International & Trade

SEAFOOD.COM NEWS by John Sackton  Sept. 4, 2013 — Mike Mason from KLDG in Dillingham reports that Alaska’s commercial salmon fishermen are organizing a public protest against Walmart today, for refusing to carry Alaska salmon produced without a label from the London based Marine Stewardship Council.

The protest, which will get plenty of TV coverage in Alaska, will be held at the largest Walmart store in Anchorage, on the old Seward Highway.

John Renner, president of Cordova Fishermen United, and one of the organizers of the protest, said there are several accreditation agencies for sustainability, and processors should be able to have a choice.

“Because there is a dispute or because some rating agency has changed their mind should not affect the sale of Alaskan products.”

“We have an American product here that is second to none.  Walmart has been a customer in the past, and we hope to do business with them again.”

On Thursday, Alaskan representatives from ASMI, the Governor’s office, and from ADF&G will meet with Walmart officials in Arkansas to discuss the sustainability of Alaskan salmon.

All the Alaskans are asking is that Walmart recognize that nothing has changed on the ground in Alaska in terms of sustainability, and that they accept Alaskan salmon as 'equivalent' to salmon certified by the MSC.  This is the same Alaskan salmon they have purchased proudly for years and which the MSC salmon certifications were originally based on.

Alaskan processors withdrew from the MSC in 2012 because it made no sense for the most sustainable and best managed salmon fishery in the world to cede its management decisions and strategies to the goals of an outside organization which makes external changes to its definitions of sustainability instead of working within the highly praised fisheries management framework to address problems.

In the case of salmon, the MSC certifier determined they could no longer certify Prince William Sound pink salmon, despite the fact that the impacts of hatchery fish – which have been in place for more than 100 years in both Alaska and Russia – are being carefully monitored and studied and there is no consensus whether new mitigation strategies are warranted.   They did not make such claims against other MSC salmon fisheries that are also hatchery based. This inconsistency in standards, along with the costs and expensive budgets needed to satisfy the MSC, led the state to seek out alternative third party sustainability certifications.

This story originally appeared on Seafood.com, a subscription site. It is reprinted with permission.

September 4, 2013 — NEW LONDON, Conn. — Connecticut’s lobstermen are bracing for the start of the Long Island Sound fishery’s first-ever seasonal shutdown.

The closure is set to begin Sunday and extend to Nov. 28 in an attempt to give the Sound’s depleted lobster population a chance to rebuild, The Day of New London reports.

“None of us are sure what we’re going to do for three months without working,” said Michael Theiller, who keeps his lobster boat in New London. “It’s going to be a bit difficult.”

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission required the state to take steps to reduce the total lobster harvest by 10 percent in 2013. The timing was requested by lobstermen to coincide with the drop in wholesale prices.

The fishery has been in decline for the last 15 years because of pesticide residue, diseases and warming waters from climate change that stresses lobsters. Overabundant predators such as striped bass, scup and other species also are seen as preventing the lobsters from rebuilding.

Read the full story at the New Haven Register

September 4, 2013 — Some biologists, though, have called the Gulf of Mexico menhaden fishery a near-perfect fishery. Factors of such a perfect commercial fishery would include:

• Low bycatch.
• A stable number of fishermen, without the big swings in numbers that often occur in commercial fisheries.
• The fishery would not be in competition with recreational fishermen for the fish.
• The number of fishermen in the fishery would be small enough to monitor their catch accurately.
• All parts of the fish would be used, with no backbones, skin, shells or other waste to discard.
• The fishery would be consistantly profitable.

Yes, everybody eats pogies; They just don’t know it.

The sea is a funny place. On land, planting-eating species (herbivores) vastly outnumber meat-eaters (carnivores). That’s because it takes 10 pounds of herbivore flesh to produce 1 pound of carnivore.

In the sea, it seems like every fish eats another fish — they are all carnivores. Or almost all. At the bottom of the fish food chain sits the menhaden, commonly called the pogie. Almost every fish that we humans love to catch and eat in turn eats pogies, so we humans are essentially eating “re-manufactured pogies.”

Pogies numbers are awe-inspiring — in the many, many millions. They swim in massive, silvery schools that attract many predator species, including man.

The menhaden purse seine fishery, just by the sheer size of its catch and the size of its fishing equipment, sometimes catches the jaundiced eye of a recreational fisherman who worries about the nets catching all of his favorite fishes’ food.

