Washington Post food writer Ylan Mui reported in her blog today that Giant Food will stop selling shark, orange roughy and Chilean sea bass until the species' populations rebound.
The Landover, Md.-based retailer, with about 184 stores in Maryland, Virginia, Delaware, and Washington, D.C., will begin selling the more environmentally friendly longline Pacific cod instead.
The company's seafood buyers are also ranking their purchases on how plentiful the species is, how it is caught and what effect fishing has on its natural habitat, reported Mui.
Ahold USA, which operates the Giant Food, Giant Food Stores and Stop & Shop supermarket chains in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast, pledged to sell only sustainable seafood when it endorsed the Conservation Alliance for Seafood Solutions, a coalition of 14 U.S. and Canadian conservation organizations formed in May to help companies develop and implement sustainable seafood purchasing policies.
In addition to Ahold USA, Compass Group North America and Plitt Co. support the "Common Vision for Environmentally Sustainable Seafood," which identifies six actions companies can take to ensure the seafood they buy is sustainable.
