Food & Water Watch Exposes Kona Blue’s Claims of Sustainability

Food & Water Watch Exposes Kona Blue’s Claims of Sustainability

Washington, D.C. – Food & Water Watch, a national consumer advocacy group, today released a paper that rebutts the recent claims by Kona Blue Water Farms that the fish it raises are more sustainable than wild fish. The consumer group’s paper enumerates the problems with the Hawaii-based aquaculture operation’s methods and debunks the claims that its Kona Kampachi fish are sixty times as “efficient” as wild fish.

Kona Blue is the producer of Kona Kampachi, a variety of Pacific yellowtail. The company has promoted its fish as sustainable and marketed it to exclusive restaurants across the United States. However, Food & Water Watch findings indicate that the company has been greenwashing its product. The fish farm is actually located in a sensitive ecological zone and feeds their fish a diet including chicken by-products, among other concerns. These findings come on the heels of public opposition to the farm by native Hawaiian groups for environmental reasons and for failing to consider native Hawaiian traditions and culture.

Key findings:

• Kona’s document relies on unpublished data for its calculations.
• Kona’s document does not fully disclose information about what its fish are fed.  
• The document’s methods are unclear, leaving doubt about calculations and the interpretation of data.

To read the full rebuttal, please visit http://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/press/releases/Kona.pdf. For more information or to speak with one of our experts on aquaculture issues, please contact Marianne Cufone or Erica Schuetz at (202) 683-2500.