The Danish Maersk Company, the world’s largest container-shipping firm, has included in its environment policy to not carry red-listed seafood species.
Species threatened by overfishing that Maersk is now refusing to transport include sharks, orange roughy (Hoplostethus atlanticus) and Chilean sea bass (Patagonian toothfish).
The move was recently praised by the Green Party and Greenpeace in New Zealand, who added that many restaurants, supermarkets and other shippers worldwide should follow suit.
“Greenpeace is demanding that the shipping and airline industries end their participation in oceans destruction and stop transporting unsustainable seafood. The urgent next step must be a commitment by companies to refuse to ship the most visible of all overfished species, bluefin tuna, and other species on Greenpeace’s seafood red list,” said Greenpeace-New Zealand oceans campaigner Karli Thomas.
Maersk, with a fleet of more than 500 vessels and a number of containers corresponding to more than 1.9 million TEU (“Twenty foot Equivalent Unit”, equalling one 20-foot container), introduced its new sustainable seafood policy at the Seafood Exposition in Brussels in late April. At the occasion, Maersk contended that container freights are comparably eco-efficient, exemplifying that transporting salmon from Norway to Korea in a Maersk reefer container emits 25 times less carbon monoxide than moving it by air.