Update! Loblaws targeted by Greenpeace - Activists hang giant net from grocery store to denounce destructive fishing

    TORONTO, Nov. 6 /CNW Telbec/ - Greenpeace activists helped launch a
national campaign targeting Canada's largest grocer by hanging a giant fishing
net from a Loblaw store in Toronto this morning. Activists also taped posters
to store windows with the message "Caught red-handed selling Redlist fish" and
put up 'crime scene' tape at eight other Loblaw locations in the Toronto area
where the company is based.
    Greenpeace is urging Loblaw to shoulder its share of the responsibility
for the decline of fish stocks by ceasing to sell the most threatened species.
Loblaw accounts for nearly a third of the grocery market share in Canada and
operates under banners including Atlantic Superstore, Maxi, Provigo and Zehrs.
    "Loblaws wants to be known as a 'green' grocer, but our surveys indicate
that the company is selling 14 of the 15 Redlist species that are most
destructively fished or farmed," says Beth Hunter, oceans coordinator with
Greenpeace. In a report released last June, Greenpeace identified a "Redlist"
of seafood which should be taken off the shelves until stocks recover or
fishing and fish farming practices improve.

    The Redlist:
    Atlantic haddock (scrod)
    Atlantic cod
    Atlantic halibut
    Atlantic salmon (farmed)
    Atlantic sea scallops
    Chilean seabass
    Greenland halibut (turbot)
    Hard shell clams (Arctic surf clams)
    New Zealand hoki
    Orange roughy
    Sharks
    Skates and rays
    Swordfish
    Tropical shrimps and prawns
    Tuna - bluefin, bigeye, yellowfin

    Canadian fish on the list originate mainly from the Atlantic, which has
seen dramatic declines in cod and other species. Tropical shrimp is the most
consumed seafood on the list, but harvesting and farming the species is
wreaking havoc on ecosystems and threatening coastal communities. Bottom
trawling and other destructive fishing methods are raking the ocean floor and
fishing at an entirely unsustainable rate.
    As the link between the consumer and the producer, supermarkets have a
unique role to play in ensuring fish for the future. "We are asking Loblaw and
other retailers to take the pressure off threatened fisheries now by
purchasing their seafood only from sustainably managed fisheries," said
Hunter. "If they don't, there soon won't be any fish left to sell."
    Oceans are in peril because global fishing operations take 2.5 times more
fish and seafood than is sustainable. Currently, three-quarters of the world's
fisheries are fully exploited or overexploited, and 90 per cent of large,
predatory fish such as tuna and cod are gone. Greenpeace is advocating for a
global network of marine reserves covering 40 per cent of the oceans.

    Note to editors: High resolution photos will be made available at
www.greenpeace.ca/gallery.

For further information: Beth Hunter, Oceans Coordinator, (514)
569-8391; Spencer Tripp, Communications Director, [phone]