October 1, 2021 — Reports appearing across China’s tightly controlled media are suggesting COVID-19 first arrived in the country in 2019 via a shipment of lobster from the U.S. state of Maine.
“In November 2019, a shipment of frozen Maine [lobster] arrived in Wuhan and shortly afterwards several people working in the market fell very ill with a strange pneumonia,” noted an article published this week in the New Observer, a state-owned periodical.
Read the full story at SeafoodSource
September 24, 2021 — It’s 3 a.m., and after five days plying through the high seas, the Ocean Warrior is surrounded by an atoll of blazing lights that overtakes the nighttime sky.
“Welcome to the party!” says third officer Filippo Marini as the spectacle floods the ship’s bridge and interrupts his overnight watch.
It’s the conservationists’ first glimpse of the world’s largest fishing fleet: an armada of nearly 300 Chinese vessels that have sailed halfway across the globe to lure the elusive Humboldt squid from the Pacific Ocean’s inky depths.
As Italian hip hop blares across the bridge, Marini furiously scribbles the electronic IDs of 37 fishing vessels that pop up as green triangles on the Ocean Warrior’s radar onto a sheet of paper, before they disappear.
Immediately he detects a number of red flags: two of the boats have gone ‘dark,’ their mandatory tracking device that gives a ship’s position switched off. Still others are broadcasting two different radio numbers — a sign of possible tampering.
The Associated Press with Spanish-language broadcaster Univision accompanied the Ocean Warrior this summer on an 18-day voyage to observe up close for the first time the Chinese distant water fishing fleet on the high seas off South America.
The vigilante patrol was prompted by an international outcry last summer when hundreds of Chinese vessels were discovered fishing for squid near the long-isolated Galapagos Islands, a UNESCO world heritage site that inspired 19th-century naturalist Charles Darwin and is home to some of the world’s most endangered species, from giant tortoises to hammerhead sharks.
Read the full story from the AP
September 24, 2021 — The latest in a long line of transportation snags affecting the seafood industry is gridlock at ports in the U.S. state of California, which has created supply chain woes for importers of products from China and other major seafood-supplying nations.
A record-breaking 73 ships were waiting at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach on 20 September, according to the Marine Exchange of Southern California, per The Wall Street Journal, with the average wait time for ships to get into Los Angeles extending out to 8.5 days, also a record.
Read the full story at SeafoodSource
August 30, 2021 — In June, the Central Arctic Ocean Fisheries Agreement entered into force, bringing to fruition a diplomatic effort that began more than a decade ago.
The agreement represents an unusual and farsighted effort to address a potentially serious environmental problem before it occurs. Too often, governments find themselves in the unenviable situation of dealing with issues only after they have arisen. This time, acting in advance will prevent unregulated commercial fishing in a wide swath of the Arctic Ocean that could have caused significant harm to the marine environment.
In another first, a formal agreement relating specifically to the Arctic region includes non-Arctic signatories, with parties to the agreement comprising Canada, China, Denmark (in respect of Greenland and the Faroe Islands), the European Union, Iceland, Japan, Norway, Russia, South Korea and the United States.
It demonstrates that nations can find ways to act in their mutual self-interest even in the face of serious geopolitical tensions. There were many sources of friction that might have derailed progress along the way – particularly during the Trump administration. But with key players in the United States, Russia and China signing and ratifying the agreement, the oceans have a new and groundbreaking multilateral instrument.
August 23, 2021 — China’s seafood importers could be looking at price rises due to port congestion and higher freight costs, according to a Siam Canadian executive.
Most Chinese processors are renegotiating their contracted prices due to rising costs for raw materials and freight, according to Landy Chow, the general manager of Bangkok, Thailand-based seafood trader Siam Canadian Group’s Guangzhou office.
August 18, 2021 — The following was released by the Convention on Biological Diversity:
Decisive in-person meetings on a highly-anticipated new UN agreement on biodiversity have been paused for a few more months by the coronavirus pandemic.
