Saving Seafood

Scottish seafood industry seeks government support in wake of Brexit fallout

January 20, 2021 — Scottish Rural Economy Secretary Fergus Ewing has pressed the United Kingdom’s government to increase its support for the Scottish seafood sector as it struggles to come to terms with the challenges of trying to export products to European Union markets following the introduction of the new Brexit trade agreement on 1 January.

U.K. exporters have faced lengthy delays in transporting goods to Continental Europe due to the new customs and export certification requirements laid out by the terms of the non-tariff barriers in the trade agreement. With the COVID-19 pandemic already affecting both national and international trade, and also significantly curtailing the hospitality trade, this latest obstacle has caused considerable additional concern for those moving seafood and other perishable products, Ewing said.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Trident Seafoods reports 4 COVID-19 cases at plant in Alaska

January 20, 2021 — A Seattle-based seafood company has reported that four workers at its Alaska seafood plant tested positive for COVID-19, including one who was taken to a hospital.

Trident Seafoods reported that the four employees were all roommates and have returned to work after undergoing a 14-day quarantine and testing negative, The Seattle Times reported.

The company said in a statement on Monday that it is assessing any potential operational impacts of COVID-19 spreading at the facility. Currently, the company is holding off on sending an additional 365 workers to the plant.

The Trident Seafoods’ plant is a processing center for Bering Sea harvests of pollock, crab and cod in Akutan, about 750 miles (1,200 kilometers) southwest of Anchorage. The plant is the company’s largest Alaska location. It currently employs about 700 workers.

Read the full story at The Columbian

U.S. Fishing and Seafood Industries Saw Broad Declines Last Summer Due to COVID-19

January 19, 2021 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

The U.S. fishing and seafood sector generated more than $200 billion in annual sales and supported 1.7 million jobs in recent years. It experienced broad declines in 2020 as a result of the COVID-19 public health crisis, according to a new NOAA Fisheries analysis released today. While losses vary by sector, by region and by industry, data and information from this report may help businesses and communities assess losses and inform long-term recovery and resilience strategies.

According to analysts, COVID-19 protective measures instituted in March across the United States and globe contributed to an almost-immediate impact on seafood sector sales. There was a strong start to the year, with a 3 percent increase in commercial fish landings revenue in January and February. However, revenues declined each month from a 19 percent decrease in March to a 45 percent decrease by July. This translates to a 29 percent decrease across those 7 months, as compared to 5-year averages and adjusted for inflation.

Restaurant closures, social distancing protocols, and other safety measures also contributed to losses in other sectors of the seafood economy. By the end of second quarter 2020, 78 percent of aquaculture, aquaponics, and allied businesses reported COVID-19 impacts with 74 percent experiencing lost sales. The analysis noted outdoor seating at restaurants in warm months and a pivot to direct delivery at some supermarkets provided an outlet for some aquaculture sales. Also, the recreational charter/for-hire fishing industry was completely shut down in the spring with some phased reopenings in the early summer. The new analysis contains regional snapshots to help industries understand local impacts to key fisheries.

The protective measures that shuttered restaurants also impacted charter fishing operations. Charter operations were completely shut down in most coastal states beginning in mid-March, with phased re-openings starting in May. NOAA Fisheries estimates that in the Southeast, charter revenues relative to the preceding 3-year period fell 72 percent in March through April due to local and state COVID-related closures and protocols. In May-June, revenue was down 4.5 percent as businesses began to re-open. In contrast, charter operations in Alaska and Hawaiʻi, which rely heavily on out-of-state tourism, continue to experience severely depressed sales due to the sharp decrease in tourism. Hawaii is estimated to have lost 99 percent of charter trips between April and July. In addition, many fishing tournaments have been postponed or cancelled. About 50 fewer Atlantic HMS tournaments registered this year compared to 2019. Hawaiʻi sportfishing tournaments have been similarly impacted.

“In the coming months and years, scientists and economists will work to obtain a more complete picture of COVID-19’s impact on U.S. seafood and the Blue Economy. It is our hope that this initial analysis provides a foundation that the industry researchers and planners can draw upon as they plan for the future,” said NOAA Fisheries Assistant Administrator Chris Oliver.

Read the full release here

NMFS reports fishing revenue crashed 29 percent in pandemic

January 19, 2021 — The U.S. fishing industry lost nearly one-third of its revenue in the first seven months of 2020 as the covid-19 pandemic vaporized its major markets, according to a new analysis by NMFS.

The year started on a high note, with revenues up 3 percent in January and February – before diving 19 percent in March and cratering at 45 percent less in July, said Paul Doremus, deputy administrator for operations at NMFS, in a telephone conference with reporters Friday.

