Sustainable Seafood Abroad: Canada

Posted on | November 7, 2010 | 2 Comments

A growing number of Canadian companies and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are all aboot sustainable seafood. Unfortunately, the Canadian government has not been keeping up, as they voted against international measures needed to protect bluefin tuna. However, SOP found plenty of positive storylines to illustrate Canada’s contributions to the movement.

In a classic case of one-upsmanship, Canadian grocery store chains have been outdoing each other over the past couple years. Loblaw, the country’s largest retailer, committed to source only sustainable seafood for all its canned, frozen, fresh, wild and farmed seafood products by 2013. Two days after Loblaw announced big progress toward that goal, competitor Metro stole the spotlight by setting a deadline of mid-2011 to implement the same policy. Metro has partnered with activist-NGO Greenpeace to help make the transition. It will be interesting to see how this relationship plays out. This is Greenpeace’s first corporate partnership for sustainable seafood and its definition of sustainability could significantly limit Metro’s offerings.

And finally, just last month, another retail giant Sobeys swooped in with the most progressive sustainability policy of all the Canadian grocers. Partnering with Sustainable Fisheries Partnership, Sobeys, instead of dropping all seafood products with sustainability issues, will use its buying power to leverage change down the supply chain to the fishery level. Sobeys will continue to buy a red or yellow-rated product if there is a clear plan in place with measurable goals to improve the fishery where the product is coming from.

Canada’s largest sushi company, Bento Nouveau, has committed to buying 100% of its fish from sustainable sources by 2012. This is no small challenge for a company that sells more than 10 million servings at grab-and-go sushi bars in over 2,000 locations. For assistance, Bento Nouveau enlisted SeaChoice, a coalition of Canadian NGOs. SeaChoice contributes its expertise in sustainable seafood and raising public awareness, and will add its label to seafood products it deems as sustainable.

Academics also factor into Canada’s sustainable seafood profile. SOP already reported on the fantastic solutions-oriented work of Dr. Thierry Chopin at the University of New Brunswick. He is undertaking practical research that will help fish farming companies implement polyculture practices. On the other coast, Dr. Daniel Pauly and his crew at the University of British Columbia catch headlines by reporting the doom and gloom status of our world’s fisheries and seafood supply. While Dr. Pauly is one of the world’s best known marine biologists, he is not known for providing practical assistance to solve the problems he often highlights. SOP hopes he and his team will soon step out of their academia bubble and apply their vast expertise to partnerships with businesses, fishermen, and governments.

In a country where catching, selling, and eating fish is important to the economy, it is nice to see sustainability being talked about and acted upon. SOP will be keeping an eye on Canada’s progress and will report back.

Related Posts

• Is Farm-Raised Seafood Sustainable or Not? (Part 3)
• Invest in Sustainable Seafood!
• Is Genetically-Modified Salmon Sustainable?
• Is Farm-Raised Seafood Sustainable or Not? (Part 2)

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Sustainable Ocean Project (SOP) brings you inspiring stories and easy to understand information about a growing sustainable and local seafood movement that we all should be a part of.

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