Beginning today, Whole Foods will only sell sustainable seafood, an initiative the company announced last month, with seafood quality standars coordinator Carrie Brownstein explaining, "In the long term, what we're really looking to do is help reverse trends of overfishing and bi-catch, so that really we can move the industry as a whole toward greater sustainability." But some fishermen accuse Whole Foods of killing their livelihood and hypocrisy.
Whole Food will no longer sell octopus, gray sole, skate, Atlantic halibut and Atlantic cod caught by trawls. With trawling a common practice in New England, many fishermen there are unhappy, telling the NY Times things like, "We have the strictest management regime in the world. So using the word ‘sustainable,’ maybe it looks good in your advertising. But, without being too harsh, it means absolutely nothing," and "It’s totally maddening. They’re just doing it to make all the green people happy." Also:
Some fishermen questioned why Whole Foods would approve net-caught fish, as marine mammals are known to get entangled in gillnets, and hook-caught fish, as hooks often end up catching undersize fish. Last week, federal regulators announced that they would ban gillnet fishing for part of the fall in coastal waters from Maine to Cape Ann, Mass., because too many porpoises had been dying in the nets.
“There’s no immaculate fishing gear,” said [David] Goethel, the fishery council member.
But conservation advocates are happy: Ellen Pikitch, of the Institute for Ocean Conservation Science, told the Times, "Whole Foods is setting a good example by offering fish from relatively well-managed fisheries. It’s too bad that more New England fish don’t qualify, but over time, such market forces should help bring these fish back — both in the ocean and to the Whole Foods seafood counter."
You can find out how your favorite seafood are fished/farmed at the Blue Ocean Institute, whose ratings inform Whole Foods' buying practices.
