Saving Seafood

Mussels Disappearing From New England Waters, Scientists Say

August 29, 2016 — New England is running out of mussels.

The Gulf of Maine’s once strong population of wild blue mussels is disappearing, scientists say. A study led by marine ecologists at the University of California at Irvine found the numbers along the gulf coastline have declined by more than 60 percent over the last 40 years.

Once covering as much as two-thirds of the gulf’s intertidal zone, mussels now cover less than 15 percent.

“It would be like losing a forest,” said biologist Cascade Sorte, who with her colleagues at the university conducted the study and recently published their findings in the Global Change Biology journal.

The Gulf of Maine stretches from Cape Cod to Canada and is a key marine environment and important to commercial fishing. Blue mussels are used in seafood dishes and worth millions to the economy of some New England states, but are also important in moving bacteria and toxins out of the water.

“It’s so disheartening to see it (the loss) in our marine habitats. We’re losing the habitats they create,” she said.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at ABC News

Surging Demand for Lobster Meat Changing Canadian Processing Patterns

August 26, 2016 — SEAFOOD NEWS —  If there was one thing lobster processors were thinking about during the first part of this year’s lobster season, it was lobster meat.

Surging foodservice demand for lobster meat is changing lobster processing patterns, both in Canada and the US.

The government of PEI recently released a summary of the May-June lobster season.  Volume was down 13.5%, to 23.5 million pounds, vs. 27.2 million pounds last year.  But the landed value was $148 million, an increase of 22% from the spring 2015 season.   The average ex-vessel price in Canadian dollars was $6.30, based on these figures.

So the season was characterized by a slower pace of landings and a higher raw material cost.  This combination supported processors’ move to pack lobster meat.

New Brunswick processors say that both CK (claw leg) and CKL (claw leg knuckle) meat is moving as fast as they can produce it.

One packer, when asked what was supporting the strong demand said “we think it really has to do with the US consumer absorbing the increased cost on core volume meat items like lobster rolls while continuing to purchase at a similar rate to last year. Some of the portion sizes may have been reduced (last year’s 6oz roll is now a 4oz) but overall velocity is there. ”

Another processor commented that Chefs are being more creative in using lobster meat as an ingredient, and they have adapted to high prices and are keeping lobster items on the menu due to their popularity.

“Many items made from other proteins (chicken, beef, pork etc) are now being recreated with lobster.  It’s likely that additional meat volume is being absorbed in this category.”

Lobster meat imports to the US have been the highest in years, with each month of 2016 exceeding the volume of any of the past four years.

The warmer temperatures and an early start to the season meant that May lobster meat imports were up ten-fold, from 216,000 pounds in 2015, to 2.23 million pounds in 2016.

However, US market prices have not moderated.

The run up in lobster meat prices that began last summer is showing no signs yet of moderating.  Furthermore, the spread between meat and 4 oz American tail prices has never been higher.

In this situation, it is natural that meat production will surge.  One place it may be coming from is live lobster.  Live lobster imports to the US from Canada were down 50% in June from the prior year, at only 6 million pounds, vs. 13 million the year before.  Some of this is the late season opening last year, but some of it also is likely a switch from live lobster to meat processing.  Canadian live lobster exports to China appear to be higher this year also, so the increased volume is not coming from any slowdown in sales to China.

The same pressures are being felt on the US side of the border, where a significant lobster processing industry has developed.  This week, the Mazzetta Co. announced they were suspending fresh fish production in their Gloucester plant to focus exclusively on lobster.

This story originally appeared on Seafoodnews.com, a subscription site. It is reprinted with permission.

OMB Has Been Sitting on USDA Organic Aquaculture Standards for Nearly a Year

August 17, 2016 — SEAFOOD NEWS — Get that organic birthday cake ready! The Agriculture Department’s proposed organic aquaculture standards will hit one year under White House Office of Management and Budget review on Wednesday, double the time officials are supposed to take on the interagency review process. If it’s ever released, the rule will set the first ever standards for the cultivation and production of organic fish and other seafood. Europe and Canada already have organic aquaculture standards, and some other groups have started offering their own standards as the USDA has floundered moving forward.

