Saving Seafood

MASSACHUSETTS: Blue Harvest implements covid-19 safeguards

May 4, 2020 — Blue Harvest Fisheries adopted new safeguards to help protect workers from covid-19, including plexiglass enclosures on the processing line in its New Bedford, Mass., plant.

The company said Thursday that no workers have contracted the illness on the job, but two had tested positive for covid-19 over an 11-day period after apparently contracting it outside of work. The company reported those cases to the city Board of Health.

The company says it had already adopted a 25-point protocol for covid-19 “based on emerging best practices and had arranged for an independent company to conduct deep cleaning and disinfecting even before the anticipated closure order arrived.”

After closing at the end of business April 23, Blue Harvest staff working around the clock over the weekend installed three-sided plexiglass separations between workers’ stations on the  line, to improve social distancing on the plant floor before operations resumed Monday.

Common surfaces in the plant are cleaned frequently, followed by regular deep cleaning of the entire facility, according to Blue Harvest. All employees are required to wear facemasks and face shields on the production floor.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

MASSACHUSETTS: Blue Harvest Implements Comprehensive New COVID-19 Protection Measures; Offers Employees Hazard Pay

May 1, 2020 — NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — The following was released by Blue Harvest Fisheries:

Blue Harvest Fisheries is committed to the safety and well-being of its employees, and to the safety and quality of its seafood products, above all else. In addition to existing precautions the company initiated, which were in compliance with guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and other Federal agencies, Blue Harvest has implemented a series of comprehensive new precautionary measures. Additionally, although there is no evidence that any employees have contracted the COVID-19 virus on the job, Blue Harvest will offer its hourly workers an additional $1.00-per-hour hazard pay for the duration of the state of emergency as declared by the Governor of Massachusetts.

When Blue Harvest learned that two employees had tested positive for COVID-19 over an 11-day period, having apparently contracted the illness outside of the workplace, Blue Harvest voluntarily reported this information to the New Bedford Board of Health. Prior to this, Blue Harvest had already created and began implementing a 25-point protocol for COVID-19 based on emerging best practices, and had arranged for an independent company to conduct deep cleaning and disinfecting even before the anticipated closure order arrived.

The company closed at the end of the workday last Thursday. Working around the clock over the weekend, Blue Harvest staff built 3-sided plexiglass separations to improve social distancing measures on the plant floor. Operations resumed as normal on Monday.

Read the full release here

MASSACHUSETTS: Blue Harvest Responds to COVID-19 Situation; Plans to Reopen Monday

April 24, 2020 — In an interview with SeafoodSource, Blue Harvest President and CEO Keith Decker said the first employee tested positive on 14 April, having gone on medical leave on 3 April. A second employee tested positive 20 April in what Decker called an unrelated case. A third case is suspected but not confirmed, Decker said.

In response, Blue Harvest “immediately notified the city and Board of Health proactively,” Decker said.

“We have been in close contact throughout the week, and it’s standard protocol to notify the board of health if you have a positive diagnosis,” he said.

Blue Harvest had already arranged for a third-party contractor to sanitize the facility prior to the issuance of a cease and desist letter, and that cleaning took place Thursday, 23 April. The plant is scheduled to reopen on Monday, 27 April, Decker said.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

MASSACHUSETTS: New Bedford fisheries hopeful as restaurants adapt to COVID-19 crisis

April 7, 2020 — Commercial fishermen depend on restaurants to survive.

Keith Decker, President of Blue Harvest Fisheries in New Bedford, says demand for seafood is down by 65-percent, and much of that is because many restaurants closed down at the beginning of the crisis.

Decker says blue and yellow fin tuna have been hit hard. When their last tuna vessel came in right after the coronavirus shock, “there were no buyers for the fish. That market dried up to zero.” The company inevitably had to sell off the fish for a fraction of its price or freeze it.

And while it’s unlikely high end sushi restaurants will be opening up anytime soon, some fishermen are hopeful. Wayne Reichle, owner of a scallop fishery in New Bedford, says there could be an uptick in demand for less expensive seafood.

“Restaurants are starting to re-open after they figured out they could do customer pick-up or home delivery,” Reichle says. “It’s taken two or three weeks but people sort of figured out how to continue supplying meals and keeping fresh seafood in the supply chain.”

Read the full story at The Public’s Radio

Seafood suppliers forced to adjust to rapidly changing market conditions

March 30, 2020 — U.S. seafood suppliers are working to quickly shift from foodservice to retail and direct-to-consumer channels as they deal with the immediate impact of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) on their businesses.

Filer, Idaho-based Riverence Holdings LLC, which acquired farmed trout producer Clear Springs Foods in February, is realizing a significant loss in business due to its heavy focus on the foodservice sector, according to Riverence Director of Communications Gabe Watkins.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

MASSACHUSETTS: Cape Cod fishermen counting on federal stimulus funds

March 30, 2020 — The Donna Marie was at sea when Gov. Charlie Baker closed restaurants to all but takeout food March 14 to help slow the spread of the new coronavirus.

