Saving Seafood

Maine elver fishing industry had one of its most successful seasons ever

May 10, 2022 — Maine’s baby eel fishing industry is wrapping up one of the most successful seasons in its history.

Maine is the only state in the country with a significant fishery for baby eels, which are also called elvers. The elvers are sold to Asian aquaculture companies that raise them to maturity for use as food.

Fishermen have just about tapped out the season’s quota of about 9,300 pounds of eels, state regulators said. The eels were worth nearly $20 million at the docks, with a per-pound price of $2,162, regulators said Monday.

The per-pound price was the third highest in state history, and the total value was at least the fifth highest, state records show.

Read the full story at News Center Maine

 

China’s seafood production, consumption continue to grow

December 9, 2021 — China’s seafood production will total 65.7 million metric tons (MT) in 2021, and will increase to 66.1 million MT in 2022, according to a Chinese research consultancy.

China’s overall seafood output rose from 64.5 million MT in 2017 to 65.4 million MT in 2020, according to Zhong Shang Chan Ye Research Agency, which also trades as China Commerce and Industry Research and Ask CI Consulting.

Read the full story at SeafoodSource

 

Pope urges better protection of fishermen’s human rights

July 15, 2019 — Pope Francis is encouraging efforts to safeguard the human rights of fishermen and mariners.

Francis tweeted that he is praying for them and their families and noted that Sunday is a day dedicated to seafarers and fishermen. Francis tweeted: “I encourage every effort to protect and safeguard their human rights.”

Separately, the Vatican issued a prayer to mark the day, noting that seafarers endure difficult working conditions, including long stretches away from home and sometimes not getting paid, and face threats of piracy or terrorist attacks.

Read the full story at the Associated Press at the Star Tribune

Despite trade war obstacles, seafood producers find growing opportunity in Asia

March 20, 2019 — Seafood producers that have achieved meaningful sales volumes in domestic markets have been enhancing revenues and sparking enterprise growth through exports and brand penetration in foreign markets, especially Southeast Asia.

In this regard, there are numerous opportunities to broaden sales of already popular products, satisfy demand for products that may not have a thriving market at home, and introduce new species and value-added products to offshore audiences eager to try new seafood options.

Of course, identifying export opportunities and establishing a sustainable presence demands considerable effort on the part of the exporter. Belle Cove, a producer of Maine lobster, has found that North American shellfish, including lobster and snow crab, are very popular in Asian markets.

“The biggest challenge is identifying and qualifying prospective importers,” said Grace Phillips, the sales director for Belle Cove. “Those companies may not have a website or much information on the internet, so it can be difficult to do any meaningful research. We participate in trade missions and exhibit at trade events to meet pre-screened buyers.”

The Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute ASMI has taken a more proactive and informative approach. By positioning ASMI-backed products – including salmon, pollock, crab, and cod – as sustainably managed and wild-harvested, and subsequently promoting these attributes to different market sectors (consumer, foodservice, retail), the organization has successfully maintained a presence in Asian markets, primarily Japan and China, for more than 20 years.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

 

Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike reneges on Tsukiji promises

March 6, 2019 — Without apology or explanation – or even acknowledgement – Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike has reversed her promise to redevelop the city’s famed Tsukiji fish market as a food-related theme park. She now backs a plan to build an international conference and exhibition hall complex at the site, which will include a luxury hotel, waterfront open space, restaurants, and docks.

Critics are demanding Koike explain her reversal to the former tenants, who were promised the right to move back into the old market if they wished. Newspaper editorials and television commentators have lambasted Koike’s action and her refusal to admit she changed her mind on the decision.

Vendors strongly opposed the high-profile closure of Tsukiji and their forced move to the new Toyosu marketing in October 2018. In addition to concerns over polluted soil at the new site, there was strong opposition from many who wanted to preserve the tradition and living history of the old site.

Just before the Tokyo governmental election, on 20 June, 2017, in order to gain acceptance from market tenants and resolve the thorny issue, Koike championed the phrase, “Protect Tsukiji, utilize Toyosu!”

“I promise to help businesses when they decide to return to Tsukiji,” Koike said at the time.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

 

Rich and Poor Divide: Which Nations Benefit From Global Fishing?

August 6, 2018 —With food security and equity growing concerns in global fisheries – and one-third of commercial fish stocks being exploited at unsustainable levels, according to the United Nations – researchers have been tapping new data to get a better grasp of exactly who fishes where and how much they catch.

A paper published this week in the journal Science Advances found that rich nations are catching the lion’s share of the ocean’s fish, even in the waters of lower-income countries. The estimates feed into a bigger debate over how the wealth of the seas could be distributed fairly and sustainably.

In their research, the authors analyzed global fishing activity data to conclude that 97 percent of industrial fishing they were able to track in international waters – the high seas – is conducted by vessels flying the flag of high- and upper-middle-income nations. The vast majority was from five nations: China, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea and Spain. And even within the territorial waters of developing countries, 78 percent of industrial fishing was done by wealthier nations, the scientists found. Overall, industrial fishing vessels, defined by the study as those at least 24m long (80ft), accounted for about three-fourths of global catch of wild fish from the sea, the authors estimated.

“We suspected before we started that we would see something like this, but quantifying it with numbers moves the conversation forward and allows people to start asking questions about where their countries’ fish is going,” said Douglas McCauley, a marine ecologist at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and a director of the Benioff Ocean Initiative. McCauley led the study with Caroline Jablonicky, a scientist at the Initiative and the university’s Marine Science Institute.

