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Greenpeace launches assault against U.S. seafood retailers
By Laine Welch
Greenpeace is launching an assault against U.S. seafood retailers - and Alaska pollock tops the list of fish the environmental group wants removed from the marketplace. Alaska pollock is the largest food fishery in the world, and is regarded as a model for sustainable management. Pollock is most popular in fish sandwiches, fish sticks and seafood flavored surimi products such as 'seafood salad."
The Greenpeace campaign, which mirrors one in Europe that met with some success, uses a "red list" to rank good and bad seafood choices based on sustainable management and other 'earth friendly' criteria.
"We were quite dismayed and surprised to be on the red list," said Pat Shanahan, spokesperson for the Genuine Alaska Pollock Producers (GAPP), a trade group that represents every Alaska pollock fishing company.
"It seems to contradict the scientifically-based endorsement of Alaska pollock by nearly every other environmental group in the world, including the international Marine Stewardship Council which has a very extensive certification program. It also goes against the government's recommendation that people eat more seafood for their health, " Shanahan added.
But that's not enough for Greenpeace.
"We have several concerns about the pollock fishery, among them Chinook salmon bycatch and food web impacts," said Greenpeace Oceans Specialist John Hocevar in a phone interview from Texas.
"Pollock is the dominant prey species for much of the marine life in the Bering Sea and Gulf of Alaska. As the industry has removed so much of the pollock, there has been a dramatic reduction in the available food for endangered Steller sea lions, depleted northern fur seals and other marine mammals," he said.
Hocevar added that Greenpeace also is very concerned about the overall health of the pollock stocks. He said that the group "has always felt it was a mistake" for Alaska pollock to merit a 'green' label by the MSC.
Greenpeace does give Alaska fishery managers some credit.
"The number of boats that have observers is more than most other places, and there is a real emphasis on collecting data on fish stocks, if not on the broader ecosystem. There is not a problem with illegal catch and enforcement is strong. So these things are certainly positive," Hocevar said.
However, Greenpeace believes Alaska fishery managers "cut it too close to the edge."
"I would argue that the reason there is still so much fish in the Bering Sea is not so much that it is a fundamentally different management approach, but because people haven't been fishing the area as hard for as long as other places. And I really worry that we're heading for some of the same problems we've seen in other places. It's no surprise you see boats from New England or Norway or elsewhere moving to the Bering Sea after they've wiped out fisheries close to home."
Greenpeace is demanding that 23 seafood species be removed from U.S. retail shelves, including farmed salmon and shrimp. The group has sent surveys to U.S. seafood retailers asking them to outline their seafood purchasing and sales practices. It will then rank them and publicize the retail chains that score the lowest.
According to the National Fisheries Institute, if Greenpeace is successful it will halt sales of nearly 47 percent of the seafood sold in the U.S. Greenpeace claims 250,000 members in the U. S. and 2.5 million members worldwide.
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