The discussion documents are available here.
New ad campaign from Legal Sea Foods covers some uncharted territory
July 27, 2012 (SEAFOOD.COM NEWS) — Legal Sea Foods has succeeded recently in getting tongues wagging with its humorous – some say over-the-top – ad campaigns. And its latest effort is sure to get consumers talking as it features everything from paid obituaries to interactive gumball machines.
The new campaign, created by Legal's long-time advertising agency, DeVito/Verdi, kicks off later this week and runs well into the fall, with TV, print, radio, out-of-home and digital elements.
The new campaign begins with a simple print ad that offers its own take on the Christian fish symbol often found on car bumpers. The ad depicts the familiar "sign of the fish," but with the word "Legal" written in the space created by the two intersecting curved lines. The copy reads: "It's a religious experience."
This will be followed up with a second round of ads that won't appear in the obvious places. These print ads take the form of a paid obituary of a fictitious person. In each, it is reported that the individual would have lived longer had he or she gone to Legal Sea Foods to eat more fish. One ad says that if the 92-year-old banker had heeded this advice he would have been able to tell his daughter where he had hidden the family fortune. And if the 88-year-old grandmother had eaten more seafood she might have lived long enough to answer the call when the sweepstakes company arrived at her doorstep.
TELEVISION
And in a series of television commercials, the bonding and solitary nature of fishing is celebrated, but what is also revealed are the misfortunes that can also occur when spending hours alone with someone. The spots carry the line: "It takes a long time to catch a fish. Spend a little time with us."
One spot shows a boy and his grandfather fishing off a pier, but the four hours they've spent together are certainly their last. Another spot focuses on a man taking his wife fishing for the first time. Five hours later the constant chatter is too much for the man and his wife is apparently thrown overboard. A third spot has two fishing buddies alone on a lake at sunrise. One notices that the boat is taking on water. Six hours later, the boat is gone and the familiar garble of water is heard. The TV spots are set to begin airing in November.
RADIO
In the continuing series of cheeky spots from Legal's president and CEO Roger Berkowitz, eight new radio commercials present his unabashed take on the appropriate response to those who fail to appreciate the need for eating fresh fish. In these spots, boyfriends are told where they fit in the past-lovers' ranking; mothers-in-law are encouraged to walk off a pier; and wives are told that the dress doesn't make them look fat, it's the fat that makes them look fat.
DIGITAL
And to encourage more diners to check in with Legal Sea Foods on Foursquare, DeVito/Verdi's digital team has created a gumball machine that dispenses a free gumball once you have checked in via Foursquare at the Kendall Square restaurant.
"This is one of the more complete campaigns we've undertaken in terms of media being utilized," said Roger Berkowitz, president and CEO of Legal Sea Foods. "Once again, these are smart, funny ads that no doubt may make some waves with some people, but they certainly grab your attention and help communicate the freshness of our fish and the beauty of eating at Legal Sea Foods."
Seafood News is a subscription website. This article is reproduced with permission.
Keating joins chorus on behalf of fishermen
NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — July 26, 2012 — Rep. Bill Keating called for an "end-to-end" review of the way federal authorities calculate fishing quotas in a letter Wednesday that urged the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to move forward with collaboration with the local Marine Fisheries Institute.
"I find NOAA Fisheries' solution to alleviate what is sure to be a devastating year for both the ground fish and scallop industry by further delaying the integration of cooperative research and data assessments as completely unacceptable," he wrote.
The letter echoed a proposal put forward in June by the Marine Fisheries Institute and the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries that would allow the organization to collaborate with NOAA in its stock assessments of fish such as yellowtail flounder.
In April, NOAA announced an 80 percent reduction in the yellowtail fishing quota for the 2013 fishing season, after their data suggested a decline in the abundance and health of the yellowtail flounder.
Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard Times.
Lobster glut benefiting value added?
July 26, 2012 — The current record low lobster prices in the U.S. Northeast won’t be much of a benefit to value-added lobster processors — in the near term.
The poor quality of lobster this year is a factor, in addition to the lack of distribution needed to quickly ramp up and sell finished lobster products.
“The majority of the lobster processors are in Canada — there are very few in Maine. The lobsters are such a poor quality right now and they are not strong enough to make it there,” said Scout Wuerthner, a sales representative at Inland Lobster, a large lobster processor in Portland, Maine.
