Campaigners are calling on high street retailers to stop stocking health products containing krill that have been caught in the pristine waters of the Antarctic.
The Guardian reported earlier this month on the threat industrial krill fishing poses to animals like penguins, whales and seals.
Last week one of the UK’s biggest health retailers, Holland and Barrett, agreed to remove krill-based products like Omega 3 supplements from its shelves. Now campaigners are calling on other high street stores, including Boots, to follow suit.
Louisa Casson, of Greenpeace UK’s Protect the Antarctic campaign, said: “Boots’s stated mission is to be the UK’s most socially responsible retailer in the health and beauty market. But the question has to be asked, how can customers trust Boots when it’s profiting from a fishing industry which is threatening the health of Antarctic wildlife like penguins, seals and whales?”
A Boots spokeswoman said “caring for the environment” had always been an integral part of its brand.
She added: “The Marine Stewardship Council has stated that its krill products come from a certified fishery that is subject to yearly checks by independent inspectors. We are committed to traceability and transparency and support the continued collection of data to support the up-to-date understanding of the krill stock.”
She said the company was engaging with NGOs, including the Marine Stewardship Council, to ensure that the krill population remains sustainable, adding: “We welcome a conversation with Greenpeace on how we further our common objective of delivering sustainable oceans.”
Last month the Guardian reported how researchers and environmental campaigners feared a combination of climate change and industrial-scale fishing was threatening the krill population in Antarctic waters, with a potentially disastrous impact on larger predators – particularly penguins, whose numbers could drop by a third by the end of the century, according to one study.
In a sign of the growing opposition to krill fishing in the Antarctic, Greenpeace protesters last week climbed onto a Ukrainian krill trawler, occupying a survival pod which they attached to the anchor chain of the ship and rolling out a banner reading Protect the Antarctic.
Last week Holland and Barrett Holland bowed to pressure from Greenpeace and agreed to remove krill products from its shelves. Activists had bombarded its CEO with 40,000 emails in 24 hours and labelled krill products with stickers about their impact on the environment in stores across the country.
