WAITROSE has today announced that it will become the first supermarket to convert all its fresh and smoked cod and haddock to being line caught.

This latest move marks the completion of a seven year project for Waitrose, and is described by the company as "another giant step in the supermarket’s ethical approach to sourcing". In 1999 the supermarket took the decision to stop selling North Sea cod and haddock due to concerns over declining stocks, and instead switched to sourcing from sustainable fisheries in Iceland. Now the retailer says it is building on this commitment even further through the completion of this switch in its sourcing methods.

Waitrose now stocks the largest range of line caught fish on the high street and already has plans to further increase this range later in the year. The highly selective fishing method uses baited hooks instead of trawled nets.

Waitrose says it has long been committed to increasing the sustainability of fish stocks, working in this area for over ten years. The supermarket was the first retailer to stop selling fresh, wild Atlantic salmon in 1996, and has since removed a variety of other fish from sale due to similar concerns over fishing methods or sustainability, the latest of these being orange roughy.

Recent years have also seen the supermarket stop selling marlin, wild Atlantic salmon, blue fin tuna, sturgeon products, shark, ling, dogfish, Chilean sea bass, Atlantic Halibut and some species of skate due to similar concerns.

The supermarket - which has recently been praised by both the Marine Conservation Society (MCS) and Greenpeace – says it also works hard to increase customer awareness of sustainability issues. This includes providing an informative set of fish information pages on Waitrose.com/farming and providing customer information leaflets in its branches.

Jeremy Langley, fish buyer at Waitrose, said: "Our customers are increasingly considering how their food is sourced – and they want the assurance that the fish on our counters is caught in the most responsible way possible.

"The switch to line caught cod and haddock marks yet another milestone in our work on responsible fishing, which we hope others in the industry will follow."

The moves outlined today follows the announcement two weeks ago that Waitrose and its supplier Aquascot are working closely with the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) and the Soil Association to attain full organic and sustainable certification for its farmed organic salmon feed.

Says Langley: "The supply of fully sustainable feed is one of the biggest challenges facing the aquaculture industry as a whole. Approximately half the fish sold in Waitrose is sourced from farms, so we have a vested interest in working on a project such as this, that further develops the sustainable aquaculture industry and works for its success in the long term."

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