Saving Seafood

Northeast Observer Waiver Extended through May 16

May 1, 2020 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

NOAA Fisheries is extending the waiver granted to vessels with Greater Atlantic Region fishing permits to carry human observers or at-sea monitors for an additional two weeks, through May 16, 2020. This action is authorized by 50 CFR 648.11, which provides the Greater Atlantic Regional Administrator authority to waive observer requirements, and is also consistent with the criteria described in the agency’s emergency rule on observer waivers during the COVID-19 pandemic.

NOAA Fisheries will continue to monitor and evaluate this situation.  As we have done in other parts of the country, we will use this time to work with the observer service providers to implement adjustments to the logistics of deploying observers, ensuring qualified observers or at-sea monitors are available as soon as safely possible.

Observers and at-sea monitors are an essential component of commercial fishing operations and provide critical information that is necessary to keep fisheries open and to provide sustainable seafood to our nation during this time. We will continue to monitor all local public health notifications, as well as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for updates. We are committed to protecting the public health and ensuring the safety of fishermen, observers, and others, while fulfilling our mission to maintain our nation’s seafood supply and conserving marine life.

Read the full release here

Less Seasonal Help, Coronavirus Deliver One-Two Punch To Bay’s Blue Crab Industry

May 1, 2020 — Crab season is off to a slow and foreboding start around the Chesapeake Bay, with many crabmeat processors crippled by an inability to import seasonal workers and by watermen worried they’ll be unable to sell all they can catch as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

Chilly, windy weather limited commercial harvests of blue crabs through much of April, the first full month of the season. Warming spring weather usually brings better fortunes, but those in the business of catching or picking crabs say they fear for their livelihoods amid the double whammy that’s hit the Bay’s most valuable fishery.

“It’s kind of a really scary situation,” said Bill Sieling, executive vice president of the Chesapeake Bay Seafood Industries Association, which represents Maryland companies. “It just doesn’t look good.”

Read the full story from the Chesapeake Bay Journal at Patch.com

‘Another punch in the gut’: Gulf Coast shrimpers navigate the coronavirus crisis

May 1, 2020 — David Chauvin of Dulac has worked in the shrimp business since 1986, the year he graduated from high school. His father, grandfather and great grandfather also fished the waters off Louisiana’s Cajun coast.

Gulf Coast shrimpers, who bring in three quarters of the nation’s catch, have been battered with waves of bad luck. Hurricanes. A flood of cheap imports. The BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010. Fresh water diversions that kill seafood. And now the coronavirus.

“You always wonder how you’re going to die,” Chauvin said. “I always thought it would have been Thailand or India that would have wiped the domestic shrimp out. I never would have dreamed that it could possibly be a virus.”

Restaurants buy 80% of both imported and domestic shrimp, according to the Southern Shrimp Alliance. With restaurants closed or offering only takeout, no one is buying much shrimp. Next month would typically launch the peak of shrimp season as Gulf states begin their annual opening of nearshore waters to shrimping.

The United States caught 289.2 million pounds of shrimp, worth $496.1 million, in 2018, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (a full 2019 report has not yet been released). Louisiana shrimpers, working in both state and federal waters, brought in 90.7 million pounds of that catch, followed closely by Texas with 72.1 million pounds.

Read the full story at Houma Today

Alaska’s salmon season: Hundreds of fishermen chime in

May 1, 2020 — Alaska’s summer fisheries are fast approaching.

Although this season is loaded with uncertainty, there are a few things that are given: the salmon are on their way home to Alaska’s cold, clean, free-flowing watersheds, and the tide waits for nobody.

If you’re an Alaska fisherman and covid-19-related, pre-season fishing dreams and anxieties have begun to take over your sleeping and waking hours, then SalmonState wants to hear from you.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

California spiny lobster takes double hit from China market

May 1, 2020 — Coronavirus and Chinese trade tariffs put California’s spiny lobster industry in a stranglehold this past season. If the trade tariffs going into the season weren’t enough, ex-vessel prices plummeted to a third of what they’d been in previous years with announcements that the coronavirus outbreak warranted stopping shipments of live lobsters to primary markets.

Lunar New Year celebrations in China traditionally mark the highest demand for lobsters shipped across the water from the West Coast. But that market deflated as coronavirus kept Chinese consumers home, slashing demand.

As of mid-March, spiny lobster fishermen had put in 76.5 metric tons of product, according to data posted in PacFIN. Ex-vessel prices averaged $12.26 per pound. Much of that value was predicated by deliveries and shipments previous to the outbreak of the virus in China. Both production and values were down significantly from the same period in the 2018-19 season, when the harvest stood at 194.4 metric tons and average ex-vessel prices of $17.04 per pound.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

Northeast lawmakers demand immediate guidance, speedy release of coronavirus aid

May 1, 2020 — Congressional delegations from Massachusetts and New Jersey took up fishing industry calls for immediate guidance and “transparent distribution” from the Department of Commerce to allocate $300 million in coronavirus fisheries assistance approved by Congress.

“The Trump administration must swiftly make this financial assistance available to fishing communities and allocate it in a way that equitably accounts for the severe economic losses the hardest hit states have endured,” New Jersey’s delegation wrote in an April 23 letter to Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross.

