Saving Seafood

CALIFORNIA: Restrictions on overfished sardines in Monterey Bay create financial hardships for fishermen

March 28, 2019 — Sardine fishermen in Monterey Bay are facing a fifth straight year of restrictions on the amount they will be permitted to catch, creating financial hardships for the commercial industry.

A new draft assessment from the National Marine Fisheries Service indicates a sardine population of 27,547 metric tons. According to the Fisheries Service, any tonnage below 50,000 metric tons is considered “overfished.” That’s a 98.5 percent collapse since 2006.

The restriction, which would essentially cancel the 2019-2020 commercial sardine season, must be applied when populations drop under 150,000 metric tons, said Geoff Shester, senior scientist with the Monterey office of Oceana, a marine environmental watchdog group.

“The crash of Pacific sardines has been difficult to watch,” Shester said. “We’ve witnessed dramatic starvation effects to ocean animals.”

The collapse is a result of overfishing, Shester said. Sardine populations go through natural cyclical fluctuations, but to see numbers this low is caused from over-fishing.

Diane Pleschner-Steele, executive director of the California Wetfish Producers Association, was not available to comment Wednesday, but she told the Monterey Herald following the 2018 assessment that “fishermen are seeing more sardines, not less, especially in nearshore waters.”

Read the full story at the Santa Cruz Sentinel

CALIFORNIA: Dramatic sardine population decline means likely West Coast fishing ban

March 27, 2019 — There won’t be any boats pulling bulging nets of fresh sardines out of the ocean along the West Coast this year after another dramatic decline in population virtually guarantees a ban on the commercial take of the tiny schooling fish.

The northern Pacific sardine population, stretching from Mexico to British Columbia, has plummeted 98.5 percent since 2006, according to a draft stock assessment released this week by the National Marine Fisheries Service and the Pacific Fishery Management Council.

It means regulators have no choice but to ban sardine fishing for the fifth straight year starting July 1 from Mexico to the Canadian border.

“We’ve been urging for an overhaul to the way sardine are managed for the last seven years,” said Geoff Shester, a senior scientist with Oceana, an ocean conservation advocacy group. “It is critical to hold fishery managers accountable for exacerbating this modern-day sardine collapse and seek management changes to use best available science to learn from our mistakes.”

Read the full story at the San Francisco Chronicle

Study maps where tunas, sharks and fishing ships meet

March 26, 2019 — Overfishing is rapidly pushing many of the world’s sharks and tunas toward extinction. The world’s fastest known shark, the shortfin mako, for example, was recently uplisted to endangered on the IUCN Red List, its decline mostly attributed to overfishing.

But researchers are only beginning to figure out where and when people fish them the most. Now, a new study has some answers.

By analyzing the trails of more than 900 fishing vessels and more than 800 sharks and tunas in the northeast Pacific, researchers have identified regions where the two tend to overlap. This information, researchers say, can be used to manage fisheries, especially in the high seas, the swaths of ocean that lie beyond the jurisdiction of individual countries.

“These fish [sharks and tunas] may travel thousands of miles every year, crossing international boundaries and management jurisdictions,” said Timothy White, lead author of the study and a graduate student in biology at Stanford University, California. “In order to sustainably manage them, we need to know where they migrate and where people fish them, but this info is surprisingly difficult to gather for sharks and tunas of the open ocean.”

Read the full story at Mongabay

A California battle over swordfish — and gill nets

March 19, 2019 — Conservationists are pushing a $1 million effort this summer to change the way swordfish are caught off the California coast by phasing out the use of gill nets. They are the mile-long nylon nets used to catch swordfish but that also ensnare other species, causing conservation organizations to seek an end to their use.

Commercial fishermen can use gill nets now, with a drift gill net shark and swordfish permit from the Department of Fish and Wildlife. But a new California law will officially ban gill nets as of January 2023.

The law requires the department to establish a voluntary “permit transition program” that will reimburse fishermen for giving up the use of gill nets. The state has set aside $1 million in public money for the program and an additional $1 million will be sought in private donations.

The law requires the state to establish a volunteer “permit transition program” by March 31, 2020, which will serve as the mechanism for the reimbursement program.

“California is one of the last places globally that still allows these wasteful fishing nets to be used, so it’s high time the Golden State transitions to cleaner, more sustainable fishing gears to provide a domestic swordfish product to Californians and visitors alike who enjoy local seafood products, said Ashley Blacow-Draeger, a spokeswoman for the ocean-conservation organization Oceana.

Read the full story at Capitol Weekly

Cooke Inc. Acquires All Seas Wholesale, Inc.

March 19, 2019 — The following was released by Cooke Inc:

Cooke Inc. (“Cooke”), a New Brunswick company and parent of Cooke Aquaculture Inc., has acquired All Seas Wholesale, Inc. of California, a distributor of up to forty species of fresh seafood, live shellfish, and frozen seafood products. The transaction was completed in mid-February of this year.

For 33 years, All Seas Wholesale, Inc. has been proudly servicing the San Francisco Bay area’s hotels, country clubs, airline & event caterers, upscale retail markets, and restaurants as a same day purveyor of the finest quality seafoods.

“Purchasing All Seas allows us to continue to strengthen our vertical integration and distribute our True North Seafood products to additional markets,” said Glenn Cooke, CEO of Cooke Inc. “All Seas prides itself on being able to receive an order early in the morning and have it delivered fresh to the customer to serve on their lunch menu that same day, and that fits very well with our drive for high standards in both top quality products and customer satisfaction.”

