Saving Seafood

Maine lobstermen to harvest $50 million windfall

September 18, 2020 — A wave of government money is heading toward local fishermen hurt by trade wars and COVID-19, and officials say it will arrive sometime in November.

The Trump administration announced on September 9 that Maine lobstermen will receive $50 million because they’ve been hurt by the 25 percent tariffs China slapped on lobster in July 2018. The program pays 50 cents for every pound of lobster landed in 2019, up to $250,000 per person.

“I’m happy the boats got their relief, but the timing is suspect,” said Travis Fifield, Stonington lobster dealer, in an interview. Only fishermen, and no one else in the supply chain, will get part of that $50 million, Fifield said.

The announcement follows the European Union’s decision in late August to drop its tariff on U.S. lobsters for five years. Local seafood dealers have said that will help the lobster industry.

Another $20 million in federal money will be distributed to a broad swath of Maine’s fishing industry, including lobstermen, processors, aquaculturists and dealers. Maine Department of Marine Resources (DMR) Commissioner Patrick Kelliher said in a memo he hopes the checks are mailed in November. That money, which comes from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), was authorized by Congress under the CARES Act in the spring. To get the money, people have to show they’ve suffered a 35 percent drop in income because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Read the full story at the Penobscot Bay Press

Cooperative Research Key to Successful Start of Annual Bottomfish Survey in Hawaiʻi

September 18, 2020 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

The coronavirus pandemic is affecting many aspects of our lives and has increased pressure on the local Hawaiian fishing community. During these challenging times, we are relying on our ten-year cooperative research partnership with the local fishing community to continue survey operations critical to fishery management. The annual Bottomfish Fishery-Independent Survey in Hawaiʻi (#BFISH) became operational in 2016. It has provided important local abundance estimates used in the Main Hawaiian Islands Deep 7 Bottomfish Stock Assessment.

One difference between BFISH and many of our other research missions is its foundational partnership with the local fishing community. In addition to work done from the NOAA Ship Oscar Elton Sette, local bottomfishers typically conduct two-thirds of the overall sampling effort. They use up to six commercial fishing vessels distributed among the main eight Hawaiian islands. These cooperative research fishers are contracted through Lynker Technologies and the Pacific Islands Fisheries Group. They conduct hook-and-line sampling using a design developed in partnership with PIFSC scientists. This year, they have stepped up to the plate and are conducting 100 percent of the sampling.

These small, open-deck fishing vessels are crewed by only a few people. They are a safer alternative to larger platforms, such as NOAA ships. All parties are following Center for Disease Control-recommended precautions to make sampling as safe as possible. Most of the vessels will be operating to and from neighbor islands, where COVID cases remain lower than in more populated regions. All crew members conduct self-evaluations with temperature checks each morning and wear masks at all times.

While our partnership with the local community has always been important, this year it has been critical to the continued success of the survey. Research fishing operations began in mid-August 2020 and will run through the end of November. Research fishers are conducting hook-and-line sampling at 453 locations across the main Hawaiian islands. They will be deploying the MOUSS stereo-video camera system at 47 locations around Oʻahu and Penguin Bank.

Read the full release here

ASMFC 79th Annual Meeting Webinar Preliminary Agenda and Public Comment Guidelines

September 18, 2020 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:

Usually, this time of year we are in the final stages of preparing for our Annual Meeting, which is hosted by one of our 15 member states. It is a special meeting, where our Commissioners and federal partners come together to not only conduct important fisheries management business, but also celebrate our collective and, in the case of the Captain David H. Hart Award recipient, individual contributions to the sustainable and cooperative management of Atlantic coastal fisheries. This year, the Annual Meeting was scheduled to be held in New Jersey but continuing concerns about the COVID-19 pandemic and prohibitions on large gatherings resulted in us making the difficult choice of postponing the in-person meeting until next year and shifting to a virtual meeting this year.  Notably, this is the first time since 1942 that the Commission will not meet in-person for an Annual Meeting.

In light of this, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s Annual Meeting Webinar will be held October 19-22, 2020. The preliminary agenda and public comment guidelines, which follow, are also available on the Commission website at http://www.asmfc.org/home/2020-annual-meeting-webinar. The final agenda, meeting materials and webinar details will be available at http://www.asmfc.org/home/2020-annual-meeting-webinar by October 7th.

We look forward to meeting with you at the 79th Annual Meeting Webinar.

Hawaii’s fishing industry faces lasting impacts as pandemic drags on

September 18, 2020 — With restaurants and hotels shut down, Hawaii is seeing a shortage of fish that is impacting the price of popular products like ahi and could have lasting effects on the industry.

“The boats are going out on fewer trips. They are carrying a lot less weight than usual because of all that’s happening,” said Long Tran, as he watched a load of tuna come off the boat Tuesday morning at Pier 38.

Tran buys fish for Poke by the Pound and says the price fluctuates naturally with the seasons.

He said the pandemic will likely have lasting consequences for the industry.

Ultimately, those changes will affect his bottom line.

“The fish is going to continue to be in shortage, but we will be running in the red all the time, so we will basically have to call our fish vendors out to do what they can for us,” Tran said.

Fresh Island Fish owns their own vessels and their fish goes directly to their plant. That product goes straight to the restaurants and to the customers.

Read the full story at Hawaii News Now

Stuck at home? Here’s a fine way to find fish

September 17, 2020 — Between 85% and 90% of all seafood is consumed in restaurants or purchased from retail stores. So when COVID-19 struck in March, the seafood industry went into shock.

