December 3, 2010
For Greeks, fish can be a huge part of everyday life. It is an integral part of many Greeks’ diets, and few people here can imagine the summer without regular visits to fish taverns and many of us have a personal relationship with the fish sellers in our neighbourhoods.
The pattern of fish consumption has been changing in the past few years. The populations of fish in Greek waters has been steadily decreasing, therefore making seafood more and more expensive. Greek consumers are now having to to turn to cheaper, imported frozen fish sold in supermarkets. Sales of frozen fish in supermarkets are rising quickly- especially in recent years, making supermarket chains an important player in the Greek seafood market and a key step to ensuring that our oceans will be able to provide fish for future generations..
For the average Greek consumer, what lies behind seafood counters has been a mystery. Where does that fish fillet come from? How was that shrimp taken from the ocean? Not many people knew those answers, at least not until Greenpeace launched the ocean markets campaign in Greece yesterday. Many of the most popular species sold in supermarkets were “red-listed”: swordfish, cod, hake, red fish, salmon, prawns and sole. Red-listed seafood are species commonly found in supermarkets that are likely to have been sourced using destructive fishing methods- such as bottom trawling or species that are at risk of depletion due to overfishing. To make matters worse, most of the Greek supermarkets that Greenpeace contacted on their seafood procurement policies had none or very little information on the seafood that they sell.
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