Environmental groups are once again at loggerheads with leading politicians and fishing businesses in New England in the wake of a decision by the high-end US retail giant Whole Foods to stop selling Maine lobster.
Whole Foods recently said that it will stop selling lobster from the Gulf of Maine at hundreds of its stores around the country. The company cited decisions by a pair of sustainability organizations to take away their endorsements of the US lobster fishing industry.
The organizations, Marine Stewardship Council and Seafood Watch, both cited concerns about risks to rare North Atlantic right whales from fishing gear. Entanglement in gear is one of the biggest threats to the whales.
The decision by Whole Foods was an “important action to protect the highly endangered” whale, Virginia Carter, an associate with the Save America’s Wildlife Campaign at Environment America Research & Policy Center, told the Associated Press.
“With fewer than 340 North Atlantic right whales in existence, the species is swimming toward extinction unless things turn around,” Carter said.
Whole Foods said in a statement last week that it was monitoring the situation and “committed to working with suppliers, fisheries, and environmental advocacy groups as it develops”.
“These third-party verifications and ratings are critical to maintaining the integrity of our standards for all wild-caught seafood found in our seafood department,” it added.
In September, a major fish sustainability guide “red-listed” lobsters as seafood to avoid.
“Ordering lobster or crab should not mean jeopardising the future of critically endangered North Atlantic right whales,” Gib Brogan, the campaign director of conservation pressure group Oceana told the Guardian.
Whole Foods’ decision to stop selling lobster drew immediate criticism in Maine, which is home to the US’s largest lobster fishing industry. The state’s governor, Janet Mills, a Democrat, and its four-member congressional delegation said in a statement that Marine Stewardship Council’s decision to suspend its certification of Gulf of Maine lobster came despite years of stewardship and protection of whales by Maine fishermen.
“We are disappointed by Whole Foods’ decision and deeply frustrated that the Marine Stewardship Council’s suspension of the lobster industry’s certificate of sustainability continues to harm the livelihoods of hardworking men and women up and down Maine’s coast,” the statement said.
“There has never been a right whale death attributed to Maine lobster gear; Maine lobstermen have a 150-year history of sustainability; and Maine’s lobstering community has consistently demonstrated their commitment to protecting right whales,” it continued.
“Despite this, the Marine Stewardship Council, with retailers following suit, wrongly and blindly decided to follow the recommendations of misguided environmental groups rather than science.”
Whole Foods was not the first retailer to take lobster off the menu over sustainability concerns. HelloFresh, the meal kit company, was among numerous retailers to pledge to stop selling lobster in September after California-based Seafood Watch placed American and Canadian lobster fisheries on its “red list” of seafoods to avoid.
