Saving Seafood

US to enforce ban on shrimp, other fish caught in Mexico’s Gulf of California

March 6, 2020 — US importers of Mexican shrimp and other seafood should soon be prepared to present documentation certifying that any of the products they are bringing over the border do not match a list of roughly five species caught in the upper Gulf of California using multiple gear types.

The US’ National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) announced Wednesday that it will ban the import of virtually all Mexican shrimp and other fish caught in that region of the country over concerns about the endangered vaquita porpoise. An effective date has not yet been set, but it is expected to be within a month and require importers to maintain a “certification of admissibility” that is signed by a Mexican government official establishing that the products being shipped are not from the upper Gulf of California’s:

  • shrimp trawl fishery, for both small and large vessels;
  • shrimp suripera fishery;
  • sierra purse seine fishery;
  • sierra hook and line fishery;
  • chano trawl fishery, for small vessels;
  • curvina purse seine fishery; or
  • sardine/curvina purse seine fishery, for both small and large vessels.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

Bumble Bee pushing past scandal and bankruptcy with new partnerships and products

March 6, 2020 — Bumble Bee has emerged from years of tumult with a splash: A new owner, new product packaging, new product lines, and, perhaps most significantly, an industry-first partnership with a plant-based food producer, Good Catch.

The San Diego, California, U.S.A.-based tuna company’s travails of the past couple years are well-known. The company was fined USD 25 million (EUR 22.3 million) after pleading guilty in a tuna price-fixing scandal in 2017, then entered Chapter 11 bankruptcy this past November. In January, the company was bought by the Taiwanese company FCF Co. for USD 928 million (EUR 826 million), with which it has a 30-year business relationship.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

West Coast Dungeness Crab Stable or Increasing Even With Intensive Harvest, Research Shows

March 5, 2020 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

The West Coast Dungeness crab fishery doesn’t just support the most valuable annual harvest of seafood on the West Coast. It’s a fishery that just keeps on giving.

Fishermen from California to Washington caught almost all the available legal-size male Dungeness crab each year in the last few decades. However, the crab population has either remained stable or continued to increase, according to the first thorough population estimate of the West Coast Dungeness stocks.

“The catches and abundance in Central California especially are increasing, which is pretty remarkable to see year after year,” said Kate Richerson, a research scientist at NOAA Fisheries’ Northwest Fisheries Science Center in Seattle. Richerson is the lead author of the new study published in the journal Fisheries Research. “There’s reason to be optimistic that this fishery will continue to be one of the most productive and on the West Coast.”

Other recent research has suggested that the West Coast’s signature shellfish could suffer in the future from ocean acidification and other effects related to climate change. That remains a concern, Richerson said, but the study did not detect obvious signs of population-level impacts yet.

Read the full release here

California’s ban on shark fins doesn’t stop the trade from passing through its ports

February 25, 2020 — Three years ago, a cargo container purportedly transporting thousands of pounds of pickles from Panama was placed on a Hong Kong-bound ship that stopped at the Port of Oakland on a chilly February night. Hundreds of rectangular containers were stacked on the giant vessel like Lego blocks, but state and federal wildlife agents knew there was something fishy about this one.

Inside, the agents found nearly 52,000 pounds of frozen shark fins, cut from an estimated 9,500 sharks. A cursory inspection revealed that some of the fins were from protected species that require permits to be legally traded. So officials seized the shipment, valued at just under $1 million, making it one of the largest single shark fin seizures in U.S. history.

California may have banned the shark fin trade years ago, but the container is hardly the only one of its kind passing through the state’s bustling ports: A recent report from the Natural Resources Defense Council estimated that hundreds of thousands of pounds of shark fins from Latin America transit West Coast and other U.S. ports each year, destined to land in a bowl of shark fin soup in Hong Kong and other Asian cities.

“We think we’ve just found the tip of the iceberg, and it’s a little hard to say how big the iceberg is,” said the report’s author, Elizabeth Murdock, the San Francisco-based director of the environmental group’s Pacific Oceans Initiative.

The wildlife agents and scientists waiting for the container in Oakland on Feb. 10, 2017, had been tipped off by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, whose agents had cracked open the container at the Port of Long Beach. An agency spokesperson declined to comment on what led to the container’s initial inspection, but its contents were a far cry from the “cucumbers/gherkins” listed as the shipment’s tariff code.

The fin trade is driven by the high demand for shark fin soup, a Chinese delicacy that has caused the value of fins to skyrocket to as much as $500 a pound.

