Supermarkets' Insatiable Appetite for Seafood
Summary
This is a Greenpeace study of UK supermarkets, ranking them by their seafood policies. ASDA comes bottom of the league, while Tesco and Morrisons also fare poorly, revealing that Britain's biggest retailers are responsible for the destruction of fish stocks. Marks & Spencer and Waitrose top the scorecard thanks to their implemented sustainable seafood policies, but nearly all of the UK's major supermarkets are be selling endangered and threatened varieties of fish. The supermarkets were marked out of twenty across four categories:
- number of the most destructively fished species sold
- seafood procurement policies
- support and promotion of sustainability initiatives
- labelling policies and public promotion of sustainable seafood
ASDA notched up just one point out of twenty, Tesco got five and Sainsbury's ten. US-owned ASDA was found to be selling at least thirteen species on the Greenpeace 'danger list' including swordfish, dogfish (shark) and Atlantic cod. M&S, on the other hand, scored seventeen and was found to have a comprehensive, transparent policy. This is largely reflected by what the food M&S sells, in addition to supporting research and promoting sustainability initiatives.
Waitrose also impressed, with fifteen points. In recent years supermarkets have come to dominate the fish market at the expense of local fishmongers. The total UK retail market for seafood is worth £.8 billion a year, with nearly 90% of sales made through supermarkets. The retailers ranked in the Greenpeace table have the power to protect fish stocks for future generations - or hasten their extinction.
