Saving Seafood

Section 301 tariffs leave US seafood importers with few avenues to avoid rising costs

August 10, 2026 — The latest round of tariffs implemented by the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) targeted several countries that heavily produce salmon and shrimp with duty rates between 10 percent and 12.5 percent, leaving U.S. seafood importers with few options for relief from rising costs.

The 60 global economies hit with Section 301 tariffs include top salmon-producing countries such as Norway, Chile, and the U.K., as well as shrimp-producing nations like Ecuador, India, Indonesia, Vietnam, and Thailand.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Birds Are Dying. Clues Point to El Niño.

August 7, 2026 — Every month, Giovanny Suárez Espín walks a beach near his home in southern Ecuador, monitoring for dead seabirds. Usually, he sees maybe a handful.

But on recent surveys, the sand has been littered with carcasses.

“Every 10 steps you took, you found five or 10 birds, and it kept going,” said Suárez, who works for American Bird Conservancy, a nonprofit group. “On the three-kilometer walk, we saw lots of dead birds the whole way.”

In June, Suárez and others tallied 638 dead birds on the beaches of three provinces in Ecuador, about seven times the number found over the previous year and a half combined.

“It’s painful,” he said.

In July, they counted an additional 968.

It’s too soon to say for certain what has caused the spike in deaths, which has affected various species, including sooty shearwaters, Peruvian and blue-footed boobies, cormorants, petrels and the critically endangered waved albatross. Die-offs in sea birds aren’t uncommon, and can stem from a variety of factors. In 2023, Ecuador saw mass deaths from avian influenza, said Sebastián Cruz, a seabird ecologist who runs the South American marine bird program for American Bird Conservancy.

But this time, he said, looks different. The birds’ bodies are emaciated. Testing for bird flu is needed, but the few necropsies that have been conducted, along with the behavior of surviving birds, show no signs of infection. And critically, sea surface temperatures off the coast have been exceptionally elevated.

This points to an alarming possibility: The seabirds could already be victims of the building El Niño, a natural climate phenomenon whose effects are now occurring while the planet dangerously warms.

In recent months, as scientists have predicted an El Niño that could be the strongest in recorded history, the attention has focused on how it could hurt humans. And it could hurt us a lot, potentially bringing record heat, drought and torrential rain.

But wildlife stands to suffer, too. Marine mammals and seabirds are among the most at risk.

Read the full article at The New York Times

Southern Shrimp Alliance echoes US congressman’s calls for tariffs on foreign seafood

February 13, 2025 — U.S. Representative Clay Higgins (R-Louisiana) recently sent a letter to the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump that offered simple advice on Trump’s tariff policies: To save American seafood, tax imports from China, Ecuador, India, Indonesia, and Vietnam. 

Higgins shared the letter he sent to the president on social media platform X with the caption, “Protecting the American seafood industry requires aggressive action.”

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Ecuador, India, Vietnam shrimp industries facing higher US countervailing duties

March 27, 2024 — The U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) is planning to hit shrimp exporters in Ecuador, India, and Vietnam with higher countervailing duties once it posts its preliminary determinations to the Federal Register.

The DOC released its preliminary determinations on 26 March, finding the three countries, as well as individual companies in those countries, benefited from subsidies that gave them an unfair advantage in the U.S. market between 1 January and 31 December 2022.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Ecuador to expand protected area around Galapagos Islands

November 2, 2021 — Ecuador will increase the area protecting the Galapagos Marine Reserve by 60,000 square kilometers, Ecuador President Guillermo Lasso announced at the United Nations COP26 climate summit taking place in Glasgow, Scotland.

The reserve will grow nearly 50 percent in size from its current 130,000 square kilometers, Lasso said. Ecuador’s newly created reserve would expand northward to include the Cocos Ridge and would completely ban industrial fishing in the reserve, as well as subsistence fishing in some areas. The move would be financed by a “debt-for-conservation swap,” according to Lasso, whereby Ecuador’s external debt could be forgiven in exchange for local investment in conservation programs. He did not provide further information. The South American nation’s external debt is nearly USD 46 billion (EUR 39.7 billion), equivalent to 45 percent of the country’s GDP.

Read the full story at SeafoodSource

 

The Global Sustainable Seafood Initiative Welcomes Asiservy to its Global Partnership

August 12, 2021 — The following was released by the Global Sustainable Seafood Initiative:

The Global Sustainable Seafood Initiative is pleased to announce that Asiservy has joined GSSI as a Funding Partner. Asiservy is GSSI’s first Ecuadorian Partner to join the Global Partnership.

Asiservy is an expanding family business with 23 years of experience in the seafood market. A leader in the processing and commercialization of seafood products in Ecuador; Asiservy began operations with the processing of tuna for the local market, today they export a wide variety of products to more than 31 countries around the world. Their expertise and knowledge in seafood processing and marketing makes them a highly valuable advisor for seafood products with superior quality standards.

“Asiservy is a company with a fundamental principle: the sustainability of the tuna fishing industry. We are confident that the only way to prevent damages to ocean life and to preserve it for future generations, is to handle responsible operations and to take a stand against illegal fishing and other practices that threaten the preservation of natural resources. For Asiservy Group, it is highly significant to be part of such a prestigious alliance with GSSI, which fully aligns with our long-term strategic objectives.” – Gustavo Núñez Márquez, Asiservy President

Read the full release here

U.S. urged to join South America in fighting China fishing

March 23, 2021 — The U.S. should consider leading a multilateral coalition with South American nations to push back against China’s illegal fishing and trade practices, a U.S. intelligence agency has recommended in a document obtained by Axios.

Why it matters: China’s illegal fishing industry is the largest in the world. Beijing has made distant-water fishing a geopolitical priority, viewing private Chinese fishing fleets as a way to extend state power far beyond its coasts.

  • A senior U.S. administration official confirmed to Axios that several agencies across the government are “taking a look at this in light of the president’s priorities,” which include “deepening cooperation with allies and partners on the challenges we face to our economy and national security.”

What’s happening: Huge fleets of hundreds of Chinese vessels have had boats fish illegally in the territorial waters of South American countries, including off the Galapagos Islands.

  • The activity has depleted stocks and disrupted food chains, in a practice referred to as illegal, unreported or unregulated (IUU) fishing.
  • South American nations say these fleets are a challenge to their economic and environmental security, but their navies often lack the resources to effectively monitor and patrol their own waters.
  • Last year, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru stated they would join forces to defend their territorial waters from incursions by Chinese vessels.

Read the full story at Axios

Four South American countries prepare to challenge Chinese fishing abuses at COMM9

January 5, 2020 — A fleet of more than 300 mostly Chinese-flagged fishing ships that caused consternation among the governments of Ecuador and Peru this summer when it was spotted fishing around their respective exclusive economic zones, has continued to fish in the Pacific Ocean around South America, and affected countries are coordinating actions to stop it.

The fleet was spotted by Ecuadorian maritime officials in mid-July as it arrived outside of the Galápagos Marine Reserve in international waters near Ecuador’s exclusive economic zone. The fleet was subsequently accused of shutting off its GPS trackers to enable it to fish illegally in protected waters without being detected.

Read the full story at Seafood Source