Saving Seafood

Global Deals to Save Oceans Were In Reach. Then Covid-19 Hit

June 9, 2020 — Before 2020 became the year of Covid-19, it was set to be the “year of the oceans.”

With only a small portion of them protected by law or agreement, expectations were high that bold steps to preserve biodiversity, rein in overfishing and bolster social responsibility were within reach. Then the coronavirus arrived, and high-profile meetings from the High Seas Treaty (the first global agreement to police and manage international waters) to the United Nations Climate Change Conference were postponed.

The oceans are critical to any effort to slow global warming. Delay in global agreements, given how little time is left to avoid catastrophe, has only made matters that much more desperate.

Waters more than 200 nautical miles from national shores are of critical importance to both fisheries and climate mitigation. The Global Ocean Commission estimates the high seas account for up to $16 billion in annual gross catch and between $74 billion and $222 billion in annual carbon storage. As the world struggles to cut emissions to zero by 2050—a goal scientists say is required to avoid massive planetary shifts—the ocean’s ability to store CO₂ will increasingly diminish, according to new research published last week in the journal AGU Advances.

Read the full story at Bloomberg

Scallop prices took 30 percent price hit from COVID-19

June 9, 2020 — Back in late December, before the covid-19 pandemic struck, the New England Fishery Management Council presented regulations for the 2020 fishing year. At the time, around 50 million pounds of U.S. landings and an estimated ex-vessel value of around $487 million was projected for 2020.

It is yet to be determined how things will play out for Atlantic sea scallops, but so far anecdotal reports indicate scallop prices had been down 30 percent or more around New Bedford, Mass. In April, the council asked federal regulators to make changes because of the impact the coronavirus has had on the fishery.

The 2019 fishing year went as expected, says Travis Ford of NMFS. Estimates say average prices were $9.20 per pound.

“Preliminary landings data suggest the fleet landed 58.15 million pounds of scallops in 2019,” according to Ford. “The biggest surprise was the conditions in the Nantucket Lightship-West Access Area. Based on 2019 surveys there was around 50 million-pound decline in total biomass estimate from 2018-19. This made it difficult for vessels to finish their trips in the area later in the fishing year.” Regulators are investigating what is behind the decline.

Rusty Parmenter, a Maine scallop fisherman who works in both federal and Maine state waters, says things have changed as restaurant markets shuttered in response to covid-19. The bulk of larger scallops are usually sold to restaurants and receive a premium price at the dock. Now, many are being frozen instead and sold to supermarkets.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

MASSACHUSETTS: ‘A profound struggle’: South Coast fishing industry fights to hold on

June 9, 2020 — When Gov. Charlie Baker ordered all restaurants to close dine-in services on March 17 to help fight coronavirus, a shudder ran through the fishing industry along the South Coast of Massachusetts.

Roughly two-thirds of freshly caught seafood in Massachusetts is purchased by restaurants, and while takeout and delivery services have continued during the public health crisis, consumers are more apt to eat scallops, lobsters and many other edible sea species at dine-in eateries.

As a result, demand fell sharply in the fishing industry, especially for more lucrative seafood.

“When all the restaurants close up, there isn’t a market for that fresh fish,” New Bedford Mayor Jon Mitchell said. “Prices plummet to a point where it isn’t profitable for many boatowners to send their boats out for trips, so that puts fishermen out of work.”

For Southeastern Massachusetts, the health of the fishing industry is a key concern — and it will likely be one of the topics during WPRI 12’s live 7 p.m. U.S. Senate primary debate between Democratic incumbent Ed Markey and challenger Joe Kennedy III, their only debate for this region.

Read the full story at WPRI

A Seattle fishing company has had more than 100 COVID-19 cases on its ships. They’re heading to Alaska this summer.

June 9, 2020 — As America’s meat producers contend with thousands of COVID-19 cases among processing workers, seafood companies have drafted rigorous plans to ward off similar spread of the disease as their summer season looms in Alaska.

But with that season still gearing up, the industry has already been shaken by its first major outbreak, aboard a huge vessel with an onboard fish processing factory. Last week, Seattle-based American Seafoods confirmed that 92 crew from its American Dynasty ship had tested positive for COVID-19 — nearly three-fourths of 124 people onboard.

Fishing executives had been working long hours to prevent just that type of disaster, and the news hit them hard.

“It was like, ‘Wow, I can’t believe this.’ We had done so much — each company had worked so hard to try to avoid this happening,” said Brent Paine, executive director of United Catcher Boats, a trade group whose members fish for pollock and cod off Alaska and another whitefish called hake off Washington and Oregon. “None of us have ever worked so hard in our lives than we have in the last two months, without a doubt.”

Read the full story at Alaska Public Media

Pacific Seafood suspends operations at five locations due to COVID-19 outbreak

June 9, 2020 — Positive COVID-19 tests for 124 employees of Pacific Seafood and its contractors have led the company to suspend operations at its five processing facilities in Newport, Oregon, U.S.A.

The Clackamas, Oregon-based company said 53 of its employees and an additional 71 locally-based contractors tested positive for COVID-19, out of 376 workers tested, as of Sunday, 7 June.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Alaska’s Rural Fishing Communities Are The Next Front Line Of COVID-19

June 8, 2020 — In a normal season, the village of Naknek in southwestern Alaska would be bustling by the end of May, with people arriving from all over the world to work Bristol Bay’s renowned salmon run.

The village’s population of around 500 swells as over 13,000 workers come to Bristol Bay to spend about six weeks fishing, canning and cleaning the products of the world’s primary source of wild-caught sockeye salmon.

