Saving Seafood

Over 150 scientists warn of Mediterranean ‘overfishing crisis’

September 24, 2018 — More than 150 international scientists have signed NGO Oceana’s “Mediterranean Statement” urging the EU and its member states to end what it calls an environmental crisis in the Mediterranean, it said.

It cited a recent report from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) calling it the world’s most overfished sea.

“This environmental crisis is not just a warning – it’s the harsh reality of the Mediterranean Sea. Europe has for decades turned a blind eye to this situation, and this passive stance has brought us today to almost the point of no return,” said Lasse Gustavsson, executive director of Oceana in Europe.

“The EU must curb overfishing to avoid the worst-case scenario — the collapse of fish stocks — by adopting a science-based management plan in the western Mediterranean,” he said.

Overfishing in the Mediterranean affects around 90% of evaluated fish stocks, with average exploitation rates exceeding more than double the recommended sustainable levels, said Oceana, citing the EU’s own Scientific, Technical and Economic Committee for Fisheries.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

Scallop row: UK and French fishermen strike a deal

September 18, 2018 — The agreement, starting on Tuesday, will see larger British boats withdrawing in return for greater fishing rights elsewhere.

In August, boats collided and fishermen threw stones at each other as the French accused UK boats of depleting scallop stocks.

British fishermen said they were legally entitled to fish there.

Under the terms of the new deal, UK scallop dredgers over 15m long will leave the scallop beds off the coast of Normandy from midnight for six weeks.

In return, France will transfer fishing rights for scallops in areas such as the Irish Sea.

Smaller British boats are not restricted under the deal and can continue to fish in the Bay of Seine, where the row broke out.

Fisheries minister George Eustice said: “I commend the UK fishing industry for its patience throughout negotiations and welcome this pragmatic outcome.

Read the full story at BBC News

No end to “scallop war” between France and the UK

September 12, 2018 — Relations between France and the United Kingdom have been less than cordial over the past few weeks as the U.K.’s under-15-meter scallop fleet has exercised its right to fish in French waters.

French scallop fishermen, who are currently banned from taking any scallops themselves until the scallop breeding season ends, clashed with their European counterparts in a series of dangerously aggressive high-seas manoeuvres caught on camera.

The fracas arose because, under the terms of the E.U. Common Fisheries Policy, fishing fleets from any member state have equal access to E.U. waters. However, individual countries can limit access to E.U. fleets within 12 nautical miles of their own coastlines. This means that U.K. boats can fish for scallops year-round in the Baie de Seine area off the north coast of France, despite French law preventing its own fleet from fishing between 15 May and 1 October to conserve stocks.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

 

Climate change conflicts are here – and ‘scallop wars’ are just the beginning

September 11, 2018 — As the planet warms, species are moving further north to climate zones which are closer in temperature to what they originally evolved in. The oceans have absorbed most of this temperature increase, and so many marine species, including commercially fished scallops, are under particular stress to migrate northwards to cooler waters.

In the face of this disruption, legal boundaries for fishing fleets could become increasingly irrelevant. As the fish stocks they once contained move out, conflict is likely to arise between countries exploiting neighbouring fishing grounds.

As a result, the ongoing “scallop war“, which has seen tense physical confrontations between French and British fishers over access to these prized molluscs, may be a taste of worse to come.

The habitat ranges and migration patterns of commercial species in the ocean have been carefully studied throughout history, so that fishing fleets can exploit them more efficiently. This understanding has informed the division of fishing grounds according to who has the right to harvest them.

French scallop fishers were incensed over their British counterparts’ alleged pillaging of scallop stocks, as smaller British boats aren’t bound by a French law that prohibits dredging in the Baie de Seine from October 1 through May 15, to allow scallop populations to recover.

While on the surface it might seem that these skirmishes are anchored to specific circumstances – potentially inflamed by existing tensions around Brexit – they highlight the enormous difficulties in clearly mapping and enforcing legal boundaries around natural habitats that are changing rapidly.

Read the full story at PHYS.org

UK-France scallop skirmish settled, subject to compensation for UK boats

September 10, 2018 — The UK and French governments have reached an agreement over scallop fishing in the eastern English Channel, with French conservation measures designed to protect the shellfish extending to UK vessels.

In a joint statement from both governments, supported by UK fisheries minister George Eustice, it was announced the previous conservation agreement involving the UK 15-meter-and-over fleet would be renewed.

In addition, there is agreement in principle for UK under-15m vessels to be included in the deal. This is subject to a “reasonable compensation package”, the details of which are set to be defined in Paris on Sept. 7.

In the meantime, there is a voluntary agreement for all UK vessels to respect the French closure period in the Baie de Seine, the statement said.

The long-running dispute in the channel particularly concerns the scallop-rich Baie, in which French fishers are prevented from harvesting due to domestic environmental laws.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

French, UK fishermen to seek scallops deal after sea skirmishes

September 4, 2018 — Fishing industry officials from France and Britain will try to strike a new deal on dredging for scallops next week following violent skirmishes in the Channel, authorities said on Friday.

On Tuesday, French vessels rammed British trawlers off the coast of Normandy, hurling projectiles and insults in a dispute which erupted after a previous agreement broke down.

French fishermen accuse the British of unfairly catching scallops in the Baie de Seine in the summer months when French boats are banned from doing so under rules imposed by the Paris government to conserve stocks of the shellfish.

French Agriculture Minister Stephane Travert told Europe 1 radio he had discussed the issue with a British minister on Thursday night and that the industry representatives would meet next week to work out an agreement.

