Saving Seafood

At-sea monitor meeting to be held online, not in person

September 2, 2020 — The New England Fishery Management Council dispensed with the suspense on Monday when it announced its September meeting, initially set for Gloucester, will be conducted online via webinar.

The three-day meeting, scheduled for Sept. 29 to  Oct. 1, is expected to include the council’s final action on the highly contentious measure — Amendment 23 — to establish future monitoring levels for sector-based vessels in the Northeast multispecies groundfish fishery. The council hopes to post the remainder of the agenda by the end of this week.

The September meeting was scheduled for the Beauport Hotel Gloucester on Commercial Street. But that was before the dawning of the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent indoor and outdoor gathering restrictions that have forced all but one of the council’s public meetings and hearings online.

The current Massachusetts indoor gathering restrictions call for no more than eight individuals per 1,000 square feet of space, with the gathering not to exceed 25 individuals in any single enclosed space.

Those restrictions would have limited an in-person meeting to the council’s 18 voting members, a handful of non-voting members and legal counsel. The public and even some council staff presenters would have been forced to participate via online webinar.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

How This Seafood ‘Sourcerer’ Runs New York City’s Lobster Game

September 2, 2020 — “Selling lobsters is definitely a complicated process,” says Steven Wong, owner of Aqua Best Seafood Market in New York City. “I’ve eaten so much lobster in my life I can actually taste the difference in where they caught it.” Wong and his family have been selling and shipping diverse seafood to customers, many of whom are restaurateurs for some of NYC’s best restaurants, for over 30 years. In that time, Wong has become known for his sourcing of high-grade lobster, so much so that he earned the nickname “the lobster ‘sourcerer’”

“A lobster’s not just a lobster. A lobster is just like a diamond,” says Wong of the many different types of lobsters he sources from all over the country. “There are different cuts, different grades, different sizes, there are different areas from where you catch lobster that have different qualities.”

Before COVID-19, the shop went through an average 60 to 80 thousand pounds of lobster per week, and during the holidays that number could be up to 150 thousand pounds. Wong’s company sells lobster and other fish to 175 restaurants in the northeast, and they ship anywhere in the world in under 24 hours; “even in Singapore,” he notes, “which has the longest flight, like 19 hours.”

Read the full story at Eater

Blue Recovery webinar series seeks to make up for the missed “super year”

September 2, 2020 — This year was supposed to be the “super year” for ocean sustainability, with many major events and gatherings planned to bring momentum and focus to the issue. However, COVID-19 has pushed the pause button for large gatherings and international travel, and has taken attention off of the environment.

In response to the obstacles facing the community of individuals and organizations focused on seafood sustainability issues, virtual meetings are being held to try to maintain the movement toward sustainability.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Remote assessments and audits to continue for MSC partners affected by pandemic

September 2, 2020 — The following was released by the Marine Stewardship Council:

The Marine Stewardship Council is continuing to permit remote assessments and audits where Covid-19 restrictions prevent on-site audits. This is due to the continuing impact of the pandemic on the sustainable seafood industry.

The decision is based on the MSC’s close monitoring of the effect of previous derogations for fisheries and chain of custody holders and is effective from 28 September 2020 to 27 March 2021.

An unprecedented initial six-month automatic extension to the usual timelines for MSC assessments and certifications came into effect on 27 March 2020 and will end on 27 September 2020.

MSC certificate holders may continue to use remote assessments and audits in place of the usual site visits for another six months where national or local Covid-19 restrictions apply or the independent assessor considers a health risk is involved. Initial assessments of fisheries and supply-chains for businesses that do not yet have a certificate will require additional risk assessments and reviews. Remote assessments have proven effective since their implementation in March.

Chain of Custody certificate holders who are required to undergo independent labour audits still have until 28 March 2021 or the second audit in the revised standard (whichever is later), to complete these.

Chief Science and Standards Officer at the MSC, Rohan Currey said:

“Many fisheries and supply chains continue to be affected by the impacts of the pandemic. Certificate holders must continue to meet the requirements of the MSC Standards. We recognise this may require alternative measures to ensure sustainability and traceability of seafood.

“We want to reassure those engaged in our program that we recognise the local constraints on many partners, and we will do what we can to support our partners through these unprecedented times. However we must maintain the integrity of our global certification programs for the long-term benefit of all partners.”

Details of the temporary changes to assessment and certification processes are available via the MSC website. The MSC team will be contacting fisheries, conformity assessment bodies and partners in the sustainable seafood supply chain with further information in the coming days. Other MSC activities, such as the licensing of products, will carry on as normal.

Alaska’s Salmon Fisheries Confront COVID-19

September 1, 2020 — Northwest summers mean salmon on the grill. While Alaskans fill freezers with their own catch – our freezers are filled with enough salmon to last until next summer – those grilling elsewhere must buy either farm-raised salmon or wild sockeye salmon caught in Bristol Bay, Alaska.