Owner Chris King called his 60-foot steel fishing vessel and the captain reported he had fish and lobsters onboard. They were able to sell those off, including a fire sale of lobster the next day at King’s fish market in Orleans. They then switched the boat over to scallop gear for the opening of that season April 1.

When restaurants shut down almost overnight, the Cape Cod and New England fishing industry scrambled to adapt. Switching to another fishery won’t be enough to weather this crisis, as the price paid to fishermen tumbled like the stock market in recent weeks.

Industry leaders on a March 20 conference call with state Division of Marine Fisheries Acting Director Daniel McKiernan estimated that 70% of all seafood sold in Massachusetts is consumed in restaurants. Especially hard-hit were the “luxury” seafood species such as lobster, scallops, swordfish and tuna favored by diners.

“They are collapsing. It’s real,” Keith Decker, CEO of New Bedford-based Blue Harvest Fisheries, said of prices. “This is having a profound impact on the seafood industry.”

Read the full story at the Cape Cod Times

New England restaurants to buy 3m lbs of haddock from Blue Harvest

March 27, 2020 — Ninety Nine Restaurant and Pub, a Woburn, Massachusetts-based chain with 105 locations, has upped its commitment to haddock in its summer menu, and that’s good news for Blue Harvest Fisheries, the Gloucester (Massachusetts) Times reports.

The chain will buy 750,000 pounds of fresh haddock landed in Gloucester and another 2.25 million lbs of frozen haddock, according to the article, which reports that the combined 3m lbs is roughly 20% of the haddock caught commercially in New England and the rest of the United States.

Much of the fish is now being caught in the Gulf of Maine by vessels previously owned by harvester Jim Odlin, from Portland, Maine, landed in Gloucester, and then trucked to Blue Harvest’s recently built New Bedford processing facility, according to the article. Previously the fish was provided by Gloucester Seafood Processing, a subsidiary of US seafood importer and wholesaler Mazzetta.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

Blue Harvest follows Nielsen COVID-19 advice, promotes vertical integration, local fish

March 25, 2020 — Blue Harvest Fisheries, a New Bedford, Massachusetts-based groundfish and scallop harvester and processor that’s recently gone through some considerable expansion, is following the coronavirus-related advice of the consumer survey giant Nielsen Company.

It’s promoting itself in New England as a vertically integrated company and a local source of seafood.

Many retailers and foodservice companies in the eastern US have opted for imported fresh seafood from Iceland and Norway, or previously frozen product from Iceland, Norway or China in recent years, Blue Harvest noted in a press release issued Tuesday, adding:

“But right here in our local New England waters, we have a tremendous natural resource that is underfished and underutilized in our haddock, ocean perch, and Atlantic pollock stocks. Given the proximity of these stocks to our harbors, markets and transportation infrastructure, there is no risk of supply interruption from disruption of air transport from Europe, or ocean transport of twice-frozen product from China. And there is no risk of reduced availability and resulting price increases from a lack of air freight capacity.”

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

Blue Harvest rolls out frozen groundfish, scallop line just in advance of Boston show

February 28, 2020 — Fresh from its acquisition of a dozen groundfish vessels, Blue Harvest Fisheries is rolling out a new line of branded retail products to be sold quick frozen and packaged in 16-ounce re-closable bags.

The new products, which include wild-caught Atlantic scallops, pollock, ocean perch and haddock, arrive just in time to be showcased at the Boston, Massachusetts, seafood show.

Blue Harvest, which is based in New Bedford, Massachusetts, 59 miles south of the city hosting Seafood Expo North America, March 15-17, says its new offerings meet “the growing demand by consumers for all-natural, sustainably caught and locally harvested wild seafood”. They are to be sourced from Marine Stewardship Council-certified fisheries “in local US waters” and “100% traceable from fleet to table”.

And even better, they are to be processed in the US, as Blue Harvest plans to rely on its newly completed SQF-certified, 160,000 square foot plant on New Bedford’s waterfront. The company spent millions to build the facility, which comes with six high-capacity processing lines, direct offload capability, two cold storage areas and 700 feet of dock space.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

Carlos Rafael’s boats set to sail again with new owners

February 27, 2020 — Several boats once owned by disgraced fishing mogul Carlos Rafael, infamous in the region for being nicknamed the “Codfather,” will once again set sail, thanks to new management.

Blue Harvest Fisheries has bought several of the boats that became disused due to Rafael’s conviction for ignoring fishing quotas and limits, as well as smuggling profits overseas. Rafael was sentenced to four years in prison and can never run a fishing operation ever again.

The company says its acquisition will help keep locals employed on the New Bedford waterfront and maintain the tradition that made it the Whaling City for generations of fishermen.

“Our goal here is to create jobs and opportunities for New England fisheries,” Blue Harvest CEO Keith Decker said. “Everyone, in general, is very excited about what this means to the greater New Bedford area.”

Read the full story at WPRI