June 26, 2014 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries: The U.S. Commerce Department today announced the appointment of 22 new and returning members to the eight regional fishery management councils that partner with NOAA’s Fisheries Service to manage ocean fish stocks. The new and reappointed council members begin their three-year terms on August 11. Click here to read the full announcement.
Whale Watching Trip Turns into Successful International Whale Rescue
June 26, 2014 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:
When nearly 200 people set sail on a whale watch from Bar Harbor, Maine, they never expected to be party to a whale rescue. Yet, that is exactly what happened on a sunny afternoon in early June. Click here to find out what happened!
La. Sen. Landrieu commits $3 million to enforce anti-dumping duties on imported shrimp, seafood
SEAFOODNEWS.COM by Michael Ramsingh — June 26, 2014 — Louisiana's Democratic Senator Mary Landrieu has directed $3 million be used to collect anti-dumping duties from overseas seafood seafood exporters, specifically mentioning shrimp and crawfish exporters.
Sen. Landrieu is the Chair of the Senate Appropriations Homeland Security Subcommittee and is using funds that are part of the Department's 2015 budget.
The directive will require Customs and Border Protection to work with the Commerce, Justice and Treasury departments to increase the collection of anti-dumping and countervailing duty fees from certain seafood exporters.
The Senator said the directive will target shrimp and crawfish meat exports, but will also include other seafood products from overseas suppliers. Landrieu's announcement was praised by the Southern Shrimp Alliance's Director John Williams.
Back in April key US shrimp suppliers Vietnam, India and Thailand were hit with increased anti-dumping duties during the Commerce Department's eight period of review. The estimated impact to importers was in the realm of $35 million.
However, previous attempts to levy CVD fines on overseas exporters including India, Thailand and Ecuador were tossed out last September by the US International Trade Commission.
The following story originally appeared on seafoodnews.com, a subscription site. It has been reprinted with permission.
New England council hears positive report on performance of Scallop IFQ’s
SEAFOODNEWS.COM [SCOM] — June 26, 2014 — A small portion of the scallop quota is allocated to the 'general category', which are generally small day boats and are quite different than the large scallop fleet based in New Bedford and elsewhere in the Mid-Atlantic. In 2010, NMFS and the Council adopted an IFQ program for this subsector, to allow for leasing and control effort.
At the recent council meeting, a full evaluation of the program was presented, that suggested it has been a success in meeting management objectives, and increasing revenue to harvesters.
The report, drafted at the direction of the New England Fishery Management Council to monitor trends associated with IFQ management, was presented at the meeting late last week in Portland, ME.
NEFMC Chairman Terry Stockwell commented, “It is important to determine whether the Council met its management goals or not and is aware of the impacts of its programs following implementation. ”
Some of the conclusions made during the evaluation performed by the Council’s Plan Development Team were as follows:
-The IFQ program was effective at controlling fishing mortality in addition to preventing overfishing. This was accomplished through the use of an overall Total Allowable Catch for this segment of the fishery equivalent to five percent of the total projected scallop catch. While total catch has not been exceeded since the program’s implementation, the fleet has also managed to take about 90-95 percent of their annual catch limit.
-In general, ITQs add flexibility for participants and overall economic performance was positive as demonstrated by inflation-adjusted increases in estimates of total scallop revenues (by 48 percent) and net revenues (by 54 percent) between 2010 and 2012.
-Some active owners either permanently or temporarily purchased quota to increase the size of their businesses, while other owners with relatively smaller allocations leased out or sold their quota to active owners. Overall effort consolidated from 154 active vessels in 2010 to 129 in 2012, and from 127 owners in 2010 to 107 in 2012. Total leased pounds reached about one third of the total IFQ during 2010-2012; lease prices increased from $1.79 per pound in 2010 to $2.44 in 2012; and the average price of transferred quota (sales of quota) increased from $13.2 to $23.4 per pound in the same period (a 77 % increase).
-Estimated crew employment declined by close to 4 percent, although the shares for individual crew members were estimated to have increased by 51 percent as gross scallop revenues rose.
-Documented safety and enforcement issues were relatively rare, although the information examined was limited and concerns remain about monitoring and enforcement.
A number of important caveats were associated with the above conclusions. The report noted that while revenues increased, a number of the gains were associated with external circumstances, such as favorable scallop resource conditions and a rise in ex-vessel prices at the same time. The absolute values estimated should be interpreted with caution since the net revenues did not include the cost of borrowing for leased or transferred quota, and the estimates for profits were based assumptions about fixed costs and how vessels share the cost of leased quota between the vessel owner and crew.
The following story originally appeared on seafoodnews.com, a subscription site. It has been reprinted with permission.
