Saving Seafood

9 countries and the EU protected the Arctic Ocean before the ice melts

October 12, 2018 —  It’s easy to miss the truly historic nature of the moment.

Last week, nine countries—the U.S., Canada, Russia, Norway, Greenland/Denmark, China, Japan, Iceland, South Korea, and the European Union (which includes 28 member states)—signed a treaty to hold off on commercial fishing in the high seas of the Arctic Ocean for at least 16 years while scientists study the potential impacts on wildlife in the far north. It was an extraordinary act of conservation—the rare case where major governments around the world proceeded with caution before racing into a new frontier to haul up sea life with boats and nets. They set aside 1.1 million square miles of ocean, an area larger than the Mediterranean Sea.

But to really grasp the significance of this milestone, consider why such a step was even possible, and what that says about our world today. For more than 100,000 years the central Arctic Ocean has been so thoroughly covered in ice that the very idea of fishing would have seemed ludicrous.

That remained true as recently as 20 years ago. But as human fossil-fuel emissions warmed the globe, the top of the world has melted faster than almost everywhere else. Now, in some years, up to 40 percent of the central Arctic Ocean—the area outside each surrounding nation’s 200-nautical-mile exclusive economic zone—is open water in summer. That hasn’t yet been enough to make fishing attractive. But it is enough that boats may be lured in soon.

So, for perhaps the first time in human history, the nations of the world set aside and protected fishing habitat that, for the moment, does not even yet exist. The foresight is certainly something to applaud. But it’s hard to escape the fact that the international accord is a tacit acknowledgment—including by the United States, which is moving to back out of the Paris climate accords—that we are headed, quite literally, into uncharted waters.

“The Arctic is in a transient state—it’s not stable,” Rafe Pomerance, a former State Department official who once worked on Arctic issues and now chairs a network of Arctic scientists from nongovernmental organizations and serves on the polar research board of the National Academy of Sciences, said last year.

Read the full story at National Geographic

Key Alaska seafood products dropped from list of Chinese tariffs

October 9, 2018 — Some of Alaska’s seafood industry has escaped the Trump administration’s trade war with China for now. The industry is happy the administration dropped some mainstay seafood products from a list of tariffs it imposed last week.

The Trump administration levied billions of dollars worth of tariffs on the world’s second largest economy on Sept. 24. The tariffs start at 10 percent and will ratchet up to 25 percent by 2019. The Trump administration’s original list of levies included seafood products that Alaska processors export to China for reprocessing.

“A portion of that actually comes back to the U.S.,” Garrett Everidge, a fisheries economist at the McDowell Group, said. “These would be products such as salmon products, Pacific cod products and other seafood products that the state produces.”

But Pacific cod and salmon have been dropped from the list.

“As of right now, those categories have been excluded from the import tariffs. Pollock products have also been excluded,” Everidge explained.

That’s good news. Even when those tariffs were just a proposal, they were slowing down Alaska processors’ sales in China, the main buyer of Alaska seafood.

That’s because Chinese fish buyers were taking a wait-and-see approach as the Trump administration worked to finalize its list of tariffs. 

“Compared to a few months ago when there was a bit more uncertainty and just less information, we now have a better understanding of those products that are actually going to be on the list,” Everidge added. “That represents an improvement for both the buyers and sellers.”

Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute Executive Director Alexa Tonkovich agrees the final list is an improvement.

Read the full story at Alaska Public Media

‘Historic’ Agreement Bans Commercial Fishing Across a Vast Swath of the Arctic

October 4, 2018 — As the Arctic’s mantle of protective sea ice grows smaller and sadder by the year, new waters are opening up, setting the stage for industry and tourism to take off. But a vast swath of those chilly seas will soon be off-limits to at least one human enterprise: commercial-scale fishing.

On Wednesday, nine nations and the European Union signed an agreement to place a moratorium on unregulated commercial fishing across 1.1 million square miles of the central Arctic Ocean. These waters are becoming increasingly accessible as Arctic sea ice melts, and conservationists have been pushing for more protections so that exposed and potentially fragile ecosystems can be properly studied before we screw them up beyond repair.

Apparently, Arctic nations and those looking to exploit the ocean’s riches in the future—a list that includes the U.S., Russia, Canada, China, and Japan—are listening. The moratorium, which builds off protections the U.S. put in place in 2009, will be in effect for 16 years unless a science-based management plan can be established sooner, according to a press release from Pew Charitable Trusts. There’s also the potential to extend the fishing ban for additional five year increments depending on the results of a new research and monitoring program, which will focus on how the central Arctic Ocean ecosystem is changing and how best to manage any emerging fisheries.

