Major UK Supermarkets Boycott Companies Linked to Whaling

Two British supermarket chains will ensure that none of the seafood products they carry will be supplied by companies that support or engage in whaling or the hunting of other sea mammals.

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Waitrose, one of the two stores, has already written to the Icelandic government asking them to reverse their decision to allow an extended whaling quota this year. The other store, Marks & Spencer, said they are drafting a letter to send soon.

Waitrose representatives visited Iceland two weeks ago to check that their suppliers are not linked to whaling in any way. The store buys cod, haddock, lemon sole, plaice, skate, and monkfish from Iceland.

“We wrote that we were concerned with the decision to increase the quota, that our customers have told us in the past they do not approve of whaling, and that we wanted the decision to increase the quota to be reversed,” said Jeremy Langley, the fish buyer at Waitrose.

Neither store intends to boycott Icelandic products entirely, but Langley said the country-of-origin is labeled on all fish products, so custumers can decide for themselves.

Conservation groups like Sea Shepherd and Greenpeace UK have called for a complete boycott of all Icelandic products until the whaling quota is reversed. As it stands, 100 minke whales and 150 endangered fin whales will be killed in 2009, compared to only 38 minke whales and no fin whales last year.

Via: Guardian
Photo Credit: b*a*z*z*a* on Flickr under Creative Commons license.

2 thoughts on “Major UK Supermarkets Boycott Companies Linked to Whaling”

  1. So what. The whaling companies will sell their products to Japan and the fishing companies can keep selling their products to the Europeans. So long as there is a division between companies then this “boycott” will have no major impact.

    Ironically there may be more fish for the Europeans to eat thanks to the whaling.

    But yeah, good to get it off their chests.

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