NEW JERSEY: Seismic survey critics seek to rally opposition
June 25, 2014 — Critics of scientists’ plans to study the deep ocean floor off New Jersey using seismic airguns say they will rally on Wednesday in Barnegat Light, seeking to organize opposition among the Long Beach Island summer resorts, after federal ocean regulators turned down New Jersey’s request to review the imminent project.
The group Clean Ocean Action and its allies in the fishing industry say they worry the loud underwater booming of airguns — generating sonic waves that penetrate deep sediments in the ocean bottom — will disrupt the movements and behavior of fish and marine mammals like porpoises and whales.
On Tuesday, Clean Ocean Action director Cynthia Zipf said she had learned the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration had turned down a review request from the state Department of Environmental Protection. Under the state’s Coastal Zone Management Act, the DEP had claimed a right to review the plan by researchers from Rutgers University, the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University, and the University of Texas.
But that bid was turned down by NOAA as not being timely, said Larry Ragonese, a DEP spokesman.
“We’ll be appealing immediately,” Ragonese said. “This time of year is prime time for our fishing industry.”
Read the full story from the Asbury Park Press
New Jersey seafood competition in Barnegat Light hopes to make waves
June 25, 2014 — For the fourth year in a row, eight seafood chefs from around New Jersey will get the chance to compete for the title of the state’s top seafood chef.
The Jersey Seafood Challenge will be held on June 26 at Viking Village, in Barnegat Light. The competition, which is sponsored by the New Jersey Department of Agriculture, will determine which chef will advance to represent New Jersey at the Great American Seafood Cook-off in New Orleans this August.
“We’ve held the competition with the idea that the winner will represent the state at the national cook-off,” said Lynne Richmond of the state Department of Agriulture. “We’re really looking forward to the competition and seeing [the chefs] compete against each other.”
Although New Jersey has an abundance of seafood eateries and chefs that cater them, only chefs who have met specific criteria can compete. According to Richmond, competitors must be residents of the state and work in seafood resturants or establishments that are located in New Jersey.
In addition, the materials that these chefs use must be certified Jersey Fresh, meaning that the ingredients used must be from New Jersey farms, and fish or other seafood from fisheries or waterways in the state.
Texas retailers back group opposed to reallocating red snapper quotas away from commercial industry
SEAFOODNEWS.COM by Michael Ramsingh — June 26, 2014 — The Texas Retailers Association has backed a coalition of Gulf seafood industry advocates that opposes a Council proposal that would permanently shift a large portion of sustainably-caught Gulf of Mexico red snapper out of the consumer market.
The Association has joined Share the Gulf-Texas, a group working to make sure the management of our Gulf fisheries remains fair and sustainable. The coalition said both the recreational and commercial industries are important to the Texas economy and that if managed well, our fisheries can provide enough for everyone to enjoy the resource.
But the coalition disagrees with a recent decision by the Gulf Fishery Management Council that would reallocate a portion of the commercial red snapper quota to the recreational sector–a position Texas retailers support.
“We believe this proposal will hurt Texas’ seafood providers and its economy while doing nothing to help the recreational fishery,” said Ronnie Volkening, President & CEO of the Texas Retailers Association. “Recreational fishermen deserve better than this false promise and the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council should work with fishermen who are at the table to explore new management policies for anglers that can actually extend sustainable fishing seasons.”
The proposal, called “Amendment 28”, would take nearly half a million pounds of sustainably-caught red snapper off the consumer market next year and severely restrict future increases in favor of allocating more to the recreational fishery. The fishery is currently split nearly 50/50 between recreational and commercial fishermen.
“We are proud of have the Texas Retailers Association as a part of Share the Gulf and hope that our fishery leaders see, like TRA has, that this issue effects more than just fishermen,” said Bubba Cochrane, commercial fishermen from Galveston, Texas and Share the Gulf co-chair. “Whether you enjoy buying red snapper at your grocery store, at a restaurant or enjoy catching it yourself, this proposal will hurt you.”
Analysis of the proposal shows that under current management conditions this shift could only add a day (at most) to next year’s recreational season and limited increases in subsequent. The Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council will meet in Key West, Florida this week and is expected to consider taking allocation changes out of the proposal.
“Recreational and commercial fishing are tremendous industries in Texas, representing millions of dollars and thousands of jobs. We believe that it is possible to establish and maintain sound fisheries management policies that work for both groups,” said Volkening.
This story originally appeared on SeafoodNews.com, a subscription site. It is reprinted with permission.
