Saving Seafood

Toyosu sales figures reveal crippling effect of COVID-19 on Japan’s seafood market

May 4, 2020 — Tokyo’s Toyosu Market is experiencing a drastic financial fallout as Japan reels from the economic shock of COVID-19.

From March to April, both the volume of seafood Japan’s largest seafood market handled and the prices it received had nosedived. But the crash has been uneven, reflecting a shift by Japanese consumers from eating out to cooking at home. Sales of luxury items like tuna have dropped significantly, while sales of fish more commonly cooked inside the home in Japan, such as salmon and hamachi, have not seen a significant falloff.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

US restaurant chains closing, filing bankruptcy due to COVID-19

May 4, 2020 — Some U.S. restaurant chains have filed for bankruptcy, and many other U.S. restaurant seafood chains have been forced to temporarily close their doors due to the coronavirus pandemic.

West Palm Beach, Florida-based TooJay’s Original Gourmet Deli, which operates 24 restaurants, has filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The chain, which offers a number of seafood dishes, said that two of its restaurants are closed, while the others remain open for takeout and delivery, Restaurant Business reported.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Liability Shield Is Next Coronavirus Aid Battle

May 4, 2020 — Senate Republicans’ efforts to shield companies from liability during the coronavirus pandemic sets the stage for a showdown with Democrats, as allies of businesses and labor fight over the terms under which the economy will emerge from its partial shutdown.

Senate lawmakers return to Washington this week to start working out the next round of relief for households and businesses, on top of almost $3 trillion approved so far. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who will control the shape of much of the next stimulus package, has called liability protections a must-have “red line” for Republicans, saying he won’t support Democrats’ call for further state and local aid without it.

U.S. busi­nesses fear a wave of lit­i­ga­tion as work­ers in meat-pro­cess­ing fa­cil­i­ties, gro­cery stores and other lo­ca­tions get sick or die from the Covid-19 ill­ness caused by the new coro­n­avirus. The U.S. Cham­ber of Com­merce warns that the risk of class-ac­tion claims and other suits could de­ter busi­nesses from re­open­ing their doors, even if they are act­ing in good faith to op­er­ate safely. The trade group has en­dorsed the idea of shield­ing com­pa­nies that fol­low fed­eral and state health-au­thor­ity guide­lines for curb­ing the spread of Covid-19.

Com­pa­nies have been em­pha­siz-ing the steps they are tak­ing to pro­tect work­ers, from dis­in­fect­ing fa­cil­i­ties and set­ting up plex­i­glass di­viders to op­er­at­ing on stag­gered shifts to al­low for more so­cial dis­tanc­ing. Re­tail busi­nesses such as gro­cery stores have rolled out re­quire­ments meant to pro­tect cus­tomers and staff, in­clud­ing re­quir­ing masks and lim­it­ing ca­pac­ity.

Read the full story at The Wall Street Journal

Massachusetts congressional delegation urges feds to include seafood in food aid purchases

May 4, 2020 — Members of the all-Democratic Massachusetts congressional delegation are pushing to include East Coast seafood in purchasing agreements funded by the federal Coronavirus Food Assistance Program.

Sens. Edward Markey and Elizabeth Warren and Reps. William Keating and Seth Moulton said in a letter Friday to Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue that when the U.S. Department of Agriculture begins its purchasing programs intended to assist those the pandemic has affected, the USDA should include domestic seafood.

Purdue in April announced that the USDA would be making about $19 billion in purchases through the coronavirus assistance program, the lawmakers said.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the Bangor Daily News

In Alaska town, calls to shut down fishing season amid coronavirus fears

May 4, 2020 — Robin Samuelson grew up hearing stories about mass death in his Alaska community, victims of a pandemic so brutal that dogs were found feeding on human bodies.

The 68-year-old’s father-in-law was among the hundreds of children orphaned by the 1918 flu epidemic, which some scholars estimate killed at least 30 percent of the population in Alaska’s Bristol Bay region.

Some locals fear that history could repeat itself unless Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy (R) shuts down the upcoming salmon fishery, which attracts more than 12,000 workers from across the country for a frenetic, two-month season that begins next month.

Dunleavy’s administration has pledged to implement safety measures to prevent the importation of the novel coronavirus, including a mandated two-week quarantine for arriving fishers. But some local officials say they’re not convinced the state can enforce those rules.

“Our streets, they start looking like Fifth Avenue in New York during the summer,” Samuelson said. “It puts you in a real funny mood listening to the stories [about the 1918 pandemic] and what our people had to go through.”

There have been no confirmed infections of the coronavirus in the region, and Alaska has one of the lowest infection rates of any state. It has recorded just 368 cases and nine deaths from covid-19, the disease caused by the virus.

Read the full story at The Washington Post

In America, the virus threatens a meat industry that is too concentrated

May 4, 2020 — What is the biggest concern about America’s food-supply chain? The White House worries that shoppers, even before summer, may find supermarket shelves empty of steaks, burgers, sausages or chicken. Donald Trump invoked emergency powers under the Defence Production Act, declaring that closure of meatpacking plants threatens “critical infrastructure”, on April 28th. Supposedly that will oblige them to stay open, after more than 20 had closed because of coronavirus outbreaks affecting thousands of workers. At least 20 workers have died.

