Saving Seafood

US CBP requests judge reconsider order barring it from fining Bayside Program participants

October 22, 2021 — U.S. Customs and Border Protection has requested that a judge reconsider her issuance of a temporary restraining order barring the federal agency from enforcing Jones Act-related fines against companies that used the Bayside Program to transport Alaska pollock to the U.S. East Coast.

In an 18 October filing, CBP asked U.S. District Court Judge for the District of Alaska Sharon L. Gleason to reverse her 8 October decision granting a preliminary injunction against it, which prohibits it from enforcing any Jones Act-related penalties against Seattle, Washington, U.S.A.-based American Seafoods subsidiaries Alaska Reefer Management LLC (ARM) and Kloosterboer International Forwarding LLC (KIF), or any other entity involved in the transportation of Alaska pollock via the controversial shipping route through Bayside, New Brunswick, Canada.

Read the full story at SeafoodSource

 

“A calculated and secret scheme”: US CBP alleges willful Jones Act violations by pollock transporters

September 15, 2021 — The U.S. government accused the operators and clients of a dead-end rail line in New Brunswick, Canada, used in transporting Alaska pollock to the U.S. East Coast, of engaging in “a calculated and secret scheme” to escape the restrictions of the Jones Act, which requires all domestically-caught seafood to be transported via vessels built in the United States with U.S. materials.

The filing in a U.S. District Court in Alaska on 14 September came in response to a lawsuit from American Seafoods subsidiary Alaska Reefer Management (ARM) and the company that operates the New Brunswick facility, Lineage Logistics subsidiary Kloosterboer International Forwarding (KIF), challenging approximately USD 350 million (EUR 294.3 million) in fines issued by U.S. Customs and Border Protection against them and their contracted transportation partners. The suit was filed on 2 September.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

 

USDA awards USD 10 million in Alaska pollock contracts

August 10, 2021 — The U.S. Department of Agriculture has awarded around USD 10 million (EUR 8.5 million) in Alaska pollock contracts to Trident Seafoods and Channel Fish Processing.

Despite the big win for pollock producers, pollock processors left several million dollars of the contract on the table. The USDA said in a notice it could not award contracts for nearly 2.1 million pounds of frozen pollock fillets, 1.5 pounds million pounds of pollock nuggets, and 1.25 million pounds of fish sticks “due to vendor constraints.”

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Low-Fat Diet Possible Culprit in Poor Survival of Young Pollock Born 2013

July 21, 2021 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

In summer 2013,  the number of juvenile Alaska pollock in the Gulf of Alaska was the largest on record by far. A year later, those fish were mostly gone.

A new NOAA Fisheries study explores what happened to the pollock born in 2013,  focusing on the interaction between juvenile fish and their prey. Results suggest that a diet high in low-fat food may have kept fish from gaining the weight they needed to survive over winter.

“Our results point to poor diet as a contributing factor,” said NOAA Fisheries Alaska Fisheries Science Center biologist Jesse Lamb, who led the study with colleague David Kimmel. “But there is probably not just one answer. Cannibalism and wind-driven transport to inferior habitat likely also played a role. With that combination, the 2013 year class had the deck stacked against them.”

Read the full release here

USDA to make big purchase of Alaska pollock

May 5, 2021 — The U.S. Department of Agriculture is asking Alaska pollock suppliers to bid on a contract for 8.325 million pounds of the fish – the third-largest bid invitation for Alaskan pollock in the agency’s history.

The USDA is also requesting bids on nearly 2.7 million pounds of catfish and said in a pre-solicitation notice that it plans to purchase canned tuna, haddock fillets, ocean perch fillets, wild salmon fillets, and canned pink salmon.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Trans-Ocean Inc. Awarded MSC US Ocean Champion Award

November 24, 2020 — The following was released by the Marine Stewardship Council:

The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) awarded Lou Shaheen and the entire team at Trans-Ocean Products Inc. the 2020 US MSC Ocean Champion Award for their continued dedication to seafood sustainability and for going above and beyond the MSC standard to make MSC certified products available to consumers. Trans-Ocean Products Inc. is the maker of Crab Classic imitation crab, or surimi seafood, featuring MSC certified wild Alaska pollock. Lou Shaheen, VP of Sales & Marketing accepted the award on behalf of the whole Trans-Ocean Products Inc. team.

“Trans-Ocean was an early believer in the benefits of MSC certification. We proudly feature the MSC blue fish label on our packaging and in our marketing because it gives our products added credibility as high quality, sustainably-sourced seafood,” Shaheen commented.

“It is with great pleasure that the MSC US recognizes Trans-Ocean Products Inc. with the MSC US Ocean Champion award. Their diligent and persistent support of the MSC mission and vision has been and continues to be inspiring,” said Eric Critchlow, MSC’s program director, USA. “MSC’s recent consumer insights survey shows that high quality product coupled with third-party sustainability certification resonates with consumers – Trans-Ocean’s success demonstrates that it meets consumers’ preferences as demonstrated by their wallets and forks.”

