We’ve all heard the saying, “There are other fish in the sea!” For a long time, our oceans have been so bountiful that this saying implied near infinite choices. But fishing, sourcing and purchasing seafood has depleted our oceans and now they’re in trouble.
Our new blue (responsibly sourced), green (sustainably sourced) and GreenWise sustainably sourced seafood labels are an invitation to learn why making sustainable seafood choices is important. These blue and green icons mean that our seafood has met rigorous sustainability standards set by the Sustainable Fisheries Partnership (SFP) and Global Sustainable Seafood Initiative (GSSI). But what does that mean? The labels mean that your seafood is not being overfished, for starters. Fisheries are now taking measures to ensure as few neighboring species as possible are getting inadvertently caught up in the haul.
Although the labeling system is new, our commitment to sustainable seafood isn’t. We were recognized as the first U.S. supermarket retailer to participate in the Ocean Disclosure Project (ODP), which promotes supply chain transparency. We have also been a partner with the SFP since 2009 and were an early adopter of the fishery improvement project (FIP) approach. By collecting and analyzing data for the top 85% of products sold in our seafood department and working with SFP to evaluate which sources of supply need to improve, we have been able to sponsor struggling fisheries. When fisheries have a desire to become more sustainable, we are happy to help them grow.
“For sustainability to truly take hold in the industry, it requires a partnership between the retailer, the industry and the environmental group,” explains Guy Pizzuti, our seafood Category Manager.
Through our Gulf Coast Shrimp FIP, we partnered with SFP to address the problem of accidentally catching turtles while fishing for shrimp. We contributed $40,000 to help get inspectors onto boats and evaluate how Turtle Excluder Devices (TEDs) were being installed and used. After identifying problems and demonstrating proper usage and techniques, we were able to help bring over 90% of the fleet up to compliance.
More compliance = less caught turtles = more sustainably sourced shrimp for our customers!
Investing in fisheries not only gives our customers access to more sustainable choices, but helps standardize sustainable fishing practices across the industry. From our annual Sustainability Summit, where we convene all our seafood suppliers to discuss sustainability, to our work with the National Fisheries Institute (NFI) and the Food Marketing Institute (FMI), we are committed to driving sustainable change in the seafood industry. And that change is happening! We’ve been leading retailers with our support of Target 75, an initiative that aims to get 75% of world seafood production in key sectors sustainable or actively working toward sustainability, and we’re proud to share that we are already halfway there!
With our sustainable seafood labels, we are passing along all we have learned about responsible seafood sourcing and helping you make better decisions about what you put on your table. It’s our hope that with this knowledge, we can stand together for the better sustainable seafood practices that will ensure there are always other fish in the sea.
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