Controversy Between Environmental Groups About What Is “Sustainable”ff

Friend of the Sea is the only scheme which applies strict minimum requirements, says Dr. Paolo Bray of this organization.

Greenpeace has launched a campaign requesting retailers to remove certain seafood species from their shelves, including some which have been certified by the Marine Stewardship Council.

The conservation group has called for pollack, hoki and Patagonian toothfish to be taken off sale, “immediately, or a soon as possible”.

Meanwhile, certification group Friend of the Sea say sustainable fisheries certification must be based on strict minimum requirements, or it will sooner or later encounter opposition of environmental organizations. But they believe the Greenpeace list goes too far.

”Friend of the Sea is the only scheme which applies strict minimum requirements: not overexploited target stocks; maximum discard rate; no bycatch of threatened species; negligible impact on the seabed,” says Dr. Paolo Bray, director of Friend of the Sea.

“Retailers and producers should look for those seafood certification schemes adopting stricter criteria and taking into consideration also environmental organizations’ opinions,” he continues.

“Friend of the Sea, for example, requests tuna companies to be also Dolphin-Safe approved by the Earth Island Institute. Furthermore none of Friend of the Sea currently certified products originate from species which Greenpeace requests to remove from sale immediately.”

“It has to be clear however,” Dr. Bray concludes, “that Friend of the Sea believes some of the species indicated by Greenpeace should not be red-listed, given that some stocks of these species are not overexploited, some fisheries are well managed and farming or fishing methods can be respectful of the environment - among them yellowfin, albacore and bigeye tuna, shrimps, farmed Atlantic salmon and swordfish.”