Saving Seafood

MAINE: As elver season opens, fishermen hope prices will rebound

March 26, 2021 — The commercial elver fishery opened for the 2021 season on March 22 for Maine fishermen who hold a license for the lucrative commercial market. 

And while 2020 may have been an elver season unlike any other, the 2021 season will be conducted with the same COVID-19 protocols in place. For a second consecutive year, harvesters may fish for and sell the quota of another licensed harvester provided they follow the necessary COVID-19 protocols. 

Under this rule, first introduced for the 2020 season, a license holder may fish and sell elvers for several license holders but may not “take, possess or sell” more pounds of elvers than the aggregate quota of all the license holders for whom they are fishing. 

A new rule for 2021 requires fishermen to check their nets every 16 hours so as to limit bycatch and elver mortality rates. 

“New fishermen all the time are getting into the industry and sometimes don’t check nets for three or four days,” Maine Elver Association President Darrell Young said. “When they come back, there could be 1 pound of live eels and 1 pound of dead ones.” 

And what fishermen wants to find dead elvers in their nets when prices may double from the 2020 harvester price that averaged $506 a pound? 

Read the full story at the Mount Desert Islander

Emergency Action to Continue to Waive Observer Coverage

March 26, 2021 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

Today, NOAA Fisheries issued an interim final rule to continue to provide the authority to waive observer coverage, some training, and other program requirements, on a case-by-case basis. The rule is a continuation of NOAA Fisheries’ response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The authority to waive coverage has resulted in a successful balance between public health and the safety of fishermen, observers, and others, while maintaining fishery operations and the monitoring necessary for sustainable management.

Learn more about the emergency action to continue to waive observer coverage

Application Deadline Extended For Relief Funding To Seafood Sector Industry Members

March 26, 2021 — The application deadline has been extended for federal relief funding to commercial fishing, shellfish aquaculture, charter, and seafood sector industry members.

Eligible commercial fishing, shellfish, charter and seafood sector industry members who have been negatively impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic now have through April 9 to apply with the Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission (PSMFC) for assistance.

The 15-day extension includes additional time for industry members who fish or land their fish in Alaska but live in Washington to apply. Washington-based commercial fishers who fish in Alaska should apply to the Washington spend plan for assistance.

“This extension helps us to ensure that everyone who believes they’re eligible for this funding has the chance to apply,” said Ron Warren, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) fish policy director. “We recognize that the commercial fishing, shellfish aquaculture, and charter fishing industries are hurting right now and this marks an important step in getting this funding out to those who need it most.”

Read the full story at KXRO

MASSACHUSETTS: Casting a wide net: Vaccinating New Bedford’s fishing workforce is a tall task

March 26, 2021 — Sitting behind a plastic barrier, a masked volunteer with Centro Comuntario de Trabajadores (CCT) helped two seafood processing workers register for the COVID-19 vaccine Monday afternoon. In another room, two more workers signed a form to be helped next.

On Monday, fishing industry workers — many of whom go out to sea for lengthy stretches and with ever-changing schedules — became eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine in Massachusetts.

According to a report from the New Bedford Port Authority, more than 6,200 people worked directly in the harbor’s commercial fishing and seafood processing industry in 2018.

Adrian Ventura, executive director of CCT, said through interpreter Lisa Knauer that their goal is to register 25 seafood processing workers per day for the vaccine.

Ventura and a representative from Fishing Partnership, a nonprofit dedicated to the health and safety of commercial fishermen, said the biggest challenge to getting the thousands of fishing industry workers vaccinated will likely be one of logistics.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

Despite pandemic, Maine’s 2020 lobster haul was better than expected

March 25, 2021 — Maine’s lobster industry weathered the coronavirus pandemic better than expected, with the value of the 2020 landings decreasing only 17 percent from the previous year despite the closure of many of its traditional markets such as restaurants and cruise ships.

The overall haul was valued at almost $406 million, a decrease from 2019’s $491 million but still only the seventh time in the history of the fishery that the landed value exceeded $400 million, according to figures released Wednesday by the state Department of Marine Resources.

Maine fishermen hauled 96.6 million pounds of lobster in 2020, a 5 percent decrease from the 101 million pounds in 2019 and the first time in almost a decade that landings fell below 100 million pounds.

Dustin Delano, a lobsterman in Friendship and a vice president of the Maine Lobstermen’s Association, attributes the drop to a decrease in effort, not in supply.

“We decreased effort significantly from March to July, from when we heard about the virus,” he said, “We were skeptical, so guys took their time setting their gear out for summer.”

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

Seafood Show Osaka Pleased Exhibitors Despite 60% Drop in Visitors in Two Days

March 25, 2021 — The Japan Fisheries Association (JFA) organized the Seafood Show Osaka on March 17-18 at ATC Hall in Osaka. The show’s initial plan was February, but JFA postponed it due to COVID-19. The number of exhibitors was 270. Visitors totaled 5,474 for the two days, a significant 60% fall from the previous show in 2020.

The show management office continued the Seafood Show Tokyo‘s exact measure last September with extra caution to prevent the new coronavirus spread with visitors’ pre-registration, hands disinfection, and body temperature check.

Read the full story at Seafood News

Expert cautions against participating in voluntary FDA records requests

March 25, 2021 — U.S. imports expert and FDAimports.com Founder and CEO Benjamin England said the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) may try new tactics related to records and documentation in place of actual inspections in order to regulate the seafood industry.

Speaking at a panel during Seafood Expo North America Reconnect, England said he’s seen increased activity from the FDA on records requests. Key to that, he said, is the FDA’s attempts to continue to conduct inspection activity during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

LOUISIANA: A Vaccination Event For Commercial Fishers Offers Lessons On How To Reel In At-Risk Communities

March 24, 2021 — In a large auditorium in rural Plaquemines Parish, La., hundreds of commercial fishers and processing plant workers got their shot in the arm last week. The mass coronavirus vaccination event was a five-minute drive from the docks that house their fishing vessels – right where the Mississippi River meets the Gulf of Mexico.

National Guard troops administered doses to more than 300 people during the event held specifically for workers at Westbank Fishing and Daybrook Fisheries, a processing plant that turns fish into products like pet food.

“To be honest I didn’t feel nothing, no difference. I still feel the same,” said Angel Arroyo, a welder at Daybrook Fisheries. “I know I won’t infect anybody else or catch the virus.”

Read the full story at WWNO

Maine lobstermen crack a good year despite virus

March 24, 2021 — Maine’s lobster catch dipped slightly last year as fishermen dealt with the coronavirus pandemic, but the final totals were better than some feared.

Fishermen caught more than 96 million pounds of lobsters in 2020, the Maine Department of Marine Resources said Wednesday. That total broke a string of nine consecutive years in which harvesters brought at least 100 million pounds of lobsters to land.

Maine is by far the biggest lobster fishing state in the country, and the harvest is central to the state’s economy and heritage. Members of the industry feared at the outset of the pandemic that it would be difficult to equal previous years’ hauls because of the toll of the virus on the economy and the workforce.

However, the 2020 catch would have been a state record as recently as 2010. A boom in annual lobster catch began more than a decade ago.

Fishermen were selective about when they went fishing last year to avoid bringing too much product to land when demand was lower, said Patrice McCarron, executive director of the Maine Lobstermen’s Association.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at The Washington Post