Read the full story at Earther

US, Russia, China, others to sign agreement preventing illegal fishing in Arctic

October 3, 2018 — The United States is set to join nine other countries and organizations in a first-of-its kind agreement to protect Arctic Ocean waters from commercial fishing.

The pact, scheduled to be signed Wednesday, 3 October in Ilslissat, Greenland, comes after two years of negotiations between countries with coastlines on the Arctic as well as other major fishing powers. Those nations concluded talks last November.

The agreement comes as polar melting has reduced the Arctic ice cap and open new areas in the central part of the ocean for vessels. That means commercial fishing may be viable in those areas.

However, nine years ago, the U.S. closed its exclusive economic zone in the Arctic off the northern Alaskan coast to commercial fishing operations until government officials learned more about the region’s ecosystem. Alaska fishermen have expressed fears that the melting could lead to foreign vessels fishing in U.S. waters.

In a statement released 1 October, the U.S. State Department said the Greenland agreement cuts down chances of illegal fishing taking place in U.S. waters currently off limits to American fishermen.

Under terms of the agreement, the participating nations must create plan to study the Arctic’s ecosystem and not just for fishing purposes.

Michael Byers, an international law professor at the University of British Columbia, praised the countries for their forward thinking on the matter in a Canadian Press article.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

US companies accused of dumping lobster in Asia

September 28, 2018 — An executive with a Chinese seafood conglomerate has accused U.S. lobster companies of dumping their products on other Asian markets at steep discounts.

Jack Liu, the Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada-based, North American president of Chinese seafood company Zoneco, which owns the lobster-focused Capital Seafood, told the Canadian Broadcasting Company the dumping was a response to newly-imposed tariffs closing off the Chinese market to U.S. exporters.

“They are going to dump those amounts of lobster into other parts of the world,” Liu said. “We have seen that.”

Liu said U.S. lobster – often labeled as Boston lobster – is selling for at least a USD 1.00 (EUR 0.85) per pound less in Hong Kong, Malaysia, and Taiwan, putting pressure on Canadian lobster exporters.

“I believe Canadian lobster, as we speak, is somewhat losing market share in those Asian markets due to the lower price from the U.S.,” he said.

While Canadian exports to China have risen in the short-term, Liu said he is not comfortable with the situation.

“Tariffs have never been a good thing. Any sort of tariffs are going to distort and disrupt the markets and we’ve already seen that,” Liu said.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

 

Who Has The Edge In The Lobster Trade War?

September 27, 2018 — There are few New England scenes as iconic as the ol’ lobster shack. Local crustaceans being served up fresh and delicious in whole or in roll form. Well, it turns out that “just-off-the boat” experience has pretty broad appeal … like as far away as China.

“There’s always been a demand for it, but they wanted the live lobster,” said Arthur Sawyer, a Gloucester lobster fisherman and President of the Massachusetts Lobstermen’s Association. “Live lobster — ya know — it’s like a 36 hour thing to get to China.”

A decade ago, the Chinese market for U.S. live lobster was essentially nonexistent. But a few years back, shippers finally worked out how to reliably get fresh live lobster to China. It was a game changer. Last year, the country imported nearly $150 million worth.

“There’s a whole lot of exporters that have gotten into the lobster business strictly because of China,” said Sawyer.

But live lobster got swept up in the trade war this July, when Beijing slapped a 25 percent tariff on U.S. imports. And just three months in, it’s already having an impact here. Vince Mortillaro, a local wholesaler, said China has stopped buying from him completely, and he’s has had to lay off three employees.

“They’re affecting me a lot,” he said of the tariffs. “We’re losing like 40,000 pounds of sales a week.”

For now, the pinch wholesalers are feeling has yet to trickle down to lobster fishermen on the boats, who sell to the wholesalers, or the lobster-craving public. As for why? Well, it’s complicated. Live lobster exports are an important part of the equation. But a sizable chunk of New England total haul each year gets sold off to be processed.

Read the full story at WGBH

China still buying spiny lobsters from US, driving up price to harvesters

September 26, 2018 — The price being paid to spiny lobster harvesters in the US’ Florida Keys is slowly increasing despite the 25% tariffs that took effect in China — their biggest market — in early July, The Key West Citizen reports.

Harvesters were getting $5 a pound in August but have been receiving as much as $9/lb in recent weeks, according to the newspaper.

The article quotes lobster fisherman Gary Nichols as saying the trade war with China is a big issue for spiny lobster harvesters, as 90% of their catch goes to Asia.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

 

China tariffs hit Alaska Amendment 80 fleet in midst of $285m recap effort

September 25, 2018 — US president Donald Trump’s 10% tariffs that went into effect Monday for nearly 6,000 Chinese goods are bad news for all of the US harvesters of seafood sent to China for processing, but they come at a particularly unfortunate time for the five companies with flatfish-catching vessels in Alaska’s Amendment 80 fleet.

