Saving Seafood

Cod Fishermen Upend Carveout for Alaskan Villages

March 22, 2019 — A federal judge cut the line Thursday on the government’s effort to promote sustainable cod-processing operations in a pair of Alaskan fishing villages.

Unveiled in 2016, the new scheme carved out a portion of the Pacific cod fishery off the coast of the Aleutian Islands to be used exclusively each year by vessels that planned to process their catch onshore rather than at sea.

Pacific cod, in contrast to the much-suffering Atlantic cod, is one of the most abundant and lucrative species of groundfish harvested in the region.

Without government intervention, however, the National Marine Fishery Service argued that the Aleutian fishing communities of Adak and Atka would catch less and less cod, and struggle to compete as centers for fish processing.

Read the full story at Courthouse News Service

‘Three-fold competition’ arises for tighter cod supplies as tariffs could invert haddock price gap

January 18, 2019 — According to figures released at the National Fisheries Institute’s Global Seafood Market Conference, world cod supply is expected to decline to 1.5 million metric tons in 2019, down from 1.59 million metric tons in 2018.

Todd Clark, a founder and partner at Endeavor Seafood, an importer and marketer of frozen seafood based in Newport, Rhode Island, said that there’s a downward supply trend in both Atlantic cod, driven by reductions out of the Barents Sea, and Pacific cod, where US supply has fallen somewhat in the Bering Sea and sharply in the Gulf of Alaska.

“There’s a steady decrease in both of these resources, really,” Clark said.

Looking at Atlantic cod supply in historical perspective, the resource, at 1.3 million metric tons in 2017, has fluctuated between a low of under 1 million metric tons in 2007 and a 2.75 million metric ton high seen in 1974.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

Catch Of The Day Or Tuna From A Test Tube? How Innovation Could Change Seafood

December 10, 2018 — Massachusetts is home to the nation’s top fishing port. More than $300 million in seafood lands in New Bedford every year.

But the kinds of seafood are changing.

Rising ocean temperatures are driving southern fish species into our coastal waters. Today’s there are strict catch limits on Massachusetts’ state fish, the Atlantic cod. Scallops are now the New Bedford fishing industry’s primary source of revenue.

In response, local researchers are developing artificial intelligence to promote smarter fishing. And private companies are working on alternatives — including bioengineered fish and even fish flesh grown in laboratories.

Read the full story at WBUR

Acid threatens almighty cod

November 30, 2018 —Climate change could devastate a major northern hemisphere fishing industry, modelling finds.

For cod facing the effects of climate change, it’s not the heat but the acid that threatens.

Ocean acidification – caused by atmospheric carbon dioxide entering the water and lowering its pH value – means there’s a narrower thermal window for the success of two species of northern cod, meaning that one of the world’s largest fisheries will be threatened if global temperature increases are not limited to 1.5 degrees Celsius, a new study finds.

The researchers, led by Flemming Dahlke of the Alfred Wegener Institute in Germany, find that embryos of cod are able to survive only within a limited temperature range, and that the range lessens in more acidic conditions.

The researchers predict that Atlantic cod (Gadus morhuai) would be unable to spawn below the Arctic Circle by 2100 under a “business as usual” emissions scenario. The polar cod (Boreogadus saida) faces an even more perilous future, since it not only needs colder water, but also depends on ocean ice for its habitat.

Read the full story at Cosmos Magazine

Here’s how climate change will impact your part of the country

November 27, 2018 — Northeast:

  • There will be shorter winters and longer summers.
  • There will be a decline of species that support some of the most valuable and iconic fisheries, including Atlantic cod, Atlantic sea scallops and American lobsters.
  • Expect approximately 650 excess deaths per year caused by extreme heat by 2050
  • Health risks from contaminated flood waters. For example, because much of the historical development of industry and commerce in New England occurred along rivers, canals, coasts, and other bodies of water, these areas often have a higher density of contaminated sites, waste management facilities, and petroleum storage facilities that are potentially vulnerable to flooding.

Northwest:

  • Ocean/water warming: Increasing ocean temperatures and acidity impact fish survival, the report states. As water temperatures continue to rise, negative impacts on fisheries are expected to increase. With increased stream temperature projections, the report predicts a 22% reduction in salmon habitat in Washington by the end of the century if emissions continue to release at a higher rate. That kind of salmon population loss would correlate to a $3 billion economic loss.

Alaska:

  • The state is “warming faster than any other state” and “twice as fast as the global average since the middle of the 20th century.”
  • Devastating impact to fishing industry: Alaskan fisheries “are among the most productive and valuable in the world.” A “recent heat wave in the Gulf of Alaska, which led to an inability of the fishery to harvest the Pacific cod quota in 2016 and 2017 and to an approximately 80% reduction in the allowable quota in 2018.”

Read the full story at CNN

Rhode Island Environmentalists: Proposed Changes To Fishery Management ‘Could Threaten Years Of Progress’

July 19, 2018 — A local environmental nonprofit is speaking out against proposed changes to federal fishing regulations outlined under the Magnuson-Stevens Act.

The law has regulated fisheries in the U.S. since 1976. It was amended in 1996 and 2007 to help rebuild fish populations and prevent overfishing.

The U.S. House of Representatives recently passed a partisan bill with largely Republican support called H.R. 200 – Strengthening Fishing Communities and Increasing Flexibility in Fisheries Management Act that could give regional fishery councils more freedom to set catch limits.

Jennifer Felt, ocean campaign director for Conservation Law Foundation, said the change could threaten years of progress.

