November 11, 2013 — A storm that brought high winds, high water and high surf caused flooding to communities along the coast of Western Alaska this weekend. At least two communities have made disaster declarations. Listen to the audio from Alaska Public Media
International Assessment Shows Again North Atlantic Swordfish Stock Rebuilt
October 31, 2013 — A new stock assessment conducted in September 2013 by the scientific committee of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) concluded that the stock of North Atlantic swordfish, a species caught by U.S. fishermen, remains rebuilt at a sustainable population level.
The assessment reaffirms that the goal of the Commission’s rebuilding program, set in 1999, was achieved and that the stock has continued to grow. The assessment also predicts that current levels of catch are likely to maintain the North Atlantic swordfish in a rebuilt condition into the future.
Read the full story from NOAA Fisheries
Gag Fishing Closing Soon in South Atlantic
November 12, 2013 — The commercial harvest of gag in federal waters of the South Atlantic from North Carolina to Key West, Florida, will be closed, effective 12:01 a.m. (local time), November 13, 2013, through the remainder of the January 1 to December 31, 2013, fishing year.
A seasonal closure is in place for gag from January 1 until May 1. Therefore, commercial harvest of gag will not reopen until May 1, 2014. The commercial annual catch limit for gag is 326,722 pounds.
The operator of a vessel that has been issued a federal commercial permit for snapper-grouper and is landing gag for sale, must have landed and bartered, traded, or sold such gag prior to 12:01 a.m., local time, November 13, 2013.
The prohibition on sale or purchase does not apply to sale or purchase of gag that were harvested, landed ashore, and sold prior to 12:01 a.m., local time, November 13, 2013, and were held in cold storage by a dealer or processor.
Read the full story at The Fish Site
Sen. Jay Rockefeller writes to NOAA in support of state laws banning sale of shark fins
WASHINGTON — November 12, 2013 — West Virginia Senator Jay Rockefeller, in a letter to NOAA Acting Administrator Kathryn Sullivan, has criticized a proposed rule from the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) that would invalidate several state laws banning the possession or sale of shark fins. According to Sen. Rockefeller, NMFS's proposal results from "interpreting the Shark Conservation Act in a way that is contrary to the intent of Congress."
The Act, passed in 2010 as an amendment to the Magunson-Stevens Act governing fisheries management, enhances federal efforts against illegal shark finning, a practice where a shark's fin is removed while the shark is returned to the ocean, either already dead or to die shortly thereafter. Shark fins are still allowed to legally be sold under this law, but only if the entire shark is landed as well. According to NMFS, efforts by states like Hawaii and California that would ban the sale of otherwise-legal shark fins is inconsistent with both the Shark Conservation Act and the Magnuson-Stevens Act, and would be preempted by federal law.
In his letter, Sen. Rockefeller counters that the state laws are consistent with the Magnuson-Stevens Act definitions of "conservation and management," particular in allowing for measures "which are required to rebuild, restore, or maintain, and which are useful in rebuilding, restoring, or maintaining, any fishery resource and the marine environment." According to Sen. Rockefeller, these laws meet that criteria because they "promote the return of sharks as a keystone species in ocean ecosystem." Sen. Rockefeller also argues that the Magnuson-Stevens Act does not prevent states from passing their own regulations governing their own waters, citing language stating "nothing in this Act shall be construed as extending or diminishing the jurisdiction or authority of any State within its boundaries." Because of this, Sen. Rockefeller states that NMFS should not allow the state anti-shark finning laws to be preempted by federal law.
Read the letter from Sen. Rockefeller here
Fewer dead or dying dolphins washing up in New York and New Jersey
November 8, 2013 — The number of dead or dying dolphins that have washed up on New Jersey beaches has dropped significantly in the past few weeks as colder water has led to the animals heading south for the winter.
However, researchers within the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration warn the number of deaths will continue to increase in southern states as the outbreak of dolphin morbillivirus is expected to travel with the migrating herds.
“That doesn’t mean New York and New Jersey won’t have strandings,” said Teri Rawls, director of NOAA Fisheries’ Marine Mammal Health and Stranding Response Program. “(The northern states) may continue to have strandings of offshore species and stragglers that stay behind.”
