A small group of black-clad Greenpeace campaigners startled grocery shoppers in downtown Halifax today when they drove a hearse to the doors of the Queen Street Sobeys and unloaded a coffin containing the head of an Atlantic cod.
“We’re here to urge Sobeys to stop selling cod,” Sarah King, a Greenpeace oceans campaigner based in Vancouver, told reporters. “The Atlantic cod stocks have been showing no signs of recovery and Sobeys has refused to take any action to stop selling cod to death.”
The Greenpeace “mourners” carried red roses and silently handed out an “obituary” noting that “Atlantic Cod died on July 2, 2028 after suffering a long fight with overfishing.” The notice adds: “Atlantic Cod was preceded in death by the Atlantic walrus and is survived by the jellyfish.”
Within minutes, Sobeys managers ordered the protesters to leave. The Greenpeace campaigners retreated to the public sidewalk and Halifax police arrived to make sure they stayed off Sobeys property.
- Sobeys manager closes coffin
King said that as a company based in the Maritimes, it’s unacceptable that Sobeys continues to sell fish that are in danger of extinction.
A Greenpeace fact sheet says all eight of Canada’s largest retail chains sell Atlantic cod.
“The Greenpeace supermarket campaign calls on retailers to remove Atlantic cod from sale to allow stocks to recover,” the fact sheet adds. “Greenpeace also urges retailers to adopt seafood policies that ensure only sustainable seafood products are available to their customers.”
King said that after receiving a failing grade from Greenpeace last year, Sobeys promised to develop a sustainable seafood policy, but has since abandoned its plans. She added that the company also sells other endangered species including bluefin tuna.
Greenpeace is calling on Sobeys to put more information on product labels, so that customers can tell whether cod is from one of the stocks most at risk. The federal Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada has classified the status of five Canadian cod stocks with those off the waters of Atlantic Canada listed as: “endangered,” “threatened” and of “special concern.”
- Sarah King
King said she’s hoping today’s mock funeral focuses attention on supermarkets that continue to sell cod. “As long as we keep fishing, selling and buying from these overstressed fish stocks, cod won’t recover and a species that once filled our coastal waters will disappear forever.”
This article appears in Mar 18-24, 2010.
Maybe we need Home Depo in the food market place.
Idiots.
“Idiots”
I totally agree. Sobey’s should be ashamed of what they are doing and continue to do.
World savers are cute.
I do not listen to professional protestors who dupe innocent, naive, otherwise well meaning kids into raising money for their 401-K’s. Fish and chips, anyone?
We should listen to passionate protesters, especially when the facts support them. We are consuming ourselves toward economic collapse. Didn’t the collapse of the cod teach us anything?
I listen to passionate protestors, not professional protestors.
Today the largest consumer of Cod are Grey Seals.Anyone who knows anything about the ecosystem out there knows this. With Greenpeace it is all about the MONEY, AND IT THE SAME WITH MOST OTHER FAR LEFT group’s. Our biologists will tell you they take 320,000 metric Tons of fish species a year from N.S. waters.
Save the Ales.
Hi Brewnoser: Don’t know where you get your facts & figures on seals eating cod because, contrary to what you say, it’s hard to find such certainty among “our biologists.”
First of all, the biologists overwhelmingly agree that overfishing, not seals or other natural predators, led to the collapse of the cod stocks in the first place. For example, a scientific study by Hutchings and Reynolds published in 2004 states flatly that: “The primary cause of the reduction in Atlantic cod throughout its Canadian range was overexploitation.”
The authors add: “Foremost among threats to recovery is fishing. It has proved exceedingly difficult for managers to reduce the fishing mortality of collapsed populations to zero. Even if targeted fishing is banned, with few exceptions…depleted species continue to be
caught as bycatch in other fisheries. More troublesome is the reality that closed fisheries tend to be reopened at the first sign of population increase, rather than after the attainment of some target level for recovery.”
