Saving Seafood

Lobster industry fears lost sales from ramped-up Canadian exports

March 20, 2017 — A new trade deal looming between Canada and the European Union is setting off alarm bells in the Maine lobster industry.

The deal between Canada and the EU – the largest seafood consumer market in the world – would eliminate tariffs on Canadian lobster exports into Europe and give the Maritimes a competitive advantage over their American counterparts, who would be stuck selling lobsters with tariffs ranging from 8 percent for a live lobster to 20 percent on processed or cooked lobster.

A weak Canadian dollar, which is now valued at about 75 percent of a U.S. dollar, will only make Canadian lobster that much more attractive to importers in the 28 member nations of the European Union, which is the second biggest importer of American lobsters, second only to Canada, according to trade data. In 2016, the EU imported $152 million worth of lobsters from the U.S., most of it from Maine.

“This is a big deal,” said Annie Tselikis, director of the Maine Lobster Dealers’ Association. “Canada recognizes that it is an export nation. They are putting their money where their mouth is and adopting a very aggressive trade policy. They are also developing a very aggressive, smart marketing campaign abroad. It is going to be very difficult to compete with that because we sell the same product.”

The Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement, or CETA, has been under negotiation for years. The United States was negotiating one, too, called the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, or TTIP, but it has stalled. The Canadian-EU deal appears likely to get its final OK in May, and the first phase of the deal, including the trade tariffs, would go into effect in June.

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

Fishing fatality prompts call for safer vessels

March 13, 2017 — The brother of the 51-year-old fisherman from Alert Bay who died when the Miss Cory capsized is calling for safety improvements to the industry.

Mel Rocchio was in the engine room when the vessel took less than two minutes to capsize Monday afternoon after listing in calm waters near Comox, off Cape Lazo. It was the first day of the commercial seine roe-herring fishery in the Strait of Georgia.

Four other crew members survived.

Rocchio’s brother, Jim, also a veteran of the commercial fishing industry, said a 19.5-metre-long boat doesn’t sink that fast unless there are “catastrophic failures.”

He said he wants to see a full investigation into his brother’s death.

“If anything, we need to learn from this,” he said. “I really feel in my heart that no one else should have to go through this. Identify the problem and correct it so other people don’t lose a brother, or uncle or grandfather.”

Glenn Budden, a marine investigator with the Transportation Safety Board, said witnesses reported the boat was alongside another boat and hauling up the catch when the accident happened.

Read the full story at the Times Colonist

Family identifies missing fisherman as Mel Rocchio of Alert Bay

March 10, 2017 — Mel Rocchio of Alert Bay has been identified by family as the fisherman who is missing and presumed drowned after a fishing boat capsized Monday off Comox.

WorkSafe B.C., Transport Canada and the RCMP are investigating what caused the Miss Cory, a 19.5-metre wooden vessel, to capsize on opening day of the commercial seine roe-herring fishery in the Strait of Georgia.

The four others on the boat were rescued by vessels fishing in the waters off Cape Lazo.

Rocchio had been fishing out of the Campbell River Fisherman’s Wharf for about 15 years, according to Phyllis Titus, manager of the Campbell River Harbour Authority.

Titus, who met Rocchio about seven years ago, said he was the type of person who became instant friends with anyone who crossed his path.

“He always made you laugh while being as quiet as a mouse or as loud as an ox,” Titus said. He was the type of friend “who’s willing to help anyone, any time.”

Rocchio was married, and while the couple did not have children, he treated his nieces and nephews like his own children.

Read the full story at the Times Colonist

U.S. seafood group bristles at comments by Canada’s fisheries minister

February 3, 2017 — An American seafood industry association is disputing statements by Canada’s fisheries minister that Canadian producers need to “raise their game” in order to meet new traceability rules for seafood imported into the U.S.

The Washington-based National Fisheries Institute, which opposes the new rules, says Canada has nothing to do with the illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) catches the new Seafood Import Monitoring Program was brought in to stop.

​”Canada is actually a leader in the fight against IUU and is globally known for its expertise in digital forensics, used in major international investigations of IUU,” the institute’s vice-president communications, Gavin Gibbons, said in an email statement to CBC News.

