Saving Seafood

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

CALIFORNIA: San Francisco area crabbers end holdout, move to “organized start”

January 12, 2021 — First came whales, then came a price most West Coast Dungeness crabbers deemed too low to fish for, but after nearly two months of having their gear at the ready, San Francisco area fishermen finally set their pots Monday, 11 January, at 8 a.m. They will begin hauling on Wednesday, 13 January, at the same time, under an “organized start” – agreed to by fleets out of Half Moon Bay, San Francisco, and Bodega Bay – to prevent a mad dash, shotgun start once a price had been agreed to.

“Holy Christ has this season been a mess,” Dick Ogg, who runs the F/V Karen Jeanne out of Bodega Bay, said. “But the fleet has really come together. If this works, which it looks like it will, it will be pretty amazing and will have a lasting imprint on the fleet.”

Read the full story at Seafood Source

California commercial crab price strike ends

January 11, 2021 — The commercial crabbing fleet has ended its strike and will start soaking traps in the ocean on Monday, with fresh crab likely appearing in markets by Thursday afternoon, a local industry leader said Saturday.

Wholesale buyers and negotiators for crabbers in California and Oregon finally agreed Friday on an opening price for the coveted crustaceans after nearly three weeks of stalemate.

But the late agreement, following a 5½-week delay because of whales that were still feeding in the fishing grounds well after the traditional Nov. 15 season start, means the fleet already has missed the key Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s markets.

Fishers also had to settle for less than the $3 a pound they had hoped to secure for the initial landings, instead agreeing to $2.75 per pound, said Dick Ogg, vice president of the Bodega Bay Fishermen’s Marketing Association.

Read the full story at The Press Democrat