Dear Christina,
First, I'd like to thank you for your reply to my recent Bite-Back email about the sale of shark cartilage capsules in your stores. It shows a commitment to customer service and satisfaction.
What it doesn't do is show any level of commitment to the environment.
In fact your response reads as though Holland and Barrett has little or no grasp of the concept of sustainability. I make this assumption on the grounds that, previously, you sold shark cartilage from spiny dogfish... until they became threatened. Once listed as endangered, you moved supplies to the fiercely fished blue shark. You've suggest that you'll continue to sell shark cartilage from blue sharks 'until a time when it is listed as endangered'. Do you see a pattern emerging here? Does it not strike you that, all the time you continue to sell shark cartilage, you're contributing to the demise of an entire species?
According to the IUCN World Conservation Union, between 10-20 million blue sharks are slaughtered every year - making it the most heavily fished shark in the world.
Female blue sharks must reach five years old before they are sexually mature. Blue sharks have a gestation period of 12 months and give birth to live pups. Right now blue sharks are getting caught faster than they can reproduce - purely to keep up with consumer demand. That makes Holland and Barrett part of the problem.
It is time for Holland and Barrett to take responsibility for its actions and stop selling shark cartilage capsules. It is time for Holland and Barrett to acknowledge the contribution it is making to the trade in shark products and it is time for Holland and Barrett to take the moral high ground as a 'health food' store.
Failure to stop selling shark cartilage capsules can only been regarded as an endorsement of an underwater holocaust. Bite-Back will not allow that to happen.
Please respond to this email.
Yours sincerely
