Saving Seafood

Canada temporarily shuts fishing areas to help right whales

June 20, 2018 — The Canadian government says it is taking steps to protect endangered North Atlantic right whales from encounters with fishing vessels and gear.

The whales are one of the world’s rarest marine mammals, and they have struggled with high mortality in recent years, especially in Canadian waters. Fisheries and Oceans Canada says it’s enacting temporary fisheries closures in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence and off Quebec.

The Canadian agency says the closures go into effect Tuesday afternoon and will stay in place until further notice. The agency says the closures are due to the presence of right whales in the area.

U.S. and Canadian officials have debated the proper course for protecting right whales in recent months. U.S. Sen. Angus King, a Maine independent, says Canadian protections “have got to work parallel” to U.S. efforts.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at Boston.com

Frustration mounts in Gulf of St. Lawrence lobster fishery over right whale closures:union

June 12, 2018 — A group representing Gulf of St. Lawrence lobster fishermen says frustration is mounting after the federal government rejected its proposal for a shallow-water exemption to fishery closures aimed at protecting endangered North Atlantic right whales.

The Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) says it considered the proposal by the Maritime Fishermen’s Union and the Pecheurs professionnels du Sud de la Gaspesie, but will not exempt waters of up to 10 fathoms — or 18 metres — in depth.

“We felt staying in that depth of water, which is where most of our fishermen are now at this time of year anyways, was a really good compromise,” said Carl Allen, president of the Maritime Fishermen’s Union.

Last week, DFO issued temporary closures to six more grid areas due to the presence of right whales. The move came after six areas were closed to several fisheries as of May 22.

A static closure zone is in place along New Brunswick’s northern coast until June 30, while DFO has been enforcing what are called dynamic management closures that shut down fishing activities for 15 days once a right whale sighting is confirmed.

In an interview Monday, Allen said fishermen are having a hard time understanding DFO’s logic after they were willing to comply with any number of measures, including the use of tracking technology and observers.

Read the full story at CTV News

American Scallop Association Delivers Letter to Wilbur Ross, Participates in NOAA Fish Fry

June 11, 2018 — WASHINGTON — The following was released by the American Scallop Association:

American Scallop Association (ASA) leadership traveled to Washington last Wednesday to participate in the 43rd Annual NOAA Fish Fry. In Washington, they hand-delivered a letter to Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross regarding current issues facing the American scallop industry.

“This is the fourth year that we have participated in the NOAA Fish Fry,” said ASA General Counsel, Attorney John Whiteside. “Attending the NOAA Fish Fry gives us the opportunity to interact with policy-level decision makers on the domestic and global issues that affect us most.”

Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross visits the ASA tent at the NOAA Fish Fry.

In the letter, they outline several issues currently affecting the domestic, U.S. wild-caught, Atlantic sea scallop industry, including a request to restart the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership negotiations due to international price undercutting issues.

Specifically, as a result of the Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), the Canadian scallop industry now operates at an 8 percent advantage over its American counterpart. The agreement gives Canadian-based companies an unfair advantage in their exports to the European Union, making U.S. prices uncompetitive.

“The ASA had a discussion focused on international trade with US Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross about how CETA-rigged prices are causing irreparable harm to US companies trying to export lobster and scallops to the EU,” said Attorney Whiteside. The ASA urged the Secretary to resume the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership negotiations as soon as possible and be steadfast in demanding that tariff rates for fishery products like scallops and lobster mirror those set in the CETA treaty.”

ASA General Counsel, John Whiteside, delivers letter to Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross.

ASA members buy and sell over 75 percent of U.S. Atlantic sea scallops landed annually and are leaders in the domestic and international sea scallop trade. Headquartered along the Eastern Seaboard, members employ over 4,000 people throughout their domestic and international operations.

The NOAA Fish Fry gives industry representatives the opportunity to draw awareness to issues facing fisheries across the cuntry while bringing industry stakeholders and top government officials together under one roof. This year, ASA members were visited by Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, and President Trump’s nominee to head NOAA, Barry Myers. ASA members are NOAA Fish Fry regulars, and have represented the scallop industry for years at the event. ASA members that attended the event include: John F. Whiteside, Jr., Ross Paasche, Joseph Furtado, Paul Joly, Master Chef George Karousos, Barbara Cournoyer, Brittany Bushee, and Steve Zevitas.

ASA General Counsel, John Whiteside, meets with Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross.

Read the letter to Secretary Ross here

About the American Scallop Association

The ASA was founded in 1992 to foster a better public understanding of the importance of the scallop industry and to represent and promote the interests of the domestic, U.S. wild-caught, Atlantic sea scallop industry. Its aim is to support ASA members and all other affiliated interests to ensure a viable and long-term future for the Atlantic sea scallop fishery through effective dialogue, consultation, collaboration and partnerships.

