Saving Seafood

Trident works to bring wild Alaska seafood direct to Chinese consumers

May 30, 2018 — There’s a lot of Alaska-born seafood in China. Walk into any McDonald’s and pick up a fish sandwich and it’s all wild Alaska pollock.

Trident Seafoods has been selling fish in China for 20 years.

Still, the average Chinese consumer probably doesn’t recognize Trident’s three-pronged logo. That’s because they’ve been selling seafood primarily as a commodity in China, not in stores and markets.

But that might change soon. The company sent a team with Alaska Gov. Bill Walker’s trade mission to China and that team is working on a new strategy.

Trident isn’t new to China. They’ve got operations in the port cities of Dalian, Qingdao and Weihai.

What’s new is the way they want to promote and sell their fish here.

Jeff Welbourn is Senior Director of the Chinese Business Office for Trident Seafoods. On a bus trip across Beijing, Welbourn talks strategy for getting their products into some new markets.

Read the full story at Alaska Public Media

 

US fishermen’s catch up in value, volume declines slightly

November 1, 2017 — The federal government says American fisheries grew by a little more than 2 percent in value last year, even with fishermen bringing slightly less fish to shore.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says in an annual report released Wednesday that U.S. commercial fishermen brought 9.6 billion pounds (4.3 billion kilograms) of seafood to land last year — down 1.5 percent from 2015.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the Washington Post

 

Calculating the value of Alaska seafood

October 26, 2017 — Alaska has produced more than 169 billion pounds of fish since statehood was granted to the Last Frontier in 1959, and the Alaskan seafood industry brings in enough product annually to feed every person in the world a serving of Alaskan seafood.

These and other statistics relating to the seafood industry in the state can be found in “The Economic Value of Alaska’s Seafood Industry,” a joint report by The Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute (ASMI) and the McDowell Group, a research and consulting firm, which details the impact of Alaska’s seafood economy. This is the second collaboration over the past two years between the groups.

The report is meant to provide statistics and figures on employment in the industry, labor income, seafood value, exports, and other related subjects. From fun facts (Alaska’s commercial fishing fleet is comprised of about 9,400 boats, which would measure 70 miles if they were lined up from bow to stern in a straight line) to precise tax numbers, the report is a gold mine of research about the Alaskan seafood industry.

The report reveals that in 2016, Alaska’s seafood harvest of 5.6 billion pounds had a total value of USD 1.7 billion (EUR 1.4 billion). Processors in Alaska produced 2.7 billion pounds of Alaska seafood products last year, valued at USD 4.2 billion (EUR 3.6 billion). The overall impact of Alaska’s seafood industry on the U.S. economy is USD 5.4 billion (EUR 4.6 billion) in direct output – that’s value that can be directly associated with fishing, processing, distribution, and retail. Such a figure doesn’t include USD 7.3 billion (EUR 6.2 billion) in additional multiplier effects generated as industry income circulates throughout the U.S. economy, the report said.

Read the full story at Seafood Source 

 

Eat more seafood for your health, right? Actually, it’s not that simple.

May 20, 2017 — The Dietary Guidelines for Americans strongly suggest that adults eat two servings of seafood, or a total of eight ounces, per week. Fish and shellfish are an important source of protein, vitamins and minerals, and they are low in saturated fat. But seafood’s claim to fame is its omega-3 fatty acids, including docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), which are beneficial to health.

Omega-3s are today’s darling of the nutrition world. Many observational studies have indeed shown them to help alleviate a range of conditions including high blood pressure, stroke, certain cancers, asthma, Type 2 diabetes and Alzheimer’s disease. However, there isn’t complete scientific agreement on the health benefits of omega-3s, especially when considering the lack of strong evidence from randomized clinical trials, which are the gold standard for research.

So what exactly is the evidence that seafood is good for your health?

The strongest evidence exists for a cardiovascular health benefit, and from consuming seafood (not just fish oil), which is significant because heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States.

One of the things I research is Americans’ meat and protein consumption. Though many of us are concerned about getting enough protein, most Americans actually get more than enough protein.

Rather, the problem is that most of us don’t include enough variety of protein sources in our diet. We eat a lot of poultry and red meat but not as much seafood, nuts, beans, peas and seeds. For seafood in particular, consumption is estimated at about 2.7 ounces of seafood a week per person, well below the recommended eight ounces.

So the solution might seem simple: Increase public-health messaging along the lines of “Seafood is healthy. Eat more of it.” But it’s a bit more complicated than that.

Read the full story at the Washington Post

FDA: only Alaska pollock is ‘Alaska pollock’

January 21, 2016 — Alaska pollock is having a good 2016 so far, with boosted quotas, favorable certifications, and a federal rule that will give Alaska an edge over Russia.

“I have long fought to resolve this issue, and I am thrilled that this change has been made to protect both our fisheries and consumers,” said Sen. Lisa Murkowski in a statement. “Alaska is the gold standard of fish management. It is disingenuous and harmful to our fishing industry for Russian-harvested pollock to be passed off as Alaskan. Now consumers can be confident that pollock labeled as ‘Alaskan’ is caught only in our state’s healthy, sustainable waters.

Pollock is the largest fishery in the U.S., producing 2.9 billions pounds and accounting for 11 percent of U.S. seafood intake. In the North Pacific management region, pollock accounted for $406 million worth of landings.

The pollock season began Jan. 20 with an increased quota of 1.34 million metric tons, thanks to a December 2015 North Pacific Fishery Management Council aimed at curbing halibut bycatch in other groundfish sectors. This is 30,000 metric tons more than the year before.

Read the full story at the Alaska Journal of Commerce