Boycott des produits de la mer canadiens...

[Animal 0]

Top U.S. eateries join Canadian seafood boycott
Ottawa says Humane Society is interfering in affairs of another country


CanWest News Service


Thursday, August 04, 2005

Some of the best restaurants in the United States say they will no longer saute
Canadian seafood because of the controversial seal hunt.

The prominent eateries joining the boycott, organized by the Humane Society of
the United States, include New York's Tavern on the Green, the highest-grossing
restaurant in the U.S. The others are Esca, Town and Butter, of New York; RM
Seafood, a leading seafood restaurant in Las Vegas; Fifth Floor of San
Francisco, and Bed of New York and Miami.

Bed restaurants are innovative and well-known known celebrity hot spots. They
join Legal Sea Foods, Down East Seafood, Whole Foods Markets, Wild Oats Markets,
Original Fish, Kimpton Hotels and Restaurants, and Spectrum Organics in the
U.S., and Marks and Spencer in Britain in taking steps to reduce or end their
Canadian seafood sales.

"This was not a terribly difficult decision for Tavern on the Green to support
because Canadian seafood had not been a big part of our purveying mix to begin
with, but we were happy to pledge not to buy any in the future to support the
cause," spokesperson Shelley Clark said.

Seventy per cent of Canadian seafood is exported to the U.S., producing $2.8
billion annually for the Canadian economy.

The HSUS claims more than 300,000 seal pups were killed this past year alone,
making the hunt the largest killing of marine mammals in the world.

Canadian sealers and the Department of Fisheries and Oceans have accused the
American organization of interfering in the affairs of another country and
promoting a boycott based on inaccurate information.

Phil Jenkins, a spokesperson for the DFO, said Red Lobster was only one example
of a chain of restaurants that, after meeting with the government and hearing
the facts, decided not join the boycott.

Ottawa Citizen

The Gazette (Montreal) 2005