Sharks Could Be the Future of the Seafood Industry
June 25, 2014 — Over the weekend, footage surfaced of a peckish great white shark’s close encounter with some friends on a small fishing boat off the coast of Cape May, New Jersey. The video is chilling in an almost Freudian way, dredging up the real life filmic monster that left generations of moviegoers scared shitless at the prospect of swimming in the pool let alone the fucking ocean.
But for some, this rare encounter didn’t come as a surprise. Earlier this month, reports trickled in with news that Julia, a great white shark fitted with an acoustic tag, had arrived on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Detected first on June 13th, off of Chatham, Julia is likely the first great white to the cape this year. It’s also likely that she won’t be the last.
In a comforting report published this month in the journal PLOS ONE, scientists from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) concluded that great white numbers are surging in the oceans the Eastern US and Canada after decades of decline. This is thanks to conservation efforts, like a 1997 federal act banning the hunting of them. If frolicking with a few more great whites than usual makes you squeamish, you’ll be happy to hear that they aren’t the only species of shark that are plentiful in the chilly waters of the Atlantic these days, either.
But surging numbers beg the question of overpopulation, and, as humans, it is our duty, of course, to regulate ecosystems as we see fit. Sometimes, this means asserting our position in the food chain. Don’t grab your harpoon yet, though; great whites are still out of bounds. But all along the northeastern coast and scattered throughout the country, there is a burgeoning movement promoting the domestic consumption of certain shark species, and it’s growing in popularity.
Oyster shortage forces Louisiana’s iconic P&J Oyster Company to import product for first time
NEW ORLEANS — June 26, 2014 – For the first time in its 100-year-plus history, one of New Orleans' biggest oyster dealers has resorted to importing oysters to subsidize demand for the shellfish delicacy, which in recent years, dealers say, has become hard to harvest in the northern Gulf of Mexico.
Al Sunseri, co-owner of P&J Oyster Company in the French Quarter and a member of the Louisiana Oyster Task Force, said Tuesday that his company has shucked and sold fresh Louisiana oysters for more than 130 years.
In his 35 years with the company, he said he's never seen anything like today's market.
"We're shucking a 10th of the oysters that we used to shuck," Sunseri said. "It's not even in the ballpark, and there are months that go by where we don't have any product to shuck."
He was in his office, a few blocks from where restaurant owners and seafood industry leaders held a news conference promoting an expanding program to recycle oyster shells in an effort to rebuild oyster seeding areas and help fight coastal erosion.
Sunseri said his company handled up to 25,000 oysters a day before the BP oil spill in 2010 and now only shucks a few thousand a day — some days not any.
He rarely has enough product for what was once a thriving retail, shipping and grocery business, he said.
Read the full story at the Sun Herald
Thai officials say it’s business as usual for seafood exports following U.S. TIP downgrade
THAILAND — June 26, 2014 — Thailand is still shipping seafood to the United States and Europe as normal despite the recent accusations of slave labour, according to the Commerce Ministry's survey of trading partners and Thai exporters.
"Importers are still ordering Thai fishery products as usual. Exports to the US and the European Union should not be affected by the problem," Srirat Rastapana, permanent secretary of the Commerce Ministry, said yesterday.
However, the Thai fishery industry needs to fix its image soon, as it could make sales abroad difficult and factor into consumers' decision-making in the future, analysts warn.
Thai trade officials in the US and EU markets have reported that Thai shipments to the US have not yet slowed down after Washington downgraded Thailand in its human-trafficking report because most importers and consumers still have high confidence in Thai fishery firms, which have done business with them for many years.
Japan is the largest market for Thai fishery exports so far this year, taking 27.1 per cent of total exports by value. In the first four months, the US accounted for 17.1 per cent, the EU for 13 per cent, mainland China 6.1 per cent, Vietnam 5.2 per cent, South Korea 5.1 per cent, Hong Kong 3.9 per cent and Canada 2.8 per cent.
The labour issue just recently popped up. The Commerce Ministry will closely monitor the impact in the long run as initially it has only had a psychological impact on customers. The government and fishery-related industries need to prove to the public urgently that Thailand has high concern for labour problems and strongly opposes forced labour, Srirat said.
Fishery exports this year should grow as normal, except for only shrimp exports, which will decline as the disease outbreak in hatcheries has not been clearly solved.
Seafood exports, including shrimp, dropped 12.2 per cent in the first four months to US$1.99 billion (Bt64.6 billion). Seafood exports make up 2.7 per cent of the country's total export value.
Poj Aramwattananont, president of the Thai Frozen Foods Association, said seafood traders had tried to sell products to various markets and reduce the dependency on giant markets like the US and EU for many years, as emerging economies proliferate. Sales to the US and EU would not affect Thai seafood growth.
Read the full article at The Nation