July 22, 2015 — The record rains that hit San Antonio and South Texas this past spring are starting to have an effect on the brown shrimp season.
July 22, 2015 — The record rains that hit San Antonio and South Texas this past spring are starting to have an effect on the brown shrimp season.
SEAFOODNEWS.COM by Michael Ramsingh – July 22, 2015 — Mounting evidence that the 2015-16 scallop harvest in the US is on pace to fall short of expectations, along with lower availability of imported product, has put upward pressure on the US market this summer.
In June US scallop landings out of the Mid-Atlantic were down 13 percent from the same time last year and 36 percent from the five-year-average. Since fishing started in March, US scallopers have hauled in 13.26 million pounds; down 20 percent from this time last year and 44 percent from the five-year-average.
Source: Urner Barry
These figures are counter to some industry expectations that predicted this fishing season’s domestic scallop harvest to range between 41 and 47 million pounds; at least 36 percent over last season’s haul.
Though US scallop boats will continue to fish through February of next year, landings historically tend to decline steadily into the summer and fall, before ultimately bottoming out by the fourth quarter of the year.
“The real numbers do not meet the expectations of what has been printed, discussed, and provided to the industry. The catch will most likely be millions less than anticipated if the catch rate per day continues on the current path,” said Eastern Fisheries’ Commodity Sales Manager Rob Rizzo back in April.
Meanwhile, US scallop imports haven’t fared any better with YTD shipments through May down 33 percent to 21.2 million pounds; over a 10 million pound drop-off compared to this time in 2014.
Major declines from China and Peru have largely been behind the fall in scallop imports. Shipments from China are down 47 percent, with Peruvian imports 67 percent short of last year’s levels. Higher Chinese scallop demand has contributed to the more limited shipments to the US market. In Peru, shipments are down due to production issues with the harvest.
Shipments from Japan–the second largest scallop supplier to the US–are down over 5 percent. Japanese production appears to be in position to dive over the next several months according to a report published last week. Processors in Hokkaido reported more limited access to raw materials from a bout of storms that stirred up farming operations.
“The survey showed that 93.2 percent of the processors in the region underwent impact in one way or another,” the report said. “Asked about the specific contents of the impact, 72.8 percent replied that they saw decrease in production and shipment volume while 63.1 percent said buy orders and sales declined. “
Altogether, there is less scallop supply in US inventories this year, which has started to put upward pressure on the markets. In trading this week, average Urner Barry prices for Dry IFQ 20/30 ct Domestic Sea Scallops shot up 4.5 percent to $12.50 per pound.
“Market prices for domestic products have responded sharp and swift to lower than anticipated landings and stronger auction prices,” reported Urner Barry Seafood Market Jim Kenny in the July 21 Seafood Price Current.
Since historical data suggests the US scallop harvest is likely to fall well under 2015-16 season estimates; and with imported scallop supplies more limited from a year ago, this week’s bump up in wholesale domestic scallop prices from supply concerns is well in line with typical market behavior. What remains to be seen is if this upward pressure will continue to push up the market in the weeks and months ahead.
This story originally appeared on Seafood.com, a subscription site. It is reprinted with permission.
July 16, 2015 — Federal plans to expand observer coverage on lobster boats from Maine to Maryland may have a hit a lull, but they are not going away, especially for lobstermen who hold both state lobster and federal access permits, according to the NOAA Fisheries official that oversees the program.
Amy Martins, manager of the Northeast Fisheries Observer Program, said Wednesday the number of calls to lobstermen to schedule observer trips have declined substantially in the past month primarily because of concerns lobstermen expressed at a contentious June 4 meeting at NOAA Fisheries’ regional headquarters in Gloucester.
“We heard concerns from the lobstermen that our observer program was calling too frequently and that we were perhaps overly aggressive,” Martins said. “We’ve also done quite a bit of work since that meeting that has allowed us to zone in a little more clearly on the specific parts of the fishery we want to monitor, the fleet-within-the-fleet, so to speak.”
July 13, 2015 — SEABROOK, N.H. — Groundfishermen monitored by a federal agency will soon have to pay roughly $700 for their own at-sea monitors, a cost they say is “one more nail in the coffin” to put them out of business.
The announcement comes at a time when the commercial and recreational groundfishing industry is struggling because of what they feel are strict federal regulations.
“The day I really have to pay for this is the day I stop going fishing,” said David Goethel, a commercial fisherman from Hampton.
“With the at-sea monitoring heaped upon fishermen, it very well could be the tipping point for many vessels, many permit holders,” said Dr. David Pierce, acting director of the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fishery.
At-sea monitors keep track of how vessels are doing with meeting their groundfishing allocations set by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the federal agency that sets regulations. The allocations are in place to keep groundfish stocks from going too low. Groundfish refer to species like cod, haddock and flounder which live at or near the bottom of the ocean.
The daily cost for each vessel’s at-sea monitor will likely be near $710, a figure based on what NOAA paid in fiscal year 2015 to run the monitor program, according to Teri Frady, spokesperson for NOAA’s Northeast Fisheries Science Center. However, Frady said each region of fishermen, divided into “sectors,” will make its own agreement for cost with federally approved providers of monitors.
