August 25, 2020 — The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) refused only 37 seafood entry lines in July, continuing a trend where federal officials were rejecting a historically low number of products.
According to the Southern Shrimp Alliance, that amount is by far a record low for the month. It’s only 21.3 percent of this historical average the alliance has tracked since 2002. It’s also significantly lower than the previous record low of 91 entry lines, which occurred last year.
August 24, 2020 — Scientists across the world continue to pursue essential research to the best of current abilities, even as they must also navigate the new COVID-19 landscape. I am part of one of those research efforts: a tuna-tagging cruise that departed from Hawaii last weekend with a track through Kiribati waters.
We left port after overcoming a mountain of logistical odds, under the driving belief that the work of promoting sustainable fisheries and ocean health is worth taking on the seemingly insurmountable challenges.
Half of the world’s tuna catch comes from the Western and Central Pacific, providing a critical source of protein and export revenue for Pacific island nations and others.
August 24, 2020 — Five months after social distancing began scuttling scientific field work around South Carolina, the marine researchers who watch over fish and other aquatic life have re-started monitoring efforts.
In a few cases, the gap in data could add uncertainty for years to come over decisions about when and how to allow certain fishing.
In March, the spread of COVID-19 prompted the S.C. Department of Natural Resources to pause its research vessel trips, including the inshore trawl of the Charleston Harbor that had run every month without interruption for four decades. The trawl drags a net along the harbor floor and researchers collect data on what comes up. Among other things, it allows state regulators to keep an eye on the shrimp population.
August 24, 2020 — The losses for U.S restaurant and foodservice industry continue to mount as COVID-19-mandated closures persist and the travel market remains depressed.
Airport foodservice operator HMSHost is laying off at least 3,000 employees by mid-October in response to its coronavirus-related struggles, Restaurant Business reported.
August 21, 2020 — Senators Edward J. Markey and Elizabeth Warren are adding their names to the list of politicians questioning NOAA over their decision to reinstate at-sea monitors and observer coverage in the Northeast.
Observers and at-sea monitors for those in the Northeast were reinstated this past Friday, August 14. The requirement to carry observers on board had been waived for months due to health and safety concerns surrounding the coronavirus. However, NOAA Fisheries Assistant Administrator Chris Oliver announced last month that the waiver would be lifted because “observers create no more risk than crew members.”
August 21, 2020 — A federal judge has ordered fishery managers to reanalyze the impact of the American lobster industry on endangered North Atlantic right whales, and issue a new rule for protecting the whales by May 31, 2021.
The judge did not, however, ban lobster fishing with vertical buoy lines in a right whale feeding area, as environmental advocates requested.
Part of Cape Cod Bay is already closed to lobster fishing in the late winter and early spring to protect right whales from getting tangled in fishing gear. But environmental groups — The Humane Society of the United States, Defenders of Wildlife, Conservation Law Foundation and the Center for Biological Diversity — wanted an additional area in southern New England closed immediately as well.
U.S. District Court Judge James E. Boasberg, who ruled on the matter this week, said a sudden closure “would disrupt fishermen’s current operations and their near-term plans.”
“The COVID-19 pandemic has gutted the market for lobster, cutting the price in half and pushing fishermen, most of whom are self-employed, to the economic brink,” Boasberg wrote in his ruling.
August 21, 2020 — Andrea Tomlinson often worries about the future of New Hampshire commercial fishing.
“Our local fishermen are in danger of becoming extinct,” she says.
As the manager of NH Community Seafood, a fishing cooperative aimed at protecting and expanding New Hampshire’s seafood industry, Tomlinson has seen up-close the struggles of the state’s fishing businesses. Each year, additional challenges and burdensome regulations are piled upon the shoulders of small fishermen. In the 1990s, there were about 100 groundfish boats that called New Hampshire waters home. By 2019, there were only eight. The lobster fishing industry is facing similar decline.
Commercial fishing has turned into big business. Small-scale, locally owned fishing operations have considerable difficulty competing with consolidated national fishing companies. John Borden, the captain of a local lobster boat, says he and fellow fishermen are up against stiff competition.
August 20, 2020 — Maine’s congressional delegation wrote a letter to a federal agency on Wednesday asking it to act immediately on aid recommended by President Donald Trump for the lobster industry, which has been struggling under the effects of tariffs and the coronavirus pandemic.
The group asked U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue to act before Monday’s deadline. In his June 24 memo, which came three weeks after he visited fisheries experts in Maine, the president urged Perdue to consider taking appropriate action “to provide assistance to fisherman and producers in the U.S. lobster industry that continue to be harmed by China’s retaliatory tariffs.”
Since then, the administration has been largely silent about any firm actions it might take. Rep. Chellie Pingree, a Democrat from Maine’s 1st District, in early July inserted language into a 2021 spending bill that would require the USDA to act swiftly on the aid.
August 20, 2020 — Squid made up most of the 48 million pounds landed at Point Judith, R.I., during 2018, a year when the port brought in $64 million, according to the latest National Marine Fisheries Service statistics.
So when the covid-19 pandemic shut down restaurants around the country – and with them most demand for fried calamari, the ubiquitous casual-dining appetizer – the Rhode Island seafood industry took a huge hit.
But fishermen and their supporters in state government regrouped, with a new licensing system to allow fishermen to sell directly to customers as “our restaurant and fishing industry have been decimated” by the lockdowns, state Democratic Party chairman Joe McNamara told the national television audience during the Tuesday evening broadcast of the national Democratic presidential convention.
August 20, 2020 — New York Senator Chuck Schumer is the latest politician to speak out regarding the redeployment of at-sea observers.
At-sea observer requirements were waived in late March as the coronavirus began to spread in the U.S. That waiver was extended multiple times until being lifted this past Friday, August 14.