BLOOM : ‘The giant retail group “Les Mousquetaires” (owner of Intermarché, Netto, Bricomarché brands etc.) announced earlier today[1] that its fishing fleet, “Scapêche”, an important player in deep-sea fishing in Europe, will progressively phase out fishing for deep-sea species, as well as the sale of deep-sea fish in its supermarkets by 2025. The group also announced stopping the MSC ecolabeling certifying scheme that the Intermarché fleet had started for its deep-sea fisheries and that BLOOM had harshly denounced in 2015.
This shift from deep-sea bottom trawling towards sustainable fishing practices is referred to as the “Sustainable Fishing 2025” objective and was developed in cooperation with BLOOM via the consulting firm “Deloitte Sustainable Development”. It will require a 50 million euro investment to implement. The 180-degree overhaul of the group’s fishing strategy follows the arrival of a new management team within “Les Mousquetaires” who are willing to tackle major environmental issues.
The spectacular turnaround of the Intermarché fleet is also the direct result of a massive citizen mobilization in 2013 and 2014 against deep-sea bottom trawling: close to 900,000 citizens then signed BLOOM’s petition against this destructive fishing method, a record in the history of environmental mobilisations in France.’ Click here to read more