Cumulatively, “over those seven months we’re looking at a 29 percent decrease,” said Doremus.

The agency mobilized its economic experts and government and academic partners in March to document the impact of the pandemic and begin preparing “as comprehensive an account as we could,” said Doremus.

The findings were compiled in a report with more than 100 pages of supporting documents, including detailed region-by-region breakdowns, by authors and economists Rita Curtis of the NOAA Fisheries Office of Science & Technology and Steve Kasperski of the agency’s Alaska Fisheries Science Center.

While the report only documents the industry’s situation up through July, “we’ve already initiated the work to do that next update,” said Curtis. The goal is to continue monitoring economic impacts and fishermen’s response, drawing lessons and strategies for making fishing communities more resilient, said Doremus.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

LOUISIANA: New Orleans restaurants’ oyster shells helped save the coast; can they again?

January 19, 2021 — In an eroding bay south of New Orleans, where the sea is rapidly claiming land, your dinner leftovers were being stacked into an 800-ton wall nearly a mile long.

The shells of oysters, shucked or slurped at the city’s restaurants, are the raw material for this bulwark against waves, storms and rising seas.

“It’s crazy to think each one of these was on someone’s plate,” coastal restoration specialist Deb Visco Abibou said, as shells packed tight in metal cages were hoisted from a barge and plopped into the shallow waters of Barataria Bay. “It always surprises me that they don’t smell more like garlic.”

The shells are cast-asides from the heady days before the coronavirus pandemic, back when New Orleans’ vaunted seafood restaurants were crammed with customers. The eateries were producing about 75 tons of shells per month for the Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana, which runs New Orleans’ 7-year-old oyster recycling program.

The vast majority of oyster shells taken from the Gulf of Mexico never make it back. Instead, they end up in landfills or get crushed into chicken feed or road bed material.

Read the full story at NOLA.com

Noncommercial fishing is booming in Hawaii during pandemic

January 19, 2021 — Noncommercial fishing in Hawaii has been booming since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, and many have turned to it out of necessity, according to fishing supply store personnel.

Since the novel corona­virus made its way to Hawaii in March, Brent Young, owner of Brian’s Fishing Supply in Honolulu, has observed more interest in fishing. Some of his customers are new fishers who want to learn, and others are seniors who haven’t fished in decades, but have had more time to do so.

“There’s no sports, there’s nothing to watch, there’s nothing to do. So they come back and they just want to fish,” Young said.

At times he’s had trouble keeping up with demand for fishing supplies. He had to install racks to a previously empty part of a wall in his store to make sure he had enough supplies, such as hooks, tackle and reel, available for customers.

And while many of them are looking to fish just as a hobby, Young has also noticed more customers who are out of work and need to fish.

Read the full story at The Honolulu Star Advertiser

NFI gearing up for virtual Global Seafood Market Conference, webinar series

January 19, 2021 — The National Fisheries Institute (NFI) has launched a webinar series intended to provide analysis of the latest trends affecting the global seafood industry.

The largest U.S. seafood trade group began hosting biweekly Global Seafood Market Conference (GSMC) webinars last week, with a focus on the global shrimp trade, which like most seafood categories, experienced wild fluctuations as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. SeafoodSource is providing exclusive coverage of the GSMC Webinar series, which will be providing comprehensive market content throughout 2021.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Trident Seafoods scrambling to contain COVID-19 outbreak ahead of pollock A season

January 19, 2021 — Trident Seafoods is scrambling to contain a coronavirus outbreak at a plant on the Aleutian Islands on the eve of the pollock A season.

The Seattle, Washington, U.S.A.-based company announced on Monday, 18 January, that four roommates had tested positive at Trident’s plant in Akutan, Alaska, a processing center that takes in crab and cod as well as pollock from the Bering Sea fisheries.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Nearly all Alaska and West Coast fishermen badly hurt by pandemic, survey indicates

January 19, 2021 — The single biggest hit to fishermen from the COVID-19 virus is lower dock prices, according to Alaska and West Coast harvesters, and 98% said their businesses have been badly bashed by the pandemic.

That’s based on survey results compiled by Ocean Strategies, a public relations firm that focuses on fisheries that helped profile the Pacific region for a larger federal study.

Nearly 400 fishermen responded to the short, confidential survey launched last November, said senior consultant Hannah Heimbuch of Kodiak.

“NOAA uses any information they collect on economics to report to Congress on how the industry is being impacted, the major trends they are seeing, and then that informs the decisions that Congress or other government agencies might make in response to those trends,” she said.

In the survey, 82% said fishing is their primary source of income and 91% said their revenues have decreased by 15% -100% since January of 2020. A whopping 70% said they stopped fishing last year; 65% stopped for three months or less.

Read the full story at the Anchorage Daily News