AUSTIN, Texas, April 12, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Whole Foods Market
(NASDAQ: WFMI) is on track to stop selling all red-rated swordfish
and tuna at its seafood counters nationwide by this Earth Day, April 22,
2011.
Last September, Whole Foods Market announced this deadline for
sourcing swordfish and tuna more sustainably as part of a larger
initiative to move toward fully-sustainable seafood departments.
For more than a decade, the company has maintained a strong
partnership with the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC), the world's
leading certification body for sustainable, wild-caught seafood,
and continues to source a range of MSC-certified products. The
latest addition to Whole Foods Market's seafood sustainability
initiative provides shoppers with transparent information about the
sustainability status of non-MSC certified, wild-caught seafood and
features color-coded, science-based sustainability ratings for
wild-caught seafood created by partners Blue Ocean Institute and
Monterey Bay Aquarium.
"The sustainability status information has opened a terrific
dialogue at the seafood counter. Shoppers are flexing their buying
power to prompt change and help reverse trends of overfishing,
exploitation and depletion in so many fisheries," said David Pilat, Whole Foods Market global seafood
coordinator. "Whole Foods Market is proud of our partnerships with
Blue Ocean Institute, Monterey Bay Aquarium, and with our shoppers,
buyers, fishermen and fishery managers. We are thrilled to have
found fisheries that can provide better environmental choices to
support the ecological health of our oceans and the abundance of
marine life for generations to come."
Whole Foods Market's skilled seafood buyers source tuna and
swordfish from green- and yellow-rated fisheries such as those
using handlines (a fishing method that uses a single baited line to
catch one fish at a time), which have low to no bycatch.
One of the new sources of green- and yellow-rated tuna comes
from the Maldives in the Indian
Ocean where fishermen catch tuna traditionally using a low-impact
pole and line. Elsewhere, most tuna is caught with nets or
longlines, which can capture not only the targeted catch, but also
juvenile tuna and large amounts of bycatch, including threatened or
endangered species such as sea turtles, sharks and seabirds,
earning some of these fisheries a red-rating.
Company buyers have also formed partnerships with a variety of
small green-rated swordfish fisheries in the United States – in Florida, for example -- and are looking for
more. These U.S. day boats also use low-impact handline fishing
gear.
"We are not only committed to amazingly fresh seafood
but to making sure that fish stocks can be replenished so that
we can keep fishing responsibly for many years to come," said
Scott Taylor, co-owner of
Florida-based Day Boat Seafood, a
supplier to Whole Foods Market. "We truly value our partnership
with Whole Foods Market because the company has demonstrated a
loyalty and genuine commitment to our fishermen, this process and
the environment."
Whole Foods Market's color-coded ratings make it easy for
shoppers to make informed choices at the seafood case. Green or
"best choice" ratings indicate a species is relatively abundant and
is caught in environmentally-friendly ways; yellow or "good
alternative" ratings mean some concerns exist with the species'
status or catch methods; and red or "avoid" ratings mean that for
now the species is suffering from overfishing, or that current
fishing methods harm other marine life or habitats. The ratings
supplement the sustainable seafood partnership that Whole Foods
Market has had with the MSC since 1999.
"We've heard from many shoppers that these ratings have been a
wake-up call," said Conner Herrick,
seafood team leader in Whole Foods Market's Austin, Texas flagship store. "Shoppers have
said that the visibility of the ratings at the seafood counter have
provided a level of transparency that has helped them quickly zero
in on the most sustainable items to purchase."
Remaining red-rated wild-caught seafood will be phased out of
Whole Foods Market stores by Earth
Day 2012 with the exception of Atlantic cod and sole, which
will have an extension until Earth
Day 2013.
Whole Foods Market's wild-caught seafood rating program and
partnerships complement its existing farmed seafood standards,
which remain the highest in the industry. The company requires
third-party audits and traceability from farm to market and
prohibits use of antibiotics, added growth hormones, added
preservatives like sulfites and phosphates, genetically-modified
seafood and land animal by-products in feed. Farmed seafood at
Whole Foods Market carries the "Responsibly Farmed" logo to
indicate it meets these high standards.
For a video demonstrating a day boat fishing using handlines,
visit youtube.com/watch?v=jVi5SRP2Iqs. For photos, b-roll and other
videos, and links, please visit
wholefoodsmarket.com/pressroom/seafoodrankings.
Contact: Ashley Hawkins,
Whole Foods Market
(512) 542-0381
Ashley.Hawkins@wholefoods.com
SOURCE Whole Foods Market