June 20, 2024 — Canada will ban open-net salmon farms off the coast of British Columbia by the middle of 2029 in order to help protect dwindling wild Pacific salmon populations, the federal government said on Wednesday.
June 19, 2024 — The leaders of the Group of Seven (G7) nations, which met in Apulia, Italy, from 13 to 15 June, have issued a lengthy “Communiqué” that includes criticism of Russia’s seafood-trading practices.
The statement covers topics ranging from fostering partnerships in African countries to committing to support Ukraine in its war against Russia.
June 8, 2024 — The Chinese distant-water fishing fleet is a formidable force. For one thing, it’s the largest in the world, with at least 2,500 vessels — but likely many more. These vessels, many of which are propped up by government subsidies, are present in all of the world’s major oceans and countless coastal areas. The fleet’s sheer size and geographical span means it takes a sizeable volume of marine fish out of the sea: an estimated 4 million metric tons yearly.
Experts say the Chinese distant-water fleet also participates in a disproportionate amount of illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing and exploitative practices such as shark finning and human rights violations. Previous reporting on these issues has usually focused on parts of the world such as the coastal waters of West Africa, or around the exclusive economic zones (EEZs) of Latin American countries like Ecuador and Argentina, where the Chinese distant-water fleet has drawn attention and stirred controversy. However, a recent report by the Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF), a U.K.-based nonprofit organization, highlights the illegal and unsustainable activities of the Chinese distant-water fleet in the Southwest Indian Ocean, a global hotspot for marine biodiversity and home to commercially important tuna species like yellowfin (Thunnus albacares), skipjack (Katsuwonus pelamis) and bigeye (Thunnus obesus).
Published in April, the EJF report draws primarily from crew testimonials to paint a grim picture of the Chinese distant-water fleet behaving badly in the seas off the coast of East Africa. They describe illegal shark-finning operations, with crew cutting the fins off dozens of sharks every night before throwing the still-living bodies overboard; captains ordering crew to kill dolphins and false killer whales (Pseudorca crassidens) so they can collect their teeth and jaws; North Korean workers kept on vessels indefinitely, unable to go home even after completing multiyear contracts; and sick crew members forced to work until they collapse and die
The report authors say the Chinese distant-water fleet’s behaviors pose a “serious threat to the sustainability of global fisheries and the wellbeing of fishers, and the millions of people who rely on the ocean for their livelihoods” and also undermine “good governance and the rule of national laws and international regulation in fisheries.” The authors also shine a light on China’s substantial investment in the blue economy in the Southwest Indian Ocean region, including the building of ports and fisheries infrastructure, which they say may make “heavily indebted countries … feel obligated to allow Chinese business ventures to access [marine] resources,” to the detriment of the environment and local communities.
May 28, 2024 — The U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) has unveiled its preliminary determinations on antidumping duties for Ecuador and Indonesia, with most companies in Ecuador facing an additional charge of over 10 percent.
The DOC launched the investigation in November 2023 in response to trade petitions filed by the American Shrimp Processors Association (ASPA), targeting India and Vietnam with countervailing duties and Ecuador and Indonesia with both countervailing and antidumping duties.
May 22, 2024 — The Indian Ocean Tuna Commission (IOTC) recently concluded its 28th session, with the commission adding new measures to the management of fish aggregating devices (FADs) but, once again, failing to adopt any improvements to curtail yellowfin tuna fishing.
The meeting – which ran from 13 to 17 May in Bangkok, Thailand – resulted in the IOTC adopting a new management measure for FADs covering a number of different best practices. NGOs like the International Seafood Sustainability Foundation (ISSF) and the World Wide Fund for Nature have called for more rules regarding the devices, especially after the commission failed to reach any agreement on drifting FADs (dFADs) in 2023.
May 15, 2024 — Vietnam is aiming to have a modern, sustainable fishing industry, in line with those countries who already have a developed fishing sector across the region and to make it align with world fishing operations by 2050.
It is one of the targets set in a plan for aquatic resources protection and exploitation for the period 2021-30, which has been approved by Deputy Prime Minister Trần Lưu Quang.
Under that plan, marine biodiversity and inland waterways will be preserved and developed to safeguard all material and spiritual improvements; ensure social security; protect sovereignty, security and to protect the national interests across Vietnam’s rivers and seas.
The target is a sustainable and responsible fishery sector in keeping with international integration requirements.
Fisheries exploitation will unite to protect the environment, adapting to climate change and proactively prevent and combat natural disasters.
The goal is for 27 marine protected areas to be set and operated over a total area of about 463,587ha, accounting for about 0.463 per cent of the nation’s waterways.
As many as 149 sea areas and 19 inland areas will be zoned to protect aquatic resources and young aquatic animals, while Vietnam aims to set a maximum total number of fishing vessels to about 83,600.
There will also be a strong focus on recovering aquatic resources, especially economically valuable species; endangered, precious and rare ones.
May 14, 2024 — The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) is pushing for a revision to a 15-year-old determination that child labor is prevalent in Thailand’s shrimp sector.
Thai shrimp were added to the DOL’s annual “List of Goods Produced by Child Labor or Forced Labor” since 2009, which requires importers to go through a series of additional checks to ensure forced or indentured child labor was not employed to produce any shrimp they buy from Thailand.
May 13, 2024 — As the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission (IOTC) meets in Bangkok, Thailand, for its 28th session taking place 13 to 18 May, multiple industry groups and NGOs are urging the commission to tackle overfishing of yellowfin tuna.
The IOTC has been pressured to reduce the total allowable catch for yellowfin tuna for years, and at its 2023 meeting, the committee again failed to reach an agreement on skipjack or yellowfin tuna quotas, or on drifting fish aggregate devices (dFADs). The failure brought heavy criticism from multiple groups, and was in spite of a resolution in June 2021 to rebuild the yellowfin tuna stock.
April 30, 2024 — Companies implicated in illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing can have a serious impact on the economies, job opportunities and overall welfare of the developing countries in whose waters they operate, according to a recent report from London-based global affairs think tank the ODI.
The report, released Feb. 16, used consolidated fisheries and satellite data to gauge the economic damage done by fishing fleets with shady track records in five vulnerable countries: Ecuador, Ghana, Peru, the Philippines, and Senegal. It found that these companies’ fishing activities could be costing the five countries 0.26% of their combined GDP, leaving 30,174 people jobless and pushing 142,192 individuals deeper into poverty than they otherwise would be.
“In this report, we wanted to make a business case for sustainable fishing to show that it is in developing countries’ economic interests to have robust sustainable fishing policies,” Miren Gutierrez, study author and a professor of communication at the University of Deusto in Spain, told Mongabay. “This is crucial because the health of the oceans and the sustainability of fish stocks are directly linked to the activities of real companies and the people behind them.”
April 20, 2024 — Tensions in the Middle East continue to rise, leaving the global shipping sector in a state of uncertainty.
On 13 April, Iran seized control of a Portuguese-flagged container vessel, the MSC Aries, for “violating maritime laws,” according to a statement from Iran’s Foreign Ministry. The ship is partially owned by Israeli businessman Eyal Ofer, Reuters reported.