Fish will migrate as temperatures warm, putting fisheries at risk

June 5, 2017 — Morley et al. 2018, a paper published May 16, 2018 in PLOS one (open access) projects how warming ocean temperatures will affect the geographic distribution of 686 commercially important species around North America. We already know that species across the globe are migrating due to climate change: organisms that require cooler environments are moving towards the poles while species that tolerate warmer conditions find themselves with more space to live.

Species migration and shifting home ranges have serious implications for natural resource management, particularly fisheries. Fishing boats may have to travel further to find fish, using more time & fuel; fishing communities and livelihoods could be lost as fish move away; or fish in one country’s jurisdiction (EEZ), may move to another country’s. The key management issue is the uncertainty. Fishers need to know how fish will be distributed in the future to adapt to warming temperatures and preserve their income and livelihoods.

The recent study should help fishery managers, fishers, and other stakeholders prepare for the future as it contains the most comprehensive projection of fisheries migration under climate change to date. Using over a hundred thousand data points from U.S. and Canadian fishery surveys over the past 50 years, researchers examined the relationship between temperature, depth, and habitat to establish home ranges for 686 species on the North American continental shelf; then used several climate models to see how home ranges would change under different emissions scenarios (representative concentration pathways—or RCPs).

Read the full story at Sustainable Fisheries UW

Massachusetts state senate supports new lobster processing rules

May 31, 2018 — The Massachusetts, U.S.A., state senate adopted an amendment on 25 May that would lift limits on lobster processing, sale, and transportation within the state.

Currently, lobstermen and seafood vendors in Massachusetts are required to send lobster out of state for processing, then ship it back in to sell within the state again. Roughly 80 percent of lobster landed inside the state is then sent out of state for processing.

Senate Minority Leader Bruce Tarr (R-Gloucester) sponsored the measure, which received unanimous support.

“Massachusetts has the second-largest lobster catch in the country, to keep from being left behind we should expand our ability to process raw and frozen lobster parts. American lobsters are being harvested here and should be prepared for market here instead of Canada or Maine,” said Senator Tarr. “The net effect of modernizing the law will bolster local economic activity and give local restaurants and food stores superior access to the best lobster parts for their customers.”

The amendment, which will affect the Senate’s Fiscal Year 2019 budget bill, will direct the state’s Division of Marine Fisheries to change the regulations to allow on-shore processing of lobsters, in addition to assessing whether the new regulations would harm the state’s lobster stock or sustainability.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

 

Conservation groups’ pact will help save Atlantic salmon

May 30, 2018 — PORTLAND, Maine — Two conservation groups said Tuesday a deal has been struck with commercial fishermen in Greenland and the Faroe Islands that will help thousands of vulnerable Atlantic salmon return to rivers in the United States, Canada and Europe.

Commercial fishing for Atlantic salmon is prohibited in the United States, where the fish’s Gulf of Maine population is listed under the Endangered Species Act. But the Atlantic Salmon Federation and North Atlantic Salmon Fund said their new deal with Greenland and Faroe Island fishers is a major step toward recovery because it will dramatically reduce fishing.

Coastal Greenland and the waters off the Faroe Islands are important feeding grounds for salmon. Fishermen who work those waters take fish that originate in both jeopardized populations in Maine and New Brunswick, Canada, and healthy populations elsewhere.

The agreement places new limits on fishing, including ending the Faroe Islands fishery.

Here’s a look at the agreement and the status of Atlantic salmon in the United States and Canada:

Read the full story from the Associated Press at ABC News

 

No calves as right whales return to Nova Scotia from Florida

May 30, 2018 — Only 16 whale sightings were reported anywhere south of Virginia this winter. The lack of sightings, coupled with at least 18 whale deaths reported in Canada and the United States between April 2017 and January 2018, leaves those interested in right whales concerned.

Scientists studying the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale logged another depressing statistic this winter.

In the more than 30 years scientists have tracked the movements of the whales between New England and Nova Scotia and the warmer waters off the Florida coast, this was the first time no calves have been sighted. That fact has only added concern to the growing sense of urgency after right whale deaths skyrocketed last year.

“Obviously you can’t tell a right whale it’s time to have a baby,” said Michael Moore, a senior scientist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and director of its marine mammal section.

But Moore and many other right whale scientists watching the highly endangered population dwindle before their eyes are seeking answers to the deadly perils the animals face, including collisions with the ships that share their space, commercial fishing gear that tangles the whales, and a warming ocean that appears to be wreaking havoc with their food supply and changing their migration patterns.

