Saving Seafood

Seafood: The next generation

November 11, 2021 — Over the last few decades local fish has become harder to source for coastal communities, but covid-19 has changed that. Local food systems, including fisheries, have been thriving in the lockdowns, and educators are starting to notice. Small-scale fishermen and local distributors are meeting with students from high schools and colleges all around the coasts.

In August and September, one such group from Sterling College in northern Vermont visited Downeast Maine to learn about local fisheries, seaweed gathering, and aquaculture.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

 

WPRFMC: Online Portal for the 2020 Annual Fishery Evaluation Reports Now Available

November 3, 2021 — The following was released by the Western Pacific Fishery Management Council:

The 2020 annual Stock Assessment and Fishery Evaluation (SAFE) reports have been released on the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council’s online portal: wpcouncildata.org. These reports on nearshore and pelagic fisheries in the Western Pacific Region provide data and trends on last year’s fishery participation, landings, catch rates and other factors that influence fishery performance like environmental and oceanic variables. The online portal allows readers to easily navigate portions of the reports, and visualize and download the data.

Annual reports are produced for each of Council’s five fishery ecosystem plans—Pacific Pelagic, Pacific Remote Island Areas, and one for each of the Hawai’i, American Samoa and Mariana Archipelagos. The full 2020 annual SAFE reports were published June 30, 2021 (wpcouncil.org/annual-reports), and include additional information such as fishers’ observations, impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and protected species interactions in the fisheries, among other topics. For more information or to provide comments, contact Marlowe Sabater, the Council’s Island Fisheries Ecosystem Scientist, atmarlowe.sabater@wpcouncil.org or phone (808) 522-8220.

Maryland oyster industry hoping for rebound as new season begins

October 26, 2021 — This time last year, Jason Wilford was preparing to bring his farm-grown oysters to a Thanksgiving pop-up sale in Easton.

Events like that one were something of a lifeline for Wilford, a newcomer to the industry. With the coronavirus pandemic raging as the weather grew colder in the fall of 2020, many seafood restaurants were closed or offered only carryout. There was practically nowhere for his first batch of hand-raised oysters to go.

Experts say covid-19 depressed demand for oysters, in part because shucking them wasn’t popular among diners looking for quick to-go meals. That sank prices for harvesters on the Chesapeake Bay.

This year, aquaculture farmers such as Wilford and those in the rest of the oyster industry — watermen, seafood restaurants and distributors — are hoping for a rebound in demand.

Read the full story at the Washington Post

Holiday outlook strong for US retail and foodservice, but economic headwinds pose challenge

October 25, 2021 — The outlook for both retail and foodservice spending is strong for this holiday season and into 2022, but grocery stores are likely to see a bigger boost than restaurants, according to research firm NPD.

Nearly a third (29 percent) of Americans plan to spend more on holiday-related shopping than they did last year, according to new NPD research. Total holiday spending will rise 3 percent during the traditional November and December holiday shopping season, and 5 percent when the season is expanded to include October and early January, NPD found.

Read the full story at SeafoodSource

 

Sustainable seafood sales reached an all-time high as shoppers cooked at home in 2020-21

October 4, 2021 — The following was released by the Marine Stewardship Council:

The momentum behind the sustainable seafood movement continues to grow, according to the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC), the international not for profit responsible for the world’s most widely used sustainable seafood ecolabel. Despite disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, consumers bought record numbers of products with the blue MSC label in 2020-21.  

The new figures released today as part of the MSC’s annual report show that the volume of independently certified sustainable seafood sold with the MSC label increased nearly 6% between April 2020 and March 2021. In total 1,267,000 tonnes of MSC labelled seafood were sold globally, compared with 1,197,000 tonnes the year before.  

Types of seafood popular during Covid-19 lockdowns saw some of the biggest rises. Sales of frozen seafood products with the MSC label grew by 26% – the largest increase overall. While sales of MSC labelled canned fish rose by close to 4% globally, driven in part by a 50% year-on-year increase in sales of MSC labelled tuna products, putting global sales on course to reach 110,000 tonnes a year. 

Driving these increases is a growing consumer awareness of the need to protect our oceans [1], coupled with changes in shopping habits during the pandemic and growing commitments to sustainability from seafood brands. The US in particular saw a 54% increase in sales of MSC labelled sustainable seafood on the back of growing commitments from brands and retailers including Walmart. 