Wild salmon return from the ocean to restart a life cycle that has persisted for millions of years. Wild Alaska sockeye (a favorite species of salmon) is caught over the course of a four- to six-week season, from mid-June through July, when the largest remaining wild salmon population returns to Bristol Bay.

These fish have been harvested by Alaska native peoples for thousands of years. Sockeye have been smoked, filleted, canned and frozen – and given, traded, sold and eaten – for generations.

Read the full story at U.S. News

The human impact of organized crime in fisheries extends far beyond the ocean

September 1, 2020 — Despite the name, organized crime in fisheries is not only about fishing. While illegal fishing is a serious problem across many regions of the world, organized crime in the fisheries sector extends much farther. It occurs globally throughout the entire fisheries value chain: on-shore; at-sea; at the coastal interface; and in cyberspace. Regardless of where it occurs or how it happens, its harmful effects take a massive toll on human populations worldwide.

Organized crime in the fisheries sector can take various forms including drug and human trafficking, fraudulent catch documentation, money laundering and corruption — crimes that have potentially dire humanitarian implications. These crimes are profit-driven, diverting government revenue to the shadow blue economy at the expense of coastal communities and the pursuit of key sustainable development goals such as zero hunger, zero poverty and peace, justice and strong institutions. These crimes also directly can endanger those who are exploited in their perpetration.

People in many coastal nations, particularly developing countries, depend on the fisheries sector for food and jobs. Large ocean nations are particularly vulnerable to disruptions in the sector, as recently exposed by the impacts of COVID-19. Criminal networks operating in the fisheries sector exacerbate the economic dislocation of local coastal communities, threaten already tenuous food security and divert much-needed state revenue. But there is hope: effectively tackling organized crime in fisheries will help foster a sustainable ocean economy which, in turn, will benefit communities reliant on the ocean and its resources.

Read the full story at GreenBiz

US restaurant group launches national campaign as operators struggle to survive

September 1, 2020 — The National Restaurant Association is launching a nationwide consumer advertising campaign to encourage diners to come back to eat at restaurants, as they continue to feel significant financial impact from dining room closures due to COVID-19.

The multimedia Restaurant Revival campaign taps into the sights and sounds associated with dining out and asks diners, “Doesn’t dining out sound good?” the NRA said in a press release.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

SAFMC Meeting September 14-17, 2020 via webinar

August 31, 2020 — The following was released by the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council:

Meeting materials, including committee agendas and overviews, decision documents, and presentations are now available for the the September 14-17, 2020 meeting of the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council. The meeting was originally scheduled to take place in Charleston, South Carolina. Due to ongoing concerns about COVID-19 and public safety, the Council meeting will be held via webinar.

The Council meeting will be available via webinar each day as it occurs. Registration is required and can be completed in advance by visiting the Council’s website at: https://safmc.net/september-2020-council-meeting-details/.

A formal public comment session will be held on Wednesday, September 16th beginning at 4:00 PM. An online comment form is also now available.

Council meeting not a signal of normalcy

August 31, 2020 — The pandemic has kept us all closely tethered to home for the past five months, so it was nice for us here at FishOn to go over the bridge and up the line last Wednesday to cover an actual in-person event. No Zoom. No webinar. Just journalism in the great outdoors of Wakefield.

We covered the last public hearing conducted by the New England Fishery Management Council on the ever-contentious Amendment 23 — the measure to set future monitoring levels for sector-based groundfish vessels in the Northeast fishery.

The council, which is expected to take final action on the measure at its September meeting, did a good job of hosting the public hearing meeting under a tent in the parking lot of the Sheraton Four Points hotel.

Folks were masked and properly socially distanced. Capacity was 50 and about 20 fishing stakeholders attended the meeting, so there was plenty of room. Under the tent, it felt like junior high school detention (or so we understand) where they separate all the troublemakers as far apart as possible.

“It was a pretty big effort,” said Tom Nies, the council’s executive director said about a half hour before the scheduled start of the hearing. “The hotel was helpful. But we’re still working on some details.”

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

ALASKA: Petersburg’s testing program aims to keep COVID-19 out of seafood plants

August 28, 2020 — Hundreds of seafood processing workers come to Petersburg every year, creating a high-risk scenario for COVID transmission. Workers at the town’s two processing giants – OBI Seafoods and Trident Seafoods – live on a closed campus. But there are also Petersburg residents who work at the plants. So the local COVID testing program aims to identify and isolate positive cases before they can transmit from town into one of the plants.

At the beginning of the summer, seafood companies went to great lengths to safely fly the seasonal workforce to Alaskan towns like Petersburg. It took careful planning and millions of dollars to test and quarantine the workers.

“It could decimate the economy of the community and also impact the fisheries. We saw that in meat packing situations down south,” said Liz Bacom, manager of infection prevention at the Petersburg Medical Center. “And so they were very aggressive with getting a plan where they tested their seasonal workforce in Seattle before they came up here, and they were automatically quarantined for 14 days.”

As a result, two positive cases – one worker for Trident and one with Ocean Beauty Icicle Seafoods – were detected and isolated this summer.

Read the full story at KTOO