In the Winter 2001 issue of the AWI Quarterly, we noted the conservation horror surrounding the fishing for Patagonian toothfish, sold commercially as "Chilean sea bass." The campaign is paying off. Whole Foods and Wild Oats markets have already stopped selling Chilean sea bass.

Illegal fishing for toothfish in the Southern Ocean is hazardous not only for the fish themselves, but for other wildlife in and around the waters. According to The Antarctica Project, "It is common practice in the illegal fishery to dynamite the [Sperm and Killer] whales when they are discovered in the area where the fishing takes place" and "...hundreds of thousands of endangered albatrosses and petrels dive for the [fish] bait and become hooked and drowned."

You can help this embattled fish species and the other magnificent imperiled species that share the toothfish's ocean home by urging your supermarket not to carry Chilean sea bass.