Those harvesters have spent more than a combined $285 million over the past six years to replace or significantly improve their 19 ships, according to Chris Woodley, executive director of the Groundfish Forum, the trade group that represents them.

Woodley told Undercurrent News on Friday that he doesn’t know how the tariffs will immediately impact his members or if any of the additional cost might make them want to hit pause on their recent recapitalization effort.

“As far as specific business arrangements with individual companies, each A80 [Amendment 80] company has got its own supply chain and its own buyers,” he said. “It’s not a monolithic block. So, all we know right now is that the fish products harvested by the A80 fleet are on the list to have tariffs imposed, and that’s where we are.”

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

BOB JONES: USTR Announced Additional Duties on Chinese Seafood Imports

September 25, 2018 — The following was released by the Southeastern Fisheries Association:

Where will the seafood industry end up after the tariff war is concluded?

“Last night, at the direction of President Trump, the United States Trade Representative (USTR) announced that a 10 percent additional tariff would be imposed on a massive amount of Chinese imports, including imports of aquacultured seafood products effective on Monday, September 24th. The USTR additionally announced that these tariffs would increase to 25 percent on January 1, 2019.”

US fishermen can’t provide more fish to the domestic market because NOAA and the Councils have taken most of the seafood away from the non-boaters.

For instance, we can only harvest under our quotas 18,000,000 pounds of fish from Virginia through the Keys while the anglers have been gifted with 40,000,000 pounds.

In the Gulf of Mexico it seems when the red snapper needs 6,000,000 more pounds, nothing is based on science or process but rather by a stroke of the pen, the Secretary of Commerce can issue a ‘temporary rule re-opening the private angling component of the red snapper fishery in the exclusive economic zone (EEZ) for the 2017 season on select weekend and holiday dates through Labor Day , September 4, 2017.’ (Page 1 of Motion for Summary Judgement between two environmental groups and Wilbur Ross as Secretary of Commerce-Case 1:17-cv01408-ABJ)Basically Commerce could not be punished because their temporary rule expired before the case got to the judge so everything was moot. The recreational fishing industry’s powerful vendors won again. Not Rule of Law.

It is good that qualified members of the domestic shrimp industry are compensated from tariffs received from foreign countries. It is bad that the domestic seafood industry as a whole was supposed to have a dynamic seafood program in place from the tariffs collected under the Saltonstall-Kennedy legislation but somehow, most of these tariffs are used for salaries and upkeep on NOAA facilities instead of going to where they should go.

Senators Kerry and Snowe tried to fix this in 2012 and it needs to be tried again. Tax money the anglers bring in from foreign tackle go to their issues. NOAA needs to do what the original act demands.

“The Saltonstall-Kennedy (S-K) Act directs 30% of the duties on imported fish products to a grant program for research and development projects to benefit the U.S. fishing industry. It is estimated that for 2010, the total duties collected on the imports of fishery products was $376.6 million. The S-K Act directs 30% of that total to be transferred to the Secretary of Commerce. In 2010, that equaled $113 million. Of that $113 million, $104.6 million went to NOAA’s operations budget, and only $8.4 million was used by NOAA for grants for fisheries research and development projects. We believe that we should follow the original intent of Senators Leverett Saltonstall and John F. Kennedy and restore this funding to help the fishermen and communities for whom it was originally intended.”
https://californiawetfish.org/fishingnews/tag/saltonstall-kennedy-act/

Ample S-K funds for honest stock assessments and for treating the “providers of seafood for non boaters i.e. commercial fishermen” as an important and vital sector of the society. We have been oppressed by NOAA policies for too long.

Tariffs could harm NW fishing industry in markets on both sides of the Pacific

September 24, 2018 — First, it was Washington wheat farmers and apple growers. Then it was regional wineries. And now, Pacific Northwest seafood companies are getting sucked into the escalating trade war between the Trump administration and China.

The fleet that fishes in the North Pacific, much of it based in Puget Sound, was first caught up in the fight in July, when China imposed sweeping sanctions on many U.S. imports, including virtually all seafood. The immediate risk was clear: China’s tariffs threatened to block access to what many believe will become the world’s largest consumer market for seafood products.

But now there’s a new risk: a Trump administration trade policy that was meant to punish the Chinese, but which could end up making American seafood more expensive for American consumers — a bizarre outcome that could expose the Northwest’s seafood industry to trade-war damage both at home and abroad.

That risk became clear on Monday, when Robert Lighthizer, the United States Trade Representative, released a list of some 5,700 imported Chinese food products that will be hit by heavy new tariffs. Among them, roughly $2.7 billion in imported Chinese seafood items—everything from salmon and flounder to sole and snow crab.

Read the full story at The Seattle Times