Divernet News, dateline 8 November 2005
MCS tackles supermarket fish sales
The Marine Conservation Society has launched a consumer awareness campaign to help encourage supermarkets to take fish-related foods from sustainable sources.
Following research by the MCS through summer 2005, Fishwatch has established to what extent major supermarkets such as Asda, Tesco, M&S and Waitrose stock fish foods obtained from sustainable and unsustainable sources - as defined by the MCS's previously developed Good Fish Guide, with its lists of Fish to Eat and Fish to Avoid.
Foods sourced from unsustainable fisheries include, from certain areas, skate and ray, hake, halibut, blue marlin, shark, monkfish and prawns. Where required, the MCS is committed to approaching supermarkets to stop the purchase of threatened species.
Supermarkets also deserve plaudits where fish from sustainable sources are stocked. During its summer research programme, the MCS found that Waitrose stocked the largest number of species (19) featured in the MCS's Fish to Eat list, followed by M&S (16) and Asda (15). M&S had the distinction of not selling any foods cited on the MCS's Fish to Avoid list.
Fishwatch is inviting consumers to question their supermarket fishmongers about the sourcing of their fish, and to report back to the MCS so that the Fishwatch database can be expanded and kept up to date.
The MCS insists that the Fishwatch campaign will not have an adverse effect on consumer choice. "There are over 30 fish and shellfish on the MCS Fish to Eat list, so we are not suggesting that supermarkets reduce their sale of fish, but that they take more care to buy and sell fish from sustainable sources," said Bernadette Clarke, MCS Fisheries Officer.
Fishwatch complements the work of campaigning group Bite-Back which, concentrating on shark products, has persuaded a number of supermarket and restaurant chains to stop selling foods based on species whose populations are threatened around the globe.
Another campaign, fish4ever, has just been launched globally to "press for the urgent implementation of sustainable fisheries and the creation of a network of marine protected areas to safeguard the future of our oceans". You can add your name to the cause by signing up online.
Related links
MCS Fishwatch
Bite-Back
Fish4ever
News Index Page
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