The seafood trade publication IntraFish recently published a story on the decision by a number of UK grocery stores not to participate in the Marine Conservation Society’s (MCS), an environmental activist group based out of the United Kingdom, “Supermarket Seafood Survey.” MCS tells IntraFish that retailers who opt out of the survey “are keeping consumers in the dark when it comes to choosing sustainable seafood.”

Unfortunately, IntraFish didn’t ask why some of the UK’s biggest and most successful grocery stores, including notable companies such as Tesco, Asda, Lidl, Spar and Budgen, are refusing to have any part of these surveys. But it certainly fits with what we are seeing on the other side of the pond, where U.S. grocers are refusing to be measured by bogus, non scientific survey results from activists with ulterior motives.   We believe more and more companies are seeing past the threats and realizing there is simply no upside to participating in reports like Greenpeace’s alarmist “Carting Off the Oceans” (CATO) report, which lack transparency and are methodologically suspect.  In fact, we know that some large retail brands have learned the hard way that cooperating with activist extremists doesn’t insulate them from continued attacks; it only invites more aggressive demands for future concessions.

Thankfully, the seafood industry is beginning to realize that for Greenpeace and other activists, the point of these stunt surveys isn’t to advance sustainability, but to drum up publicity—and donations.