Why it’s stuck at OMB is unclear. A USDA spokesman tells MA that there is no news on when the rule will be released or what the holdup is, and the White House did not return a request for comment. However, George Lockwood, who chaired an aquaculture taskforce for the National Organic Standards Board, tells MA he thinks the administration is leaning toward only allowing closed-loop systems, such as raising fish in land-based tanks, possibly overriding the recommendations from the NOSB. Such systems often need expensive tanks and other infrastrastructure and aren’t appropriate for all species, Lockwood says, adding that the standards should instead allow a variety of fishing methods. White House and USDA officials asked repeatedly about closed-loop and recirculating systems at an OMB meeting in October, “questions that in retrospect were tipping their hand,” he says.

The delay at OMB is just the continuation of what has been a “tortured” process, says Patty Lovera, assistant director of the advocacy group Food and Water Watch. Given that the organic program was designed for things grown on land, where inputs can largely be controlled, figuring out how best to handle organic aquaculture, where, for example, contaminants can move freely through water, has been difficult. “I think the very slow pace of it shows it’s a tough one to wrap your hands around,” she says.

This story originally appeared on Seafoodnews.com, a subscription site. It is reprinted with permission.

Sweden delivers salvo in lobster ban fight

August 12, 2016 — NOAA Fisheries will brief staff from the Massachusetts congressional delegation Friday on Sweden’s response to the joint U.S.-Canadian scientific effort to keep the American lobster from being included on the European Union’s list of invasive species.

Carrie Rankin, spokeswoman for U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton, said the Salem congressman’s office was informed Thursday of the briefing, but was not yet made privy to the Swedish response to the scientific analysis mounted in June by the U.S. government, trade officials, marine scientists and lobster stakeholders.

“We don’t know what the official response is yet because we haven’t seen it,” Rankin said Thursday. “We’ll know a lot more (Friday) after the briefing.”

Kate Brogan, a spokeswoman for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, confirmed Sweden has responded to the North American scientific analysis that strongly rebuts Sweden’s claims that the American lobster, also known as Homarus americanus, is an invasive threat to the indigenous lobsters living in Swedish waters.

Brogan, however, declined to provide details of the response from the European Union member.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

Something new in the chill, salt air: Hope

August 8, 2016 — PETTY HARBOUR, Newfoundland — Shortly after dawn, Tom Best prodded his rusting boat past the copper-colored cliffs of the continent’s most eastern point, until it was idling over the deep, frigid waters that were once home to the world’s most bountiful fishing grounds.

The 70-year-old captain, like most other fishermen still working here, is old enough to remember better times. On a recent morning, as he eased up on the throttle and the Motion Bay came to a stop, he signaled to four grizzled men at the stern to cast their lines. Each lowered several specially designed hooks into the dark bay, unspooling their nylon lines by hand, like generations of Newfoundland fishermen before them.

But that way of life ended nearly a quarter century ago. After years of overfishing and damaging changes to the ocean environment, the Canadian government in 1992 banned nearly all commercial fishing of cod, an iconic species even more central to life here than in New England, where the fish stocks are also imperiled.

The demise of the Grand Banks fishery left tens of thousands out of work, desperate, angry, and wondering if the fish, protected by the ban, would ever come back.

Best and his crew weren’t fishing for themselves that day, but helping to seek a long elusive answer to that question. The results were immediate: In seconds, even with unbaited hooks, his men all had caught cod.

And over the course of the next 3½ hours, as puffins swooped overhead and bursts of water shot from the spouts of humpback whales, the men pulled up one fish after another — an impressive 200 in all. The mix of ages — from young to mature fish more than 3 feet long — suggested a healthy population.