Finally Hutchings and Reynolds compare the overfishing of cod to what happened on the Great Plains: “The collapse of Newfoundland’s northern cod can be considered the marine equivalent of the hunting of buffalo to pitiable levels of abundance.” See: http://www.cbd.int/doc/articles/2004/A-001…
As for the risk seals pose to recovery of the cod stocks, the official word from the federal Dept. of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) is that more research needs to be done to dispel the many scientific uncertainties. DFO suggests scientists are caught between factions. One says millions of seals must be preventing cod stock recovery:
“Its proponents point out that even if a particular cod stock makes up only a small fraction of the seal diet, the sheer number of seals eating those cod is a major threat to the stock’s very existence, much less its recovery. On the flip side of the coin, there are many who do not believe this to be true at all. They argue that the seals are, in fact, a positive force in any recovery of the cod stocks, because they eat other cod predators such as herring, which consume a vast number of cod eggs. Wedged in between these divergent positions is the widely accepted view in the scientific community that there are many uncertainties in our understanding of the impact that seal predation may be having on the recovery of cod and other groundfish stocks in the northwest Atlantic.” http://www.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/science/Publicati…
In case you need any further proof, here’s an excerpt from a CBC backgrounder on the seal hunt. This quote appears under the heading, “Do seals eat cod?”
“The commercial seal quota is established based on sound conservation principles, not an attempt to assist in the recovery of groundfish stocks,” the DFO says. “Seals eat cod, but seals also eat other fish that prey on cod.” http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2009/05/05/…
I would remind you Brewnoser of an elementary rule in logic: He who asserts, must prove. You offer not one speck of evidence for your sweeping claims.
And by the way buddy, we do not have 401(k) retirement savings plans here in Canada. We call them RRSPs.
Dear Mr. Wark.
Please learn how to use the feedback forum on your own publication. You embarrass yourself when you address someone incorrectly, especially in such a preachy talk down manner. I believe it was someone who goes by “Howard” who erroneously believes grey seals eat all the cod. Dr. S. Iverson and her people at Dal disproved that years ago. That fish oil tracing work back then pretty well proved that seals were eating fattier fish, like mackerel.
It WAS me who referenced the 401K – but that was on purpose. As you seem to know it is not a Canadian financial retirement vehicle, you should have understood my inference. Those puppeteers are rarely Canadians. But, of course, you were too focussed on reading what was written for your own purposes – to diminish someone you thought was me, that it went right over your head.
I believe that we have totally mismanaged the fishery. But when I see what has happened to the communities along our coast and read about, and remember, how they used to fish, I suspect it is big business with big ships, and much of all that foreign owned, that is responsible. Not people eating cod in Canada, especially line caught cod. Could we have stopped them (Russians, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Faroe Islanders) with a small naval war? I wonder. We do know that that lobby has no interest in conservation of anything, as witnessed by the idiotic continuance of the Bluefin Tuna fishery this past week.
I believe you owe me an apology, and although I doubt you have it in you to admit you made a mistake, I am ready to accept it.
Bravo to Brewnoser. I remember my Biology teacher explaining the whole fishing vs seals thing back in 1983, made sense then, makes even more sense now.
Hi Brewnoser: Of course, you are quite right that I mistook you for Howard who seemed to suggest, without any evidence, that we should blame seals for the collapse of the cod — or at the very least, the failure of the cod stocks to recover. (It’s hard to tell what Howard was trying to say.)
I’m glad to see that my mistake finally prompted you to contribute something more meaningful to the exchanges here than your puzzling reference to 401(k)s and your rather silly “Fish and chips, anyone?” or your “Save the ales” comment. I now see that you actually do have something to say about the collapse of the cod stocks.
While I apologize for confusing you with Howard, I would point out that my reporting of the Greenpeace event was intended as a serious piece of journalism. Judging by your previous comments and many of those from other anonymous contributors, serious journalism too often generates silly comments or poorly researched arguments. Now that I know what you meant by your 401(k) reference, for example, I challenge you to prove that what you say is true. It’s easy enough to make such an allegation against members of Greenpeace, but I’d say you have an obligation to back it up with some facts.
As a diver, I would like to point out ‘HOW WE FISH’ is also largely responsible for our declining fish stocks.
Have any of you seen the bottom where draggers have dragged their fishing gear ?
Has anyone of you look at what the ocean floor looks like where Trawlers have gone through with those huge nets that they drag behind the boat ?
The bottom looks like a construction site that has been cleared by bulldozers !
