Whole Foods Market, Inc. (Nasdaq: WFMI) has joined the list of companies who have responded to The Humane Society of the United States’ call for a boycott of seafood from Canada until that country’s annual slaughter of hundreds of thousands of seals is permanently halted. The hunt is undeniably cruel — baby and juvenile seals are clubbed or shot to death primarily for their pelts — many are skinned while still alive and conscious. The U.S. has long banned imports of seal products, but the market for seal pelts in Europe provides an incentive for the sealers to take to the ice every spring to kill as many seals as they can. This year’s hunt, with over 300,000 seals slaughtered, was the largest killing of marine mammals in the world.
Whole Foods Market is the world’s leading retailer of natural and organic foods with 167 stores in North America and the United Kingdom. The company joins Legal Sea Foods, Downeast Seafood, and Spectrum Organics in the United States, and Marks and Spencer in the United Kingdom in taking steps to reduce or end their Canadian seafood sales. In support of the seals, Whole Foods Market has agreed not to sell seafood from the eastern part of Canada known as Atlantic Canada (Newfoundland, Prince Edward Island, and the Magdelan Islands).
“The Humane Society of the United States commends Whole Foods Market for taking this principled position in favor of ending the slaughter of baby seals,” said Wayne Pacelle, president and CEO of The HSUS. Pacelle added “Whole Foods Market’s action will send a strong message to Canada that consumers will not buy Canadian seafood while seals die.” As part of its commitment, Whole Foods Market will place signage and other information in each of their stores asking consumers to join the campaign.
Seventy percent of Canadian seafood is exported to the United States, producing $2.8 billion annually for the Canadian economy and making the industry a viable target for a boycott. The implementation last month of country-of-origin labeling for seafood products will make it easier for consumers to determine which products come from Canada. More than 100,000 individuals have already signed The HSUS boycott pledge on the web site, http://www.ProtectSeals.org, which also provides a downloadable pocket guide to the most common Canadian seafood products, such as snow crabs.
Sealing is an off-season activity conducted by commercial fishermen from Canada’s East Coast. Even in Newfoundland, where more than 90 percent of the sealers live, sealing income accounts for less than one percent of that province’s gross domestic and only two percent of the landed value of Newfoundland’s fishery. “The government of Canada clearly has an economic choice to make,” said Pacelle.
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