2Sustain

The European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC), the in-house science service for the EU, has developed a new model to help protect global bluefin tuna populations.

The model uses satellite remote sensing data to provide a unique, overall view of the preferred bluefin tuna habitats in the Mediterranean Sea. The potential presence of bluefin tuna can be tracked through daily updated maps, helping to protect endangered stocks, chart their changes over time and fight illegal fishing.

Protection is needed. (more…)

Kroger, the nation’s largest traditional grocery retailer, has announced significant improvements to its seafood buying practices and standards.

Working in partnership with WWF, Kroger says by 2015, it wants to source 100 percent of its top 20 wild-caught species from sources that are certified by the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC), in full assessment, or involved in a Fishery Improvement Project with WWF.

In addition, Kroger will:

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Concerns about global fish stocks have prompted several companies in the food sector to adopt sustainable seafood policies. (See earlier posts about Walmart Canada, Metro, Delhaize America and others.)

Now, High Liner Foods Inc., a leading North American processor and marketer of seafood, has announced that it, too, is committed to sustainable seafood. The company says it will source all of its seafood from certified sustainable or responsible fisheries and aquaculture farms by the end of 2013.

Specifically, High Liner Foods says that it will require wild-caught seafood and farmed products to either: (more…)

Earlier this week, Greenpeace upped the ante in its sustainable seafood campaign by explicitly targeting Costco with a press release and a less-than-flattering YouTube video.

Greenpeace, which has published a sustainable seafood guide since 2008 (see an earlier post here), says Costco lacks a transparent and meaningful sustainable seafood policy and has continually proven to be one of the poorest performing big box stores in the United States in terms of seafood sustainability. (more…)

For years now, researchers have been warning about the collapse of our marine ecosystems. In particular, global fish populations are declining, and as startling as it sounds, by some estimates, we’ve already pushed as much as 75% of the world's fisheries beyond the limits of sustainability.

In the U.S., consumers buy half of their seafood at supermarkets –ringing in a total of about $16 billion in annual seafood sales –and so, a few years ago, Greenpeace initiated a scorecard that ranks supermarkets on the sustainability of their seafood operations. The third edition of this seafood sustainability scorecard, titled “Carting Away the Oceans,” was released this week, and it contains a glimmer of good news: more than half of the leading supermarket chains in the U.S. have made at least some progress in helping the oceans and meeting meet consumer demand for sustainable products.

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