Saving Seafood

International & Trade

Chinese government quietly heeding NGO advice by trying to rein in provincial distant-water fleets

February 7, 2025 — China has become more receptive to advice and pressure from international NGOs on illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing matters, according to Hang Zhou, a professor at Montreal, Quebec, Canada-based University of Laval.

Zhou, who has a postdoctoral background in fisheries research and has collaborated both with wildlife conservation groups and Chinese international diplomacy groups, told SeafoodSource that international NGOs in the fisheries sector “have [direct] channels of communication and interaction with Chinese line ministries and research institutes.”

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Global seafood collaboration updates sustainability data, human rights analysis tool

January 28, 2025 –Amid a seafood sustainability landscape that features several databases, regulations, and benchmarks to measure progress, it can be difficult for retailers, fishers, and other players up and down the seafood supply chain to find consistent data on sustainability and align their processes accordingly.

Aiming to alleviate that issue, the Certification and Ratings Collaboration – a collaboration between some of the world’s most prominent seafood certification programs, including the Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC), Marine Stewardship Council, Fair Trade USA, and Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch Program – recently released an updated version of its data tool.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Canada announces plans for new British Columbia salmon hatchery

December 23, 2024 — The Canadian government has announced plans for the construction of a new Pacific Salmon hatchery in the province of British Columbia, which will be run collaboratively by the Tŝilhqot’in National Government and Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO).

“Canada is investing today to support the conservation and restoration of vulnerable Pacific salmon populations, such as Chilcotin Chinook, for the long term,” Minister of Fisheries, Oceans, and the Canadian Coast Guard Diane Lebouthillier said in a statement. “Under the Pacific Salmon Strategy Initiative, we are partnering with Indigenous Peoples, governments, stakeholders, and communities to ensure that Pacific salmon are safeguarded for Indigenous communities and Canadians with a deep and enduring connection to these iconic fish.”

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Newfoundland aquaculture industry pushing back against proposed marine protected area

December 17, 2024 — The Newfoundland Aquaculture Industry Association (NAIA) and Cooke Inc. CEO Glenn Cooke are pushing back against a proposal for a new marine protected area (MPA) they both say will negatively impact the aquaculture and fisheries industries in the Canadian province.

Canada’s federal government has proposed a new National Marine Conservation Area (NMCA) for the South Coast Fjords area, located on the southwest coast of the island of Newfoundland. The study for the new NMCA covers 9,112 square kilometers, and the feasibility of the project is currently being assessed by the government.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

IUCN report questions China’s fish conservation, management efforts to revive domestic stocks

December 12, 2024 — A new report from the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has highlighted China’s weak efforts to revive fish stocks in its own waters, suggesting a need for China to implement more stringent controls on its fleet’s landings and collect better data to effectively measure the impacts of those controls.

Titled “Unselective, unsustainable, and unmonitored trawl fisheries?” the report states that efforts made in the past decade by China to replenish fish stocks in its domestic waters, such as scrapping vessels and instituting annual moratoriums on fishing in the East and South China seas, have not been enforced strongly enough to combat dwindling fish populations.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

First-of-its-kind crew welfare measure adopted at Pacific fisheries summit

December 11, 2024 — Working on fishing vessels has for centuries been one of the most dangerous jobs in the world. To this day, forced labor and other human rights abuses remain relatively common, with workers from low-income countries especially at risk. But new regulations in the Western Pacific Ocean could make it harder for ship operators to get away with abuses, and could catalyze change in other regions.

The Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC), a multilateral body that sets fishing rules for an area that covers nearly 20% of Earth’s surface and produces half the world’s tuna catch, adopted a landmark crew welfare measure at its recent annual meeting, which took place in Fiji from Nov. 28 to Dec. 3. It’s the first binding labor rights measure adopted by any of the world’s 17 regional fisheries management organizations (RFMOs).

The measure is a “step forward for human rights at sea,” Bubba Cook, a program manager at WWF-New Zealand who has advocated for the measure for years, told Mongabay.

“There is no question this is a … mast light for other RFMOs as we chart a course into the future,” Cook said at the meeting’s final plenary, according to a statement he shared with Mongabay. “With this important step, we have acknowledged the humanity of those crew working in challenging conditions around the world to bring seafood to our tables.”

On a personal level, Cook said the measure’s adoption was a “hugely emotional moment” that brought him to tears because a friend of his who disappeared while working in the fishing industry had advocated for human rights at sea and because of the positive impact he said he expects the new rules will have.

The annual meeting otherwise produced what NGO observers described as mixed results. The WCPFC parties adopted a voluntary measure to implement electronic monitoring of catches. This could help with data collection and rule enforcement, particularly on longliner fishing vessels, which have very low rates of catch monitoring by human observers in the Western Pacific.

However, the parties didn’t adopt another measure largely aimed at longliners: a tightening of rules meant to curb potentially dodgy ship-to-ship transfers known as transshipments. Nor did they adopt substantive new protections for sharks and seabirds, and they took no action to open up a key compliance meeting to NGO observers or improve governance more generally, drawing criticism from transparency advocates.