It’s dead.
Corals, rock and other structures are destroyed. Let us not forget in bringing up the ‘by catch’ ! a wonderfully simple word used to describe the hundreds of thousands of tons of fish & other seacreatures that are caught as well, which die & are thrown away !!
You want to protect fish, your going to have to take on ALL THE PRACTICES that are stripping the worlds oceans of fish. Picking on seals or those who sell fish isn’t the problem.
OVERFISHING & DESTRUCTIVE FISHING PRACTICES, that vacume the bottom clean destroying everything in their path…that’s the real problem.
Hi More: You’re absolutely right when you say HOW WE FISH is vital. I did not include it in my piece on the protest against Sobeys, but Greenpeace documented the effects of destructive fishing practices in a 2008 report called “Out of Stock: Supermarkets and the Future of Seafood.” http://www.greenpeace.org/canada/en/recent…
Destructive fishing practices are indeed largely to blame for the collapse of fish stocks and their failure to recover, but according to Greenpeace, supermarket sales of endangered species like the Atlantic cod are also a significant factor. In other words, the two things are not mutually exclusive.
Ugh, Greenpeace… yawn
(401)k refers to USA charitable organizations. This action was by the Canadian arm of Greenpeace International, which does not have charitable status, since having charitable status in Canada means that advocacy work must be limited to ten percent of the group’s work. Greenpeace has a forty year history of effecting real change, so it no surprise that the “professional activists” are highly qualified and in it for more than the money.
MR Wark, I am not a follower of Greenpeace, or any other enviormental group, something about any group where “mental” is a part of the name makes me leary !
While I may not be onside with these groups, in my own experience it is obvious something needs to change. Every year I see the Shubie River be taken over by Native people who block 2/3’s +/- of the width of river, in multiple places with fish traps , taking thousands of pounds of spawning fish to use as bait !
Spawning fish ! the next generation destroyed, because the parent fish are caught & killed for bait ! !
UNBELIEVABLE, & what they take is nothing compared to what the herring fishery takes when they are collecting Roe for the Japanese market. Which mean about 1 in every 2 fish caught is a male so no good for taking the Roe, & I’ve seen Dump trucks, a line of tandem dump trucks full of fish taken to landfills, the whole fish wasted after the roe is taken. IT is an unbelievable wasteful practice & no one involved seems to have the sense god gave a turnip . IMO looking to Government, or a ‘Governmental’ agency to change these practices has a chance of success somewhere near, personal unassisted brain surgery !
In otherwords slim to none !
IT is like I said when I started this reply, any group that has ‘mental’ anywhere in the name isn’t IMO going to be able to effectively change anything. Mainstream news reporting, is going to have to put consistent & reliable information about the horrific mess man is doing to the oceans, the fish stocks & the habitat . Before the average man & woman in the street will even notice. But this can’t happen when mainstream news would rather fill us all in on what they know about the latest news on a sports figures sex habits, or how many people died in this or that disaster, then actual news stories about important events, or the destruction of a species ! ! !
Plus for the public to really notice the price will have to become outrageous or fish itself will have to become unavailable. Similar to how scarce cod has become.
Which at this time, just means they go and exploit another species.
But I truely believe nothing off any real significance will be done until the only thing easily caught is plastic garbage & the odd jelly fish ! Which will mean we’re going to probably be too late .
Does anyone know of a contact number for this group, or a local branch of Greenpeace?
If this were anybody other than those terrorists at Green”Peace”, I’d might have listened.
@More: Are you or any other divers out there capable of taking an underwater video or series of pictures that shows the effects of drag-fishing that you describe? I believe evidence of that nature could be extremely valuable in the fight to change how we use our fisheries.
Hi Toothpick
Nothing new in what I wrote.
Go to Youtube type in bottom-trawling video. Pick other themes like underwater scallop dragging etc. etc. THere’s lots of stuff out there.
But when you go down in place like Jeddore & see what those scallop draggers have done to the bottom & then go into areas where the boulders are to large for their gear & see the difference in the abundence of sealife…its scary.
THe whole dragging fishing systems need to be outlawed IMO.
Greenpeace led a global campaign to ban Chlorine.