Saving Seafood

Trump to hold roundtable on commercial fishing while in Maine

June 4, 2020 — President Donald Trump will hold a roundtable discussion with parties involved in the commercial fishing industry during his visit to Maine on Friday, according to a White House official.

The president is slated to come to the Pine Tree State to visit the Puritan Medical Products facility in Guilford, which manufactures medical swabs used in coronavirus testing. The Guilford company is one of the two largest swab manufacturers in the world and is opening a new swab manufacturing facility in Pittsfield this summer to meet the surging demand for swabs.

The company is using $75.5 million in federal funds under the Defense Production Act to open that facility.

The president is expected to discuss regulations and how to expand economic opportunities for the commercial fishing industry, according to the official.

Details of when exactly the visit will take place have not been disclosed.

Read the full story at the Bangor Daily News

US pollock, haddock harvesters threatened by advice against seafood aid double dipping

June 2, 2020 — Any fisheries that’ve benefited from other relief efforts should get lower priority when it comes to any future benefits awarded to the seafood industry, the president Donald Trump administration’s top fishery policy advisors have recommended.

While the advice doesn’t appear to interfere with the $300 million awarded the seafood industry as part of the earlier passed $2 trillion Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act, it threatens other assistance to the Alaska pollock and New England groundfish fisheries as well as US catfish farmers, one longtime fishing industry professional argues.

Also, it doesn’t mesh with lawmakers’ original intent, the source maintains.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

US restaurant sector receives some help, but trade group says more is needed

June 2, 2020 — Representatives of the Independent Restaurant Coalition (IRC) recently met with U.S. President Donald Trump and key administration officials to make their case for a proposed USD 120 billion (EUR 107 billion) stabilization fund for the U.S. restaurant industry.

More government relief is needed for the sector, which has struggled through lockdowns over the past two months that have effectively closed most U.S. restaurants to dine-in customers, the trade group told the president, according to a press release.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

GOP lawmakers urge Trump not to halt H-2B visa workers

May 29, 2020 — Groups of Republicans in both the U.S. House and Senate wrote to U.S. President Donald Trump this week urging his administration to exclude temporary visa programs, such as the H-2B visas, from efforts to curb immigration.

The letters, reported by Law360.com and TheHill.com, come a couple weeks after the Department of Homeland Security announced it would not bump up the total of H-2B visas, which permit nonimmigrant laborers to work in seasonal positions. Seafood processors, along with landscaping companies and seasonal resorts, are the primary industries that use the visa program.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Seafood industry’s fragmentation makes recovery harder

May 26, 2020 — The seafood lobby says assistance from the federal government has not been enough to help everyone along the supply chain. That is leaving fishermen, processors and distributors worried about their ability to stay in business as the economic slowdown from the pandemic ravages the industry.

Various sectors are getting a $300 million boost from a coronavirus emergency aid package from Congress that will be distributed by states to help make up for lost sales after restaurants closed their doors. In addition, the Agriculture Department has promised to buy up $70 million of catfish, haddock, pollock and redfish to distribute to food banks and nutrition programs.

An industry coalition asked the Trump administration in late March for a combined $4 billion to be spent on buying surplus seafood, supporting supply chains and aiding fisheries, but only a fraction of that has been awarded.

Some in the industry say the meager aid doled out so far reinforces a long-held complaint that the industry is neglected on Capitol Hill, where power players like the beef and pork industries dominate in agriculture. The industry’s fragmented nature also makes it difficult to form a political force, compared with other agriculture sectors that lobby to support producers of a single animal, especially those from politically powerful farm states in the Midwest and South.

“The U.S. fishing industry is overlooked a lot when it comes to the food supply,” said Jason Jarvis, a fisherman in Rhode Island who catches fluke, black sea bass and scup. “Now it’s going to change. I think it has to. We’re looking at empty stores.”

Read the full story at Politico

Trump administration renews push for expanding U.S. aquaculture

May 19, 2020 — Giving pandemic relief funds to the seafood industry and stepping on the gas for offshore fish farming are two big takeaways from the executive orders and congressional packages coming out of the nation’s capital.

Recent news that Alaska would receive $50 million from the $300 million fisheries relief funds in the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act was well received by industry stakeholders and it’s likely to be followed by more.