Read the full article at Mongabay

NGOs push ICCAT to continue progress on management procedures, overfishing after recent meeting

December 5, 2024 — The International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) made progress on harvest strategies and its management of fish aggregating devices (FADs) in the Atlantic Ocean, while NGOs are pushing for it to continue that progress going forward.

At its recent meeting from 11 to 18 November, ICCAT adopted a new management procedure for Atlantic swordfish and Atlantic skipjack, adding to the commission’s existing strategy for Atlantic bluefin, drawing praise from organizations like The Pew Charitable Trusts and the International Seafood Sustainability Foundation (ISSF).

Read the full story at SeafoodSource

 

Potential US tariffs, poor domestic demand have Chinese seafood firms turning toward Southeast Asia

December 2, 2024 — Facing dwindling domestic demand and potential new tariffs in the U.S., some Chinese seafood firms have begun to cast their attention toward Southeast Asia.

Guangdon, China-based Guolian Aquatic and Guangdong Evergreen – a conglomerate which produces and processes fish, shrimp, and aquafeed, – have targeted Indonesia as a location that may be able to offer more consistently lucrative business.

Read the full story at SeafoodSource

Cooke Acquires Copeinca

November 29, 2024 — The following was released by Cooke Aquaculture Inc:

November 26, 2024 -Cooke Inc. (“Cooke”) of New Brunswick, Canada, today announced the completion of its acquisition of Corporación Pesquera Inca S.A.C. (“Copeinca”) of Peru.

This follows the Cooke announcement of November 7 disclosing that Copeinca Canada Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Cooke, and PF Cayman New Holdco Limited, as seller, had executed a binding share purchase agreement pursuant to which Cooke agreed to indirectly acquire all the outstanding shares of Copeinca.
 
Copeinca was established in 1994 and has grown to become Peru’s largest fishing company, one of Peru’s largest anchoveta processors and one of the world’s largest anchoveta fishmeal and fish oil producers and exporters.
 
With its corporate global headquarters in Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada, the Cooke family of companies now operates global aquaculture and wild fishery divisions in 15 countries with more than 15,000 employees providing a sustainable seafood source reaching tables all over the world. 
 
Cooke’s core purpose is to ‘cultivate the ocean with care, nourish the world, provide for our families, and build stronger communities’.
 
“We’re excited to welcome Copeinca’s dedicated employees to the Cooke family of companies,” said Glenn Cooke, CEO of Cooke. “Copeinca will be a major contributor in furthering Cooke’s growth as a leader in strengthening global food security.”
 
With the completed acquisition, Cooke further strengthens its growing marine ingredients business and diversifies its geographic and species portfolio.
 
Cooke entered the marine ingredients sector in 2017 with its acquisition of US-based Omega Protein Corporation, a nutritional product company and a leading integrated provider of specialty oils and specialty protein products.
 
The terms of the transaction have not been disclosed.

‘Momentous’ sustainable fishing rules adopted for Atlantic Ocean swordfish

November 26, 2024 — In the late 1990s, swordfish had been so overfished in the North Atlantic Ocean that its population faced the possibility of collapse. The dire situation sparked boycotts and conservation campaigns in honor of the highly migratory species, a predator that can move at nearly the speed of a cheetah and slash at prey with the long, flat bill that gives it its name. Managers set a quota and a minimum catch size to protect juveniles, the stock began to recover and it was declared rebuilt in 2013. And now, with a landmark move made Nov. 18, that recovery appears secure.

The International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT), which manages a wide range of fish stocks across the entire Atlantic Ocean and adjacent seas, adopted a “harvest strategy” for swordfish (Xiphias gladius) during its annual meeting, held in Cyprus Nov. 11-18.

Government representatives and conservationists hailed the move, which sets up largely automatic science-based fisheries management decisions for the long term. The harvest strategy, which is designed to be resilient to climate change effects, had been in the works for years, but its adoption wasn’t guaranteed until the final gavel fell, with all parties in consensus.

“To get this across the finish line was a big success,” Esther Wozniak, an international fisheries manager at the Philadelphia-based think tank Pew Charitable Trusts, told Mongabay. Pew had long advocated for the development of a swordfish harvest strategy.

Shana Miller, a project director at the Washington, D.C.-based Ocean Foundation who also worked on the harvest strategy, told Mongabay that its adoption was a “momentous step forward for ICCAT” and would “lock in sustainability” for the highly sought-after species.

The adoption of the swordfish harvest strategy was a high point of the weeklong meeting that conservationists said brought mixed results. ICCAT parties showed a strong commitment to developing harvest strategies for a number of other species, came to an agreement on managing tropical tuna after years of wrangling and passed measures to fight illegal fishing and improve the safety of observers who document catches on fishing vessels. However, the tuna agreement came with certain concessions to industry that could contribute to overfishing. Experts also said the meeting went badly for shark conservation efforts, notably because a measure to stop shark finning was not adopted.

Read the full article at Mongabay