Saving Seafood

CALIFORNIA: Fishful Future: A New Collaborative Community Project to Move San Diego Toward a Zero Waste Seafood Supply Chain

February 9, 2021 — The following was released by Fishful Future:

The Fishful Future project is a newly launched collaborative effort joining seafood processors, fishery scientists, local fishermen, and renowned chefs. Supported by an award from the competitive National Marine Fisheries Service’s Saltonstall-Kennedy Grant Program, the project explores opportunities for San Diego’s fishing, seafood processing, and culinary industries to move toward a zero-waste seafood supply chain by fully using each fish.

Around 50 percent of each fish by weight generally remains after processing for the fillet market. This half of the fish is often discarded, or sold for cents on the pound, despite the valuable proteins and nutrients contained for a wide range of applications.

To encourage the use of the entire fish, the team explores the value in each part. The Fishful Future project addresses local food security by empowering home chefs to prepare less familiar secondary cuts with culturally diverse recipes, partnering with community groups in food insecure areas, and working with project chefs to develop new restaurant presentations.

The project also brings together entrepreneurs from a broad range of businesses in a new collective approach to increase sustainability by using what is currently considered to be waste. Seafood processing byproducts find valuable applications in bait, fertilizer, pet foods, bio-pharmaceutical, bio-medical, and artistic fields.

“More complete use of the fish means greater economic value and opportunity for fishermen, processors, and everyone who enjoys seafood,” said Dave Rudie, Catalina Offshore Products founder and president. “We owe it to the fish and to our customers to make the most complete use of each fish that is taken out of the ocean.”

Leading the culinary approaches are four San Diego chefs: Davin Waite, Karen Barnett, Christina Ng, and Rob Ruiz. These chefs are not only vocal, active contributors in their community but also wildly creative, committed to respecting their ingredients, and embody the goals of the project in their cookery and daily lives.

The multidisciplinary team is led by Catalina Offshore Products and scientists at the NOAA Southwest Fisheries Science Center, with partners including the Tuna Harbor Dockside Market, the Port of San Diego, Iceland’s Ocean Cluster, and Oregon State University’s Seafood Research & Education Center.

“The only way we can succeed is by doing this together,” said Sarah Mesnick, from NOAA Fisheries Southwest Fisheries Science Center, who is a scientific advisor in the effort. “All partners in the seafood and product supply chain bring their own expertise and experience to the project, so that together we look at these valuable species in a new, holistic, and more sustainable way.”

Inquiries are welcome from parties interested in joining this effort toward a Fishful Future. Learn more by visiting fishfulfuture.com and following along on Instagram @fishfulfuture.

Cantwell, Murray Introduce Bill to Permanently Ban Drilling Off West Coast

February 5, 2021 — The following was released by The Office of Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA):

This week, Senators Maria Cantwell (D-WA), a senior member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, and Patty Murray (D-WA) introduced the West Coast Ocean Protection Act to permanently ban offshore drilling in federal waters off the coast of Washington, Oregon, and California.

The bill introduction comes after President Biden issued an executive order halting new federal oil and gas drilling leases. The senators’ bill would make the moratorium permanent in federal waters off the West Coast. This would prevent future administrations from opening up West Coast waters to drilling, which the Trump administration attempted to do.

“Washington’s $30 billion dollar maritime economy supports over 146,000 jobs from fisheries, trade, tourism and recreation—but it could all be devastated in an instant by an oil spill,” Senator Cantwell said. “We must permanently ban offshore drilling on the West Coast to protect our coastal communities, economies, and ecosystems against the risk of an oil spill.”

“The Pacific Ocean provides vital natural resources for Washington state, and off-shore drilling puts everything from local jobs and ecosystems at risk,” Senator Murray said. “We need this permanent ban to safeguard our coastal environment and our state’s economy, including fisheries, outdoor recreation, and so much more.”

Washington’s maritime sector contributes more than $21.4 billion in gross business income, and directly employs nearly 69,500 people. Including indirect and induced impacts, the state’s maritime economy is worth $30 billion in economic activity, and supports more than 146,000 jobs in the fishing, seafood processing, shipbuilding, trade, and other maritime sectors. The state’s maritime economy also provides jobs with substantially better pay than the average for all industries. The average pay for a job in Washington is $52,000, while maritime workers are paid an average of $70,800 — totaling over $4.7 billion in wages. Tourism on the coast adds thousands of jobs for anglers, charter boats, guides, restaurants, hotels and more. Oil spills and activities related to exploration pose a grave threat to these jobs, which rely on clean water and healthy oceans.

Senators Cantwell and Murray have led the fight to ban oil drilling on the West Coast, introducing similar legislation in multiple previous congresses.

In addition to Cantwell and Murray, the legislation is co-sponsored by Senators Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Alex Padilla (D-CA), Ron Wyden (D-OR), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Bob Menendez (D-NJ), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Edward Markey (D-MA), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY). Companion legislation will be introduced by Congressman Jared Huffman (D, CA-02) in the House of Representatives.

CHINOOK OBSERVER: Crabbing families deserve TLC in this tough year

February 2, 2021 — In normal times, this year’s disastrous Dungeness crab season would be big news beyond the coast. Even in this abnormal year, it’s time for elected officials and agencies to pay closer attention to how local families are being hurt by lack of crabbing.

