Nice try Whole Foods! Why don't you just remove 'red dot' fish from your stores?

The supermarket chain Whole Foods is under a lot of fire lately for selling endangered fish species. In the quest for ethical consumption, the supermarket chain has partnered with Monterey Bay Aquarium and the Blue Ocean Institute to implement a colored dot system that alerts customers to whether the fish they are buying is sustainable or not.

Green means the fish is abundant and the fishing method causes little environmental damage; yellow indicates that there are some problems with either abundance or methods; and red means that the fish is not plentiful or is caught through environmentally degrading fishing practices.

According to Whole Foods own mission, ”Offering sustainable seafood is part of our philosophy because we care about the health of the world’s oceans,” and ”All of our seafood is under close scrutiny from the farm or boat all the way to our seafood case. We build partnerships with farmers and fishermen that are committed to your health, the environment, and the integrity of our oceans, and we source seafood domestically and locally whenever possible.”

A conscientious customer who is aware of the labeling system can go to the store and figure out whether they are buying ethically sourced seafood. On their site they have claimed to have removed “non-MSC-certified Chilean sea bass, orange roughy, bluefin tuna, sharks, and marlins”. However the store also sells many ‘red dot’ species that are severely threatened: Chilean sea bass, Atlantic salmon, red snapper, and yellow fin tun.

According to the Monterey Bay Aquarium,  Chilean sea bass is over fished and loaded with mercury. Most of the  Chilean sea bass that end up in U.S. stores come from illegal operations that use unmodified bottom longlines. Longlines are responsible for killing many species besides the target species like seabirds, turtles as well as juveniles of many species. Yellow fin tuna is also a threatened species and vulnerable to extinction.

With the world’s oceans in serious peril, it is also the responsibility of supermarket chains to eschew endangered and threatened species. It is especially hypocritical if the supermarket in question is one that touts itself as ‘sustainable’. Greenwashing is an easy thing to fall prey to and consumers need to be extremely wary to avoid it by keeping themselves informed. It remains that in spite of all this surface greeness, Whole Foods is selling endangered fish species.

By 2013, Whole Foods has promised to remove all red-rated species from its stores – by that time it will have to, because I doubt if those species will even exist anymore.

Photo: Whole Food’s new labeling system for seafood.

Orignal source: www.justmeans.com/Nice-try-Whole-Foods-Why-don-t-you-just-remove-red-dot-fish-from-your-stores/31180.html