Saving Seafood

Enforcement

Coast Guard Commandant: Illegal Chinese Fishing a ‘National Security Challenge’ That Warrants U.S. Response

February 27, 2020 — The “Great Power Competition” with Russia and China isn’t limited to winning allies in geostrategic flash points or sailing through contested areas to promote freedom of the seas, according to the commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard.

Near-peer adversaries “are actively exploiting other nations’ natural resources, including fish stocks. In many cases [they are] challenging the sovereignty of smaller or less-developed nations,” Adm. Karl Schultz said in his annual State of the Coast Guard address, live-streamed Feb. 20 from Charleston, South Carolina.

Schultz identified China, which has the world’s largest distant water fishing fleet, as “one of the worst predatory fishing offenders,” engaging in Illegal, unreported, unregulated fishing (IUU). The problem goes beyond conservation and sustainability, he said — “This is a national security challenge warranting a clear response.”

An essential protein source for more than 40% the world’s population, fish stocks are critical to the sovereignty and economic security of many nations. The most conservative estimates put the annual loss to the global economy from IUU fishing at more than $23 billion.

Read the full story at Seapower

Oversight of fishing vessels lacking, new analysis shows

February 19, 2020 — Policies regulating fishing in international waters do not sufficiently protect officials who monitor illegal fishing, the prohibited dumping of equipment, or human trafficking or other human rights abuses, finds a new analysis by a team of environmental researchers.

“These fisheries observers risk their lives to watch over industrial fishing activities, and yet they are often not afforded sufficient legal safeguards,” says Jennifer Jacquet, an associate professor in New York University’s Department of Environmental Studies and a co-author of the study. “If we are serious about protecting ocean life, we must first put policies in place to protect fisheries observers.”

The analysis, co-authored with the nonprofit Greenpeace and the Association of Professional Observers, appears in the journal Marine Policy.

There are an estimated 2,500 observers globally, and in recent years many have been subject to human rights and safety violations, including intimidation, assault, and even murder or disappearance under suspicious circumstances. The researchers add that since 2010, at least seven fisheries observers have disappeared while monitoring fisheries under the authority of Regional Fisheries Management Organizations (RFMOs). Notably, very little information is available regarding the circumstances.

Read the full story at Science Daily

They filleted their fish at sea. That’s against the law, Coast Guard says

February 7, 2020 — The U.S. Coast Guard stopped a sport fishing boat off Key Largo Monday and found several conservation violations, including the importation of queen conch, the harvest of which has been illegal in Florida since the 1980s, according to the agency.

A boarding party from the Cutter Charles David, Jr. pulled over the vessel, the Salt Shaker II, about 13 miles southeast of Key Largo and found 10 fillets of snapper and grouper, and 26 fillets of wahoo “in illegal carcass condition,” according to the Coast Guard, meaning the fish were filleted at sea.

Officer Bobby Dube, a spokesman with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, said any fish that has a legal bag limit, meaning anglers can only keep a certain amount, must be brought back to shore whole.

Read the full story at the Miami Herald

Roughly 1,400 pounds of shark fins seized in Florida

February 4, 2020 — Inspectors with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced on Monday they had seized roughly 1,400 pounds of shark fins hidden in boxes in Florida last month.

The agency said the shipment of severed fins arrived on Jan. 24 at Miami Port of Entry in roughly 18 boxes. They were believed to have come from South America and likely bound for Asia.

Officials estimated the total value of the fins to be worth between $700,000 and $1 million. They waited until Monday to share the news outside of law enforcement.

“The goal of this seizure is to protect these species while deterring trackers from using U.S. ports as viable routes in the illegal shark fin trade,” said Christina Meister, a spokeswoman for the Fish and Wildlife Service, according to the Miami Herald.

Read the full story at Fox News

Researchers are now fighting marine poaching with GPS-equipped sea birds

January 31, 2020 — Illegal fishing is one of the biggest threats to oceans today, responsible for roughly 20 percent of the global seafood catch, according to estimates by Pew Charitable Trusts. It devastates marine ecosystems and causes billions in economic damage, injuring and killing untold dolphins, sea birds and turtles, and pushing some species to near-extinction.

Marine poaching is so widespread, in part, because it’s fiendishly difficult to locate illegal vessels in the vast expanses of sea. But a team of researchers from France, New Zealand and the United Kingdom recently discovered a novel way for pinpointing the exact locations of such ships. And in a bit of poetic justice, the method relies on one of the animals at the greatest risk of harm from illegal fishing: the albatross.