“We are thrilled to have joined the Cooke family of companies,” said Peggy Howse, General Manager, All Seas Wholesale. “Cooke is respected globally for delivering delicious, sustainable seafood products and now All Seas Wholesale will be taken to the next level serving customers.”

“95% of All Seas Wholesale employees have been with the company for over 10 years,” added Howse. “Our devoted professionals have united with the top seafood team dedicated to offering freshest seafood imaginable.”

The terms of the transaction have not been disclosed as both companies are private family-owned businesses.

Cooke Inc. is showcasing it’s fresh, sustainable True North Seafood Company branded products this week in Boston, MA, at Seafood Expo North America, in booths 1133 & 1233.

Read the full release here

Cooke strikes again, buys California distributor

March 19, 2019 — Acquisitive seafood group Cooke has snapped up a distributor based on the US West Coast, the company confirmed to Undercurrent Newsduring the Boston seafood show.

Cooke confirmed a deal for All Seas Wholesale of San Francisco, California, having bought JC Seafood, an importer based in Florida, last year. The news of the deal comes days after Cooke confirmed the acquisition of shrimp farmer and processor Farallon Aquaculture de Nicaragua, after also buying Seajoy Group earlier this year.

Undercurrent sources said the deal is done and Peggy Howse, general manager of All Seas, was on the Cooke booth at the Boston show. A spokesman for Cooke then confirmed this.

“I can confirm with you that Cooke Inc. acquired All Seas Wholesale of San Francisco, CA, in mid-February of this year,” said Joel Richardson, vice president of public relations with New Brunswick, Canada-based Cooke, in a statement sent to Undercurrent.

“We are thrilled to have joined the Cooke family of companies,” said Howse, in the statement. “Cooke is respected globally for delivering delicious, sustainable seafood products and now All Seas Wholesale will be taken to the next level serving customers.”

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

Whales are facing a big, deadly threat along West Coast: Massive container ships

March 18, 2019 — One day last May, a container ship entered the San Francisco Bay with extra cargo.

A 45-foot-long dead female fin whale was draped across the ship’s bow. The impact with the ship had broken her back, ruptured her organs and caused severe internal bleeding.

Ten whale deaths were attributed to ship strikes in 2018 — the highest number on record in California since NOAA Fisheries began tracking in 1982. The mortality rate represents an enormous increase from the average 3.4 ship strike victims recorded annually in the five previous years.

Five of the 10 whales that died with boat collision injuries in 2018 were endangered or threatened fin, blue and humpback whales. Despite the prevalence of whale mortalities linked to ship strikes, few rules are in place on the West Coast to mitigate collisions.

Read the full story at The Washington Post

Fisheries Managers Face Mixed Forecast For Northwest Salmon, Concerns Over Endangered Orca

March 12, 2019 — About this time every year, the Pacific Northwest gets a report card from the natural world. It comes in the form of salmon run forecasts and gives us an indication of how healthy the Pacific Ocean and our rivers and streams are.

The grades are in, and here’s what you need to know about our scores.

How’d we do this year?

It’s definitely looking like we’re in for a “there’s room for improvement” kind of year.

Every spring, a group called the Pacific Fishery Management Council gets together and look at the salmon forecasts from the Puget Sound all the way down to the Sacramento River in California. They use this data to decide at a week-long meeting in April what overall catch limits will be. This catch allowance is then split between commercial, recreational and tribal fishermen in the Pacific Northwest. The goal is to make sure we don’t catch more salmon than the numbers can actually support.

Read the full story at KLCC

Feds inch closer to approving Alaska mining project seen as a threat to Pacific Northwest

March 11, 2019 — Over the past several decades, fishermen, business owners, Alaska Native organizations and environmental groups have protested a proposed open-pit copper and gold mine at the headwaters of Bristol Bay — a pristine salmon habitat.

Now the federal government is inching toward approving the mining project.

Nestled in southwest Alaska, Bristol Bay is home to the world’s largest wild salmon run. The watershed supports a teeming ecosystem of eagles, grizzlies and beluga whales.

It’s also an economic engine for the Pacific Northwest. Each year, the fishery contributes thousands of seasonal fishing and processing jobs and millions of dollars in economic activity to Washington, Oregon, and California, according to the University of Alaska Institute of Social and Economic Research.

Bristol Bay is where the Pebble Limited Partnership, the company developing the mine, plans to build a 10.7-square-mile open-pit mine to dig up copper, gold, molybdenum, and other minerals. The mine would require new infrastructure, including roads, a port and a 188-mile-long natural gas pipeline.

Read the full story at McClatchy DC

Trump Administration Shortcuts Science To Give California Farmers More Water

March 11, 2019 –When then-candidate Donald Trump swung through California in 2016, he promised Central Valley farmers he would send more water their way. Allocating water is always a fraught issue in a state plagued by drought, and where water is pumped hundreds of miles to make possible the country’s biggest agricultural economy.

Now, President Trump is following through on his promise by speeding up a key decision about the state’s water supply. Critics say that acceleration threatens the integrity of the science behind the decision, and cuts the public out of the process. At stake is irrigation for millions of acres of farmland, drinking water for two-thirds of Californians from Silicon Valley to San Diego, and the fate of endangered salmon and other fish.

Farmers will only get more water after federal biologists complete an intricate scientific analysis on how it would affect endangered species. But an investigation by KQED finds that analysis will be done under unprecedented time pressure, with less transparency, less outside scientific scrutiny, and without, say federal scientists, the resources to do it properly.

“It’s a very aggressive schedule,” says a former federal biologist familiar with the matter who did not want to be named for fear of retribution. “And I think it runs the risk of forcing them to make dangerous shortcuts in the scientific analysis that the decisions demand.”

Read the full story at NPR