However, in the long run, the low prices will give processors more access to lobster and allow them to start new value-added product lines, added Wuerthner.
Realizing the trend toward value-added lobster products, Portsmouth Lobster Co. in Portsmouth, N.H., already began moving away from the live lobster market last year.
“We transitioned prior to everything tanking. Now we have three kinds of lobster raviolis and three chowders,” said David Hickman with Portsmouth Lobster.
However, the small company is working to build distribution in order to capitalize on this year’s abundant lobster supply.
“There is just so much out there. The fear is that there is no place for it to go. Our focus is to find new places of distribution and new areas of the country — and developing more interesting products — instead of worrying about the prices,” said Hickman.
Hickman believes Portsmouth Lobster will see a greater impact on its business next year than this year. “The big impact will be if the big guys take advantage of the low prices. It doesn’t pay for us to put stuff in a freezer — we are a small company,” said Hickman.
Read the full story on Seafood Source
LONG ISLAND: The Plight of the Fishermen
EAST HAMPTON, NY — July 26, 2012 — On Tuesday evening outside at the Gin Beach Market in Montauk, a film titled “Salt of the Sea — How Politics, Economics, and Danger Push Fishermen to Their Limits, and Beyond” will be presented by Third Wave Films and hosted by the Long Island Commercial Fishing Association.
Tom Garber, who wrote and produced “Salt of the Sea,” described it as the story of what happens when traditions of self-reliance and independence clash with federal bureaucracy and corruption.
Bonnie Brady, executive director of the association, said the film was a good primer for the public on what commercial fishermen in this country have been facing in the last several years, including the science behind the regulations and the scandal revealed by the Commerce Department’s inspector general’s report on excesses within the National Marine Fisheries Service enforcement wing.
The film will be shown in the field behind the Gin Beach Market. Ms. Brady advised viewers to take a blanket or lawn chair. Nancy Atlas, who provided music for the film’s soundtrack, will play a 30-minute set before sunset, then there will be a few words from the producer before the film begins at 8:30. It runs a little over an hour.
Read the full story at the East Hampton Star.
New Bedford seeks congressional support for fishermen and firefighters
NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — July 26, 2012 — Mayor Jon Mitchell is traveling to Washington today to press the members of the Massachusetts congressional delegation on two issues key to the city's welfare: fishing and firefighting.
The possibility that the catch limit for yellowtail flounder on Georges Bank could be set as low as 150 metric tons for the 2013 fishing year prompted the journey, the mayor said. If that limit were to be enforced, there is broad consensus it would effectively shut down both the city's groundfish boats and scallopers, Mitchell said. "Closed Area 2 (on Georges Bank) is the largest scallop fishing ground. Shutting that down would be a gigantic hit to the industry and the local economy."
The mayor has scheduled separate meetings with Sens. John Kerry and Scott Brown and Reps. Barney Frank and Bill Keating today.
Mitchell said he will urge the legislators to put pressure on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and National Marine Fisheries Service to revisit its stock assessment model. "The science is dubious at best," Mitchell said. "We need to get out ahead of this with prompt action."
Mitchell will be accompanied to by New Bedford Fire Chief Michael Gomes and union president Billy Cabral. The trio will urge the delegation to support the city's application to renew its SAFER grant, which expires in May. The grant provides federal funds to ensure that fire departments across the nation are adequately manned. It is awarded every two years.
"We can't forgo reapplying for this if we want to maintain current staffing levels," the mayor said.
Read the full story in the New Bedford Standard Times
Markey, Frank file legislation aimed at stopping seafood mislabeling
WASHINGTON — July 26, 2012 — The fish industry would have to publicly track fish from the boat to the plate under a sweeping new seafood fraud bill introduced Wednesday by US representatives Edward Markey and Barney Frank that imposes hefty fines for violators.
The Safety and Fraud Enforcement for Seafood Act, or SAFE Seafood Act, comes nearly a year after a Globe report revealed widespread seafood substitution in restaurants across Massachusetts. Results of the five-month investigation published last fall found nearly half of the fish tested at 134 restaurants and supermarkets was mislabeled. In many cases, less desirable and cheaper species took the place of fresh local fish.
