Saving Seafood

Is having a special week in Seattle enough to make Alaska herring cool again?

July 5, 2017 — Last week in Seattle, one kind of Alaska fish was served in dozens of restaurants around the city. It was in everything from pâté to tacos and piled high on open-faced sandwiches. One chef even used a pickled piece as a cocktail garnish. 

But it wasn’t Alaska’s famous wild sockeye salmon or Pacific halibut. It was Alaska herring — a small, oily fish — and it was all part of the third annual Alaska Herring Week in Seattle.

It’s part of an effort by a group of fishermen and the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute to try and revitalize a small Western Alaska fishery, which has been declining over the last decade.

Alaska Herring Week event coordinator Zachary Lyons said 54 restaurants and four grocery stores in the Seattle area participated in Herring Week this year. It started in 2015 with just eight restaurants, and 33 participated in 2016. This year’s event included The Whale and the Carpenter and Bar Melusine, restaurants both associated with Renee Erickson, winner of the 2016 James Beard Best Chef Northwest Award.

Lyons, who spent last week eating herring at up to five restaurants a day, said some consider the fish old-fashioned, destined to be canned or pickled on a shelf at the grocery store. But there are other culinary uses for the fish. Herring flesh cooks into a rich brown color and has a light fish flavor, similar to trout. No two herring dishes he ate during the week were alike, Lyons said.

“It’s really versatile,” he said. “It’s amazing to see what people are doing with it.”

Read the full story at Alaska Dispatch News

RFM Certification Underway for Five Alaska Crab Fisheries, ASMI Calls for Stakeholders Input

May 23, 2017 — SEAFOOD NEWS — It’s been five years since the Bering Sea king and snow crab fisheries were certified as responsibly managed against the FAO-based standards under the Alaska Responsible Fisheries Management (RFM) Certification Program.

Today, the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute announced that stakeholders who want to review the draft re-assessment reports for Bristol Bay Red King crab (Paralithodes camtschaticus), St. Matthew Island Blue King crab (Paralithodes platypus) and Eastern Bering Sea Snow crab (Chionoecetes opilio) and new assessments for Eastern Bering Sea Tanner Crab (Chionoecetes bairdi), Aleutian Islands Golden King Crab (Lithodes aequispinus) can register their interest to:

Jean Ragg Alaska RFM Scheme Administrator,
Global Trust Certification Ltd.
Quayside Business Park,
Mill Street, Dundalk,
County Louth,
Ireland
T: +353 (0) 42 9320912
F: +353 (0) 42 9386864
E: jean.ragg@saiglobal.com

Stakeholders should register their interest with name, organization and e-mail contact details to Global Trust Certification at the above address, preferably by e-mail.

“Once available, the Draft Assessment Reports will then be sent directly to the registered stakeholders’ e-mail address,” said a spokesperson for the Certification Body (CB) Global Trust Certification.  The reports will also be available via http://www.gtcert.com/ alaskarfm/.

The assessments will be using the latest version of the standard. The new version 1.3 (V1.3) was adopted by the ASMI board of directors in November 2015 for use in all new fisheries that wish to be certified and for fisheries seeking re-certification to the Alaska RFM program from January 1, 2016.

A separate web-announcement will be made notifying stakeholders of the commencement of the 30-day Stakeholder Comment Period for the above mentioned Alaska crab fisheries Draft Assessment Reports.

For information on the history of crab certifications under the Alaska standard click here.

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

Seafood groups praise Trump’s “Buy American” executive order

April 25, 2017 — President Donald Trump’s 18 April “Buy American, Hire American” Executive Order has been positively received by some U.S. seafood trade groups, who say it will help the domestic seafood industry.

Representatives of industry groups in Alaska and the U.S. states on the Gulf of Mexico said the executive order will help them create jobs for Americans.

“In order to promote economic and national security and to help stimulate economic growth, create good jobs at decent wages, strengthen our middle class, and support the American manufacturing and defense industrial bases, it shall be the policy of the executive branch to maximize…through terms and conditions of federal financial assistance awards and federal procurements, the use of goods, products, and materials produced in the United States,” the order states.

In addition, the federal government must “rigorously enforce and administer the laws governing entry into the United States of workers from abroad,” including section 212(a)(5) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, according to the order.

C. David Veal, executive director of the American Shrimp Processors Association in Biloxi, Mississippi, said Trump had helped protect U.S. fishing communities with his executive order.

“We appreciate this effort and the Trump Administration’s ongoing efforts to restore the competitive position of the country. This is the strongest effort by any administration to ensure that U.S. laws designed to promote the purchase of domestically produced products are effectively enforced,” Veal said.

Read the full story at SeafoodSource.com

Alaska Halibut’s Responsible Fisheries Management Certification is Renewed

February 13, 2017 — SEAFOOD NEWS — The Alaska halibut fishery has been awarded continued certification to the Alaska Responsible Fisheries Management (RFM) Certification Program. Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute (ASMI) announce the finding late last week.

This is the first reassessment of Alaska halibut under Alaska’s RFM program, after initially being certified in April 2011. The fishery is also certified by the Marine Stewardship Council’s program. The fishery client is the Fishing Vessel Owners Association, based in Seattle.

