March 5, 2021 — Domoic acid, price-haggling, and potential whale entanglement held up the Dungeness crab fishing up and down the West Coast this winter, further complicating a fishery already turned upside down by the pandemic.
Fishermen usually drop their pots from California to Washington in December, but did not start until January or February this season, depending on the state.
March 5, 2021 — Commercial fishermen, seafood dealers and others who make their living on the water may get federal aid sometime this spring to help make up coronavirus-related loses.
N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries Deputy Director Dee Lupton informed the N.C. Marine Fisheries Commission Feb. 25 during the commission’s online Webinar meeting that division staff is processing Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act financial aid applications from commercial and for-hire fishermen, seafood dealers and processors.
The application period for the $5.4 million in federal aid for North Carolina watermen closed Nov. 30, and according to an email Feb. 23 to the News-Times from DMF Communications Director Patricia Smith, the division received 290 applications, of which 216 were from commercial fishermen and aquaculture operations, 35 were from seafood dealers and processors and 39 were from for-hire operations.
“As of this past Monday (Feb. 22), we’ve reviewed all of them,” Ms. Lupton said at the Feb. 25 commission meeting. “One hundred and ninety-eight have been approved. We’re in the process of notifying those determined not-eligible, they will have an appeal opportunity.”
March 4, 2021 — Department of Labor commissioner Tamika Ledbetter blocked nearly $450,000 in fines against a seafood plant her own inspectors said willfully violated COVID-19 workplace safety standards, according to internal documents.
Now, state lawmakers are investigating.
House Rep. Zack Fields, an Anchorage Democrat who used to work for the Department of Labor, said he and his Labor & Commerce committee co-chair got a complaint from a whistleblower that Ledbetter was blocking enforcement of state workplace safety standards.
“Alaskans have to work to provide for their families,” Fields said. “When they go to work, they shouldn’t have to risk their lives to put food on the table.”
Fields’ committee is holding a hearing to address questions about a Copper River Seafoods plant in Anchorage and Juneau-based Alaska Glacier Seafoods. Both companies had large COVID-19 outbreaks last year.
March 3, 2021 — A year after the coronavirus pandemic devastated Maine’s usual lobster markets, and as the industry braces for yet another onslaught of changes brought about by right whale regulations, state legislators are proposing a bill to reauthorize the organization that markets Maine’s signature shellfish for at least five more years.
The Maine Lobster Marketing Collaborative, created in 2013 to replace the Lobster Promotion Council, promotes Maine lobster to restaurants, cruise ships, casinos, hotels and, especially within the past year, to grocery stores and home cooks.
Its $2.2 million annual budget is funded by surcharges on state-issued lobster licenses. The surcharges are not set to change under the proposed legislation.
The collaborative’s five-year authorization is set to expire in October, but according to Patrick Keliher, commissioner of the Maine Department of Marine Resources, it’s more important than ever that the group’s work continues.
March 3, 2021 — The pandemic-impacted oyster season has been difficult for the industry in Maryland, causing farmers and watermen to rethink how they sell their product and changing how programs conduct oyster restoration.
After restaurants reduced their capacity and a stay-at-home order was issued last spring, restaurant sales essentially went to zero within a matter of a week, said Scott Budden, founder of Orchard Point Oyster Co. headquartered in Stevensville, Maryland.
Pre-pandemic, Orchard Point Oyster Co. would primarily sell to restaurants, either directly to the chef or through regional distributors and wholesalers. Since April, they have transitioned to directly selling to the public, through local pickups and cold shipping, Budden said.
March 3, 2021 — U.S. consumer demand for Atlantic surf clams and ocean quahogs has shifted in the past six months.
Most of the Atlantic surf clam fleet is centered around Point Pleasant Beach and Atlantic City, New Jersey; Oceanview, New York; Hyannis, Massachusetts (surf clams only); and New Bedford and Fairhaven, Massachusetts. There is also a quahog fishery in Maine.
March 3, 2021 — Gorton’s Seafood is stepping up production and is embarking on a new marketing campaign to cement the significant sales growth it garnered through the COVID-19 pandemic.
Over the past year, Gorton’s retail sales surged 34 percent, with its breaded and battered wild Alaska pollock entrees snaring the highest sales increases, Kurt Hogan, the president and CEO of the Gloucester, Massachusetts, U.S.A.-based processor, told SeafoodSource.
March 2, 2021 — The new head of the World Trade Organization called Monday for a “technology transfer” when it comes to COVID-19 vaccines and urged member nations to reach a deal to reduce overfishing after years of fruitless talks as she laid out her top priorities after taking office.
Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, a Nigerian economist and former government minister, donned a mask and doled out welcoming elbow bumps as she took up her job at WTO headquarters on the banks of Lake Geneva. Still, she immediately set about trying to change the organization’s culture.
“It cannot be business as usual. We have to change our approach from debate and rounds of questions to delivering results,” she told ambassadors and other top government envoys that make up the 164-member body’s General Council.
“The world is leaving the WTO behind. Leaders and decision-makers are impatient for change,” she said, noting several trade ministers had told her that “if things don’t change,” they would not attend the WTO’s biggest event — a ministerial meeting — “because it is a waste of their time.”
Okonjo-Iweala, 66, is both the first woman and the first African to serve as the WTO’s director-general. Her brisk comments were a departure from the more cautious approach of her predecessor, Roberto Azevedo, who resigned on Aug. 31 — a year before the end of his term.
Read the full story from the Associated Press at The Boston Globe
March 2, 2021 — U.S. foodservice industry groups celebrated after the House of Representatives passed the American Rescue Plan Act – U.S. President Joe Biden’s proposed USD 1.9 trillion (EUR 1.6 trillion) COVID-19 relief plan – in the early morning hours of Sunday, 28 February.
The legislation includes a USD 25 billion (EUR 21 billion) restaurant grant program, as well as USD 3.6 billion (EUR 3 billion) to support the food supply chain, including food purchases and loans to small- and mid-sized processors, with a specific mention of seafood processing facilities. The bill also calls for the creation of a USD 15 billion (EUR 13 billion) grant program for small business owners, separate from the existing Paycheck Protection Program.
February 26, 2021 — Most of us growing up along Canada’s East Coast never worried about hurricane season. Except for those working at sea, we viewed hurricanes as extreme events in remote tropical regions, seen only through blurred footage of flailing palm trees on the six o’clock news.
Today, a warming ocean spins hurricanes faster, makes them wetter and drives them towards Atlantic Canada and even further inland. Hurricanes, winter storms and rising sea levels will continue to worsen unless we slow climate change.
The lifeblood of coastal economies and societies has always been the connection between land and sea, and that’s become more evident with climate change. But this isn’t just a coastal story anymore.
The oceans moderate the world’s climate through the absorption of heat and carbon. And just how much carbon the ocean will continue to absorb for us remains an open question. Whatever we do, it must be grounded in our growing wisdom of the deep connections between life on land and in the sea.
As Canada commits to a net-zero future and plans its post-COVID economic recovery, innovations and investments could backfire if they reduce the ocean’s ability to absorb our excesses.