Saving Seafood

California sues Clearwater, PAFCO, others over lack of cadmium, lead warnings

January 6, 2021 — The U.S. state of California has sued five seafood companies, including Clearwater Seafoods and Pacific American Fish Company (PAFCO), accusing them of failing to properly label their products as containing lead and cadmium.

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra filed a lawsuit on 29 December alleging violations of the state’s Proposition 65 and Unfair Competition Law. The suit claims Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada-based Clearwater Seafoods; Vernon, California-based PAFCO; Hanover, Maryland-based Rhee Bros. Inc.; City of Industry, California-based Seaquest Seafood Corporation; and Paramount, California-based Jayone Foods Inc. “knowingly and intentionally sold products that exposed California consumers to lead or cadmium without providing a clear and reasonable warning that the products contained these toxic chemicals.”

Read the full story at Seafood Source

No agreement yet on crab prices

January 4, 2021 — Two weeks after the season was set to open on Dec. 16, Oregon crabbers are still sitting at the dock waiting for a price before heading out to sea.

The California season is likewise delayed by price negotiations, while the Washington season has been delayed until at least Jan. 15 due to high domoic acid levels.

With no price agreement in sight, many would pin the price hang-up on the largest processor in the area, Pacific Seafood, but after a period of silence, the company has asserted it’s only one of many processors that contribute to determining the price, which is especially difficult this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

While not directly involved, Lori Steel, executive director of the West Coast Seafood Processors Association, said that as of Wednesday, negotiations were still ongoing behind closed doors, and a price could be decided at any time. Pacific Seafood is one of the companies that falls under the association’s umbrella.

“The companies I represent are working hard to get this going and find an agreement among the fishermen they buy from,” Steel said. “We’re all hopeful to see fishermen on the water as soon as possible.”

Steel said the pandemic has been a huge source of uncertainty this year and has disrupted every part of the supply chain for the crab industry. She estimates that the government closures have caused restaurant and food service demand for crab to fall 70 percent, and other restrictions on employment have led to a labor shortage.

“People who don’t work in the industry need to understand that we’re a struggling industry right now, and the pandemic is putting unprecedented pressure on us from the harvesters all the way up the supply chain,” Steel said. “We’re doing the best we can, and it’s just been a tough year. We want to see this resolved and have our guys packing crab in the plants as soon as possible.”

Read the full story at the Newport News Times

Trump vetoes Calif. fishing bill over seafood trade deficit

January 4. 2021 — President Trump vetoed a bill Friday that would have gradually ended the use of large-mesh drift gillnets deployed exclusively in federal waters off the coast of California, saying such legislation would increase reliance on imported seafood and worsen a multibillion-dollar seafood trade deficit.

Trump also said in his veto message to the Senate that the legislation sponsored by Sens. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., “will not achieve its purported conservation benefits.”

Feinstein issued a statement late Friday saying Trump’s veto “has ensured that more whales, dolphins, sea turtles and other marine species will be needlessly killed, even as we have a proven alternative available.”

Trump vetoed the fishing bill as the Republican-controlled Senate followed the Democratic-led House and voted to overturn his earlier veto of the annual defense policy bill, enacting it into law despite Trump’s objections.

The fishing bill’s sponsors said large-mesh drift gillnets, which measure between 1 mile (1.6 kilometers) and 1.5 miles (2.4 kilometers) long and can extend 200 feet (60.9 meters) below the surface of the ocean, are left in the waters overnight to catch swordfish and thresher sharks. But they said at least 60 other marine species — including whales, dolphins and sea lions — can also become entangled in the nets, where they are injured or die.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at Fox Business

Sea Otters Could Get New Home in San Francisco Bay

December 29, 2020 — Once hunted to the brink of extinction for their luxuriant pelts, California sea otters rebounded after protections were put in place in 1911. Their population grew steadily for much of the last century, but now the still threatened species is stuck at about 3,000 otters. The problem is that they are boxed in at both ends of their current range, along the state’s central coast, by a sharp (and so far unexplained) rise in shark attacks. Hoping to reintroduce breeding populations elsewhere in the otters’ historical range, wildlife managers have been looking at certain coastal estuaries, which are sheltered pockets of water.

It turns out that the largest estuary on the West Coast—San Francisco Bay—could potentially provide an excellent home for sea otters, despite being in the middle of a major urban area, according to a study published last month in PeerJ.

“I was surprised,” says lead study author Jane Rudebusch, a spatial ecologist at San Francisco State University’s Estuary & Ocean Science Center. “The bay is intensely urbanized. You can tell it’s a busy place just by looking at it.” Tanker ships deliver crude oil to shoreline refineries every day, and high-speed commuter ferries constantly zoom between San Francisco, Oakland and other waterfront cities at up to 50 miles per hour. Sediment in parts of the bay is laced with methylmercury and polychlorinated biphenyls, toxic chemicals that accumulate in the clams, crabs and other animals that sea otters eat.

Read the full story at Scientific American

North Bay crabbers caught in price battle with wholesalers

December 23, 2020 — Eggnog? Check. Chestnuts roasting on an open fire? Sure, if you’re into that. But don’t bet on landing any Dungeness crab this holiday season.

“Unless a miracle happens, which is highly unlikely, we won’t see crab for Christmas,” said Tony Anello, a veteran fisher who runs his boat, the Annabelle, out of Bodega Bay and offers up his tender product at Spud Point Crab Co.