“We both condemn the violent acts and we want to return to a spirit of responsibility,” Travert said.

Travert said he had asked British fisheries minister George Eustace to ensure UK vessels do not sail south of the Barfleur-Antifer line, the scene of this week’s clashes.

The industry representatives would meet in London on Wednesday and French government officials would also attend, said Dimitri Rogoff, who heads the Normandy fishing association.

Read the full story at Reuters

All shell, no shock: Lobster prices strong as season picks up

July 23, 2018 — New England’s lobster industry faces big new challenges in selling to Europe and China, but the trouble hasn’t caused prices to budge much for American consumers.

The business is in the midst of its busiest part of the year, when tourists flock to coastal states with a beachside lobster dinner in mind. Summer is also when prices tend to fall a bit because it’s when the majority of lobsters are caught.

But the prices haven’t fallen much. Retailers are selling live lobsters in the $7 to $12 per pound range in Maine, where the American lobster industry is based. That’s not too far behind recent summers.

“It’s starting to pick up, so of course the price is dropping. But that’s pretty normal,” said William Adler, a lobsterman out of Green Harbor, Massachusetts. “Now it’s starting to come alive, and prices are still good right now.”

Members of the industry are concerned about heavy new tariffs applied by China to U.S. seafood this month, because that country is a major lobster buyer. Canada also recently brokered a deal with the European Union to remove tariffs on Canadian lobster exports to Europe, while the U.S. has no such agreement.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the Portland Press Herald

2018 Seafood Expo Global broke attendance and exhibitor records

June 15, 2018 — Diversified Communications, the producer of Seafood Expo Global and Seafood Processing Global, announced on Thursday, 14 June that its 2018 edition of the event set attendance and exhibitor records.

SEG/SPG took place 24 to 26 April, 2018, in Brussels, Belgium, and the largest ever in the event’s 26-year history, Diversified reported. A total of 29,130 buyers and sellers were in attendance from 152 countries, while 1,946 exhibiting companies from 78 countries showcased their seafood products, equipment, and services at the expo. The total exhibitor space occupied in the Brussels Expo exhibit space was 39,322 net square meters, including 72 national and regional pavilions.

“It is incredible to see this event growing year over year,” Diversified Communications Group Vice President Liz Plizga said.  “Not only have we expanded the event in terms of exhibit space, but we again reached a record high in the number of visitors who came to the event. This shows the ongoing importance of the business value that both buyers and suppliers in the global seafood industry find in this event.”

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Report: UK buyers fail to support coastal communities amid ‘sustainability’ concerns

June 13, 2018 — The lack of sufficient work on monitoring and certifying UK fish and seafood supply chain’s sustainability forces the country’s buyers to go overseas for species that could be sourced locally, according to Sustainable Fish Cities.

The report, also published in the Independent, claims UK fishers are losing out on markets worth an estimated £62 million because companies are buying-in sustainable fish from overseas, said Sustainable Fish Cities, pointing out that UK species not considered sustainable include some scallops, nephrops, seabass and halibut.

UK fish buyers are importing more sustainable varieties of fish traditionally caught in British waters from the US, Turkey, Greenland and South America rather than risk selling fish that is unsustainably caught from UK waters, Sustainable Fish Cities claimed.

“What a travesty that our fishers are losing out on so much business. Caterers in the UK want to buy UK fish and support our coastal communities but for some species they have no choice but to import from across the world to ensure that what they buy is sustainable,” said Ruth Westcott, co-ordinator of Sustainable Fish Cities.

“The government simply hasn’t invested enough in research, data collection, and monitoring of fishing vessels. Even if boats are operating sustainably, if there isn’t a good enough understanding of the fish stocks and impact on the environment the fishery can’t achieve sustainability certification or be considered ok to eat according to the Marine Conservation Society.”

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

Hundreds of seafood stakeholders heading to Spain to tackle top sustainability issues

June 11, 2018 — Barcelona, Spain will play host to more than 100 speakers and even more attendees from across the sustainable seafood movement for this year’s SeaWeb Seafood Summit, occurring from 18 to 21 June at the Hotel Arts.

Over the course of up to five days, summit speakers and registered attendees – including global representatives from the seafood industry, the conservation community, retail/foodservice, academia, government and the media – will convene to learn, network, and problem solve, said Diversified Communications, which produces the summit in partnership with SeaWeb.

“This year, we’ve expanded interactive formats across more sessions,” said Brenna Hensley, event director for Diversified Communications. “This forum vastly benefits from wide participation and input from diverse stakeholders.”

The educational sessions planned for the summit are formatted as “engagement-driven panels or workshops,” explained Diversified, and aim to unpack and troubleshoot challenging and emerging issues within the seafood sustainability oceanscape.

The event will feature several plenary and panel discussions, including the opening session set to take place on Tuesday, 19 June at 11:15 a.m.: “Is Spain Really as Important as the Global Seafood Sustainability Movement Believes?” During this kickoff plenary, “panelists will examine the key factors that explain and drive the success of the global seafood sustainability movement through the lens of global consumer appetite for mature (whitefish, small shrimps, salmon, cold water crabs) and non-mature (octopus and squid) markets,” Diversified said in a press release.

Such discussions will continue to heat up on Wednesday, 20 June, when the plenary “Building Socially Responsible Seafood Supply Chains Through Worker Voice,” is scheduled to take place. The session will involve a “dynamic, multi-stakeholder “ perspective on the concept of worker voice, covering why worker voice is important and how to incorporate it into seafood supply chains.

Read the full story at Seafood Source