Read the full story at the Daytona Beach News-Journal

 

Alaska salmon exports should fetch high prices this year

May 30, 2018 — Forces are aligned for a nice pay day for Alaska’s salmon fishermen.

There is no backlog from last season in cold storages, a lower harvest forecast is boosting demand, prices for competing farmed salmon have remained high all year and a devalued U.S. dollar makes Alaska salmon more appealing to foreign customers.

“Over the past year the dollar has weakened 11 percent against the euro, 9 percent against the British pound, 5 percent against the Japanese yen, and 7 percent against the Chinese yuan. That makes Alaska salmon and other seafood more affordable to those top overseas customers,” said Garrett Evridge, a fisheries analyst at the McDowell Group.

Last year, Alaska seafood exports set records in terms of volume and value — 1.1 billion metric tons valued at $3.45 billion. Alaska salmon accounted for 22 percent of the volume and 36 percent of the value.

On the home front, the weaker dollar will make imports from Chile, the largest farmed salmon importer to the U.S. followed by Norway, more expensive. That also will apply to imports of competing wild salmon from Canada where — if it materializes — a big sockeye run is predicted at nearby British Columbia.

Read the full story at National Fisherman 

 

Massachusetts: Lobster processing bill OK’d by Senate

May 29, 2018 — For the second time in as many years, state Senate Minority Leader Bruce Tarr has convinced the Senate to include in its $41.49 billion budget a plan to expand in-state processing of raw and frozen lobster parts.

The question now is whether — unlike 2017 — the measure will remain in the final budget.

The Tarr-sponsored measure, adopted by the Senate on Thursday night as an amendment to the fiscal 2019 budget bill, would direct the state Division of Marine Fisheries to implement new regulations that permit on-shore lobster processing “after an assessment of whether such activity would harm the lobster stock or the sustainability of the state’s commercial lobster industry.”

Tarr and the plan’s supporters, which include Democratic senators from other coastal communities, would eliminate what they described as “outdated restrictions on lobster processing and sales.”

Under the current law, the sale of live, cooked and canned lobster is legal in Massachusetts, as is the processing and sale of frozen, cooked lobster tails.

But the existing law prohibits lobstermen and seafood vendors from selling, processing or transporting other forms of lobster in-state for processing, forcing them to ship the lobster or lobster parts to processors in Maine and Canada.

Under the proposed amendment, wholesale dealers licensed by the state Department of Public Health would be able to process raw lobsters, import raw, shell-on lobster parts and tails and allow retail sales of previously frozen raw, in-shell tails.

“Massachusetts has the second largest lobster catch in the country,” Tarr said in a statement. “To keep from being left behind, we should expand our ability to process raw and frozen lobster parts. American lobsters are being harvested here and should be prepared for market here instead of Canada or Maine.”

The expansion of allowed processing practices, according to Tarr, would enhance local economies in Massachusetts coastal communities such as Gloucester, which is the state’s most lucrative lobster port, and provide local restaurants and food stores with “superior access to the best lobster parts for their customers.”

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times

 

Financial outlook sunny for salmon fishermen, plus commercial salmon openers around Alaska

May 29, 2018 — Forces are aligned for a nice payday for Alaska’s salmon fishermen.

There is no backlog from last season in cold storages, a lower harvest forecast is boosting demand, prices for competing farmed salmon have remained high all year, and a devalued U.S. dollar makes Alaska salmon more appealing to foreign customers.

“Over the past year the dollar has weakened 11 percent against the euro, 9 percent against the British pound, 5 percent against the Japanese yen, and 7 percent against the Chinese yuan. That makes Alaska salmon and other seafood more affordable to those top overseas customers,” said Garrett Evridge, a fisheries analyst at the McDowell Group.

Last year Alaska seafood exports set records in terms of volume and value — 1.1 billion metric tons valued at $3.45 billion. Alaska salmon accounted for 22 percent of the volume and 36 percent of the value.

On the home front, the weaker dollar will make imports from Chile, the largest farmed salmon importer to the U.S. followed by Norway, more expensive. That also will apply to imports of competing wild salmon from Canada where — if it materializes — a big sockeye run is predicted in nearby British Columbia.

“About every four years we expect a relatively large harvest from the Fraser River run in B.C. In 2014 they produced about 83 million pounds of salmon and sockeye was the largest component,” Evridge said. “Likewise, a weaker dollar will make wild salmon imports from Russia and Japan more expensive for U.S. buyers.”

Russia, which had grown from a $10 million customer of primarily pink salmon roe to $60 million in 2013, has banned all imports of U.S. seafood since 2014. Meanwhile, that country continues to send millions of tons of salmon and other seafood into the U.S.

Read the full story at the Anchorage Daily News