A May 15 hearing called “COVID 19 impacts to American Fisheries and the Seafood Supply Chain” was scheduled by the U.S. House Natural Resources Committee to focus on the lack of assistance for harvesters and processors.

Read the full story at the Anchorage Daily News

COVID-19: Trump Administration Takes Actions to Assist U.S. Fishing Industry

May 18, 2020 — The Trump administration recently announced two major actions to assist the U.S. commercial fishing industry. President Trump’s Executive Order on Promoting American Seafood Competitiveness and Economic Growth[1] (Order) aims to increase seafood production by streamlining regulatory permitting processes and reducing burdens on the fishing industry.

In a separate action, the Secretary of Commerce detailed how $300M in CARES Act[2] funding intended to address impacts to the seafood industry caused by COVID-19 will be distributed.

This alert outlines the impacts of the Order on U.S. fishing, as well as describes the initial details for distribution of CARES Act funds to fishing businesses.

Impacts of the Executive Order on U.S. Fishing

While the Order focuses mainly on aquaculture, it also contains several provisions aimed at assisting the U.S. fishing industry. However, important details remain to be worked out, and it is unclear how quickly the fishing industry will see benefits.

Read the full story at The National Law Review

Trump pushing growth of US seafood markets

May 18, 2020 — As we sit to answer the clamor for yet another FishOn magnus opus, we see that the sun is shining, the winds have calmed and the boys, Foster and Willie, are saddled up and waiting imperiously at the door, threatening an indoor magnus opus of their own.

So, time’s a wastin’. Let’s not tempt the fates. To the items!

OK, but where does bleach fit in?

You may have heard that President Donald Trump recently signed an executive order promoting the competitiveness and economic growth of the U.S. seafood industry and you’re probably wondering what it all means.

We don’t have the foggiest notion. So we went directly to the primary source — NOAA Fisheries Assistant Director Chris Oliver —for an explanation.

Oliver, in a statement announcing the order, said it specifically calls for the expansion of sustainable U.S. seafood production through more efficient and predictable aquaculture permitting, cutting-edge research and development, regulatory reform to maximize commercial fishing and enforcement of “common-sense restrictions” on seafood imports that do not meet U.S. standards.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

CARES Act provides more than $5M for North Carolina commercial fishing industry

May 14, 2020 — Commercial fishermen in North Carolina will receive more than $5 million in federal financial assistance through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration issued an announcement last week, saying the U.S. Secretary of Commerce announced the allocation of $300 million in fisheries assistance funding provided by Sec. 12005 of the CARES Act to states, tribes and territories with coastal and marine fishery participants who have been negatively affected by the novel coronavirus pandemic. Under the act, North Carolina’s commercial fishermen will receive $5,460,385.

U.S. Department of Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said the relief package will support America’s fishermen and the seafood sector’s recovery.

“Thank you President (Donald) Trump, (U.S. Treasury) Secretary (Steven) Mnuchin and our congressional leaders of both parties for your work to pass the historic legislation that is bringing much needed relief to America’s fishermen,” Mr. Ross said. “This administration stands with the men and women working to provide healthy and safe seafood during this uniquely challenging time, while our U.S. fisheries work to continue to support 1.7 million jobs and to generate $200 billion in annual sales. The nation is grateful to our fishermen for their commitment.”

Read the full story at Carolina Coast Online

Will Trump’s executive order expanding fishing help the seafood industry catch needed profits?

May 13, 2020 — The coronavirus pandemic has decimated the seafood industry in the U.S. ​Following the widespread closure of restaurants and food service locations, many of the country’s fisheries have reported sales dropping as much as 95%. Thousands of commercial fishers are at risk of bankruptcy, The Washington Post reported.

Shortly after sales started to plummet, seafood companies — including Trident, Pacific Seafoods, High Liner, Cargill and Fortune International — wrote a letter to the Trump administration to ask for financial support. Although the industry anticipated the need for billions of dollars, the government only approved an aid package for $300 million at first.

Now the government is offering additional support with another $300 million in financial aid, as well as an attempt to bolster domestic production. Currently, domestic aquaculture production is either done on land or in state-controlled waters and is only a small portion of U.S. seafood. Aquaculture accounted for 20% of the country’s seafood production in 2016, according to NPR. The outlet reported that U.S. production is dwarfed by imports, which account for 90% of the country’s seafood consumption.

Read the full story at Grocery Dive