Saving Seafood

Supporting small-scale fisheries with seafood direct marketing

January 13, 2021 — For commercial fishing enterprises and other seafood businesses, alternative marketing arrangements, such as direct sales to consumers, can be a great way to increase sales or diversify a customer base.

Sea Grant extension personnel, who have served as trusted advisors to the US fishing industry for decades, have developed several go-to information sources for fishermen interested in alternative marketing. These include Alaska Sea Grant’s Fishermen’s Direct Marketing Manual first published in 1997 and California Sea Grant’s Market Your Catch website.

A new report published by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) now brings this expertise to a global audience. The report includes case studies from leading fisheries experts around the world to address recommendations contained in FAO’s Voluntary Guidelines to Secure Small-Scale Fisheries. The guidelines, published in 2015, aim to support sustainable small-scale fisheries as an important part of the food system, end hunger and poverty, and strengthen human rights.

California Sea Grant and Alaska Sea Grant contributed a case study to the report highlighting the approach Sea Grant extension personnel take in working with fishing communities, and the information products they have created since the mid 1990s.

Read the full story at Medium

Is coronavirus pandemic giving aquaculture a jump start?

May 26, 2020 — The aquaculture industry may be getting a kick start from the federal government, due in part to the coronavirus pandemic. President Trump issued an executive order on May 7 designed to support and promote domestic aquaculture, an industry that has struggled to gain its footing in California.

Aquaculture is the practice of breeding, raising, and harvesting fish, shellfish and aquatic plants. The industry lies at the cross-section of farming and fisheries. According to the California Aquaculture Association, 80-90% of the seafood consumed in the United States is imported and approximately half of that is produced through aquaculture.

Though not prominent along California’s central coast, there are aquaculture enterprises right under our noses — in Monterey, that includes right under Municipal Wharf No. 2. The Monterey Abalone Company runs California’s only in-Ocean Abalone farm, occupying the space below the pier that was previously left to sea lions and waves.

But U.S.-based aquaculture makes up very little of the market. “We are the second-largest consumer of seafood in the world,” says California Sea Grant Aquaculture Specialist Luke Gardner, “but produce far less than 1% of the aquaculture produced seafood.”

Read the full story at The Mercury News

New Tool Helps Fisheries Avoid Protected Species In Near Real Time

June 3, 2018 — New computer-generated daily maps will help fishermen locate the most productive fishing spots in near real time while warning them where they face the greatest risk of entangling sea turtles, marine mammals, and other protected species. Scientists developed the maps, the products of a system called EcoCast, to help reduce accidental catches of protected species in fishing nets.

Funded primarily by NASA with support from NOAA, California Sea Grant, and Stanford University, EcoCast was developed by NOAA Fisheries scientists and academic partners with input from fishermen and managers.

Using the swordfish fishery as an example, EcoCast incorporates data from tagged animals, remote sensing satellites, and fisheries observers to help predict concentrations of target species (broadbill swordfish) and three protected species (leatherback turtle, blue shark and California sea lion).

EcoCast will help fishermen, managers, scientists, and others understand in near real-time where fishing vessels have the highest probability of catching targeted species and where there is risk of catching protected species. In doing so, EcoCast aims to improve the economic and environmental sustainability of fisheries that sometimes inadvertently catch and kill sensitive species.

Read the full story at NOAA Fisheries