“It has been nearly a month since the CARES Act was signed into law by President Trump…and yet the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has not released guidance for the distribution of the emergency aid nor has it publicly stated when that guidance will be released.”

“Since Congress passed the CARES Act on March 25, 2020, the Commerce Department has made only one public statement on the assistance to fisheries participants,” the Massachusetts lawmakers told Ross in an April 29 message.

NOAA’s sole public communication on the CARES Act fisheries aid was six sentences that appeared April 2 on its website, along with the link to an email address for fishermen and other stakeholders to submit information about the economic impacts of coronaries on their businesses.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

MASSACHUSETTS: Blue Harvest Implements Comprehensive New COVID-19 Protection Measures; Offers Employees Hazard Pay

May 1, 2020 — NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — The following was released by Blue Harvest Fisheries:

Blue Harvest Fisheries is committed to the safety and well-being of its employees, and to the safety and quality of its seafood products, above all else. In addition to existing precautions the company initiated, which were in compliance with guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and other Federal agencies, Blue Harvest has implemented a series of comprehensive new precautionary measures. Additionally, although there is no evidence that any employees have contracted the COVID-19 virus on the job, Blue Harvest will offer its hourly workers an additional $1.00-per-hour hazard pay for the duration of the state of emergency as declared by the Governor of Massachusetts.

When Blue Harvest learned that two employees had tested positive for COVID-19 over an 11-day period, having apparently contracted the illness outside of the workplace, Blue Harvest voluntarily reported this information to the New Bedford Board of Health. Prior to this, Blue Harvest had already created and began implementing a 25-point protocol for COVID-19 based on emerging best practices, and had arranged for an independent company to conduct deep cleaning and disinfecting even before the anticipated closure order arrived.

The company closed at the end of the workday last Thursday. Working around the clock over the weekend, Blue Harvest staff built 3-sided plexiglass separations to improve social distancing measures on the plant floor. Operations resumed as normal on Monday.

Read the full release here

Consumption trends transforming in “uncertain times”

May 1, 2020 — In the days and weeks ahead, much of the United States will begin incrementally easing back isolation restrictions enacted to curb the spread of coronavirus.

Now that federal stay-at-home mandates have been lifted, as many as 31 states are moving forward with plans to partially reopen, CNN reported on 30 April. Restaurants in Georgia and Tennessee have already begun to open their doors to patrons for dine-in service, mostly at limited-capacity, with other states aiming to follow suit – some more cautiously than others – as the summer season approaches.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

NJ’s State & Federal Appeal for Fish Funds

May 1, 2020 — The $2.2 trillion Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act passed by Congress and signed by the president on March 25 set aside $300 million in COVID-19 relief funding to help the nation’s fishing community. Members of the recreational and commercial fishing industry can qualify for funding if they’ve lost 35% of their revenue compared to a previous 5-year average.

Yet more than month since the cash was made available, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy and all 14 New Jersey members of Congress, are still waiting to see how and when these funds are to be dispersed in the areas hardest hit by the global pandemic.

On April 23, the New Jersey congressional delegation sent a letter to the U.S. Department of Commerce (Commerce) and the federal Office of Management and Budget (OMB) concerning the $300 million in fisheries assistance made available through the CARES Act. The letter addressed to Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and OMB Acting Director Russell T. Vought seeks a transparent distribution methodology that accounts for the economic devastation wrought by the COVID19 pandemic in the hardest hit states like New Jersey, and the execution of the disbursed funds as soon as possible.

Read the full story at The Fisherman

Senators Markey and Warren, and Reps. Moulton and Keating Urge USDA to Include East Coast Seafood in Purchase Agreements Established with Coronavirus Recovery Funding

May 1, 2020 — The following was released by The Office of Senator Edward Markey (D-MA):

Today, Senators Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), and Congressmen William Keating (MA-09) and Seth Moulton (MA-06) urged the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to include East Coast seafood in purchasing agreements funded by the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program (CFAP) and the Section 32 program. On April 17, 2020, Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue announced that the USDA would be making $19 billion of purchases through the CFAP, $873.3 million in agricultural purchases for food banks through the Section 32 program, and $1.5 billion for food bank administrative costs and purchases. USDA announced that the CFAP would support farmers and ranchers, and maintain the integrity of the food supply chain, but did not clarify whether seafood would be included in these purchases. USDA has included seafood in past procurement programs, and the lawmakers urge it to do so again in its response to the coronavirus crisis. In their letter, the Massachusetts lawmakers ask if there are additional USDA programs that will buy seafood products to provide assistance to producers impacted by the coronavirus pandemic, and whether the USDA is currently in conversations with seafood producers from the East Coast to purchase seafood. East Coast seafood producers have been devastated by the ongoing effects of the pandemic.

“When USDA begins its purchasing programs intended to assist those whom the pandemic has affected, USDA should include domestic seafood,” write the lawmakers in their letter to Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue. “East Coast seafood producers can offer a wide variety of seafood that currently does not have a market, and which should be included in purchases made for this program.”
 
A copy of the letter can be found HERE. 
 
On April 3, the lawmakers wrote a letter urging the inclusion of domestic and East Coast seafood companies in the deployment of the $9.5 billion awarded by the Coronavirus Assistance, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act for affected agricultural producers.