After several years of varied setbacks and more than a month of delays to the 2020 Dungeness season, local crabbers now face a new hurdle as they haggle over price with large wholesalers. The California Department of Fish and Wildlife had reset the season’s start date to Wednesday, offering a glimmer of hope to those who have made fresh crab part of their annual holiday ritual. But few boats were heading out to set traps on Tuesday.

“We should be traveling right now,” Dick Ogg, another icon of the local Dungeness harvest, said Monday from behind a shopping cart at Costco. “I’m here grabbing stuff in case something happens this afternoon. We would normally anchor up, set up all the bait cups and be ready. Then (Tuesday), right at 6:01 (a.m.), we’d start setting gear.”

But Monday did not bring resolution. At 3 p.m. that day, representatives of the major fishing ports in Northern California spoke by phone with executives of Pacific Seafood, one of the West’s largest seafood wholesalers. A couple hours later, the company engaged in a separate call with a wider range of fishers stretching up the Oregon coast.

Read the full story at The Press Democrat

Rep. Huffman reveals preview of federal fisheries management legislation

December 22, 2020 — North Coast Congressman Jared Huffman released a draft of legislation Friday that would reauthorize the Magnuson-Stevens Act, which is the primary law governing federal fisheries management and conservation.

Rep. Huffman, chair of the Water, Oceans, and Wildlife Subcommittee, and subcommittee member Ed Case of Honolulu, introduced a discussion draft to reauthorize the MSA. Huffman said the legislation has made the U.S. a global leader in sustainable fisheries.

The draft comes at the end of a year-long listening tour Huffman led. In a press release, he said the tour was part of his effort to promote a “uniquely transparent, inclusive, science-based approach to updating this important law governing fisheries in American waters.”

Read the full story at KRCR

Western Pacific leatherback turtle population dwindling

December 21, 2020 — The number of leatherback turtles that feed in Central California waters has declined by 80% during the last two decades, according to new research out of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Moss Landing Marine Laboratories.

“They’re at risk of extinction in the Pacific Ocean,” said Scott Benson, lead study author and marine ecologist with NOAA.

Benson and his coauthors tracked Pacific leatherback turtles using video cameras, satellite and aerial survey data from 1990 through 2017.

Read the full story at the Santa Cruz Sentinel

Huffman, Case Unveil Magnuson-Stevens Act Reauthorization Discussion Draft to Update Federal Fisheries Management

December 18, 2020 — The following was released by The Office of Congressman Jared Huffman (D-CA):

Today, Congressman Jared Huffman (D-San Rafael), Chair of the Water, Oceans, and Wildlife Subcommittee, and subcommittee member Ed Case (D-Honolulu) introduced a discussion draft to reauthorize the Magnuson-Stevens Act (MSA), the primary law governing federal fisheries management and conservation that has made the U.S. a global leader in sustainable fisheries. This draft is the culmination of a year-long listening tour Rep. Huffman led to get feedback on the legislation – part of his ongoing effort to foster a uniquely transparent, inclusive, science-based approach to updating this important law governing fisheries in American waters.

“This draft includes important and timely updates to the MSA as well as provisions to strengthen communities and support those whose lives and livelihoods depend on healthy oceans and fisheries,” said Reps. Huffman and Case.“With the growing impacts of climate change, difficulties due to the ongoing pandemic, and rapidly evolving needs in fisheries management and science, amending and reauthorizing the MSA remains a top priority. We’re looking forward to the next phase of this process and receiving constructive commentary to inform and shape the bill’s introduction next year.”

In an effort to include as many opinions and viewpoints as possible, Rep. Huffman and Rep. Case held eight listening sessions and covered seven management regions on their nationwide fisheries listening tour. They heard from 80 different experts and stakeholders, in addition to public comments from dozens of members of the public in person and online. From the very beginning, this has been one of the most deliberative, transparent efforts to reauthorize the MSA.

The text of the MSA Reauthorization discussion draft is here. A one-pager on the legislation is here. A section-by-section summary is here. A cover letter on the legislation can be found here.

Record Marine Heatwaves Build Reservoir of Toxic Algae Off the U.S. West Coast, New Study Reveals

December 16, 2020 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

Repeated marine heatwaves off the U.S. West Coast starting about 2013 fueled record harmful algal blooms that seeded a region off Northern California and Southern Oregon with toxic algae, a new study has found. That reservoir of harmful algae has, in turn, spread across the West Coast and forced the closure of valuable Dungeness crab and other shellfish seasons every year since 2015.

This year, for example, toxic algae have closed Dungeness crab harvest and some clamming in Washington through December.

“We now can see that marine heatwaves have the ability to seed new offshore hotspots, like ocean ‘crock pots’ where blooms can develop in subsequent years,” said Vera Trainer, a research scientist at NOAA Fisheries’ Northwest Fisheries Science Center in Seattle and lead author of the new research.

Early Warnings

The good news, she said, is that offshore surveys and studies have unraveled the way toxic algae spreads through coastal waters. These data can help fisheries managers anticipate and mitigate the impacts. Scientists share that detailed information through regional bulletins that serve as an early warning system for harmful algal blooms.

That way, managers can focus closures in the most affected areas, for example, while others remain open. Or they can open fisheries earlier before the toxins build up in shellfish. The alert system has reduced the need for coastwide closures with widespread economic impacts.

“The most valuable tool we have is knowledge of how these events develop, so we know where to expect impacts, and which areas remain safe,” she said.

Read the full release here