FishWise Retail Partners Receive High Marks in Greenpeace Report

FishWise is proud to announce that our partners Safeway, Target, and Hy-Vee all ranked among the top 5 retailers in Greenpeace’s 2015 Carting Away the Oceans Report. Now in its ninth year, the CATO report and scorecard provide insight on “which of the country’s major grocery chains are leaders in sustainable seafood,” according to Greenpeace. In the accompanying blog post, Greenpeace commended the top score recipients for “doing the best job of offering ocean safe seafood options.”

Greenpeace praised all three of these partners for their efforts in offering ocean safe tuna, each carrying at least one sustainable tuna option. Target was highlighted for introducing sustainably caught pole and line skipjack and albacore canned tuna under its Simply Balanced brand last year, which “features an easy-to-read and informative label.” The report also pointed out Target’s commitment to not sell farmed salmon. This recognition arrives on the heels of Target’s recent corporate sustainability report, which highlighted many other successes on the path to their 2015 goal for fresh and frozen seafood.

As the food industry comes to terms with the prevalent human rights abuses in seafood supply chains, Greenpeace applauded Hy-Vee and Safeway for beginning to take initial steps to address this critical issue. They are among leading retailers who have called on Congress to pass the Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated (IUU) Fishing Enforcement Act of 2015. In addition, the report acknowledged Target “meeting with Thai government officials, labor organizations, and vendors to address the shrimp supply chain.”

Hy-Vee turned heads yet again for shooting to third place in only its second year in the report. This was in no small part due to Hy-Vee’s decision to discontinue Chilean sea bass, a move only made more admirable through using Hy-Vee’s dedicated seafood sustainability blog to make the announcement and keep its customers informed. 

Looking forward into the coming year, FishWise envisions human rights and canned tuna being prioritized by the seafood industry so in the next CATO report we’ll be giving out congratulations for more significant achievements in these areas.

You can read the full PDF Carting Away the Oceans Report here: http://cato.greenpeaceusa.org