Read the full story at CBC News

55 deaths in 15 years: Report highlights remarkable danger of commercial fishing in Canada

January 23, 2017 — HALIFAX, Canada — A new report details the frantic, fruitless attempt to rescue a deckhand pulled overboard just hours into the lobster season — one of a series of deaths on both coasts that demonstrate the remarkable danger of commercial fishing.

“The loss of life on fishing vessels is simply too great,” the Transportation Safety Board of Canada said after its probe on the November 30, 2015, death of a deckhand on the Cock-a-Wit Lady near Clark’s Harbour, N.S.

The unidentified deckhand was a veteran of eight years on the boat, but made a brief mistake that killed him two-and-a-half hours into the trip, according to the TSB’s report.

A lobster trap got stuck on a port-side railing, and he attempted to free it with his feet. He stepped into coils of rope attached to several traps, and was hauled quickly over the stern when it was freed, the report says.

“The deckhand was still standing in the coil of rope, and when it became taut, he was carried overboard and underwater by the weight and momentum of the traps,” the TSB report said.

“The crew of the Cock-a-Wit Lady determined which of the multiple lines was attached to the deckhand and passed it around the stern and up the starboard side to the trap hauler. They rove the line around the hauler directly over the bulwarks and attempted to haul up the deckhand.”

But the line was at an extreme angle, and broke under the weight of the traps and the deckhand, who was wearing an inflated flotation device.

Read the full story at the National Post

Fishing industry cautiously optimistic about potential haddock boom

January 23, 2017 — Exactly how many of the haddock that hatched in 2013 are still swimming off the coast of southern Nova Scotia is not certain, but researchers agree the numbers are potentially massive.

Biologist Monica Finley recently completed a population assessment for the southern Scotian Shelf and Bay of Fundy.

She estimates 264 million haddock were hatched there in 2013 and survived their first year, making it an “extraordinary” year-class.

“This 2013 year-class is five times higher than the next highest on record since 1985,” said Finley, who works at a Department of Fisheries and Oceans research facility in St. Andrews, N.B.

Her report predicts 100,000 metric tonnes of haddock will reach adulthood in 2017 and 2018.

Bring on the boom

On Georges Bank, the population is predicted to be even bigger, with Canadian and American scientists estimating the 2013 hatch at 1.3 billion fish.

This month, fish plants in southern Nova Scotia are starting to process their first catches of 2013 haddock, forerunners of what industry members hope is a boom for years to come.

“We’re seeing signs of it now, but we would expect to see the fish at the larger, more commercially harvestable sizes in a couple of years,” said Alain d’Entremont, chief operating officer at O’Neil Fisheries in Digby.

“We are taking a cautious path to that harvest.”

Read the full story at CBC News

Lobster prices high as catch drops and China imports climb

January 11, 2017 — Lobster lovers are used to adjusting to high prices, but this winter, they’re shelling out even more for the cherished crustaceans because of a lack of catch off of New England and Canada and heavy exports to China.

Winter is typically a slow season for U.S. lobster fishermen and an active one off Atlantic Canada. But catch is slow in both countries this year, in part because of bad weather, industry sources said.

And the winter months are also an important time for exports to lobster-crazy China, which celebrates its New Year holiday Jan. 28. It’s increasingly popular to celebrate the Chinese New Year with American lobster. That’s causing demand at a time when supply is low.

American consumers who were paying $9 to $11 per pound for a live lobster in September — already higher than the previous year — are now sometimes paying upward of $13 per pound. There are enough lobsters to go around, but China’s demand is likely to only grow, said Bill Bruns, operations manager at The Lobster Company of Arundel, Maine.

“They are building infrastructure to meet more demand,” Bruns said, who added that China’s middle class “hasn’t stopped growing, and they keep eating.”

American lobster exports to China have topped 12 million pounds and $85 million in value for three years in a row. The country imported a fraction of that amount as recently as 2010, when it imported less than a million pounds of the crustaceans.

Meanwhile, prices charged by wholesalers in the U.S. are rising, too. The wholesale price of a 1 ¼-pound live hard shell lobster rose about a dollar in the New England market from December to January, when it was $7.75 per pound, according to Urner Barry commodities publishing service.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the Gloucester Times

Could a Partnership Born of Fish 2.0 Become the Red Bull of Seafood?

January 9, 2017 — There’s a global divide at the heart of the seafood industry: the businesses that most need new technologies are often continents away from the businesses creating them.

Small-scale seafood operations in Asia, Latin America, and Africa catch and farm most of the seafood we eat. Startups in the U.S., Canada, and Europe are developing most of the technologies that promise to improve logistics, traceability, fish feeds, and aquaculture production. But distance and limited resources mean these businesses rarely meet. Bridging this divide is an essential step toward both healthy oceans and a healthy, equitable food supply.

That’s one reason we open Fish 2.0 to a diverse range of seafood enterprises from around the world. The Fish 2.0 competition process not only helps ventures improve individually but builds trust and gives technology and product innovators the chance to find and connect with investors as well as other fishing businesses, seafood farmers, and technology creators. Finalists gain insights into parts of the supply chain previously hidden from them and are able to form relationships with like-minded entrepreneurs they otherwise would not have met. The result is new business partnerships that offer unique growth opportunities for investors, as well as solutions to the seafood industry’s most difficult problems.

Aquaculture innovators click

My favorite recent example is the new joint venture between 2015 Canadian finalist and track winner SabrTech and Thailand based runner-up Green Innovative Biotechnology (GIB). SabrTech’s RiverBox system reduces pollution from farm runoff and grows an algae-based feed from the captured wastewater. Bangkok-based GIB has developed a feed supplement that boosts the immune systems of farm-raised fish and shrimp, leading to higher growth rates, greater resistance to diseases such as early mortality syndrome, and lower feed costs. Both technologies solve aquaculture production and cost issues using naturally derived solutions.

Mather Carscallen, president and CEO of SabrTech, and Karsidete Teeranitayatarn, chief innovation officer of GIB, met during the pitch practice session for the Fish 2.0 finals at Stanford University last fall.  Mather helped Karsidete polish his delivery, and the two learned enough about each other to want to stay in touch.

Read the full story at National Geographic

President Obama bans oil drilling in large areas of Atlantic and Arctic oceans

December 21st, 2016 — President Obama moved to solidify his environmental legacy Tuesday by withdrawing hundreds of millions of acres of federally owned land in the Arctic and Atlantic Ocean from new offshore oil and gas drilling.

Obama used a little-known law called the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act to protect large portions of the Chukchi and Beaufort seas in the Arctic and a string of canyons in the Atlantic stretching from Massachusetts to Virginia. In addition to a five-year moratorium already in place in the Atlantic, removing the canyons from drilling puts much of the eastern seaboard off limits to oil exploration even if companies develop plans to operate around them.

The announcement by the White House late in the afternoon was coordinated with similar steps being taken by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to shield large areas of that nation’s Arctic waters from drilling. Neither measure affects leases already held by oil and gas companies and drilling activity in state waters.

“These actions, and Canada’s parallel actions, protect a sensitive and unique ecosystem that is unlike any other region on earth,” the White House said in a statement. “They reflect the scientific assessment that, even with the high safety standards that both our countries have put in place, the risks of an oil spill in this region are significant and our ability to clean up from a spill in the region’s harsh conditions is limited.

White House officials described their actions to make the areas off limits to future oil and gas exploration and drilling as indefinite. Officials said the withdrawals under Section 12-A of the 1953 act used by presidents dating to Dwight Eisenhower cannot be undone by an incoming president. It is not clear if a Republican-controlled Congress can rescind Obama’s action.

Read the full story at The Washington Post

Aquaculture provides a timely opportunity

December 20th, 2016 — Canada: The world needs more fish and Canadian aquaculture could have the answer. Around the world, fish stocks are dropping. Government quotas are down.

Meanwhile, the world’s population continues to grow steadily. According to the United Nations, by 2030, an additional 27 million tonnes of fish would be needed to maintain per capita consumption at its current level.

On top of that, hundreds of Canadian communities rely on fishing for their livelihoods and traditions. As a proud Newfoundlander and Labradorian, I’ve seen this up close my whole life.

Unless we adapt now, we’re looking at a crisis that will only go from bad to worse.

But aquaculture — the cultivation and harvesting of aquatic organisms — presents a unique opportunity to fill this growing gap between the supply of fish and worldwide demand.

Aquaculture is already responsible for roughly 50 per cent of the fish and seafood consumed worldwide.

But despite Canada having the world’s longest marine coastline and the largest number of freshwater lakes, we lag behind the rest of the world in this booming industry — only 20 per cent of Canada’s fish and seafood is currently produced through aquaculture.

Read the full story at Aquaculture Magazine