Host country China and the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) today announced dates for the UN Biodiversity Conference, which includes the 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP-15), www.cbd.int/meetings/COP-15, to be convened in two parts, the 10th meeting of Parties to the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety (CP-MOP 10) and the 4th meeting of Parties to the Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising from their Utilization (NP-MOP 4).
From Monday 11 to Friday 15 October 2021, an official opening will take place online, followed by final negotiations on the post-2020 global biodiversity framework during face-to-face meetings in Kunming, China, Monday 25 April to Sunday 8 May 2022.
The opening meeting will address agenda items essential to the continued operations of the biodiversity convention and its two Protocols. It will also include a High-Level Segment to be held on 12 and 13 October and expected to produce a Kunming Declaration adding political momentum to the Framework negotiations.
August 11, 2021 — Argentina’s government is working with China as a strategic technology partner to develop its domestic aquaculture sector.
Argentina’s national director of aquaculture, Guillermo Abdala, estimated aquaculture could generate revenue of at least USD 1.8 billion (EUR 1.5 billion) annually for the South American nation.
August 5, 2021 — Early morning in Honolulu, yellowfin, bigeye and other types of tuna, along with swordfish, are put up for auction after being offloaded from ships overnight. Longline boats, 145 of them, operate from this port, trailing kilometers-long baited lines. These vessels mostly fish in international waters at least 400 kilometers offshore, alongside boats from Taiwan, China, Japan and South Korea. Wholesale buyers compete for the catch in an early morning auction, and a single high-quality tuna can fetch from several hundred dollars to more than $1,000.
Confrontations are rare on the high seas near Hawaii, where the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command is based and the U.S. Coast Guard maintains a strong presence.
But fisherman here have watched with concern as Chinese fishing vessels intimidate Philippine fisherman in waters that China claims in the South China Sea.
U.S. fishing vessels, on the other hand, face more scrutiny than the Chinese ships. They are closely monitored under U.S. domestic law, says Eric Kingma, executive director of the Hawaii Longline Association, which represents local fishermen.
“We have independent observer coverage levels of at least 20% in our tuna fishery, whereas China barely scratches (reaches) 5%. And we have a whole suite of environmental laws, statutes and regulations,” he said.
July 27, 2021 — There are signs that China’s economy is cooling, as economic data for the second quarter of 2021 showed China’s GDP growth slowed due to slower state-led investment and weaker consumption growth. China’s exports in Q2 2021 rose 20 percent, but higher prices for oil and other imports are eroding China’s strong trade balance.
Meanwhile, seafood prices are soaring across the country. Wholesale prices for freshwater seafood surged 20 percent year-on-year in the first half of 2021 in China, according to data published by the National Bureau of Statistics. The climb in prices is 13.1 percentage points higher than the rise seen in the first half of 2020 and has added 0.12 to China’s overall consumer price index (CPI). The overall seafood price index was up 17.2 percent in the first six months, suggesting tightened supply.
July 20, 2021 — The following was released by the National Fisheries Institute:
The National Fisheries Institute’s Red Crab Council and its partners – Ocean Outcomes (O2) and Tao Ran on the ground in China – have renewed their annual contract to keep the comprehensive Red Crab Fisheries Improvement Project (FIP) on track.
“For a number of years the Red Crab fishery has faced adversity from things like the pandemic, the market and tariffs,” said Newport International President Anjan Tharakan, the NFI Red Crab Council Chair. “But none of the companies we partner with, and certainly not O2 nor Tao Ran, have lost sight of the importance of working hard towards the most sustainable fishery possible. I’ve said it before, and I will say it again. If nothing, this is one committed group.”
The FIP is focused on improving crab production in Fujian Province, the leading harvesting region in China for red crab.
The NFI Red Crab Council funds the work by assessing a fee on its members based on the number of pounds they import each quarter.
“Despite all the external challenges this FIP has faced, we’ve never changed our ultimate objectives,” said O2 Founder and CEO Rich Lincoln. “We have dedicated companies supporting the work and experts on the ground executing it. Continuing this contract keeps us on track to seeing the best science-based strategies driving Red Crab fisheries management in the Fujian region”
The status of the Fujian Zhangzhou Red Crab FIP is updated biannually on fisheryprogress.org.