“When people walk into a restaurant and put down hard-earned money for a favorite fish, they expect to get what they ordered, especially in New England,” Markey said. “If businesses are fraudulently serving a substitute, then it’s just wrong and has to be stopped. This bill increases inspections, it increases penalties, and it increases coordination at the federal level and with state and local agencies.”
The bill would require fish packers, supermarkets, and restaurants to provide details about all seafood, including the scientific name, the market name, and the geographic region where the fish was caught. The proposed legislation also calls for greater cooperation between the Food and Drug Administration and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration so they share more information about seafood substitution, create a public list of mislabeling offenders, and avoid conducting duplicate inspections at seafood plants.
The two agencies were criticized in a government report in 2009 for failing to do enough to fight fish fraud and coordinate inspection efforts. For example, the FDA inspected 315 domestic seafood facilities that NOAA also examined between 2005 and 2009.
The bill does not allocate more funds for enforcement, but Markey said a better working relationship between the FDA and NOAA would have resulted in a 29 percent increase in domestic inspections annually.
“Ideally, you would have more money for inspections, but understanding the tight budget climate, improving coordination among agencies and eliminating duplications is good step in the right direction,” said Beth Lowell, a campaign director for Oceana, a nonprofit group in Washington, D.C., that is focused on ending fish mislabeling.
But Lowell added that inspections alone will not solve the problem, and pointed to a report the group released this week that found 31 percent of seafood is mislabeled in South Florida, despite ongoing efforts by state and local authorities to improve labeling accuracy. DNA testing — similar to the method used by the Globe last year — confirmed that nearly one-third of the 96 fish samples collected by Oceana from 60 retail outlets were misrepresented. Seafood substitution not only costs consumers, it also can pose health risks and undermine people’s efforts to eat only food from sustainable sources.
The tracing requirements in the SAFE Seafood Act, according to Lowell, will help bring urgently needed transparency to the fish industry.
Read the full story in the Boston Globe
Markey Introduces SAFE Seafood Act to Fight Fraud, Ensure Safety
The following was released by the office of Congressman Ed Markey (D-Mass.).
WASHINGTON (July 26, 2012) – In response to rampant seafood mislabeling and fraud that is hurting the bottom lines of fishermen and threatening the public health, Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) has now introduced the Safety And Fraud Enforcement for Seafood Act (SAFE Seafood Act, H.R. 6200). The bill will increase inspections, establish new labeling standards to give consumers more information about the seafood’s origins, and give authority to penalize bad actor countries and companies.
The bill addresses growing concerns first raised by the Boston Globe last fall over the integrity of seafood sold in U.S. restaurants and grocery stores. Using DNA testing, the Globe found that 48 percent of the seafood it sampled from Boston area restaurants was not the advertised species. Subsequent investigations in the Los Angeles and Miami markets produced similar results.
Rep. Markey was joined by bi-partisan co-sponsors Barney Frank (D-Mass.), Walter Jones (R-N.C.), Joe Courtney (D-Conn.) and Bill Keating (D-Mass.) on the bill.
“Americans who buy seafood deserve to know that the fish they purchase is what ends up on their plates,” said Rep. Markey, the Ranking Member of the Natural Resources Committee, which has jurisdiction over oceans and fisheries. “American fishermen face some of the most stringent conservation and quality control standards in the world, and we owe it to them to make sure their product is not being undercut by foreign countries and companies selling shady shrimp, bogus bass, and counterfeit cod. It’s time for everyone in the seafood supply chain to be on the hook to ensure that the fish served in restaurants and sold in stores is honest and healthy.”
“When consumers choose excellent New England seafood they should get it – not imported fish with a deceptive label,” said Rep. Frank. “More than 80% of seafood is imported so it’s critical that we protect our domestic fisheries from fraud and mislabeling.”
“With 85 percent of seafood in the United States imported from other countries, it is critical to label these products correctly and equip American consumers to make informed purchasing decisions,” said Rep. Courtney. “Connecticut’s fishing industry is a significant New England tradition. Without strong labeling standards, our fishermen will continue to be undercut by other nations with inferior or non-existent consumer-protection standards. This bipartisan bill will provide peace of mind to consumers and will level the playing field for our New England fishermen competing with cheap imports.”