Typical measures of economic pain fail to capture the extent of damage. Last week it was wrenching to see Pacific County with the worst joblessness in Washington state. But the reported rate of nearly 11% was largely pinned on the pandemic-struck hospitality industry. Based on statistical modeling, county-level job reports often fall short in revealing exactly what’s going on — and that is surely true of crabbing.

The most immediate problem for both commercial crabbing and recreational clamming is the marine toxin domoic acid, created by ocean microorganisms run amok. Federal rules ban crab harvests when the toxin rises above 30 parts per million in the yellowish viscera — also sometimes called crab butter — that some people eat. Some crab sampled off Long Beach have been unsafe, leading to what is now the longest-ever delay in starting the season. (Meanwhile, from the central Oregon coast south into California, toxin levels have been acceptable and crabbing is ongoing.)

Read the full story at the Chinook Observer

As Warming Oceans Bring Tough Times to California Crab Fishers, Scientists Say Diversifying is Key to Survival

February 1, 2021 — California’s Dungeness crab fishermen have had a rough year. Poor meat quality, endangered whales migrating too close to shore and price disputes with wholesalers kept crab pots on boats for nearly two months. The delays left families without their cherished holiday centerpiece and fisherman without the funds that normally pay their bills the rest of the year.

But as rising ocean temperatures threaten to make fishery closures routine, it will be even harder to count on crab for holiday meals—or livelihoods. Over the past decade, warming sea waters have produced harmful algal blooms that contaminate crab meat with domoic acid, a neurotoxin that can cause seizures, memory loss and other serious symptoms and has been blamed for poisoning and stranding scores of sea lions in California every year. State officials delayed three out of the last six crab seasons to protect public health after an unprecedented multiyear marine heat wave, dubbed “the blob,” hit the north Pacific Ocean in 2013.

The blob precipitated a series of extraordinary events: it caused a massive harmful algal bloom that led to record-breaking domoic acid concentrations, which in turn caused first-of-its-kind closures of the West Coast’s most valuable fishery, from southern California to Washington state. But in doing so, it also set up a natural experiment that researchers harnessed to reveal strategies that could help food-producing communities recover from climate-driven disturbances.

Read the full story at Inside Climate News

Subway fighting back against “fake tuna” lawsuit

February 1, 2021 — Subway is vigorously defending the tuna is uses in its sandwiches and wraps after a class action lawsuit filed in late January claimed that the massive sandwich chain’s sandwiches do not contain any of the fish.

Subway’s tuna products contain “a mixture of various concoctions that do not constitute tuna, [which] have been blended together by (Subway) to imitate the appearance of tuna,” according to the lawsuit, which was filed on 21 January in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, Legal Newsline reported.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Rep. Huffman to Introduce Bills to Protect Pacific & Arctic Oceans from Offshore Drilling

January 28, 2021 — The following was released by The Office of Congressman Jared Huffman (D-CA):

Today, Congressman Jared Huffman (D-San Rafael) announced he will reintroduce this week the West Coast Ocean Protection Act and the Stop Arctic Ocean Drilling Act to permanently protect these places from the dangers of offshore oil drilling. This comes as President Biden continues to sign a series of executive orders focused on combatting climate change and moving the United States away from fossil fuels and expanding alternative, renewable energy, including suspension of new offshore leases under the next five-year plan.

“Offshore drilling poses unacceptable risks, and the science and public opinion are clear: we should not put our oceans and fisheries, coastal communities, economies, and planet at risk just to enrich the fossil fuel industry,” said Rep. Huffman. “It’s past time that we permanently ban new offshore drilling and show our united commitment to combating climate change and  to give the Pacific Coast and the Arctic Ocean the protections their communities and ecosystems deserve.”

Rep. Huffman’s introduction of the West Coast Ocean Protection Act and the Stop Arctic Ocean Drilling Act comes alongside several other House members’ initiatives to protect coastlines from offshore drilling nationwide. Senator Feinstein also leads the West Coast Ocean Protection Act in the Senate, introduced today, with support from all West coast senators.

“California understands all too well the danger that offshore drilling poses to our oceans and coastal economies,” said Senator Feinstein. “President Biden is committed to reducing our carbon emissions, and I applaud his decision to enact a temporary moratorium. This bill takes that action a step further, codifying the proposal so future administrations can’t overturn it. It’s time to permanently ban new offshore oil and gas drilling along the West Coast. Doing so represents a giant step toward the vital goal of building a cleaner, more sustainable energy future.”

Read the full release here

Halibut Area 2A License Applications Open for Submission for 2021

January 27, 2021 — The International Pacific Halibut Commission has opened the license application period for fishermen in Area 2A, Washington, Oregon and California.

While the IPHC sets the overall total fishery removals (mortality limit) for the area, the Pacific Fishery Management Council and National Marine Fisheries Service adopts a catch-sharing plan for all three states to further allocate the amount of fishery removals between sectors.

Read the full story at Seafood News

Lawsuit claims Subway’s tuna is not the real thing

January 27, 2021 — Subway Restaurants is selling tuna wraps and sandwiches that do not contain any actual tuna fish, according to a proposed class-action lawsuit.

Instead, the “’tuna’ is a mixture of various concoctions that do not constitute tuna, yet have been blended together by [Subway] to imitate the appearance of tuna,” according to the lawsuit filed on 21 January in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, Legal Newsline reported.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

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