July 28, 2020 — The China International Fisheries and Seafood Expo, scheduled for 28 to 30 October, 2020, in Qingdao, has been canceled for this year.
Blaming “the global epidemic situation and the impact of force majeure factors in epidemic management and control,” the organizers said the event is being moved to 27 to 29 October, 2021.
July 28, 2020 — The following was released by NOAA:
Two announcements today from NOAA Fisheries offer a ‘snapshot in time’ of the population status of U.S. federal fisheries in 2019, and the economic performance of commercial fishing, recreational fishing, and related businesses in 2017. Scientists find that the vast majority of U.S. fish stocks continue to be strong, successful and achieving long-term sustainability goals. Data from these reports help governments, communities, fishery managers, and many others assess the state of the U.S. fisheries management system and plan ahead for future years.
“It’s important we acknowledge the achievements in sustainable fisheries made in recent years by fishermen, industries, scientists, managers, and conservationists across our Nation. These updates are a testament to their outstanding work,” said Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross. “To that end, President Trump has announced the availability of $300 million to support U.S. fishing communities that have been particularly hard-hit by COVID-19. The Department of Commerce stands with U.S. fishermen and coastal industries as we work to increase America’s competitiveness in the seafood industry and protect our seafood supply chain.”
The 2019 Status of U.S. Fisheries Report outlines the status of 461 managed stocks or stock complexes in the U.S. to determine which stocks are subject to overfishing, are overfished, or are rebuilt to sustainable levels.
A stock is on the overfishing list when the harvest rate of that species is too high, and for 2019, scientists find that list reached a record low. Of 321 stocks for which a determination can be made, 299 (93%) are not subject to overfishing. Conversely, a stock is on the overfished list when the population size of a stock is too low. That list rose slightly in 2019; one stock was removed from the overfished list in 2019 (Gulf of Maine yellowtail flounder), but four were added. Stocks added to the list this year include ones that continue to experience poor reproduction despite closed fisheries (Pacific sardine/northern population), stocks that we now have improved scientific understanding of fishing impacts (Atlantic Coast bluefish), and stocks for which there are ongoing efforts to accurately estimate stock size (Gulf of Maine white hake and George’s Bank winter flounder).
Additionally, two once-overfished species have been rebuilt. Those stocks include American plaice, a right-eyed species of flounder native to the Gulf of Maine, and Southern California cowcod, an orangish-colored rockfish now the ninth recovered West Coast groundfish species. This brings the number of rebuilt stocks to 47 since the year 2000. Once stocks are rebuilt, expanded market opportunities often follow, as catch limits are increased.
Also available is key economic data from the 2017 Fisheries Economics of the U.S. Report, which provides an update on the economic performance of U.S. fisheries. The numbers illustrate fishing as a positive economic driver for our nation, with combined commercial and recreational fishing generating $244 billion in annual sales (up 11%), contributing $111 billion to the gross domestic product (up 8%), and supporting 1.74 million jobs (up 3.3%). The full report will be made available later this year.
View the 2019 Status of U.S. Fisheries Report and 2017 Fisheries Economics of the U.S. key economic data.
July 27, 2020 — Connecticut’s political leaders want shellfish and aquaculture farmers to be included in the next round of COVID-19 economic relief. In a letter to the leaders of the House and Senate, the state’s representatives asked for $500 million in fisheries assistance.
Specifically, the politicians wanted funding to target producers who did not receive sufficient assistance from the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program (CFAP), or from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Section 12005 funds.
July 27, 2020 — This spring, as Alaska hunkered down and kept COVID-19 rates low, residents of the state’s fishing towns raised strong objections to the arrival of thousands of fishermen and seasonal plant workers, fearful that the visitors could bring the virus with them.
Available state data appears to show that strict state and local mandates, plus tight restrictions imposed by seafood companies, ended up stopping those visitors from spreading the virus. The Bristol Bay Borough, Alaska’s salmon hub, had just one resident case of the virus through Monday.
And now, as infection rates rise among the Alaska public, the dynamic has flipped: It’s the seafood companies that have to protect their workers from Alaska residents.
Many of Alaska’s processing plants, particularly in Bristol Bay, are staffed exclusively by seasonal workers who live on company property. And this year, companies operating in the region have avoided major outbreaks by barring workers from leaving their property.
July 24, 2020 — Alaska will receive rapid testing machines and kits to help test for Covid-19 the thousands of workers who travel to the state each summer to work in the fishing industry, according to the General Services Administration website.
The Department of Health and Human Services aAlaska will receive rapid testing machines and kits to help test for Covid-19 the thousands of workers who travel to the state each summer to work in the fishing industrywarded Cepheid Inc. a $1.68 million contract to provide these machines and kits. The Cepheid machines are used for point-of-care tests—typically done in hospitals and urgent care clinics at the bedside of patients—and provide results in 45 minutes. The tests don’t require samples to be sent to a lab.
There have been some fishing-related outbreaks in Alaska, with 85 crew members aboard a fishing ship testing positive, 96 workers at an OBI Seafoods processing plant, and 9 cases linked to an Alaska Glacier Seafoods processing plant, all in July. There were also outbreaks at two other OBI Seafoods plants with 12 and three workers testing positive.