Every year, thousands of albatross are inadvertently killed by legal and illegal fishing vessels. The massive birds are particularly vulnerable to longline fishing, which involves dragging thousands of baited hooks behind a boat. Albatross and other birds attempt to eat the bait and get caught on the hook and dragged underwater, drowning in the process.

Read the full story at The Washington Post

US Customs and Border Protection seizes 3,400 pounds of invasive mitten crabs

January 27, 2020 — U.S. Customs and Border Protection has seized 3,700 live mitten crabs – sent under false manifests – shipped from China and Hong Kong to individuals and businesses in the United States over the past four months.

The crabs were sent in 51 separate shipments through the port of Cincinnati, Ohio, U.S.A., and weighed in at around 3,400 pounds, according to a CBP press release. Mitten crab is considered to be an invasive species that can have a “disastrous impact on native habitats,” according to CBP.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Florida Man Sentenced for Killing Endangered Sawfish

January 24, 2020 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

Chad Ponce, a 38-year old commercial fishermen, is facing 2 years probation, 80 hours of community service and a $2,000 fine for killing an endangered smalltooth sawfish. A judge determined this sentence on December 19, 2019, after a joint investigation by NOAA Fisheries and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) confirmed Ponce used a power saw to cut the rostrum (saw or bill) off of the live fish before discarding its body back into the ocean.

The St. John’s County Sheriff’s Office and FWC received a tip reporting the capture and gross mishandling of a large (12-14 foot) smalltooth sawfish off the coast of Ponte Vedra, Florida, on July 18, 2018. The sawfish was incidentally caught in one of Ponce’s commercial shrimp trawl nets earlier that day.

Upon retrieval of the net Ponce, captain of the Triton II, first attempted to use a hacksaw on the rostrum, but witnesses report he tossed that saw into the ocean when it didn’t work. Ponce then used a power saw to cut the rostrum off the live animal. Another fisherman in a vessel adjacent to the trawler witnessed the incident and reported it to FWC’s Report Sawfish for Science Hotline.  

This hotline is typically used to document sightings and incidental captures by recreational anglers of sawfish for the purpose of monitoring the population. The report was passed on to NOAA, which oversees the conservation of species listed under the Endangered Species Act.

NOAA and FWC opened an investigation into the alleged violation. FWC sent an officer offshore to the location of the Triton II on the day of the report. DNA evidence connecting Ponce to the crime was gathered in the course of the investigation.

Read the full release here

Big Brother is watching at Global Fishing Watch

January 2, 2020 — In 2016, the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation joined with Google, Oceana and Environmental Defense, and other funding partners to create a mapping and data platform called, Global Fishing Watch. The system currently tracks over 65,000 fishing vessels worldwide. In November 2019, the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) released the “Global Atlas of AIS-based Fishing Activity,” utilizing the data.

“With the data Global Fishing Watch provides, governments, fishery management organizations, researchers and the fishing industry can work together to rebuild fisheries and protect critical marine habitats,” De Caprio says, on the GFW website. It appears the FAO agrees.

Global Fishing Watch uses AIS and other tracking systems, such as government run vessels monitoring systems to follow the activities of large fishing vessels in near real time, and the UN is using that data in its report. At the start, the technology was intended to help nations to stop illegal fishing off their coasts, assist in certification of sustainably harvested seafood, and keep vessels out of marine protected areas.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

NOAA: Rafael’s misreported fish ‘disappeared’ at Whaling City auction

December 10, 2019 — A NOAA official has charged that if federal officials were not watching when Carlos Rafael offloaded fish at the Whaling City Display Auction, the catch simply “disappeared.”

“If there was no observer on the boat, no dockside monitor, no state environmental police, no NOAA law enforcement officer, the fish would just simply disappear,” NOAA Special Agent Troy Audyatis said, “Thousands upon thousands of fish would simply disappear.”

Audyatis made the charge at a Dec. 3 meeting of the New England Fisheries Management Council while making the presentation “Catching the Codfather,” and said the New Bedford display auction was the location where Rafael offloaded much of the thousands of pounds of fish that were either under or misreported.

“Any given day fish would just disappear. There’s fish that he sold [that] he didn’t report having available for sale to NOAA and he didn’t buy from a third party, but yet he sold thousands of pounds of fish that day,” Audyatis said.

If fishing boat owners don’t report their catch to NOAA (the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration), there is no way for the federal government to know how much of a given species is in the ocean. Federal regulations designed to save fish stocks are dependent on knowing how much of a species is present.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times