Increases in the availability and sales of sustainable seafood products have been supported by growth in supply. The report shows that despite massive disruptions to their operations, more fisheries and supply chain organisations became certified to catch and handle MSC certified seafood in 2020-21. The number of MSC certified fisheries increased to 421, now collectively responsible for 14% of all wild marine catch.  The year also saw a 5% increase in the number of organisations, such as supermarkets, restaurants, processors, distributors and warehouses, certified to  handle, process and package MSC certified seafood [2]. Worldwide, these organisations now operate in more than 46,200 sites. 

Rupert Howes, Chief Executive of the Marine Stewardship Council, said: “The growth of the MSC’s program against the backdrop of the pandemic is a sign of the strength of the sustainable seafood movement. Despite the unprecedented challenges, more fisheries have become certified to the MSC Fisheries Standard, more brands are making bold commitments and more consumers continue to buy sustainably sourced fish.   

“But the challenges are growing. Too many governments continue to put short-term interests before sustainability. And globally the level of overfishing continues to rise. Institutional inertia is out of step with growing public activism around the oceans. The pandemic has heightened awareness of the need to protect our valuable natural resources. We’re calling on governments to seize this moment as an opportunity to support sustainable fisheries and seafood businesses by committing to measures that safeguard our fish stocks.” 

Despite the progress presented in the report, the MSC stresses that urgent action is still required to overcome the challenges facing the oceans. The Food and Agriculture Organisation’s (FAO) State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture 2020 report revealed that overfishing continues to rise, with more than a third (34%) of the world’s fish stock now overfished. 

The MSC’s report highlights that governments failed to reach agreement on ending harmful fishing subsidies, one of the major drivers of overfishing and have so far failed to reach agreements on quotas for mackerel, herring and blue whiting in the North East Atlantic. The future sustainability of global tuna stocks is also in jeopardy if international commissions responsible for managing tuna fail to set robust harvest strategies.  The MSC is calling for urgent action to address these challenges.

Read the MSC’s 2020-21 Annual Report, Recognising & rewarding sustainable fishing. 

Notes for editors:  

References:  

  1. 2020 Global Seafood Consumer Survey, MSC 
  2. There were 5,391 MSC Chain of Custody certificate holders on 31 March 2021 compared to 5,158 on 31 March 2020. This certification ensures that MSC certified seafood is kept separate from non-certified seafood and is clearly labelled.  

The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) is an international non-profit organisation which sets globally recognised, science-based standards for sustainable fishing and seafood traceability. The MSC ecolabel and certification program recognises and rewards sustainable fishing practices and is helping create a more sustainable seafood market. It is the only wild-capture fisheries certification and ecolabelling program that meets best practice requirements set by both the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (UNFAO) and ISEAL, the global membership association for sustainability standards. For more information visit msc.org. 

Chinese media claiming origins of COVID-19 pandemic stem from Maine lobster company

October 1, 2021 — Reports appearing across China’s tightly controlled media are suggesting COVID-19 first arrived in the country in 2019 via a shipment of lobster from the U.S. state of Maine.

“In November 2019, a shipment of frozen Maine [lobster] arrived in Wuhan and shortly afterwards several people working in the market fell very ill with a strange pneumonia,” noted an article published this week in the New Observer, a state-owned periodical.

Read the full story at SeafoodSource

 

Rhode Island Announces Second Round of COVID Fisheries Funding

September 21, 2021 — The Rhode Island Congressional Delegation and the Department of Environmental Management (DEM) announced that commercial fishing and charter/for hire businesses, qualified aquaculture operators, seafood processors, and dealers are eligible to apply for an additional $255 million in assistance funding provided by the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021 on September 16.

This funding will support activities authorized under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act.

DEM’s Division of Marine Fisheries is administering this second support round. According to the state government, commercial fishing, commercial aquaculture, seafood processors/wholesale (dealers), and charter/for-hires – may be eligible for assistance in the form of direct payments if they can quantify direct and indirect COVID-19 losses.

