The Bering Sea Crabbers along with Frequentz – a traceability company – have released a white paper on IUU crab.

The group has argued that large amounts of IUU crab entering the US have cut into the market value of Alaskan crab, although the amounts vary considerably from year to year.

The white paper supports three solutions that would cut back IUU crab even further.

The first is for the Senate, which has ratified the Port States Treaty, to pass the implementing legislation, which is necessary before the US ratification can be official. Ultimately, this would bring the policing practices of the rest of the world much closer to the standards that already exist in the U.S. and make it more difficult for illegal product to enter the supply chain and diminish the value of product caught by U. S. fishermen.

Secondly, the crabbers want to see country of origin labeling required on cooked king crab. Although many retailers disclose whether their king crab is a product of USA or Russia, because it is a cooked product normally sold unpackaged it does not fall under the same Country of Origin labeling rules as other seafood. Crabbers would like mandatory country of origin requirements on all forms of crab.

Read the full story at SeafoodNews.com