“These new regulations established by this bill would give the (management councils) the legal flexibility to set even looser standards, and we know that this will only compound the problem for fish like Atlantic Cod that are already on the brink,” Felt said.

Read the full story at Rhode Island Public Radio

Live Cam May Show True Status of Atlantic Cod Fishery

October 18, 2017 — Atlantic cod, New England’s most iconic fish, has been reported at historic lows for years, but fishermen hope a new video monitoring technique will prove there are more of the fish than federal surveyors believe.

Ronnie Borjeson, who has been fishing for more than 40 years, says the federal surveys don’t match up with what fishermen are seeing. “I don’t care if you’re a gillnetter, a hook and line guy, a trawl guy,” he said, “there’s codfish everywhere up there. Everywhere. You can’t get away from them.”

Borjeson helped test a video rig designed by researchers at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth that allows them to record fish underwater and count them on the video later. With this rig, scientists can sample a larger area in the same amount of time and hopefully improve federal estimates of how many cod are left.

According to the National Marine Fisheries Service, cod are overfished, and in 2014, the spawning population reached its lowest numbers ever recorded. The once-booming cod fishery has been subject to increasingly strict regulations since the 1990s, forcing commercial fishermen to target less-profitable species while they wait for the cod population to recover.

Read the full story at PBS

Using Fishermen’s Ecological Knowledge to map Atlantic cod spawning grounds on Georges Bank

August 11, 2017 — The following abstract is from a research paper on Atlantic cod spawning grounds on Georges Bank. It was written by Gregory R. DeCelles, David Martins, Douglas R. Zemeckis, and Steven X. Cadrin, all from the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth School for Marine Science and Technology in New Bedford, Massachusetts. It was published in the July-August 2017 issue of ICES Journal of Marine Science:

The spawning dynamics of Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua) on Georges Bank and Nantucket Shoals are not well understood. To address this uncertainty, we combined Fishermen’s Ecological Knowledge (FEK) with traditional scientific data to develop a more holistic understanding of cod spawning on Georges Bank. Data from historical reports, trawl surveys, fisheries observers, and ichthyoplankton surveys were used to describe the spatial and temporal distribution of cod spawning activity. We also collected FEK regarding cod spawning dynamics through semi-structured interviews (n = 40). The fishermen had detailed knowledge of the spatial and temporal distribution of cod spawning, and identified persistent fine-scale (i.e. <50 km2) spawning grounds that were often associated with specific habitat features, including spawning grounds that were previously unreported in the scientific literature. The spawning seasons and locations identified by fishermen generally agreed with information from traditional scientific data, but it was evident that seasonal scientific surveys lack the spatial and temporal resolution needed to fully characterize the distribution of cod spawning activity. Our results will help inform management measures designed to promote the rebuilding of Georges Bank cod, and also provide a basis for further investigations of cod spawning dynamics and stock structure.

Read the full paper at ICES Journal of Marine Science

HILDE LEE: Cod has special place in nation’s food history

July 11, 2017 — I have a certain curiosity about food, particularly seafood. I am not shy about asking, “Is the fish fresh? When did it come in?”

Thus, one day I got the definitive answer from one a man at one of our local grocery store fish counters. “Yes, the fish is fresh and we get it frozen. I only thaw out what I think will sell daily. Thus, the fish is very fresh.” Well, it may be fresh, but it was frozen. After all, we are not on the seacoast.

I like cod and the various members of the cod family — haddock, hake, pollock and Atlantic cod. The flesh of these fish is usually firm, making it ideal for a variety of dishes — broiled, baked, and stewed. Cod is also a good receiver of sauces, particularly tomato-based ones with herbs.

Just like the bison and the eagle, cod can be considered a symbol of America. It was here even before the first settlers came to New England, where cod was plentiful.

When Giovanni Caboto sailed from Bristol, England, on May 2, 1497, he, like Columbus, was searching for a western sea route to Asia. But Caboto — known as John Cabot, a Venetian navigator sponsored by King Henry VII — returned from his first voyage not with exotic spices, but tales of the sea. He told of the many fishes that could be caught simply by lowering weighted baskets into the water.

Even before Cabot’s reports of great schools of cod along the northern shores of the new continent, fishermen from Scandinavian areas had spent any years fishing the North Atlantic.

By 1602, Bartholomew Gosnold ventured south beyond Nova Scotia seeking sassafras — believed to be a cure for syphilis — but found French and Portuguese fishermen harvesting numerous fish along the Great Banks, an area 350 miles of coast south of Newfoundland. There, the cold Labrador Current and the Gulf Stream joined, creating ideal conditions for a variety of fish. Gosnold named the land, which jutted out to sea, Cape Cod.

Read the full story at The Daily Progress

Cod Fishing Catches Plummet in Waters off New England

March 24, 2017 — ROCKPORT, Maine — The cod isn’t so sacred in New England anymore.

The fish-and-chips staple was once a critical piece of New England’s fishing industry, but catch is plummeting to all-time lows in the region. The decline of the fishery has made the U.S. reliant on foreign cod, and cod fish fillets and steaks purchased in American supermarkets and restaurants are now typically caught by Norway, Russia or Iceland in the north Atlantic.

In Maine, which is home to the country’s second-largest Atlantic cod fishery, the dwindling catch has many wondering if cod fishing is a thing of the past.

“It’s going to be more and more difficult for people to make this work,” said Maggie Raymond, executive director of the Associated Fisheries of Maine.

State records say 2016 was historically bad for cod fishing in Maine. Fishermen brought less than 170,000 pounds (77,110 kilograms) of the fish to land in the state last year.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at U.S. News & World Report