Thai environmentalists call on shopping malls to stop parrotfish sale

BANGKOK, July 24 (TNA) - A group of environmentalists, under the umbrella of "Reef Guardians Thailand", has continued campaigning more department stores and supermarkets nationwide to stop selling parrotfish, after three malls have already complied with the request for the sake of sustainable ecological balance. Since the Reef Guardian Thailand group kicked off the campaign recently, through a website, [www.change.org/saveparrotfish], to urge executives of large-scale shopping malls, including Tesco Lotus, Macro, Central, The Mall and Villa Market, to take out parrotfish from their sale shelves, 17,000 people have voted to support the campaign, prompting Tesco Lotus, Central and Macro to have first stopped selling the fish. Reef Guardian of Thailand's advisor and academic on ecology, Phet Manopawit, told reporters on Thursday that his group will carry on the campaign and if the two remaining stores still refused to comply with the request, his group would submit them the list of people who support the campaign to pressure them to show social responsibility. Phet said his group would then expand its campaign to large seafood stores, as the declining parrotfish plays an important role to conserve and balance the marine ecological system by helping protect coral reefs. (TNA)