As of Friday, 143 dolphins have washed up dead or dying on New Jersey beaches since July 1.
Researchers also are examining whether the same virus preliminarily identified as the cause of more than 750 Atlantic bottlenose dolphin deaths since July is affecting humpback whales and pygmy sperm whales. So far this year, three of four humpback whales tested for the virus and two of three pygmy sperm whales tested for the virus had positive results.
Read the full story at the Press of Atlantic City
NEW YORK: Peconic Bay scallop season opens
November 8, 2013 — Peconic Bay scallops, Long Island's own sweet, nutty, briny mollusks, are here. According to Ken Homan, owner of Braun Seafood in Cutchogue, "the season opened on Monday and we're starting to see the first harvests."
In the coming weeks, restaurants and fish markets all over Long Island will be offering this delicacy. If you’re heading east for this weekend’s Taste North Fork festival, you can get a jump start.
At 18 Bay (23 N. Ferry Rd., Shelter Island, 631-749-0053), Adam Kopels and Elizabeth Ronzetti are making a crudo with sliced scallops and pickled pumpkin with rice wine vinegar, coriander and juniper, among other aromatic seasonings.
EUROPE: Pangasius is the seafood that nobody loves
November 11, 2013 — Although pangasius is a remarkable source of competitively priced, boneless, skinless, white fish fillets which consumers enjoy eating, many European importers are solely concerned about how little they can pay for it. In order to achieve ultra low prices they are asking for the fillets to be tumbled in polyphosphate solution and then glazed by up to 30 percent.
It is a throwback to the days — hoped to be long gone — when, for example, in order to gain certain contracts, U.K. scampi companies would soak tail pieces in polyphosphate overnight to absorb liquid, then mould them into tail shapes, before freezing, adding excessive glaze and double breading.
Unfortunately competitive Vietnamese pangasius processors/exporters agree to demands for low prices and force the farmers to acquiesce. Twice a year pangasius farmers have to harvest their fish as the water temperature changes with the seasons, which causes them to lose condition. Furthermore, once they have reached their optimum weight of about 2.5 kilograms (kg), it takes an increasing amount of food to keep them alive.
The processors know this and take advantage of the situation to offer prices so low that farmers desperate to harvest their fish accept, but then often don’t re-stock their ponds. It is estimated that 70 percent of independent pangasius farmers have stopped production during the past two years.
The farmers need a factory delivery price of VND 22,000 (USD 1, EUR 0.78) to VND 30,000 (USD 1.40, EUR 1.06) per kg in order to continue rearing fish. With a filleting yield of 30 percent and processing and packaging costs this equates to USD 3.00 (EUR 2.24) to USD 3.50 (EUR 2.61) per kg, yet many importers are buying fish at less than USD 3.00 per kg.
SPAIN: Omega 3 logo presented to value fishery products
November 11, 2013 — The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Environment (Magrama) promotes the creation of Omega 3 logo as a distinctive element and value of fishery products.
The purpose of this strategy is to offer greater visibility to the nutrition declaration "High Omega -3 fatty acid content" and "Source of Omega -3 fatty acids," aimed at the consumer's purchasing decision.
"It consists in establishing a distinctive differentiation of fishery products, facilitating the development of more effective generic promotional campaigns," explained the Minister Miguel Arias Cañete on presenting the initiative at the opening ceremony of the III Conference of the Fishery Product Quality.
In this framework, the minister stated that "the research should guide the responsible management of fisheries resources and the innovation must help grant technology improvements to fishing activities and product quality with lower costs."
Imports and Exports: How Safe is Seafood From Foreign Sources?
November 11, 2013 — There may be as many opinions about the safety of imported seafood as there are types of imported seafood. The American palate is currently limited to about 10 favored species, yet in other countries, edible kinds of seafood number in the dozens or perhaps hundreds.
Compared with our taste for meat and poultry, American consumers don’t eat that many seafood-based meals. Statistics from 2012 show that we consumed 14.6 pounds of seafood per capita in this country, compared to 80.4 pounds of chicken, 57.5 pounds of beef and 45.5 pounds of pork, and all those numbers have declined in recent years.
