07 March 2007 - Stockholm,
Sweden — Last year, Greenpeace activists
and Ocean Defenders took to the supermarkets
across Scandinavia to convince them to get
out of Baltic cod, a stock that is severely
overfished and at least a third of which
is illegally caught. Finally the last domino
has fallen: Swedish supermarkets are now
free from frozen Baltic cod.
Only some fresh cod remains, and at least
one of the major supermarkets are in discussions
to get rid of that too. Our Oceans campaigner
Frode Pleym says, "Even though this
is only applicable in Sweden, it's a great
step forward for sustainable fishing policies
across Nordic countries."
ICA: Not worth selling cod
ICA was the last major supermarket in Sweden
to keep selling potentially "stolen"
Baltic cod, even after we confronted them
last year, and released a report from our
ship the Arctic Sunrise, outlining the illegal
and unsustainable practices of the Baltic
Sea cod fisheries. But this week they finally
relented, according to Sweden's major newspaper
Dagens Nyheter.
Frode spoke to the Purchasing Department
of ICA Sweden yesterday, and reports that
their decision is largely due to the work
we did last year - and of course, Ocean
Defenders everywhere. "ICA said that
they made a cost-benefit analysis of continuing
to sell Baltic cod," says Frode. "They
decided that it was just not worth continuing
when the public clearly had such a great
concern."
Making piracy history
Over the last year, the Defending Our Oceans
expedition has battled pirate fishing in
West Africa, the Pacific, the Netherlands,
Russia and the Baltic and Barents Seas.
Meanwhile, Greenpeace UK has made significant
steps towards sustainable procurement policies
in UK supermarkets, and we are in discussions
with major food brands such as Birds Eye
and Iglo to stick with guidelines to make
sure their cod is also legal.
oceans.greenpeace.org/blacklist
Today we launched the first public global
database of blacklisted, illegal fishing
vessels, in a bid to tackle the huge problem
of illegal, unregulated and unreported (IUU)
pirate fishing, a $9 billion rogue industry
which is having a devastating effect on
fish stocks and biodiversity in some of
the most ecologically important areas of
the world’s oceans.
But is this enough? Last year the news
that commercial fishing as we know it might
be over by 2048 unless things change sent
shockwaves through the industry. In the
end, the only thing that will save the cod
-- from both illegal fishing and legal overfishing
-- and various other species that end up
regularly on our dinner plates, is a network
of properly enforced marine reserves.
But this victory in Sweden might be one
step towards that goal, because if your
dinner menu starts changing, the industry
will have to follow.
