Canadian supermarket chains say 'no' to orange roughy as NZ fishery re-opened

None of Canada’s major supermarket chains will be selling orange roughy after leading retailers dropped the species due to sustainability concerns, Greenpeace reports.

Last week Canadian retailer Metro announced it would remove a number of seafoods from sale, including New Zealand hoki and orange roughy (1).

Metro was the last of Canada’s eight major supermarkets to be selling orange roughy, following the rejection of the species by retail chains Overwaitea, Loblaw, Safeway and Sobeys over the past two years. It is the first Canadian retailer to remove New Zealand hoki from its shelves (2).

Greenpeace New Zealand oceans campaigner Karli Thomas said it was ironic that as Canadian supermarkets were closing the door to orange roughy and hoki imports the New Zealand Ministry of Fisheries (3) last week announced an increase in the hoki catch and re-opened an orange roughy stock that was fished to collapse a decade ago and has been closed since (4).

“New Zealand’s orange roughy fisheries are a scandal. The Challenger Plateau population that has just been re-opened was trawled to near oblivion over two decades, plummeting to only three per cent before the fishery was closed in 2001. Many companies in the seafood supply chain now refuse to trade in the species (5),” she said.

New Zealand supermarkets continue to sell orange roughy and other species from the Greenpeace seafood red list (6).

“Sadly it seems that retailers in our export markets are showing more concern for New Zealand’s ocean than the likes of Countdown and New World where New Zealanders do their shopping, or our own Ministry of Fisheries.”

“Too many protected species like dolphins, fur seals, sea lions and albatross are dying in New Zealand fisheries, stocks of many species are at or near the point of collapse and earlier this year the Ministry increased the catch of bluefin tuna, despite the species being listed as Critically Endangered and more than 95 per cent being wiped out already.”

“New Zealand can’t be complacent about our fisheries. The claim that all New Zealand seafood is sustainable is plainly untrue, and until the Ministry and industry get serious about addressing these issues, doors to our export markets will continue to slam shut.”

Metro’s rejection of orange roughy and hoki is part of a sustainable fisheries policy being implemented by the company – which operates some 600 stores – that also includes labeling seafood products with information on the species and where and how it was caught (7).

Notes to editors:

(1) Metro’s policy was announced on 23 September and will be fully implemented by June 2011. The company will remove seven species from sale across its 600 stores, as well as improving seafood labeling.

http://www.metro.ca/corpo/centre-nouvelles/communiques2010/20100923.en.html

(2) In 2009 and again in 2010 Greenpeace ranked Canada’s eight major supermarket chains on the basis of seafood sustainability. The ranking of supermarkets can be found on page 7 and a summary of the species removed from sale on page 9 of the report ‘Taking Stock’ http://www.greenpeace.org/canada//taking-stock

(3) Last week the New Zealand Ministry of Fisheries announced the commercial catch of hoki will increase by 10,000 tonnes on 1 October 2010, taking it to 120,000 tonnes per year. Hoki is New Zealand’s third most valuable seafood export after mussels and rock lobster, earning $152 million in 2009. Concerns about the fishery include the use of the destructive bottom trawl fishing method and the bycatch of fur seals and seabirds. http://www.fish.govt.nz/en-nz/Press/Catch+limit+changes+for+important+fish+species.htm

(4) The Challenger Plateau orange roughy stock was overfished to a shocking 3% of its original level, and was closed from 2001. The species is extremely long-lived (120 years) slow to mature (23-32 years) and is caught only by bottom trawl fishing, making the fishery inherently unsustainable. Three of New Zealand’s eight stocks have been fished to collapse, and a further three areas are close to the 10% level at which they are considered collapsed under the New Zealand Harvest Strategy Standard. A summary of New Zealand’s orange roughy fisheries is available online: http://www.greenpeace.org/new-zealand/orange-roughy

(5) A summary of the market rejection of orange roughy can be found at:

http://www.greenpeace.org/orange-roughy-rejection

(6) The Greenpeace red fish list is available online at: http://www.greenpeace.org/new-zealand/en/campaigns/oceans/seafood-markets-guide/red-list/

(7) Metro’s policy is available online at: http://www.metro.ca/corpo/responsabilite/peche-durable-politique.en.html