When we do eat seafood, occupying our plates most often will be, in order of popularity, shrimp, canned tuna, salmon, tilapia, Alaska pollock, Pangasius (a type of imported catfish), crab, cod, catfish and clams.
According to NOAA Fisheries FishWatch.gov, shrimp is the number-one seafood import to the U.S. market, with most of that product coming from Asia and Ecuador. Our imported salmon mainly comes from Canada, Norway and Chile; imported tilapia (often found in fish tacos) comes from China, Indonesia, Ecuador and Honduras; scallops come from China, Canada, Mexico, Japan, Argentina and Honduras; mussels from Canada, New Zealand and Chile; clams from Asia and Canada, and oysters from China, South Korea and Canada.
The dollar value of approximately 1,500 imported seafood products is more than $10.4 billion and constitutes a “large and growing annual seafood trade deficit,” FishWatch notes.
Perceived risks of imported seafood
Because 80-90 percent of the seafood we consume is imported (with about half of that farm-raised), those who eat it are exposed to whatever level of safety practices exist in the exporting country and onward. A chain of potential risk follows from the catch to the processing facility, to the ships, trains or trucks bringing the seafood here, and to subsequent handling of the product at stores, fish markets, restaurants and in-home kitchens.
Recent recalls of imported seafood and associated foodborne illness outbreaks have combined to raise concerns about how safe it is to consume. There are bacterial hazards such as Vibrio in raw oysters, as well as mercury in fish and adulterants in feed and other contamination tied to industrial pollution.
Recent imported seafood recalls have involved processed products such as smoked salmon, herring and other fish products from Asia and Africa for potential Listeria and Clostridium botulinum contamination and for inadequate processing.
Contaminants are a growing concern. A recent North Carolina study revealed that one-quarter of the seafood imported from Asia and available at retail outlets in that state had detectable levels of formaldehyde.
In China, several antibiotics have been found in farm-raised fish such as tilapia, including leuco-malachite green, which FDA banned for aquaculture use in 1983 because of “serious toxicity.” Three-quarters of the tilapia we eat in this country comes from China.
Changes loom for Maine elver fishery
November 11, 2013 — Maine’s lucrative elver fishery is facing some big changes, including smaller catch quotas and a new swipe-card monitoring system that state officials hope will help manage the resource while reducing the poaching of baby eels that fetched up to $2,000 a pound last season.
Both changes follow the state’s promise to the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission last month that it will find ways to reduce the 2014 harvest between 25 percent and 40 percent. In the background is a recently uncovered welfare and tax fraud investigation that specifically targets elver fishermen, many of whom are members of the Passamaquoddy Tribe. Records obtained by the Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram show that the investigation is scheduled to conclude at the end of January, about two months before the next season.
State officials have refused to comment on the fraud initiative, which involves three state agencies reviewing catch records and tax filings from 2010 to 2013 to determine whether any elver fishermen who received welfare benefits have failed to report income. It’s unclear what motivated the special investigation or how much money the state is devoting to the initiative.
A spokesman for the Passamaquoddys worried recently that the initiative specifically targeted his tribe, but was generally supportive of the investigation. Representatives for the tribe have not returned calls seeking comment since the Maine Sunday Telegram published the story Nov. 3. State officials have also declined to comment, citing advice from Office of the Attorney General not to discuss an investigative matter.
Tensions between the Passamaquoddys and the state have been simmering since last year, when the tribe cited its sovereign nation status and issued 575 licenses, far more than the 433 that the state certified. The industry is bracing for another clash between the tribe and state officials, who in April sent wardens and police officers to Pembroke to seize fishing nets and equipment from Passamaquoddy fishermen whose licenses weren’t certified with the state.
The conflict abated after the administration of Gov. Paul LePage and tribal leaders agreed to enter negotiations at the end of the 76-day season.
However, a long-term settlement hasn’t been reached and the Passamaquoddys still believe that their plan to manage the elver fishery is sufficient, a signal that tensions could reignite next year over an industry that was worth nearly $40 million in 2012 and $33 million this year.
Read the full story from the Portland Press Herald