In the more than 125 management standards used in RFM sustainability certification, the Alaska halibut fishery received highest marks in all but one: observer coverage. Although National Marine Fisheries Service changed the federal observer program to include the halibut longline fleet in 2013, the new plan, which was paid for by the halibut industry, was fraught with problems. Many longline vessels cannot support an additional observer onboard without significant impact on their crew size and efficiency, so have preferred electronic monitoring (EM) as an alternative data and observation source.

The assessment report includes details for what it describes as a “minor” non-conformance.

“For 2016, 58 fixed-gear vessels 40-57.5 ft LOA will [sic] participate in the EM selection pool and will carry EM systems as described in the EM Plan. The Observer Program Annual Report (NMFS 2015a) and the Observer Program Supplement Environmental Assessment (NMFS 2015b) have highlighted the data gaps caused by not having any observer information on vessels less than 40 ft LOA. In 2014, vessels less than 40 ft took about 20% (in value) of the longline halibut catch in Alaska (Fissel et al. 2015). NMFS recommended in its 2016 Deployment Plan138 that vessels less than 40ft LOA be considered for electronic monitoring in the future, and there are plans to partially implement EM in this sector in 2017.”

Details of the assessment can be found in the Final Assessment Report.

For more information on Alaska RFM certification, visit here.

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

Alaskan Cod Successfully Passes Third Annual Audit Against RFM Standard

October 12th, 2016 — The Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute (ASMI) announced that the Alaska cod fishery successfully completed its third annual surveillance audit against the Alaska Responsible Fisheries Management (RFM) certification.

Each year, an RFM certified fishery is audited against the standard.  The audit reviews any changes to the fishery’s management structure that occurred since the last time the fishery was audited. The Alaskan cod fishery was originally certified against the RFM standard in April 2013.

These audits verify that any changes to an RFM certified fishery fall within the scheme’s criteria. The surveillance assessment was conducted according to the Global Trust Certification procedures for Alaska Responsible Fisheries Management Certification using the Alaska RFM Standard V1.2 fundamental clauses as the assessment framework.

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

Alaska salmon prices seem to be rebounding

May 16, 2016 — Alaska’s salmon season has started with optimism, a far cry from the bleak feelings a year ago when the fishery was blown asunder by a perfect storm of depressed currencies, salmon backlogs and global markets awash with farmed fish.

Prices to fishermen fell nearly 41 percent between 2013 and 2015, years which produced the two largest Alaska salmon harvests on record.

But in the past six months, those trends have turned around.

“Based on current market conditions and harvest expectations, it appears probable that prices will begin improving in 2016 and there is an excellent chance total ex-vessel (dockside) value will rebound in 2017,” said the Salmon Market Information Service report just released by the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute. A salmon industry analysis, data on harvest and a forecast are parts of the report.

Read the full story at the Alaska Dispatch News

Congressman Young Takes Up Misleading Pollock and Crab Labeling Fight in U.S. House

October 22, 2015 — WASHINGTON – The following was released by the Office of Congressman Don Young:

Alaska Congressman Don Young and Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler (R-WA) today introduced bipartisan legislation to change the market name of “Alaska pollock” to “pollock.” The bill would amend the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act to eliminate confusion for consumers, and stem the flood of mislabeled fish from less sustainable fisheries that harms U.S. pollock fishermen and the businesses they support.

Under current Food and Drug Administration (FDA) labeling standards, pollock caught in any part of the world can label be labeled as “Alaskan pollock.” Approximately 40% of the fish labeled “Alaskan pollock” available to American consumers is caught in the Russian pollock fishery.

“The U.S. fishing industry and the American consumer deserve this commonsense change to the pollock name,” said Congressman Don Young. “There’s no reason why foreign caught pollock should be disguised as Alaskan, especially given the significant management efforts we’ve taken in the North Pacific to create the most sustainable fishery in the world. No other nation can replicate the quality and care we put into Alaskan seafood and the FDA’s labeling standards should reflect that. Unfortunately, an Act of Congress is the only immediate way to keep foreign caught pollock from degrading our U.S. seafood markets.”

“Americans want to know where their food is coming from. This bill will give American consumers more transparency by closing this FDA loophole that allows Russian pollock from Chinese processors to flood our markets under the label ‘Alaskan pollock,’” said Rep. Herrera Beutler. “If a mom in Vancouver wants to purchase fish caught sustainably and packaged truthfully, she should have that choice. With this legislative fix, we’re also ensuring that pollock fishing and processing businesses located in Southwest Washington and throughout the U.S. aren’t having to compete with deceptively labeled products from far less sustainable fisheries.”

A consumer survey conducted by GMA Research revealed that:

  • 77% of participants said that if they saw seafood labeled as “Alaska Pollock,” they would think the seafood is harvested in Alaska.
  • 81% of participants said they would feel misled if they purchased seafood labeled as “Alaska pollock” and found out it was harvested from somewhere else.

The Alaskan pollock fishery is the nation’s largest food fishery in the United States, producing 1.3 million tons annually and accounting for 11 percent of American fresh and frozen fish intake. The Alaskan pollock fishery is carefully managed for sustainability, safety and environmental impact.

The bipartisan legislation also works to resolve an outstanding nomenclature petition to the FDA, filed by the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute (ASMI) and the Alaska Golden King Crab Coalition in 2014, to change the Brown King Crab name (considered obsolete and sometimes confusing in U.S. markets) to the acceptable market name of Golden King Crab.

Companion legislation was introduced in the U.S. Senate by Senators Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) and Maria Cantwell (D-WA).

Read the release here