On Sunday, four Chinese environmental NGOs publicly raised their objections to JD.com, one of the country’s largest e-commerce platforms, after the company advertised that it would introduce “top-class” southern bluefin tuna to its online store.

A popular ingredient in sushi and sashimi, southern bluefin tuna has been classified as critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature since 1996, while other varieties of bluefin tuna are vulnerable or endangered. The organization estimates that if overfishing continues, the species’ population will shrink to fewer than 500 in the next century. The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) — a new strategic partner of JD.com — has also advocated for the protection of bluefin tuna in the past, with posters of the fish that say, “Would you care more if I was a panda?”

The four Chinese NGOs wrote an open letter to the WWF, asking for action and a public response. “As an environmental protection organization, [the WWF] should not only improve the company’s public image, but also urge them to fulfill their social responsibilities. Otherwise, the WWF only lends the corporation a green hat,” said the open letter penned by Qinghuan Volunteer Service Center, China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation, Shanghai Daorong Nature Conservation and Sustainable Development Center, and Lingshan Charity Foundation.

On the same day, the WWF published an article about bluefin tuna on its official account on Chinese messaging app WeChat. Titled “To Bluefin Tuna, Say No for Love,” the article cited a scientific report stating that the population of the species is too low for fishing, trading, and consumption, regardless of whether the tuna are wild or bred. However, the article did not mention JD.com or the open letter.

On Monday, JD.com also sent a press release to news outlets saying that it would stop sales of bluefin tuna in its self-operated online store beginning Monday and clarified that its stock was imported from fish farms in Australia. As of Tuesday, no bluefin tuna of any type were listed on the company’s store; however, third-party vendors on the platform still carry the product, including one store that had partnered with JD.com in importing southern bluefin tuna. The WWF then also posted an article on bluefin tuna that mentioned JD.com had removed the product from its own shelves.

“Though JD has obeyed all laws and regulations in importing and selling farmed bluefin tuna, as a responsible corporation, we should hold ourselves to higher standards for environmental protection and sustainable development,” the company said in an official statement to Sixth Tone’s sister publication, The Paper.

Dai Xiaojie, a professor from Shanghai Ocean University, explained in an interview with The Paper that though JD.com’s actions are legal, the captive farming method used by the company’s Australian suppliers is not sustainable. Rather than breeding the slow-growing tuna, the farms catch small, immature fish in their natural habitat and then raise them in marine farms until they reach a size suitable for sale. “These captured and fed fish don’t go back into natural cycle of reproduction,” said Dai, “so it affects the species population.”

Meanwhile, other major e-commerce sites in China, including third-party vendors on Alibaba-owned marketplace Taobao, still sell the fish. In 2015, Jack Ma, Alibaba’s founder, launched the company’s Nov. 11 shopping event — an annual online shopping bonanza similar to Black Friday in the West — by buying a 68-kilogram Pacific bluefin tuna fresh from Japan — at a price of 38,888 yuan ($5,700).

Wang Jing, a promotions staff member at the China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation, one of the four NGOs behind the letter, was pleased to see JD.com’s prompt response but pushed the company to take a stronger stand. “We suggest that JD, as a shopping platform, could further shoulder the responsibility of monitoring and management, urging vendors to take these products off their shelves, and encouraging consumers to avoid eating [bluefin tuna],” she told Sixth Tone on Tuesday.

Editor: Qian Jinghua.

(Header image: A bluefin tuna is displayed at a seafood market in Shanghai, Sept. 3, 2014. Zhong Fubao/VCG)