CVS is supporting the plunder of Antarctica and one of the last unspoiled oceans on the planet.
The pharmacy giant is marketing and selling Antarctic krill oil as a health supplement -- vacuuming krill in vast quantities from the Antarctic oceans and pumping them into pills. It’s putting the entire Antarctic ecosystem at risk, and we can stop it.
Krill are tiny crustaceans (they look a lot like miniature shrimp), but they represent a giant link in the Antarctic food chain. A new SumOfUs report shows that krill numbers are crashing, endangering the survival of hundreds of marine creatures like whales, penguins and seals.
The only way these companies will stop is if there’s no market for Antarctic wildlife on our shelves. That’s why we’re targeting CVS -- if we can get this major retailer to refuse to sell krill-killing supplements, we can stop fishing companies from destroying the Antarctic.
Will you sign on and tell CVS to stop stocking Antarctic krill-based omega-3 health supplements and save one of the last unspoiled oceans on earth?
CVS stocks krill-based products by MegaRed and other companies, as well as selling its own, home brand krill oil. CVS claims that their krill products are sustainable, but the claim doesn't stand up to scrutiny. In fact, only some of its krill products are certified. And leading environment groups including Greenpeace and Pew Environment Group have long objected to the certification of krill fishing, saying that it "falsely advertises the message that all krill are sustainably caught and that consuming krill-based omega 3 supplements ... is okay. Nothing could be further from the truth."
The krill population is vital, but it’s depleting fast. Research shows krill populations have already dropped by 80 percent since the 1970s. What’s also shocking is that Antarctic penguin populations, which depend on krill for food, have collapsed by 50 percent in the last 30 years.
Krill are on the front lines of climate change -- melting sea ice is destroying their habitat, and ocean acidification could further harm them. And at the same time, krill also play a key role in slowing global warming, as they transport carbon dioxide from the surface to the deep water.
Yet krill fishing is a lucrative industry -- seafood companies use mammoth vessels equipped with new technology that literally vacuum the pristine Antarctic ocean, sucking up krill in massive volumes. It’s one of the last fish stocks that hasn’t been plundered to near extinction -- but it might not stay that way for long.
But it doesn’t have to be like this -- we can eat and protect our health without it being so costly to the Earth. Omega-3 health supplements can be produced from plant-based inputs or from fisheries that are sustainably harvested.
Fishing companies won’t stop pillaging the Antarctic unless we show them that there’s no longer demand for these products. Putting pressure on well-known retailers is the best way we can stop the depletion of the krill population. By disrupting demand and getting rid of this market, we can make retailers put the environment over profits.
At SumOfUs, we've done this before, and we've won. Last year we got retailers like Zara, ASOS, and Topshop to stop using angora fur from bunnies having their fur cruelly ripped out for clothes. And we’ve pushed major companies like Kellogg’s to stop destroying the rainforest to produce palm oil.
This is what we’re doing again -- targeting CVS, a public-facing corporation, so we can curb the demand for Antarctic krill, and stop the collapse of the entire Antarctic marine ecosystem.
Tell CVS to stop selling krill-based omega-3 health supplements now.
**********
More information:
Vacuuming Antarctica for Krill: The Corporations Plundering the Earth's Last Frontier, SumOfUs report
The pharmacy giant is marketing and selling Antarctic krill oil as a health supplement -- vacuuming krill in vast quantities from the Antarctic oceans and pumping them into pills. It’s putting the entire Antarctic ecosystem at risk, and we can stop it.
Krill are tiny crustaceans (they look a lot like miniature shrimp), but they represent a giant link in the Antarctic food chain. A new SumOfUs report shows that krill numbers are crashing, endangering the survival of hundreds of marine creatures like whales, penguins and seals.
The only way these companies will stop is if there’s no market for Antarctic wildlife on our shelves. That’s why we’re targeting CVS -- if we can get this major retailer to refuse to sell krill-killing supplements, we can stop fishing companies from destroying the Antarctic.
Will you sign on and tell CVS to stop stocking Antarctic krill-based omega-3 health supplements and save one of the last unspoiled oceans on earth?
CVS stocks krill-based products by MegaRed and other companies, as well as selling its own, home brand krill oil. CVS claims that their krill products are sustainable, but the claim doesn't stand up to scrutiny. In fact, only some of its krill products are certified. And leading environment groups including Greenpeace and Pew Environment Group have long objected to the certification of krill fishing, saying that it "falsely advertises the message that all krill are sustainably caught and that consuming krill-based omega 3 supplements ... is okay. Nothing could be further from the truth."
The krill population is vital, but it’s depleting fast. Research shows krill populations have already dropped by 80 percent since the 1970s. What’s also shocking is that Antarctic penguin populations, which depend on krill for food, have collapsed by 50 percent in the last 30 years.
Krill are on the front lines of climate change -- melting sea ice is destroying their habitat, and ocean acidification could further harm them. And at the same time, krill also play a key role in slowing global warming, as they transport carbon dioxide from the surface to the deep water.
Yet krill fishing is a lucrative industry -- seafood companies use mammoth vessels equipped with new technology that literally vacuum the pristine Antarctic ocean, sucking up krill in massive volumes. It’s one of the last fish stocks that hasn’t been plundered to near extinction -- but it might not stay that way for long.
But it doesn’t have to be like this -- we can eat and protect our health without it being so costly to the Earth. Omega-3 health supplements can be produced from plant-based inputs or from fisheries that are sustainably harvested.
Fishing companies won’t stop pillaging the Antarctic unless we show them that there’s no longer demand for these products. Putting pressure on well-known retailers is the best way we can stop the depletion of the krill population. By disrupting demand and getting rid of this market, we can make retailers put the environment over profits.
At SumOfUs, we've done this before, and we've won. Last year we got retailers like Zara, ASOS, and Topshop to stop using angora fur from bunnies having their fur cruelly ripped out for clothes. And we’ve pushed major companies like Kellogg’s to stop destroying the rainforest to produce palm oil.
This is what we’re doing again -- targeting CVS, a public-facing corporation, so we can curb the demand for Antarctic krill, and stop the collapse of the entire Antarctic marine ecosystem.
Tell CVS to stop selling krill-based omega-3 health supplements now.
**********
More information:
Vacuuming Antarctica for Krill: The Corporations Plundering the Earth's Last Frontier, SumOfUs report
