Conservation

Full net of Orange Roughy

Some popular fish may no longer be New Zealand’s family dish as supermarket chains heed calls to stop retailing threatened species.

Greenpeace wants Progressive Enterprises and Foodstuffs to stop selling a dozen species, including snapper, hoki, tuna and orange roughy.

In its report, While Stocks Last: Supermarkets and the Future of Seafood, Greenpeace said supermarkets could influence unsustainable commercial fish catches.

Greenpeace oceans campaigner Karli Thomas said many fish stocks were in trouble despite the quota management system.

Retailers had the power to change the way seafood was sourced and how consumers bought fish by refusing to supply endangered species, she said.

Greenpeace had placed 12 New Zealand species on a “red list” because they were over-fished, vulnerable or fished unselectively and destructively.

Some international retailers had bowed to consumer pressure, Thomas said.

New Zealand orange roughy was on the prohibited list of British and United States retailers because of concerns about species vulnerability.

Foodstuffs executive manager Melissa Hodd said the chain was considering the Greenpeace proposal.

Progressive communications manager Bill Moore said the company was working with Australasian suppliers on the issue.

Prime Minister John Key spoke of the need to supply sustainable species to international markets when he opened a seafood industry conference in Wellington yesterday.

New Zealand had to meet the demands of European and US markets for sustainably caught seafood, he said.

A spokesman for Fisheries Minister Phil Heatley said the Greenpeace report was being reviewed.

THE RED LIST: Antarctic and Patagonian toothfish, Arrow squid, Flatfish, Hake, Hoki, Orange roughy, Oreos, Sharks, Shrimps and prawns, Snapper, Swordfish, Tuna including: big eye, yellowfin, pacific and southern bluefin.

12 species of fish on retail ‘red list’ | Stuff.co.nz.