July 24, 2020 — The following was released by The Office of Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT):
U.S. Senators Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and U.S. Representatives John Larson (CT-01), Rosa DeLauro (CT-03), Jim Himes (CT-04), and Jahana Hayes (CT-05), joined a letter led by U.S. Congressman Joe Courtney (CT-02) to House and Senate leadership to urge them to provide support for shellfish and aquaculture farmers as they negotiate the next COVID-19 economic relief package. In a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Minority Leader Charles Schumer, the Connecticut delegation asked that $500 million be provided in fisheries assistance, which would include shellfish farmers.
The lawmakers asked that the new funding be specifically targeted towards producers who were ineligible, or did not receive sufficient assistance from the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program (CFAP), or from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Section 12005 funds. They note that many aquaculture businesses in Connecticut, including all molluscan shellfish and marine algae, were not made eligible by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) for CFAP assistance, and that available assistance for this industry from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) amounts to only $450,000.
“In our State of Connecticut, fisheries and aquaculture producers will receive $1.8 million in total funds from NOAA, divided between commercial fishing, recreational fishing, and wholesale and shellfish aquaculture. After these resources have been distributed, the entire shellfish industry in Connecticut will receive approximately $450,00 in assistance, a woefully inadequate sum which will be spread thinly throughout our State’s $30 million industry.
“Providing $500 million in additional NOAA fisheries assistance targeted to the most affected industries – especially shellfish – will be a lifeline to our nation’s shellfish farmers during this economically challenging time.”
The delegation went on to urge the House and Senate leaders to provide additional funding for USDA’s Section 32 purchasing program, with a focus on aiding the shellfish aquaculture sector:
“[…] USDA’s Section 32 program to purchase surplus commodities has provided significant assistance to agricultural enterprises to prevent steep price declines. We believe that shellfish aquaculture are an appropriate candidate to this purchase program. USDA has failed to avail Section 32 purchases to the shellfish industry, and we request additional funds for Section 32 purchases, with an emphasis on sectors that did not receive a purchase thus far in 2020, including shellfish aquaculture.
“We urge you to support this targeted assistance in any future COVID-19 package.”
To read the delegation’s full letter, click here.
July 24, 2020 — Alaska’s three largest coronavirus outbreaks involve workers in the seafood industry, a sector that prompted concern as the the summer’s fishing seasons started in June but for months seemed to be under control.
Now the outbreaks have changed.
The new outbreaks come with “high attack rates” and a harder-to-contain demographic: a mix of out-of-state workers and residents who go from working close together in processing plants to friends and family at home and the community at large, state epidemiologist Dr. Joe McLaughlin said Thursday.
As the season started, thousands of seafood workers flowed into the state. Seafood companies filed plans promising to test workers multiple times and quarantine them, given the potential that outbreaks on vessels and in processing plants could overwhelm fragile state and local health care systems.
Early on, halting transmission from infected seafood workers was “pretty easy,” McLaughlin said at a media briefing. Some workers were halted by positive COVID-19 tests before they even arrived. Others entered an immediate 14-day quarantine when they arrived in Alaska.
July 24, 2020 — Poor production, lingering effects from previous hurricanes, and the COVID-19 pandemic knocked Florida spiny lobster fishermen down, but not out during the 2019-20 harvest season. Many are gearing up and looking forward to August’s opening.
“All my fishermen are getting ready. We expect a normal year,” said Gary Graves, operator of Keys Fisheries in Marathon. “My fear this year is storms. The water temperature is so hot.” The Florida Keys stayed out of harm’s way during last year’s hurricane season, but Graves said lobster production was down about 35 percent, possibly because of lower production in the Caribbean basin, where most of Florida’s crustaceans are spawned.
July 24, 2020 — The U.S. Chamber of Commerce was joined by three industry groups and a technology company in a federal lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and State Department regarding the actions of the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump to curb foreign workers from entering the country, primarily via the H-1B visa program.
The lawsuit, filed Tuesday, 21 July, in the U.S. District Court in San Francisco, California, comes a month after Trump announced he was temporarily suspending several work visa programs as high unemployment rates due to the coronavirus pandemic left millions of Americans out of work.
July 24, 2020 — The following is an excerpt from a letter addressed to NOAA Administrators from Massachusetts Legislators. Lawmakers in Massachusetts have requested the extending of At-Sea Monitoring Waivers in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Dear Under Secretary Jacobs, Mr. Oliver, Mr. Pentony, and Dr. Hare:
Thank you for extending the waiver for the requirement of At-Sea Monitoring (ASM) in the Northeast groundfishery through July 31, 2020. This action was critical to protecting the health and safety of the men and women in the Massachusetts commercial fishing industry,
While COVID-19 trends in the Northeast have been generally positive, many coastal areas continue to see cases rising, including Suffolk, Bristol, and Barnstable counties here in Massachusetts, all of Rhode Island, and Virginia Beach County, Virginia. As Senator Tarr’s June 30, 2020 letter to you, the commercial fishing industry remains among the most vulnerable to COVID-19 due to the inherent conditions of their working environment at sea. Furthermore, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have warned that this fall and winter will likely see a secondary outbreak of COVID-19.