Gone were the restaurants that bought millions of pounds of seafood, including our beloved salmon, a mainstay of Pacific Northwest good eating. In 2017, for instance, Washington state’s total commercial catch was 666 million pounds—and that’s just one state’s catch.

Into this desperate situation stepped Max Mossler, ’16, managing editor and developer of Sustainable Fisheries, an entity of the UW School of Aquatic and Fisheries Sciences that explains the science of sustainable seafood. Mossler developed a Fish Map from information he collated from hundreds of commercial fishing lists. The map is a way for commercial fishing companies to sell their products directly to consumers. Want some fresh fish? Visit the website and tap one of the balloons on the map to see the name of the fishing enterprise and the type of fish on the “menu.”

Read the full story at University of Washington Magazine

La. seafood industry struggling during pandemic; business owners hope to see relief soon

September 17, 2020 — Louisiana’s commercial fishermen are struggling during the coronavirus pandemic, but they now have the option to apply for assistance from the CARES Act.

WAFB’s Breanne Bizette spoke with seafood businesses about how demand for the product has gone down.

Since the start of the pandemic, fewer people are eating out at local seafood restaurants. Restaurants are restricted on how many people can dine at once, meaning fewer people are eating those delicious seafood platters.

Fishermen who sell their catch to restaurants are feeling the pressure.

“I think the price has to come down because if you don’t have sales you can’t just keep a price at a level that there’s no sale for,” says Al Sunseri who is the co-owner of P&J’s Oyster Company.

Read the full story at WAFB

MIKE DUNLEAVY: Protecting Alaska’s fisheries in a turbulent season

September 17, 2020 — Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, Alaska has faced its share of monumental challenges. The testing of all incoming travelers, providing relief for devastated tourism businesses, creating a new unemployment program from scratch. Yet none compared to the challenge of protecting our critical seafood industry and the communities that rely on their economic production.

We commend Alaska’s seafood industry for successfully navigating the most difficult season Alaska has ever experienced. Captains, deckhands, processors and hatcheries worked tirelessly to protect coastal communities, jobs and the health of Alaska’s people and economy. Local leaders, health care workers, and state officials devoted countless hours to developing policies and reviewing community protection plans.

From the beginning, it was obvious this would not be an easy road. Many believed that holding a fishing season was simply not possible. To their credit, many skeptics later joined our effort, pitching in to work toward a common goal. The cooperation between industry, communities and the state was truly a bright spot in an otherwise bleak summer.

Read the full story at the Anchorage Daily News

What’s driving ahi costs up? And when will they go back down?

September 17, 2020 — Yellowfin tuna, or ahi, is harder to find right now, and when you do catch it at the market or your favorite poke shop, it is going to cost more– at least for another month or so. There are a number of reasons for the current ahi shortage.

Whether you like it sashimi style, blackened or with shoyu and onions in your poke, ahi is a local favorite. But according to United Fishing Agency Auction Fishing Manager Mike Goto, “Supply is not meeting the demand.”

“Today’s auction was still a little bit light on volume comparatively to a normal time, pre-COVID. And that’s kind of been the trend lately over the past two or three weeks,” Goto said.

Several factors come into play. The first is that catch rates are typically lower this time of year as ahi move closer to the West Coast–driving up the cost for fishing vessels.

Mike Lee, VP of Sales and Operations of Garden and Valley Isle Seafood, said the added costs of vessels having to travel farther for fish make fishermen think twice about going out.

Read the full story at KHON

Lobstermen may get up to $50 million in pandemic relief funds

September 16, 2020 — Whatever the relationship between China and the United States — particularly the lobster industry — may be, Maine lobstermen are certainly living in interesting times. 

Last week, a scant two months before the upcoming presidential election, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced that it would soon release some $530 million appropriated by Congress last March under the CARES Act to assist the U.S. seafood industry and fishermen damaged by retaliatory tariffs. Those tariffs have been imposed primarily by China and the European Union on imports of U.S. live and processed seafood. 

Payments from the Seafood Trade Relief Program vary by species and are based on each fisherman’s 2019 landings multiplied by an amount established by the USDA. For lobstermen, the multiplier is 50 cents per pound. Total payments to Maine lobstermen based on 2019 landings figures could reach $50 million. 

Herring fishermen get 4 cents per pound. Salmon farmers get 16 cents per pound. The total payment is limited to $250,000 to any one fisherman or entity. Some fishermen and most aquaculturists operate as small business corporations or limited liability companies, for all species combined, and payments are subject to federal and state income tax. 

That limit means nothing to the shellfish farmers who grow primarily oysters, mussels, hardshell clams and scallops in Maine. They get nothing, presumably because exports of those species, if any, were not damaged by tariffs. 

Read the full story at The Ellsworth American

ALASKA: Pandemic restrictions create uncertainties for Bering Sea crab fleet

September 16, 2020 — Bering Sea crabbers will soon know how much they can pull up in their pots for the season that opens Oct. 15.

This week the Crab Plan Team, advisers to state and federal fishery managers who jointly manage the fisheries, will review stock assessments and other science used to set the catches for Bristol Bay red king crab, Tanners and snow crab.

Normally, the biggest driver would be data from the annual summer trawl surveys that have tracked the stocks for decades. But this year, the surveys were called off due to the coronavirus, and that has crabbers worried.

“There are certainly some added uncertainties,” said Jamie Goen, executive director of the trade group Alaska Bering Sea Crabbers, which represents harvesters.

Read the full story at the Anchorage Daily News