Saving Seafood

Judge refuses to shut down lobster industry

August 28, 2020 — Maine’s lobster industry last week got a bit of a break—two breaks, actually—with developments from Washington.

First, on August 19, Federal District Judge James Boasberg refused to shut down the lobster fishery as many feared he would. Environmentalists had asked him to do so while the National Marine Fisheries Service comes up with new rules to protect the endangered North Atlantic right whale.

Two days after the judge’s ruling, the Trump administration announced it had made a mini-trade deal with the European Union to remove tariffs on lobsters for the next five years.

“We’re on a roll,” said David Sullivan, representative for the Maine Lobstering Union, in a phone interview.

Paul Anderson, executive director of the Maine Center for Coastal Fisheries, said in an email those two developments were good news for lobstermen. They haven’t had much lately. The COVID-19 pandemic depressed lobster prices by shutting down restaurants, casinos and cruise ships.

“The overall market conditions for lobster are still in flux,” Anderson said. “But we’re still fishing, the shedders are now in the condition that they can be shipped, and domestic consumption and local processing are happening. The price is still low, but it ticked up a bit in Stonington this week.”

Read the full story at the Penobscot Bay Press

Fish council hears comments on 100% monitoring option

August 28, 2020 — The New England Fishery Management Council returned to a semblance of normalcy on Wednesday, holding its first in-person, public meeting of any kind since the COVID-19 pandemic struck about five months ago.

In some ways, the public hearing on Amendment 23 — the measure to set monitoring levels for Northeast sector-based groundfish vessels — was unexplored terrain.

The ninth and final public hearing on the measure was the first al fresco meeting in the history of the council. Capacity was limited to 50, but there was more than enough space. About 20 attendees joined a handful of council staff under the tent in the parking lot of the Sheraton Four Points hotel, next to Route 128.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

Eat Seafood America! campaigns boosts consumption

August 28, 2020 — Americans are eating more seafood and cooking it more often at home, thanks in part to a nationwide campaign rolled out in early April.

The rapid-response Eat Seafood America! campaign, led by Seafood Nutrition Partnership and the Seafood4Health Coalition, was launched to help Americans stay healthy during the COVID-19 public health crisis as well as help boost the U.S. seafood economy, SNP said in a press release.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Georgia becomes latest state to gain CARES Act spend-plan approval

August 28, 2020 — Georgia has become the latest state in the U.S. to gain approval from NOAA for its plan to allocate its CARES Act funds to relevant seafood industry interests in the state.

The funds are part of a USD 300 million (EUR 252 million) pot of funds allocated to 20 states in May. Each state received a separate portion of the money, with Georgia receiving just over USD 1.9 million (EUR 1.59 million) – among the lowest amounts awarded.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

CALIFORNIA: Pilot Program Supports Local Fishermen and Families in Need

August 27, 2020 — Three hard-hit local communities — the fishing industry, hospitality workers, and the food insecure — have been connected by a pilot program that is providing free sustainable seafood meals to people in need.

Fish to Families is a partnership between the nonprofit San Diego Fishermen’s Working Group and chef Phillip Esteban and the team behind Open Gym, which runs Craft Meals Catering and has several upcoming projects on the docket including White Rice, a Filipino rice bowl food stall in Liberty Public Market, a culinary shop and bookstore called Wordsmith, and WellFed, a Filipino restaurant in National City.

The group, which has already been cooking and distributing thousands of meals via its OneforOne program and a through José Andrés’s World Central Kitchen, is collaborating on Fish to Families with I Love to Glean for produce and NOAA Fisheries and California Sea Grant, which are providing educational materials.

More than 2,400 meals have been distributed so far through the Third Avenue Charitable Organization, through homeless outreach programs and other services for seniors and families including Barrio Logan’s Good Neighbor Project, Downtown Senior Centers Luther Tower, and Olivewood Gardens.

Read the full story at Eater San Diego

USDA commits to trade aid for lobster industry using coronavirus coffers

August 27, 2020 — The Trump administration is committed to starting an aid program to help the struggling lobster industry, Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue said Wednesday, but the funds to do so will come from the coronavirus stimulus package, not the aid used to bail out farmers after President Trump’s trade war with China.

The lobster industry, like many others during the coronavirus outbreak, has seen losses as markets on cruise ships and restaurants evaporate. But the industry’s real trouble began in 2018 when China retaliated against U.S. trade policies with tariffs that rose as high as 35 percent.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) missed the Aug. 24 deadline set out in an order from Trump that directs the agency to establish an aid program similar to the nearly $30 billion bailout established for farmers last year.

Instead, Perdue said lobstermen and women will soon be able to apply for aid through the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program (CFAP), a $19 billion program established for farmers in April in response to COVID-19.

“We are working on and the president is aware we are working on our big CFAP 2 program of which lobster would be included as directed by the memorandum so we’ll be releasing those details shortly,” Perdue said in response to a question from The Hill.

Read the full story at The Hill

COVID-19 might be able to travel on food, preliminary study results indicate

August 27, 2020 — A new study exploring the potential that COVID-19 can linger on food, including frozen seafood, draws connections between recent outbreaks of the disease in China, Vietnam, and New Zealand.

The study, “Seeding of outbreaks of COVID-19 by contaminated fresh and frozen food,” was filed on preprint server BioRxiv on 17 August. BioRxiv publishes preliminary findings that have not been scrutinized by peer review.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

MASSACHUSETTS: Major Grant Goes to Fishermen’s Preservation Trust

August 26, 2020 — The Martha’s Vineyard Fishermen’s Preservation Trust has received a $250,000 grant to expand its community seafood program, allowing it to buy, process and donate a surplus of black sea bass and scup for chowder donations throughout the Island.

The grant was awarded by Catch Together, a nonprofit organization that invests capital in support of fishermen, fishing communities and ocean conservation throughout the country, according to a press release from the preservation trust.

Since the pandemic began in mid-March, demand from high-end restaurants and wholesalers for seafood has plummeted, driving down prices for local fishermen and leading to large surpluses of once-invaluable catch, like scallops, lobster and oysters.

In response, the fishermen’s preservation trust — an Island nonprofit dedicated to supporting and preserving the Island’s independent fishermen — came up with a creative solution, starting its community seafood program in April of this year.

Read the full story at the Vineyard Gazette

NEW JERSEY: $11.3 Million in Pandemic Aid to State Fisheries Discussed

August 26, 2020 — Disbursement of over $11.3 million from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act was discussed at the Aug. 17 meeting of the Atlantic Coast section of the N.J. Shellfisheries Council. Led by John Maxwell of Atlantic County, 26 members met virtually to discuss various topics with state Bureau of Shellfisheries representatives.

At the top of the list is the distribution of $11,337,797 New Jersey will receive from the CARES Act to assist commercial fisheries that have been negatively affected by the pandemic.

Joseph Cimino from the state Department of Environmental Protection’s Marine Fisheries Administration said they have sent a required spending plan to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration for review. The plan would allocate 50 percent of the funds received to commercial fisheries and aquaculture, 35 percent to processors and dealers and 10 percent to for-hire recreational and charter fleets.

Read the full story at The Sand Paper