“We expect that industry funding for (at-sea monitoring) will be necessary in August,” NOAA Northeast Regional Administrator John Bullard said in a June 5 letter to state directors, including those in New Hampshire.
Read the full story at Seacoastonline.com
July 14, 2015 — The booming $170 billion aquaculture industry could face a shortfall of fish meal and fish oil for feed as early as 2016, and demand could outpace fish meal supply by up to 16 MMT (Million Metric Tons) in 2025. The mismatch will hasten the opportunities for alternative sources of feed such as plant proteins, algae and even insects, according to Lux Research.
Fish meal and fish oil are the lifeblood of the aquaculture feed industry, and demand is growing at 8% annually. The demand for fish meal will nearly double by 2025, creating a need for over one million tons of alternative high-protein meal.
“The future of fish feed is a blend of alternatives — no single source will dominate as fish meal has,” said Sara Olson, Lux Research Analyst and lead author of the report titled, “Tightening Fish Meal Supply Creates Opportunities for Aquaculture Feed Alternatives.”
SEAFOODNEWS.COM by Michael Ramsingh — July 13, 2015 –In our ongoing video series about seafood sustainability, Resiliensea CEO Phil Gibson discusses some of the pitfalls retailers have encountered in trying to navigate the alphabet soup of certification standards available to them.
According Gibson, a former group director for Safeway’s seafood department, both retail seafood buyers and general consumers are confused about the unique benefits each certifying body brings to the table.
Gibson adds that a program agreeing to one set of guidelines would be good for the industry to develop a singular voice when it comes to educating retailers and consumers about what it means to certify a seafood product as sustainably fished resource.
Watch the video from SeafoodNews on YouTube here
This story originally appeared on SeafoodNews.com, a subscription site. It has been reprinted with permission.
July 8, 2015 — The threat from a large toxic algae bloom, which settled off the B.C. coast in May, has abated, according to scientists.
The Pacific Ocean bloom had sparked concern along the coast from California all the way to Alaska.
Though the situation in B.C. waters wasn’t as bad as further south, the bloom was serious enough to cause shellfish closures. At the time, researchers were concerned that shellfish and other marine life, including razor clams, crabs, hake and West Coast sardines, could have elevated levels of domoic acid, a neurotoxin that causes amnesic shellfish poisoning.
Read the full story at the CBC
July 9, 2015 — Finding the right fish to eat is hard when you’re looking for something sustainable. Unfortunately, it’s not as easy as deciding between farmed or wild, imported or domestic, or fresh or frozen. When it comes to seafood, sustainability means considering the long-term viability of the species’ populations, the environmental impacts of farming or catching, and the livelihoods of the people doing the work—not something that can be summed up in one sentence or less.
Variety can be a major hurdle in countries like the US, where consumers rely heavily on just three kinds of fish, much of which is imported: shrimp, canned tuna, and salmon.
July 7, 2015 — London-based Yo! Sushi is hoping to make it big in the U.S.
Yo! Sushi, which has 87 units, mostly in the United Kingdom, is in the early stages of its U.S. expansion, with locations in New Jersey and Florida, another three in the works, and plans to take its fast-casual restaurants up and down the East Coast.
“I think if Brits are ready for sushi, Americans are definitely ready,” said Alison Vickers, Yo! Sushi director of development.
Yo! Sushi is aware of those challenges. But it also noted chains have found success recently, such as South African concept Nando’s Peri-Peri, and fellow British chain Pret A Manger.
“But it is the best restaurant market in the world,” Vickers said of the U.S. “We’ve had luck with the first locations. We’ve done a lot of research.”
Research has focused on the market for sushi, an increasingly popular item in the U.S., particularly with younger consumers. Sushi is now ubiquitous, available everywhere from grocery store kiosks to upscale restaurants. But Yo! Sushi aims to fill what it sees as a hole in the U.S. market.
Read the full story at Nation’s Restaurant News
July 8, 2015 — There was a time when dogfish was all the rage and local fishermen couldn’t reel them in fast enough for connoisseurs as far as away as England, Italy and Germany.
The smooth and spiny sharks were a delicacy in England, where they was called chipfish – the “fish” in fish and chips.
Then came the 1990s, when the dogfish supply in the Eastern Atlantic got frightfully low.
“We needed to be regulated because we were catching 20,000 pounds a boat per day, and lots of people were doing it,” said Spot MacDonald of Spots Fish Co., on Lynnhaven Inlet. “They shut it down overnight.”
That shutdown came from the National Marine Fisheries Service out of fear of a population collapse.
Now the fish is back. The Fisheries Service is allowing limited commercial and full-scale recreational fishing. But this time around, the industry isn’t that interested.
“They’re getting 14 cents a pound for them, and I’m getting 28 cents by the processors up in New England,” MacDonald said. “Who’s going to put much of an effort into that?”
Read the full story at the Virginian-Pilot