The MSC US Ocean Champion Award was established in 2017 to reward fisheries and companies engaged in the MSC program who demonstrated continued leadership on sustainability above and beyond the MSC standard requirements. Each awardee includes an internal champion (person or team) who has been an internal catalyst for change demonstrating leadership and the ability to spark positive change within the industry. The glass award featuring a wave with the awardee’s name and company inscribed is handmade in downtown Seattle, WA.

According to a 2020 global study commissioned by MSC 55% of U.S. seafood consumers believe that we must consume seafood only from sustainable sources to protect the ocean. Furthermore, 64% of Americans want retailers’ and brands’ claims about sustainability and the environment to be clearly labeled by an independent organization, such as the MSC. Trans-Ocean Inc. is leading on third party labels with the complete product line MSC certified and carrying the MSC blue fish label on package.

Trans-Ocean Products Inc. was among the first US seafood brands to gain MSC Chain of Custody (CoC) certification and include the MSC blue fish label on product. Trans-Ocean Products Inc. has been at the forefront of promoting MSC as a mark of environmental responsibility to the consumer market, and has featured MSC message in consumer advertising and other promotional activities helping to encourage Americans to buy seafood that’s good for them and good for the ocean.

DREW CHERRY: America’s fisheries management has been a success. Now that’s under threat.

September 18, 2020 — Americans can be proud of their fishery management system over the past few decades, particularly in the Pacific Northwest, where one of the world’s single-largest stocks of fish, Alaska pollock, is harvested, bringing in some $2 billion (€1.7 billion) and tens of thousands of jobs.

It’s an incredible case study in how science and policy can combat poor regulation and lead to a full recovery of threatened stocks and improved management through meticulous science and shared commitment.

One example: If you’ve been on an Alaska pollock fishing vessel, you have seen the exhaustive monitoring systems that go into keeping track of salmon bycatch. Despite trawl nets that can bring up 200,000 fish in the space of an hour, each of the catcher processors plying the waters can — and by most accounts do — keep track of individual salmon that are caught to mitigate the impact on those threatened fish.

That kind of investment does not happen without the voluntary participation of fishing companies that are committed to science-based fisheries management.

Read the full opinion piece at IntraFish

At-Sea Processors’ Jim Gilmore announces retirement

March 1, 2019 — After 30 years with the At-sea Processors Association, Jim Gilmore, its director of public affairs, has announced that he will retire on June 30.

During his tenure at the association, Gilmore directed public affairs and corporate social responsibility programs, which helped to establish the Alaska pollock industry’s leadership position in global seafood sustainability.

“We are very grateful to Jim for his years of staunch advocacy and unwavering commitment to strengthening the Alaska pollock industry, and we couldn’t be happier to announce Matt’s coming onboard,” said Executive Director Stephanie Madsen.

Among Gilmore’s accomplishments are his work to enact the landmark American Fisheries Act, which paved the way for a catch-share program for the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands Alaska pollock fishery. The advent of catch-share management enabled the Alaska pollock catcher/processor sector to optimize food production, further minimize fishing effects on the environment, and strengthen the fleet’s international market competitiveness, according to the organization.

“Matt’s been a leader in the NGO community, promoting precautionary, science-based fisheries management. We are excited to have him put his considerable talents to work at APA,” said Madsen.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

Farm bill’s untold story: What Congress did for fish sticks

December 21, 2018 — The Farm Bill Congress passed last week will be known for many things. It increases subsidies for farmers and legalizes industrial hemp. But for Alaska, the bigger impact might be what the bill does for fish sticks served in school lunchrooms across America.

The national school lunch program has for decades required school districts to buy American-made food. But that doesn’t always happen when it comes to fish.

“There was a major loophole,” Sen. Dan Sullivan said. “Major. That allowed, for example, Russian-caught pollock, processed in China with phosphates, sent back to the United States for purchase in the U.S. School lunch program.”

Let’s break that down: Rather than buy fish sticks made of Alaska pollock, many school districts buy fish caught in Russian waters that are frozen, sent to China, thawed, cut up, sometimes plumped up with additives, refrozen and sent to the U.S. And it qualifies for a “Product of USA” label because it’s battered and breaded here.

“Literally turns a generation of kids in America off of seafood when they have this as fish sticks in their school lunches,” Sullivan said. Aside from being bad for Alaska’s fishing industry, Sullivan said the twice-frozen Russian pollock is bad seafood and kids won’t like fish day at school.

Read the full story at Alaska Public Media

Feds: US fishermen had good year aided by lobsters, scallops

December 14, 2018 — PORTLAND, Maine — U.S. commercial fishing generated more than $144 billion in sales in 2016, buoyed by growth in key species such as sea scallops and American lobsters, the federal government reported on Thursday.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said the total of $144.3 billion in sales from commercial fishing in 2016 was up about $100 million from the previous year. The agency released the figure as part of its annual Fisheries Economics of the United States report, one of two reports about the health of fisheries that came out on Thursday.

The economics report states that the industry was boosted by growth in value of some economically critical species, also including shrimp, but other big-money species such as Alaska pollock and pacific salmon were down from the previous year.

The report shows U.S. fisheries holding steady, and continuing to play a critical role in the economies of states from Maine to California, said Ned Cyr, director of NOAA Fisheries Office of Science and Technology.

Read the full story at the Associated Press