Green or “best choice” ratings mean a species is relatively abundant and caught using environmentally friendly methods; yellow or “good alternative” ratings indicate some concerns regarding the species’ status or catch methods; and red or “avoid” ratings mean that the species is currently being overfished or that its fishing methods are injurious to other marine life or habitats. 

The red-rated wild-caught seafood remaining in stores will be phased out by Earth Day 2012, except Atlantic cod and sole, which will continue to be sold until Earth Day 2013.

Related articles:

- Whole Foods Market launches sustainability rating scheme 
- Whole Foods offers sustainable swordfish 

By Natalia Real
[email protected]
www.seafood.media

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