New Zealand caught hoki is certified as sustainable by the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) but still UK store, Waitrose, refuse to stock it because bottom trawling is used in the fishery. Jeremy Langley, specialist fish buyer for Waitrose said that there are some MSC fisheries that we don’t stock, such as the MSC New Zealand hoki fishery, which conducts bottom trawling.
He also told that most of the fish Waitorse stock is line-caught, or if trawled it is using Danish seine techniques and not beam or pair trawling. It is said that the New Zealand snub was publicised by the Greenpeace environmental lobby, which said new sales figures from Waitrose showed its fish sales had grown 15 percent in the last month compared with last year and its frozen fish sales had grown by 21 percent.
According to Karli Thomas, Greenpeace New Zealand oceans campaigner, the supermarket’s actions showed that even MSC certification was no guarantee of sustainability. Bottom-trawling – dragging large, weighted nets across the ocean floor – is said by its critics to damage seabed communities, particularly on the seamounts where some fish species gather to feed or mate.
Thomas opined that another five New Zealand seafood species were being considered for MSC certification, including hake, ling, blue whiting, albacore tuna and the partially collapsed Challenger scallop fishery. Greenpeace said neither of New Zealand’s supermarket chains, Progressive Enterprises or Foodstuffs, had sustainable seafood policies in place.
Hackwell said the Waitrose decision showed supermarkets that were catering to affluent customers were likely to improve their competitive edge by taking a harder line on sustainability.
