Food and wine retailer, Booths, which has stores in Garstang and Longridge, has decided to stop selling dredged scallops on its fresh fish counters and is sourcing only hand-dived British scallops from The Ethical Shellfish Company, an award winning Hebridean dive-fishing company with a strict fishing and environmental ethos.
The North West based retailer, which has 29 food, wine and grocery stores, is renowned for its sustainable stance on retailing, and is the first and only UK supermarket to map its carbon footprint, and make this information publicly available. The Ethical Shellfish Company is a family run business owned by husband and wife team, Guy and Juliet Grieve, on the Isle of Mull. Working as a diver, Guy was shocked to see the damage being caused to the seabed by intensive fishing methods such as dredging and bottom trawling. He resolved to set up a fishing company which only supports sustainable methods of fishing.
Chris Dee, responsible for buying decisions at Booths, said; “It’s simply the right thing to do if our customers are to continue to buy a range of high quality fish and seafood from our counters.”
“The hand-dived scallops are more succulent and better quality, and while they are more expensive, we feel our customers will support our decision and enjoy a more sustainable scallop of superior quality.”