To prevent seafood fraud, Rep. Markey’s SAFE Seafood requires information that is already collected by U.S. fishermen – such as species name, catch location, and harvest method – to ‘follow the fish,’ and be made available to consumers, and requires foreign exporters of seafood to the U.S. to provide equivalent documentation. The bill also allows the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to refuse entry of unsafe or fraudulent seafood shipments, and allows NOAA to levy civil penalties against violators under the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act.
In addition to the fraud prevention measures, SAFE Seafood addresses concerns over seafood safety raised by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) in a 2011 report by requiring cooperation and progress reporting. The report found that a lack of coordination between FDA and NOAA is resulting in needless duplication of seafood safety inspections at a time when resources are only allowing for 2 percent of seafood imports to be examined for safety.
Final Agenda and Meeting Materials for ASMFC’s 2012 Summer Meeting
July 25, 2012 —
The final agenda and meeting materials for the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission's 2012 Summer Meeting are now available. Please note the complete schedule for Tuesday (August 8, 2012) has been adjusted to allow for the addition of a meeting of the Winter Flounder Board from 5:00 – 6:00 PM.
Supplemental materials will be posted to the website on Wednesday, August 1, 2012.
Final Agenda and Meeting Materials for ASMFC's 2012 Summer Meeting
MAINE: Hannaford’s implements more sophisticated sustainability policy than Whole Foods
July 23, 2012 — In May, Scarborough-based Hannaford Supermarkets announced a sweeping sustainability policy for all seafood products it sells, the culmination of more than three years of research and prep work. The policy applies to more than 2,500 products, including fresh seafood, and frozen, packaged and canned items in which the main ingredient is seafood.
To craft this policy, Hannaford worked with the Gulf of Maine Research Institute in Portland. Jen Levin, GMRI's sustainable seafood program manager, says GMRI acted as a consultant to help Hannaford flesh out the details of its policy and determine the criteria on which products should be evaluated. . She lauds Hannaford for its willingness to work with suppliers if they don't yet meet criteria, and its efforts to work with suppliers that demonstrate improvement.
She said other retailers will also write off an entire species if their supplier doesn't meet criteria. Whole Foods, for example, has stopped selling Chilean sea bass, orange roughy, Bluefin tuna and other species deemed especially vulnerable, according to its website, with plans to halt sales of other species in the next year.
As of March 31, the company now traces each product through the supply chain to its source and gathers information to ensure the fishery or farm is meeting certain criteria. Hannaford's 150 suppliers are required to demonstrate that they are harvesting seafood from fisheries governed by science-based management plans.
According to the company, dozens of suppliers have altered their harvesting practices, launched improvement projects and/or beefed up their documentation processes in order to comply with the policy. But, if a supplier can't prove a product's sustainability, it's removed from the shelves. More than 50 products, including mackerel, clam, tuna and crabmeat items, have been replaced with sustainable options.
Citing a United Nations statistic that 80% of the world's wild fisheries are overfished or stressed, George Parmenter, sustainability manager for Hannaford, says the company was focused not only on environmental sustainability, but business sustainability. "There were definitely issues that we couldn't ignore," he says. "As a seller of seafood, we wanted to stay in business and be able to sell seafood long into the future."
"The suppliers are responsible for understanding where their products are harvested and getting information about the source fishery, so we do fact-checking and help verify" the information is accurate, Levin says.
A year into the process, around March 2011, Hannaford was able to share the policy with its suppliers, giving them ample time to provide the needed information or improve their processes. Parmenter says the majority were willing to participate, and that many already had internal procedures to verify the sustainability of their products.
But verifying a product's source is not always easy, despite suppliers' eagerness to qualify. Parmenter says some suppliers are importing seafood from other countries and might not know the specific fishery or farm. And documentation provided might be in Chinese or Spanish, adds Levin. She credits GMRI's diverse set of researchers, who either hail from or have worked in foreign countries, for the organization's ability to take on the challenge.
Parmenter says customer response has been positive, and that consumers are asking questions and interested in knowing the source of their seafood. He said the policy hasn't resulted in a price increase, either for Hannaford or the customer.
Read the full article on Maine Biz