Read the full story at The Mercury News

Why Do Whales Migrate? They Return to the Tropics to Shed their Skin, Scientists Say

February 24, 2020 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

Whales undertake some of the longest migrations on earth, often swimming many thousands of miles, over many months, to breed in the tropics. The question is why—is it to find food, or to give birth?

In a research paper in Marine Mammal Science, scientists propose that whales that forage in polar waters migrate to low latitudes to maintain healthy skin.

“I think people have not given skin molt due consideration when it comes to whales, but it is an important physiological need that could be met by migrating to warmer waters,” said Robert Pitman, lead author of the new paper and marine ecologist with Oregon State University’s Marine Mammal Institute. He was formerly with NOAA Fisheries’ Southwest Fisheries Science Center in La Jolla, California.

More than a century ago, whalers recognized that most whales that forage in high latitudes migrate to the tropics for calving. Scientists have never agreed on why. Because of their size, large whales should be able to successfully give birth in frigid polar waters. Due to reduced feeding opportunities in the tropics, most whales fast during their months-long migrations.

So why go to the trouble?

Read the full release here

Deal emerges to bring 1st offshore wind farms to California

February 24, 2020 — Offshore wind developers are lining up to build the first wind turbines off the coast of California.

But they have a problem called the Department of Defense.

For years, the military has managed to block the establishment of offshore wind lease areas off of Southern and central California, effectively holding back development across the entire state.

Defense officials have said turbines would interrupt training exercises run by the Navy, the Air Force and other branches of the military out of a network of Southern and central California bases.

Wind could interfere with radar and other instruments of communication, and get in the way of low-altitude flights and live-fire operations, they say.

Now, a tentative compromise is being floated by Rep. Salud Carbajal (D-Calif.) with backing from the military and federal and state agencies: Let developers produce wind power in central California waters that the military had once ruled incompatible with its own operations, in exchange for a moratorium on turbines in other nearby waters. Details of the compromise were described to E&E News by the congressman and Defense and state officials involved in negotiations.

At stake could be the prospects for the first offshore wind farm on the West Coast and likely the country’s first to use floating turbines at large scale.

Offshore wind also could help California meet its 2045 goal of decarbonizing electricity, in part because offshore turbines would complement solar by producing more energy at night, helping getting around the “duck curve” challenge.

Read the full story at E&E News

California Sues Trump Administration Over Alleged Failure to Protect Species

February 21, 2020 — California is suing the administration of President Donald Trump for what it calls the administration’s failure to protect endangered species in the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers.

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, the California Natural Resources Agency, and the California Environmental Protection Agency filed the lawsuit on Thursday against the Trump administration in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

The attorney general said the Trump administration was adopting “scientifically challenged biological opinions that push species to extinction” and harm natural resources and waterways.

The lawsuit stressed the Trump administration’s alleged failure to protect endangered fish species from federal water export operations.

In October, the Trump administration announced a plan to divert water to California farmers, fulfilling a campaign promise made by the president.

Read the full story from Reuters at the New York Times

PFMC: Reminder: Pacific Sardine STAR Panel meeting to be held February 24-27 in La Jolla, CA

February 18, 2020 — The following was released by the Pacific Fishery Management Council:

The Pacific Fishery Management Council (Pacific Council) will convene a Stock Assessment Review (STAR) Panel meeting to review the 2020 Pacific sardine stock assessment.  The meeting will be held Monday, February 24, 2020 through Thursday, February 27, 2020, in La Jolla, California.  This meeting is open to the public.

Please see the Pacific Sardine STAR Panel February 24-27, 2020 meeting notice on the Council’s website for full details.

For further information:

  • Please contact Pacific Fishery Management Council staff officer Kerry Griffin at 503-820-2409; toll-free 1-866-806-7204.

PFMC: Notice of availability: Review of 2019 Ocean Salmon Fisheries

February 18, 2020 — The following was released by the Pacific Fishery Management Council:

The Salmon Technical Team and staff of the Pacific Fishery Management Council (Council) have prepared this stock assessment and fishery evaluation document as a postseason review of the 2019 ocean salmon fisheries off the coasts of Washington, Oregon, and California to help assess Council salmon fishery management performance, the status of Council area salmon stocks, and the socioeconomic impacts of salmon fisheries. The Council will formally review this report at its March 2020 meeting prior to the development of management alternatives for the approaching fishing season.

Please visit the Council’s website to get the Review of 2019 Ocean Salmon Fisheries (Published February 2020).

For further information: