Saving Seafood

The Deal to Share the North American Fish and Chips Supply

September 22, 2016 — There’s a looming fish and chips crisis in the United States.

The number of cod, the fish most used in the popular pub dish, is in decline in the waters off New England, and it seems overfishing and warming ocean temperatures as a result of climate change are to blame.

The U.S. and Canada have come to a deal on how to divide what remains of the North American cod supply in parts of the Atlantic Ocean. The Associated Press has the breakdown:

The countries have agreed to set the total allowable catch at 730 metric tons next year. The U.S. will be allowed to take 146 metric tons and Canada will get the rest…

Read the full story at The Atlantic

US, Canada broker agreement to share dwindling cod fishing

September 21, 2016 — PORTLAND, Maine — The United States and Canada have brokered a deal to share what’s left of the dwindling North American cod fishing business in the Atlantic next year.

Both countries fish for cod, an important food fish that has declined in population following overfishing and warming ocean temperatures. The two fisheries overlap in the eastern reaches of Georges Bank, an important fishing area located off of New England.

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

Majority of US Seafood Producers Call to Stop Undermining Magnuson with End Run for Marine Monuments

September 13, 2016 — WASHINGTON — SEAFOOD NEWS — The US has one of the most highly successful systems for managing living marine resources in the world.  Under the Magnuson Act, stakeholders come together to determine fisheries management policy, guided by the best available science.  The result has been a huge rebuilding of US fish stocks, and the protection of essential habitat.  Many tradeoffs have been made to create closed areas, and to preserve fishing rights where coastal conditions support them.

The keys to this success are first, the decision process is completely open and transparent.  Every argument and decision is made in open forums, and according to the best available science.  This limits the ability to use fisheries resources to score political points.

Both Canada and Europe’s fisheries suffered greatly as governments for years abused their authority by trading fishing privileges for other political favors; with the result that these stocks have been significantly overfished. Only in the last few years has this process begun to be reversed.

Use of the Antiquities Act to create marine monuments, although legal, makes an end run around both state and federal management systems, and in short trades monument designations, made without public review,  for political gain.

Today, in advance of the “Our Oceans” conference being held later this week at the State Department, the National Coalition for Fishing Communities (NCFC) delivered a letter to the White House calling on the President to refrain from designating new marine monuments under the Antiquities Act. Copies of the letter were also delivered to the offices of Senators representing the states of the signers. (Letter)

The letter has over 900 fishing industry signers and is supported by 35 fishing organizations that together represent a significant majority of domestic seafood producers.  It urges the President to conserve marine resources through the federal fisheries management process established by the bipartisan Magnuson-Stevens Fisheries Management Act (MSA).

“The federal fisheries management process is among the most effective systems for managing living marine resources in the world,” the letter states. “The misuse of the Antiquities Act to create a marine monument is a repudiation of the past and ongoing efforts of almost everyone involved to continue to make Magnuson-Stevens management even more effective.”

The NCFC members join an ever-growing list of fishing organizations and individuals opposing new ocean monuments via use of the Antiquities Act. The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, the Council Coordination Committee, and over two dozen individual fish and seafood industry trade organizations have previously written to the White House asking for the MSA continue to guide fisheries management.

Mayors from major East and West coast ports have previously expressed their concerns with monument designations in letters to the White House. NCFC members have also spoke out in opposition to designating a monument off the coast of New England, which would hurt the valuable red crab, swordfish, tuna, and offshore lobster fisheries.

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

Sweden’s proposed ban on American lobsters clears first hurdle

September 7, 2016 — The scientific arm of the European Union says there is enough evidence to move forward with a review of Sweden’s request to declare the American lobster an invasive species.

America and Canada contend Sweden’s bid to protect the European lobster from its larger American cousin, which has been found in small numbers in North Atlantic waters, lacks any scientific evidence of a pending invasion, and had hoped to squelch the proposal this summer.

But on Tuesday, the Scientific Forum on Invasive Alien Species, which is made up of experts appointed by each EU member state, confirmed the validity of Sweden’s scientific risk assessment, setting in motion a broader review that could lead to the ban of live imports into the 28-nation coalition.

An EU spokeswoman said the opinion is a first step in a long process that would not reach a conclusion until the spring, at the earliest. It will be reviewed and possibly considered for a vote by the Alien Species Committee. If approved, the motion would go to the full European Union Commission for a final vote.

“This does not prejudge in any way the decision on whether the commission will propose the lobster for listing,” said Iris Petsa. “This is a preliminary opinion on a purely scientific risk assessment and not a decision as to whether to ban the species.”

Lobstermen in the U.S. and Canada stand to lose $200 million in business with EU countries if the ban becomes a reality. In its additional review, the European Union Commission will consider the implications for international trade, as well as alternative means to protect Europe’s native lobster, Petsa said.

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

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