Mr Trump’s order, and a vow that all will have protein, came after big meat producers warned that supply bottlenecks would cause shortages. In mid-April the boss of Smithfield Foods, a huge pork firm, spoke of looming “severe, perhaps disastrous” effects on the food chain. It had just shut a big slaughterhouse in South Dakota. On April 26th the head of Tyson Foods, which dominates America’s chicken production, chirped up to greater effect. In full-page ads in national papers, John Tyson said a “vulnerable” food-supply chain is “breaking” and asked government to help. Tyson has closed plants in Iowa and beyond.

The White House took the alarm seriously. An official there suggested that some 80% of America’s meat-processing capacity might shut, at least for a while. Already a quarter of the pig-slaughtering capacity has closed. In recent weeks farmers and meatpackers in several states had begun culling millions of chickens and killing pigs to be rendered for fat and tallow, or just buried. Every year American farmers produce over 50m tons of beef, pork, turkey and chicken, and over 33m cattle, 120m pigs and 9bn chickens are slaughtered.

Just how the president’s order will keep slaughterhouses open is not clear, but one aim is to give legal cover for firms that do operate. As more workers fall sick, and some die, the presidential order could help limit their liability.

Read the full story at The Economist

Northeast Observer Waiver Extended through May 16

May 1, 2020 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

NOAA Fisheries is extending the waiver granted to vessels with Greater Atlantic Region fishing permits to carry human observers or at-sea monitors for an additional two weeks, through May 16, 2020. This action is authorized by 50 CFR 648.11, which provides the Greater Atlantic Regional Administrator authority to waive observer requirements, and is also consistent with the criteria described in the agency’s emergency rule on observer waivers during the COVID-19 pandemic.

NOAA Fisheries will continue to monitor and evaluate this situation.  As we have done in other parts of the country, we will use this time to work with the observer service providers to implement adjustments to the logistics of deploying observers, ensuring qualified observers or at-sea monitors are available as soon as safely possible.

Observers and at-sea monitors are an essential component of commercial fishing operations and provide critical information that is necessary to keep fisheries open and to provide sustainable seafood to our nation during this time. We will continue to monitor all local public health notifications, as well as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for updates. We are committed to protecting the public health and ensuring the safety of fishermen, observers, and others, while fulfilling our mission to maintain our nation’s seafood supply and conserving marine life.

Read the full release here

Less Seasonal Help, Coronavirus Deliver One-Two Punch To Bay’s Blue Crab Industry

May 1, 2020 — Crab season is off to a slow and foreboding start around the Chesapeake Bay, with many crabmeat processors crippled by an inability to import seasonal workers and by watermen worried they’ll be unable to sell all they can catch as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

Chilly, windy weather limited commercial harvests of blue crabs through much of April, the first full month of the season. Warming spring weather usually brings better fortunes, but those in the business of catching or picking crabs say they fear for their livelihoods amid the double whammy that’s hit the Bay’s most valuable fishery.

“It’s kind of a really scary situation,” said Bill Sieling, executive vice president of the Chesapeake Bay Seafood Industries Association, which represents Maryland companies. “It just doesn’t look good.”

Read the full story from the Chesapeake Bay Journal at Patch.com

‘Another punch in the gut’: Gulf Coast shrimpers navigate the coronavirus crisis

May 1, 2020 — David Chauvin of Dulac has worked in the shrimp business since 1986, the year he graduated from high school. His father, grandfather and great grandfather also fished the waters off Louisiana’s Cajun coast.

Gulf Coast shrimpers, who bring in three quarters of the nation’s catch, have been battered with waves of bad luck. Hurricanes. A flood of cheap imports. The BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010. Fresh water diversions that kill seafood. And now the coronavirus.

“You always wonder how you’re going to die,” Chauvin said. “I always thought it would have been Thailand or India that would have wiped the domestic shrimp out. I never would have dreamed that it could possibly be a virus.”

Restaurants buy 80% of both imported and domestic shrimp, according to the Southern Shrimp Alliance. With restaurants closed or offering only takeout, no one is buying much shrimp. Next month would typically launch the peak of shrimp season as Gulf states begin their annual opening of nearshore waters to shrimping.

The United States caught 289.2 million pounds of shrimp, worth $496.1 million, in 2018, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (a full 2019 report has not yet been released). Louisiana shrimpers, working in both state and federal waters, brought in 90.7 million pounds of that catch, followed closely by Texas with 72.1 million pounds.

Read the full story at Houma Today

Alaska’s salmon season: Hundreds of fishermen chime in

May 1, 2020 — Alaska’s summer fisheries are fast approaching.

Although this season is loaded with uncertainty, there are a few things that are given: the salmon are on their way home to Alaska’s cold, clean, free-flowing watersheds, and the tide waits for nobody.

If you’re an Alaska fisherman and covid-19-related, pre-season fishing dreams and anxieties have begun to take over your sleeping and waking hours, then SalmonState wants to hear from you.

Read the full story at National Fisherman