“Sure is reassuring to see,” said Best, who has been fishing in these waters since he was 8 and serves as president of the local fishermen’s cooperative, which has lost more than a third of its members since the moratorium took effect. “It’s getting there.”

Read the full story at the Boston Globe

Regulators to Vote on New Lobster Fishing Restrictions

August 5, 2016 — PORTLAND, Maine – New restrictions might be proposed for southern New England’s lobster fishery as it deals with a steep decline in population.

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission is considering ways to save the lobsters and might cast a vote on Thursday.

A report from the commission says that one way to slow the loss of lobsters could be to increase the minimum harvesting size for the crustaceans.

Scientists say the population off of southern Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut has declined during a time of warming oceans. Lobsters have remained plentiful to consumers because of heavy supply from northern New England and Canada.

Read the full story at the Maine Public Broadcasting Network

Regulators to vote on new lobster fishing restrictions

August 4, 2016 — PORTLAND, Maine — New restrictions might be proposed for southern New England’s lobster fishery as it deals with a steep decline in population.

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission is considering ways to save the lobsters and might cast a vote on Thursday.

A report from the commission says that one way to slow the loss of lobsters could be to increase the minimum harvesting size for the crustaceans.

Scientists say the population off of southern Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut has declined during a time of warming oceans. Lobsters have remained plentiful to consumers because of heavy supply from northern New England and Canada.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the San Francisco Chronicle

NOAA switching fish survey practice

August 3, 2016 — The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries announced Tuesday afternoon that it will begin the planning process to turn over part or all of a key fish population study from its flagship $54 million research vessel to private commercial fishing vessels.

“We are thinking we want to make good on our commitment in our strategic plan for more transparency and building confidence in (fish) survey results,” said William Karp, the science and research director for NOAA’s Northeast Fisheries Science Center. He said other regions, Alaska and the Northwest, use commercial vessels for this purpose.

The spring and fall bottom survey has been done by NOAA vessels since 1963 and is the longest continuous fish survey in the world. Using a special net, the 208-foot-long Henry B. Bigelow samples fish populations at 400 randomly selected sites from Cape Hatteras to the Canadian border. The relative abundance of the species they catch forms an index that helps scientists estimate fish populations along with biological information and landings data.

Read the full story at the Cape Cod Times

Minimum size for keeping caught lobster may change south of Cape Cod

August 1, 2016 — Southern New England lobster fishermen might have to start throwing back more small lobsters in an attempt to stem population losses.

New restrictions are on tap for the region’s historic lobster fishery, which is grappling with an unprecedented decline in some areas. Scientists have said lobsters off southern Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut have declined as ocean waters warm.

The regulatory Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission is considering ways to help preserve the species, and a report from the commission says one way to preserve lobsters could be to increase the minimum harvesting size. The commission’s lobster board might take action on the issue Thursday.

“The biggest challenge I see is trying to establish an appropriate goal to manage the fishery in the face of what the scientists are telling us is the decline caused by ocean warming,” said Dan McKiernan, a member of the lobster board.

New England lobster fishing is one of America’s oldest industries, and it was worth more than a half-billion dollars last year. Lobsters have remained plentiful for consumers, and prices have been relatively stable because of abundant supply from northern New England and Canada.

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

Regulators to revisit saving southern New England’s lobsters

July 28, 2016 — LITTLE COMPTON, R.I. — Regulators are taking another look at potential strategies to revitalize southern New England’s lobster population, which scientists say has sunk to its lowest levels on record.

The lobster management board of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission is planning to discuss possible solutions to the problem Aug. 4 in Alexandria, Virginia, near where the commission is based.

The commission’s members have expressed a desire to find new management options to increase egg production in southern New England lobsters by 20 to 60 percent.

Among the options being considered are reducing traps and shortening the fishing season so lobsters have time to reproduce. The population has declined in the face of warming oceans.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at WMDT