September 28, 2020 — The results of testing completed at the end of last week show the current coronavirus outbreak among workers at processing plant in Warrenton, Oregon, U.S.A. have bumped the count of affected employees to 94, up from the 77 announced last week.
However, the company’s most recent round of testing, conducted on Thursday and Friday, 24 and 25 September, revealed only five positive COVID-19 tests out of 106 workers, with one test result still pending.
September 28, 2020 — In harsh news for seafood suppliers and distributors, the United States institutional foodservice sector is not expected to recover until 2023.
The new Rabobank projection is based on current trends and assumes no major resurgence in U.S. COVID-19 cases, which could alter projections, according to Amit Sharma, executive director of food and foodservice for Rabobank.
Read the full story at Seafood Source
September 28, 2020 — The following was released by the Northeast Seafood Coalition:
As the New England Fishery Management Council (NEFMC) considers adopting universal at-sea monitoring requirements for commercial groundfish vessels, a diverse group of fishermen and fishing organizations is raising concerns about the long-term negative impacts on the fleet of a drastic expansion of current monitoring mandates.
The groups, which include organizations like the Northeast Seafood Coalition and the Associated Fisheries of Maine, and several of the region’s organized seafood sectors, have raised issues about the cost and efficacy of expanded monitoring. Many submitted these concerns as public comments on the NEFMC’s Amendment 23 to the Northeast Multispecies Fisheries Management Plan, which deals with changes to the monitoring requirements.
Specifically, these groups are concerned that many fishing vessels will be unable to take on the increased monitoring costs; that the cost will fall disproportionately on smaller vessels; and that the benefits of additional monitoring tools, and the effectiveness of electronic monitoring to reduce costs, have not been proven.
September 25, 2020 — The Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources’ Marine Resources Division announced this week that it is currently accepting applications for its CARES Act relief program for fishery-related businesses.
The program was established to provide financial relief for losses suffered by the state’s marine fishing industry due to the COVID-19 pandemic. For more information about the program, visit this website.
Congress awarded $3.2 million of CARES Act money to the state of Alabama to address financial losses caused by the pandemic that occurred in the state’s seafood industry between March 1 and May 31, 2020.
September 25, 2020 — Imagine trying to run a Main Street business — a restaurant or gift shop, maybe — during the COVID-19 pandemic. A cratered economy and the threat of disease make each day a challenge and the future uncertain. Now imagine the government dropping another $700 in fees on you every time you open your doors. There’s no way your mom-and-pop operation could survive.
Yet that’s just what the New England fishing industry is facing as regulators move closer to requiring that boat owners pay to have a government monitor on every trip. The monitors — the federal government calls them “observers” — assess the health of fish stocks and make sure fishermen are following the rules.
The New England Fishery Management Council, which essentially sets the rules for commercial fishing in the region, will meet next week to decide how often monitors will be required on fishing vessels — 25%, 50%, 75% or 100% of trips. Early indications are that councilors will require a monitor on every trip, with the average cost of $700 to be borne by fishermen. Regulators have thus far turned their backs on industry pleas to have the government pay for the program, or develop less-intrusive electronic monitoring programs.
September 24, 2020 — By the end of summer, the tourists leave, the breezes get cooler, and Maine lobstermen hunker down for the harder yet sometimes more fruitful months of fishing only for lobster.
During the summer, “catch landings are probably down. But we can gain quite a lot in October, November, and December,” says Mike Dawson, a lobsterman who fishes off the coast of Maine. “August was kind of slow. Not an overabundance of lobster.”
State lobstering rules are eased each year starting Nov. 1, at which time lobstermen can fish 24 hours a day, seven days a week. In the summer months, when congestion on the seas is high, lobstermen can’t haul traps on Sundays and there are restrictions on the hours lobstermen can fish.
Dawson, who had been fishing for bait fish called pogeys during the summer to supplement his income said that has wound down for the year. The pogeys have disappeared from the area, migrating to new feeding grounds, he said. So now Dawson says he plans to concentrate on lobstering throughout the fall and winter.
September 24, 2020 — The Maine Department of Marine Resources sent a bulletin to all aquaculture facilities in the state yesterday announcing an expansion of USDA’s Coronavirus Food Assistance Program (CFAP) to include eligible aquaculture producers.
President Trump and U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue announced CFP 2 on September 17, 2020. It will provide producers, including eligible aquaculture operations, with financial assistance that gives them the ability to absorb some of the increased marketing costs associated with the COVID-19 pandemic.
September 24, 2020 — Kodiak’s representatives at the state and federal levels Zoomed into ComFish on Sept. 18 and 19 to tout their work on fishing and other coastal issues.
U.S. Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan, U.S. Rep. Don Young, state Rep. Louise Stutes and state Sen. Gary Stevens all spoke virtually via Zoom at the event.
September 23, 2020 — The Atlantic sea scallop fishery is a success story, at least in terms of stock rebuilding and biological sustainability. From an efficiency perspective, however, the fishery is off course.
The outdated management approach for the limited access scallop fleet of one boat-one permit-one allocation has tied the hands of vessel owners, increased operational costs, effectively barring captains and crews from the pathways to ownership that their predecessors enjoyed, and added unnecessary safety risks on the water. There are too many boats spending too few days on the water, leaving the scallop fleet hamstrung as it navigates the choppy waters of a global pandemic and lower predicted harvests.
A typical full-time limited-access scallop vessel harvests its annual scallop allocation in around 70 days, leaving vessels tied to the dock more than 80 percent of the year. The only growth option is to buy another permit, which means buying another vessel. This is a cost-prohibitive option for independent operators, since it forces them to take on steep capital costs and pay for ongoing maintenance expenses for a redundant vessel.
Although one vessel could easily harvest the allocation of two limited-access permits, the fleet has no flexibility to do so. With harvests predicted to decline, meaning even fewer days on the water, the lack of flexibility will only cost more and leave more boats tied to the dock for more days. What’s more, the current system means that if a captain or crew get sick (a serious possibility in the age of covid-19), a vessel breaks down, or some other calamity hits, there is no back-up plan to fish the allocation.
September 23, 2020 — Soaring e-commerce grocery sales, along with continued strong sales of fresh and frozen seafood sold in traditional retail outlets, are pointing the way forward for U.S. suppliers and distributors.
Despite the loss of much of its foodservice business since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in March, the seafood industry has been compensated with huge boosts in sales through both online and traditional retail arenas.