Giant United States supermarket chain Safeway has used Antarctic toothfish as a sacrificial lamb to improve its environmental image, a Nelson seafood industry executive said today.
Safeway has announced it won't buy or sell toothfish and that it wants the entire Ross Sea designated a marine reserve.
However, New Zealand Longline spokesman Ross Tocker said Safeway was unknown to the company as a toothfish stockist. It hadn't been highly regarded for its purchasing record, and he thought it was "throwing toothfish under the truck".
This was an American expression used when a business sacrificed something that wasn't worth much, to make it look good, he said.
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