Saving Seafood

Legislation would make US shrimpers eligible for fishery disaster relief

October 28, 2024 — A bill introduced by U.S. Representative Nancy Mace (R-South Carolina) would open federal fishery resource disaster funding to American fisheries devastated by foreign competition, such as the domestic shrimp sector.

“Our domestic fisheries are under assault not only from illegal and subsidized foreign competition but also from bureaucratic red tape failing to protect American industries,” Mace said in a statement. “The Protect American Fisheries Act takes a stand against these harmful practices and the inefficiencies in our system allowing them to persist. This legislation ensures we can cut through the red tape, defend the livelihoods of hardworking American fishermen, and strengthen our coastal economies by targeting illegal fishing, predatory pricing, and foreign market distortions.”

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Global Shrimp Council launching first major marketing push

September 10, 2024 — The Global Shrimp Council (GSC) has announced a marketing campaign aimed at getting more people to eat more shrimp, starting with the U.S. market.

The GSC was founded in 2023 to create a unified industry effort to significantly change market dynamics for shrimp, he said. It hired Miguel Barcenas, the creator of the highly successful “Avocados from Mexico” promotional campaign, to lead an effort to create a global shrimp marketing campaign.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Shrimpers demand action on turtle conservation standards

September 3, 2024 — The Port Arthur Area Shrimpers’ Association (“PAASA”) and the Southern Shrimp Alliance jointly requested that the U.S. Department of State (“State Department”) re-visit and suspend the certifications granted to Peru and Guatemala under Section 609 of Public Law 101-162.

Based on a law enacted in 1989, the Section 609 program is intended to ensure that shrimp harvested in a manner that harms endangered sea turtles is not imported into the United States. Under the program, the State Department, working with officials from National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (“NOAA”) Fisheries, certifies countries and/or individual fisheries as being in compliance with Section 609’s requirements and therefore eligible to supply the U.S. market with shrimp.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

North Carolina Wildlife Federation Calls for Inshore Shrimp Trawling Ban

June 13, 2024 — N.C. Wildlife Federation (NCWF) CEO Tim Gestwicki called on state legislators Tuesday to “put a stop to inshore shrimp trawling as soon as possible.”

In a news release, Gestwicki said the call is in response to the N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries (NCDMF) canceling the recreational southern flounder season for 2024.

“This is the first time that decision has had to be made, but the writing has been on the wall for a long time,” Gestwicki said. “Southern flounder and other important fisheries in North Carolina are in dire condition, and strong action is needed now to save them. While there are many reasons why southern flounder and other fisheries fall under overfished and overfishing status, one of the most significant contributing factors is bycatch from inshore shrimp trawling. That’s why allowing this practice in our sounds must stop now and shrimp trawling should only take place in coastal ocean waters.

“Bycatch is the unintended part of a catch taken because of the non-selectivity of the fishing gear used, in this case, shrimp trawls,” he continued. “The most reliable bycatch study done to date shows that for every pound of shrimp harvested in North Carolina’s waters (most of which are caught by trawls), over four pounds of non-target catch, including juvenile finfish, such as southern flounder, are discarded.”

Gestwicki said North Carolina is the only state on the Atlantic and Gulf coasts that still allows large-scale shrimp trawling in its estuaries.

Read the full article at Seafoodnews.com

ALABAMA: Seafood labeling to provide some relief Alabama shrimpers say, but more needed

May 12, 2024 — Restaurants and grocery stores will have to label their seafood as imported or domestic, after Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey signed a bill requiring it into law Friday.

“This is as bad as it’s ever been. We need help,” Kerry Mitchell, secretary of the Alabama Commercial Fishermen Association, a newly formed nonprofit advocating for fishermen in the area. “I’m happy that the government is talking about it…legislators are finally helping us.”

HB66, sponsored by State Rep. Chip Brown (R-Hollinger’s Island), requires food service establishments, like restaurants, grocery stores and delis, to label seafood as “imported,” or note the product’s country of origin. Domestic seafood can be labeled with the state of origin, U.S.A. or United States of America.

In addition, the law requires food service establishments to distinguish between “wild fish” and “farm-raised fish,” but only for fish and shrimp. These labels must be displayed conspicuously, for example on the product itself, attached to a menu or displayed on a sign. Establishments that violate these rules will be fined after the first offense.

The goal of the bill is to bring awareness to consumers about the origin of their seafood and provide relief to Alabama’s fisherman, who have been struggling with low dock prices of shrimp due to the influx of imports. Currently, foreign shrimp accounts for 94% of the U.S. market, Caine O’Rear, communications director for Mobile Baykeeper, said.

Last year, the Bayou La Batre City Council—the epicenter of Alabama’s seafood industry—declared a disaster, requesting help from Ivey for the seafood industry. “Shrimp dumping,” where foreign, typically farm-raised shrimp floods the market, causing dock prices to drop had driven the industry to the point of near-collapse.

“I’ve never seen shrimp prices this low, ever,” Amanda Schjott, a resident of the area whose husband has worked in shrimping since he was a teenager, told the Mobile Press-Register in August. “It’s a dying industry, and they’re killing it even faster.”

Brown says that the hope is that demand for domestic seafood, and particularly Alabama seafood, will increase as a result. Consumers will be more aware of the kind of seafood they’re getting, he says, and in turn, they’ll ask for the local kind.

Read the full article at AL.com

NEW YORK: The New York Seafood That’s Becoming a Status Ingredient

April 24, 2024 —  eat more than 1.5 billion pounds of shrimp a year, making it by far our most popular seafood. Most of the shrimp we buy at the fish market, grocery store, or at a restaurant comes from abroad, which carries with it a multitude of issues, from forced labor to the high carbon footprint caused by shrimp farming. When wild shrimp is US-harvested, it’s pulled in-season from the waters off Louisiana, Texas, Florida, and the Carolinas. Increasingly, though, a select number of New York restaurants are embracing local shrimp, highlighting fisheries in and around Montauk.

Long Island’s royal red shrimp is caught off Montauk at nearly 3,000 feet. “Their color is a gorgeous, gorgeous dark red; a color I’ve never seen in my life,” says lifelong fisherman, K.C. Boyle, formerly at Billion Oyster Project, now manager and an owner of the newly revived Dock to Dish, a Long Island-based seafood company owned by fishermen families and chefs that has recently revived following COVID.

Around New York, you can find local red shrimp – they’re delicate and sweet — on menus at Ilis from Mads Refslund in Greenpoint; Houseman in Tribeca; Emilio’s Ballato at the edge of Little Italy, and more. They’re relatively rare in that many restaurateurs and consumers didn’t know about them until recently, nor has there been much demand.

Read the full article at Eater