Read the full story at Oceans Deeply

Technavio report: Global aquaculture market’s growth accelerating through 2022

July 23, 2018 — The global aquaculture market is experiencing robust growth, which is likely to accelerate through the year 2022, according to a report from the market research firm Technavio.

The report, “Global Aquaculture Market 2018-2022,” presents an analysis of the global aquaculture market based on end-users (commercial and residential); by product (freshwater fish, crustacean, mollusks, diadromous fish, and others); by environment (freshwater, marine water, and brackish water); by culture (net pen culture, floating-cage culture, pond culture, and rice field culture); by geography (the Americas, APAC, and EMEA); and by market, organized by distribution channel.

The report attributes aquaculture’s rising success to the world’s growing human population, its hunger for seafood, and the decline of the captured fish industry.

“Globalization, which has led to improved logistics systems and trade facilities, provides a favorable environment for the growth of the aquaculture market,” the report said. “The growth of the retail sector also drives the market.”

The report predicts a compound annual growth rate for the global aquaculture industry of 4.46 percent for the five-year period between 2018 and 2022. In 2018, the report predicts a CAGR of 3.72; a CAGR of 4.12 percent in 2019; 4.50 percent in 2020; 4.83 percent in 2021; and 5.15 percent in 2022.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

IUU vessel tracker calls on more countries to share Indonesia’s lead, share data

June 22, 2018 — Indonesia is a model that other countries should follow, according to a leading campaigner advocating for the sharing of fishing data to reduce illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing.

By making its vessel monitoring system (VMS) data publicly available, the country has increased transparency, said Tony Long, CEO of Global Fishing Watch, who was speaking at the 2018 SeaWeb Seafood Summit. The Indonesian fisheries ministry, which has been battling illegal fishing in its waters, moved to share its VMS data in 2017.

Not enough countries exchange data, said Long, who wants countries to “bring data out into the open” so that vessels’ movements can be tracked and illegal fishing operators exposed. “Global Fishing Watch will take and share any tracking system,” he said.

More transparency is key to forcing vessel operators into more responsible behavior, argued Long.

“Why not reward the compliant operators when you can track them?” he said. “The worst actors will stand out by their lack of information and therefore appropriate punishments can be put in place.”

Global Fishing Watch leverages tracking systems like Oceana, Skytruth and Google as well as national systems to map global movement of vessels.

Long’s organization has also recently partnered with the US National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to track vessels using satellites the monitor lights at night. A screen grab from one such monitoring off the coast of Oman showed that AIS data is underreporting the number of vessels in the waters: The data based on the number of lights in the night sky suggested a far larger fleet at work.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Carryover frozen halibut brews competition in Alaska

June 20, 2018 — As the fleet fished on a halibut quota of 16.63 million pounds, dockside offers ranged from $4.25 to $5.50 per pound for fish 20 pounds and under to 40 pounds and up. That’s down significantly from the 2017 spread of $6.40 to $6.90 per pound when the fleet fished on a quota of 18.3 million pounds.

This year’s pricing trend flies in the face of market dynamics of years past, when diminished supplies translated to higher prices all the way through the distribution chain.

Whether the volume of supplies and price point have reached the equilibrium of what consumers will pay for a slice of halibut on their plates remains to be seen. In the meantime, Bob Alverson, manager of the Fishing Vessel Owners’ Association in Seattle, noted that processors have reported carryover inventories of frozen Pacific halibut from 2017 are competing with volumes of fresh Atlantic halibut funneling into markets along the East Coast.

The fall in ex-vessel prices for blackcod tells a slightly different story. The 2018 quota has been set at 25.8 million pounds, up from the 22.58 million pounds of 2017. Alverson noted that strong year classes of fish spawned in 2014 and 2015 have begun recruiting into the fishery — good news in the health of the resource.

However, the extra quantities of the 2- to 3-pound fish coming across the docks has precipitated decreased pricing in export markets to Japan and throughout Asia.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

World Tuna Conference: FAO providing powerful instruments to fight IUU fishing

June 5, 2018 — The 15th Infofish World Tuna Trade Conference and Exhibition opened on 28 May in Bangkok, Thailand. The three-day conference covered resources, fisheries management, markets, new technologies, food safety, sustainability, and environmental issues.

Among the sponsors was the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). Jong-Jin Kim, FAO’s deputy regional representative for Asia and the Pacific, said during his opening address that the international community now has at its disposal a number of new and powerful instruments with the potential to drastically reduce and eliminate illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing, including the FAO Port State Measures Agreement (PSMA), the FAO Voluntary Guidelines on Catch Documentation Schemes and the FAO Global Record of Fishing Vessels.

FAO Fishery Planning Analyst for Asia and the Pacific Cassandra De Young explained the various programs to SeafoodSource.

The 2009 FAO Agreement on Port State Measures (PSMA) is the first binding international agreement to specifically target IUU fishing. Its objective is to prevent, deter, and eliminate IUU fishing by preventing vessels engaged in IUU fishing from using ports and landing their catches. Entering into force in June 2016, 54 States and the European Union have joined forces by becoming Parties to the PSMA, as of May 2018.

FAO Voluntary Guidelines on Catch Documentation Schemes were officially adopted by the FAO Conference in July 2017 and, with seafood trade at record highs and consumer demand still rising, CDS are increasingly seen as an effective tool. For example, since 2010, the European Union has used a CDS that covers all fish shipments imported into the bloc from overseas; and in 2016, the United States announced its own scheme, the Seafood Import Monitoring Program (SIMP). In 2017, ASEAN adopted the voluntary ASEAN Catch Documentation Scheme for Marine Capture Fisheries to enhance intra-regional and international trade of fish and fish products.

Read the full story at Seafood Source