Read the full story at the Lousiana Sportsman

 

NEW BEDFORD, Mass, — Mayor Jon Mitchell Tuesday urged the organization responsible for setting catch limits for fish species shared between the United States and Canada to negotiate a Georges Bank yellowtail flounder quota for the 2014 fishing year that does not result in further harm to the fishing industry.

In a letter to its members, Mitchell called on the Transboundary Management Guidance Committee to reach a quota of no less than 500 metric tons for Georges Bank yellowtail flounder.

"Georges Bank yellowtail is bycatch for the scallop fishery, which brings in approximately $400 million in direct annual revenue to New Bedford," said the mayor, in a news release Tuesday. "Taking into account the groundfish and scallop fisheries' ancillary businesses, Georges Bank yellowtail is tied to nearly $1.3 billion in annual economic activity in Greater New Bedford."

The Transboundary Committee is a government-industry board composed of representatives from Canada and the United States. It gives guidance on harvest strategies, resource sharing and management processes for Canadian and U.S. management authorities for the cod, haddock and yellowtail flounder on Georges Bank.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

 

 

September 4, 2013 — The Commercial Fisheries Research Foundation Lobster Research Fleet Pilot Project (known as the "On-Deck Data Program" focuses on testing methods to improve the collection and management of fishery dependent data. Specifically, the pilot program is designed to explore  and test new technologies that will enable lobstermen fishing in Lobster Management Areas 2 and 3 to collect and relay much-needed biological data to managers and scientists monitoring the lobster stock in these areas.

The technologies being piloted in this project include the use of onboard waterproof tablets, electronic calipers, and internet relay of data.  The project uses a lobster research fleet approach that includes six lobster fishing vessels in each management area, with vessels strategically chosen to provide area coverage. Click here to see the vessels in the Lobster Research Fleet. Click here to see the coverage of the Lobster Fleet.

Data collection is focused on both retained and discarded lobsters, including:
— Carapace length
— Sex
— Females – egg bearing and/or V-notch
— Presence of shell disease

Additional data recorded includes:
— Date of sampling
— Location of samples (longitude/latitude)
— Soak time of traps
— Number of traps sampled
— Total number of lobsters sampled per set of traps.
— Data for lobsters caught in a subset of ventless traps is also reported, and lobstermen have the option of entering notes regarding general observations e.g. tides, weather conditions, other species in traps, etc.

The project is being approached as a collaborative endeavor among lobstermen, and state/regional/federal scientists with a Project Steering Committee comprised of representatives from the lobstermen who fish in Lobster Management Areas 2 and 3, state managers from the RI Department of Environmental Management and the MA Division of Marine Fisheries, and staff from the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) and NMFS Northeast Fisheries Science Center. Click here to view members of the Project Steering Committee.

For more information: 

See the research project webiste

Read the press release

See the members of the project steering committee

See the list of participants 

 

August 29, 2013 — Copper River Seafoods, the Alaska-owned seafood manufacturer and marketer with roots in Cordova, will withdraw support of a London-based certification program in 2014, after learning Prince William Sound is still adrift in the assessment process.

"Copper River Seafoods believes in choice, but cannot support a certification model that fails to certify all fisheries within a state that is a global model for sustainable fisheries management," the company said in a statement released Aug. 28.

Company officials cited the Alaska Salmon Fishery public comment draft report from the Marine Stewardship Council as a reason for its decision. The report highlights state of Alaska fisheries management practices, including long-term data collection, focus on salmon escapement, and the knowledge and experience of staff of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. "Unfortunately, the report passes only 13 of the 14 Alaskan fishing areas, leaving Prince William Sound in assessment until additional information is gathered," the company said.

"Therefore, Copper River Seafoods plans to withdraw support for the MSC in 2014. If the MSC chooses to certify all of Alaska's salmon fisheries, Copper River Seafoods will reassess whether MSC can again be a viable option for customers."

Copper River Seafoods is also certified under the United Nations' Food and Agriculture-based Responsible Fisheries Management certification program sponsored through the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute, as are more than 40 other seafood entities.

Copper River Seafoods has until now supported both the MSC and the FAO-based RFM models at the request of customers whose corporate sustainability policies required third-party assurance that Alaska's fisheries were responsibly managed. Supporting both models and advocating for choice has always been important to Copper River Seafoods, so no single certification would have control in the marketplace, company officials said.

Alaska's fisheries were among the first, in fact, to be certified by MSC. The Alaska Constitution since 1959 has mandated sustainability in fisheries.

Read the full story at The Cordova Times