Read the full story at Seafood News

 

USDA Invests $700 million to Provide Relief to Small Producers, Processors, Distributors, Farmers Markets and Seafood Processing Vessels and Processors Impacted by COVID-19

September 16, 2021 — The following was released by the USDA:

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) today announced it will soon publish Requests for Applications (RFAs) for new grant programs – the Pandemic Response and Safety (PRS) Grant program and the Seafood Processors Pandemic Response and Safety Block Grant program – to support agricultural stakeholders who haven’t yet received substantial federal financial assistance in responding to the COVID-19 crisis. These grant programs will provide assistance to small businesses in certain commodity areas, including small scale specialty crop producers and processors, shellfish, aquaculture and other select producers, meat and other processors, distributors, farmers markets, seafood facilities and processing vessels. Today USDA released grant forecasts for these new programs to help potential applicants determine their eligibility and to prepare to apply for funding. Approximately $650 million in funding is available for the PRS grants and $50 million is available for SPRS. All of these new programs are funded by the Pandemic Assistance provided in the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021.

“As the economy continues to gain strength after the Biden Administration’s historic vaccination and economic relief efforts, USDA is working with agricultural and food businesses to ensure they have the resources and tools to thrive in 2021 and beyond,” said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. “The funding associated with USDA Pandemic Assistance is meant to serve as a bridge from disruptions associated with the pandemic to longer-term investments to help build back a better food system. Financial relief to these essential producers, distributors, processors and other small agricultural businesses is a critical to get our food system back on track.”

For the PRS grants, eligible entities are detailed in the Pandemic Response and Safety Grant Program forecast, USDA-AMS-TM-PRS-G-21-0011. Eligible entities should visit the PRS grant portal at usda-prs.grantsolutions.gov for complete information on the program, including how to obtain a free of charge DUNS Number from Dun & Bradstreet (D&B) BEFORE applying for this program. On September 23, USDA will issue another announcement indicating that entities may submit their applications through the grant portal; entities will need their DUNS number to submit an application.

For the Seafood PRS grants, USDA will allocate block grant funding to U.S. states and territories based on a formula that considers economic activity as demonstrated through commercial fisheries landings. Eligible entities are state agencies as detailed in the Seafood Processors Pandemic Response and Safety Block Grant Program forecast, USDA-AMS-TM-SPRS-G-21-0012. The state agency will then provide funds to seafood processing facilities and processing vessels. Seafood processors and processing vessels should apply directly through their State agency; seafood processors and processing vessels should not apply through PRS and should instead contact their state agency for financial assistance once USDA awards funds to states. A listing of state contacts will be made available on the USDA website. Tribal government owned eligible entities may apply directly to USDA, details of which will be developed through tribal consultation in conjunction with Office of Tribal Relations.

Updated information regarding the PRS and Seafood PRS programs will be available on the Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) website: www.ams.usda.gov.

Any grant application submitted after the due date will not be considered unless the applicant provides documentation of an extenuating circumstance that prevented their timely submission of the grant application. Read more in AMS Late and Non-Responsive Application Policy (PDF, 431 KB).

USDA touches the lives of all Americans each day in so many positive ways. In the Biden-Harris Administration, USDA is transforming America’s food system with a greater focus on more resilient local and regional food production, fairer markets for all producers, ensuring access to safe, healthy and nutritious food in all communities, building new markets and streams of income for farmers and producers using climate smart food and forestry practices, making historic investments in infrastructure and clean energy capabilities in rural America, and committing to equity across the Department by removing systemic barriers and building a workforce more representative of America. To learn more, visit www.usda.gov.

USDA providing USD 50 million in grants to seafood suppliers, processors

September 14, 2021 — The U.S. Department of Agriculture said will soon dole out USD 50 million (EUR 42 million) in grants via its Seafood Processors Pandemic Response and Safety Block Grant.

The agency will soon publish requests for applications for the new COVID-19 relief program for seafood processors as well as for its Pandemic Response and Safety (PRS) Grant Program “to support agricultural stakeholders who haven’t yet received substantial federal financial assistance in responding to the COVID-19 crisis,” the agency said in a press release.

Read the full story at SeafoodSource

 

Majority of US independent restaurants say they will close without funding

September 10, 2021 — More than 82 percent of independent restaurant operators say they will likely permanently close if U.S. Congress does not quickly replenish the Restaurant Revitalization Fund (RRF), according to a new survey.

Independent restaurant operators from across the country called on members of the U.S. House Small Business Committee to make restaurant relief a priority during a markup of the budget reconciliation package at an Independent Restaurant Coalition (IRC) press conference on 9 September.

Read the full story at SeafoodSource