This year, with the season opening just days away, “it still feels like a ghost town,” said Nels Ure, a second-generation Bristol Bay fisherman. Because of the pandemic, “it’s not business as usual.”

Seafood industry workers are under 14-day quarantine orders once they arrive in Alaska from elsewhere. Cannery workers are being quarantined either in hotels in Anchorage before they arrive at the bay, or with a group of other newly arrived employees at their facility, so they can start work while in quarantine together. Fishermen are expected to quarantine on their vessels, either in the boatyard or on the water ― or they can stay in their seasonal cabins or homes around the bay, as long as they are self-isolated.

Read the full story at the Huffington Post

Two More American Seafoods Factory Trawlers Hit by COVID-19

June 8, 2020 — American Seafoods Company has announced additional cases of COVID-19 aboard two more of its catcher-processor trawlers, the American Triumph and the Northern Jaeger. Testing revealed 25 positive cases between the two vessels. The ships ordinarily carry about 130 crewmembers each.

The American Triumph and Northern Jaeger are currently in port at Bellingham to offload their catch. A third vessel, the American Dynasty, had an outbreak resulting in 94 positive cases (86 at the time of her arrival in Bellingham and eight more afterwards). The Dynasty has since relocated to Seattle and her crew have moved into quarantine housing administered by King County.

“On the Northern Jaeger, one crew member reported feeling ill on-board last week and was transported to the hospital where they have tested negative for covid-19. The crew member is in the hospital recovering from their illness,” said ASC in a statement June 3.

Before the three vessels sailed in May, ASC required crewmembers to undergo a five-day quarantine period and a COVID-19 lab test. The company has since extended the pre-quarantine period to 14 days, a spokesperson told NPR.

Read the full story at The Maritime Executive

COVID-19 Outbreak In Pacific Northwest Seafood Industry As Season Ramps Up

June 8, 2020 — As America’s meat producers confronted thousands of COVID-19 cases, Pacific Northwest seafood companies drafted rigorous plans to ward off similar spread of the disease in an industry where processors also work in close quarters.

But just a few weeks into the summer season, the industry has been shaken by its first major outbreak aboard a huge vessel with an onboard fish processing factory. This week, Seattle-based American Seafoods confirmed that 92 crew from its American Dynasty ship had tested positive for COVID-19, nearly three-fourths of the 126 people onboard.

“It was like, ‘Wow, I can’t believe this.’ We had done so much. Each company had worked so hard to try to avoid this happening,” says Brent Paine, executive director of United Catcher Boats.

The trade group’s members fish for pollock and cod off Alaska, and another whitefish called hake off Washington and Oregon. “None of us have ever worked so hard in our lives than we have in the last two months, without a doubt.”

Read the full story at Spokane Public Radio

Food banks pushed to the brink

June 8, 2020 — The coronavirus pandemic and economic slowdown has left at least 20 million Americans out of work, sending demand skyrocketing at food banks and other feeding programs around the U.S. The Agriculture Department is already spending $3 billion on surplus meat, dairy, fruits and vegetables to help nonprofits meet their needs, but anti-hunger advocates say there’s another way Washington should help: Increase food stamp benefits so hungry families can buy more groceries instead of leaning on food banks.

The president on Friday threatened once again to slap duties on automobiles from the EU because of the bloc’s tariffs on U.S. lobsters. Trump said he’s putting Peter Navarro in charge of resolving the dispute, dubbing his hawkish trade adviser the “lobster king,” reports Pro Trade’s Doug Palmer.

The EU currently has an 8 percent tariff on live Maine lobsters, plus duties ranging from 16 percent to 20 percent on processed lobster. Meanwhile, Canada can export lobsters to Europe without paying any duties, leaving U.S. producers at a disadvantage.

“That’s an easy one to handle,” Trump said at a roundtable with commercial fishermen in Bangor, Maine, on Friday. But his administration has negotiated with Brussels for two years without reaching an agreement, and in November, the EU rejected a U.S. proposal for a mini-trade deal covering lobsters and chemicals.

China, another large market for lobster exports, also imposed retaliatory duties on American lobsters after Trump slapped tariffs on a wide range of Chinese goods. Trump on Friday directed Navarro to put pressure on Beijing by slapping even more tariffs on some Chinese goods.

Trump opened up a national marine monument in the North Atlantic to commercial fishing, undoing ecological protections implemented by the Obama administration. Under the proclamation, the New England Fishery Management Council will determine the amount of fishing allowed in the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts, some 130 miles southeast of Cape Cod, Mass. Pro Energy’s Ben Lefebvre and Eric Wolff have the details.

Read the full story at Politico

Trump opens marine monument to fishermen, promises trade relief

June 8, 2020 — President Trump announced he was opening a national marine monument off the coast of southern New England to commercial fishing during a visit to Maine on Friday, an administrative rebuke of government regulation that holds big political appeal for the Maine fishing industry but little practical value.

At an hourlong roundtable with Maine fishermen in Bangor, Trump also vowed to use retaliatory tariffs to help the Maine lobster industry get better access to foreign markets, putting former Maine Gov. Paul LePage in charge of a task force on the matter, and vowed to increase the amount of federal funding to help Maine’s fishing industry survive the COVID-19 pandemic.

“You have never been treated properly, at least not for a long time,” Trump told the group. “Today I am signing a proclamation to reverse that injustice. … We are reopening the Northeast Canyon and Seamounts Marine National Monument to commercial fishing. Is that OK? Is that what you want? That’s an easy one.”

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald