Seafood industry memo: how to undermine Greenpeace
One of our supporters sent along the following memo which the National Fisheries Institute circulated in the US just before the launch of our Seafood Red List and our supermarket ranking guide, which had the audacity to evaluate the fish purchasing policies of US supermarkets and rank their attention to sustainability. (For those of you not in the US, we also created an international version of the Red List along with several national variations).
Clearly, the idea of ensuring the world has fish for tomorrow by protecting fish stocks today is dangerous anti-capitalist sedition:
GREENPEACE LAUNCHING SEAFOOD SUSTAIANBLTY [sic] CAMPAIGNWho: Environmental Extremist Group Greenpeace
What: Sustainable Seafood Campaign Directed at Grocery Stores
When: Tuesday June 17th
Where: Nationwide (USA)As many of you know, the eco-activists at Greenpeace have been planning a concerted effort to disrupt seafood sales in this country as part of a seafood sustainability campaign.
We have learned from press reports that Greenpeace plans to launch its efforts on Tuesday June 17th. Greenpeace has already contacted grocery stores nationwide and demanded that they remove almost half of all seafood from sale. As part of its campaign, we expect Greenpeace to release a list ranking retailers based on its own assessment of their seafood sustainability practices. We have already warned retailers to be prepared for acts of vandalism by Greenpeace agents in conjunction with this campaign.
Please find attached 1) talking points 2) a white paper that reveals Greenpeace's history and highlights a number of its ill-conceived campaigns of the past and 3) a media alert that NFI will be distributing on Monday to press in selected cities.As the seafood community beings to deal with this latest challenge, please feel free to contact NFI with any questions or needs you might have. We are prepared to field any and all media calls about this campaign and inquires can be referred directly to Gavin Gibbons at [email deleted. Even a spinmeister doesn't deserve spam].
Gavin Gibbons
National Fisheries Institute
www.aboutseafood.com
Now, Mr. Gibbons can be found shooting the messenger over on the Green Blog at Boston.com in the good company of David Martosko of the Center for Consumer Freedom, a group set up with a half a million smackers by the Philip Morris company to counteract all that disinformation about the dangers of smoking, and which today steadfastly stands up for the rights of consumers to shut up and buy whatever they're damn well told to buy.
The sad part about this is that the Fisheries Institute actually ought to be on our side on this one. We're advocating a solution to their long-term future: marine reserves protecting critical habitats so that fish stocks can recover. Right now, the fisheries industry is fishing itself to death, and the supermarkets and suppliers that buy fish are in the best position to put a stop to that -- by insisting that their customers will not be complicit in stealing fish from future generations. By insisting the fish they buy isn't stolen by pirates fishing the waters of poor African nations or strip-mined by a super-seiner vacuuming up more fish in one trip than a Pacific Island nation could fish in an entire year.
You can take action by signing our petition demanding the United Nations set up a network of Marine Reserves. And we can all let Mr. Gibbons know that all of us who care about the future of our oceans are not a bunch of screaming eco-lunatics. We're actually the fishing industry's best friend.
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