Saving Seafood

Bay State joins Maine fight to prevent European ban on North American lobster

May 2, 2016 — Massachusetts is joining Maine to fight a possible ban on North American lobster by the European Union.

All 11 members of the Massachusetts congressional delegation sent a letter Friday to the Obama administration urging it to work with its European counterparts to continue the trans- Atlantic trade of lobsters. The delegation has joined Maine lawmakers to fight concerns raised by Sweden that the American crustacean poses an invasive threat to its own native lobster species.

The Massachusetts delegation voiced its concerns in a letter to Secretary of State John Kerry, U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Administrator Kathryn Sullivan about the impact of a ban by the EU, which accounts for one-fifth of all American lobster exports.

“A permanent ban on the importation of American lobster to the EU could … have devastating consequences for the Massachusetts lobster industry and the New England maritime economy,” the delegation wrote.

The delegation said in the letter that Sweden’s petition to add American lobsters to the European Commission’s list of invasive species is not consistent with its own standards and does not appear to be the correct method to resolve Sweden’s concerns.

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

Canada and the European Union Work Together to Fight Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated Fishing

April 29, 2016 — BRUSSELS, Belgium — Canada and the European Union signed a joint statement today to work together more closely to fight illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing in the world’s oceans.

Hunter Tootoo, Minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard, and Karmenu Vella, European Commissioner for Environment, Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, signed the statement after their meeting during Seafood Expo Global in Brussels, Belgium.

“The world has to step up and join together to protect our oceans and our fisheries,” said Minister Tootoo. “We cannot afford to turn a blind eye to illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing, nor can we try to address it on our own. It is a global problem and it needs global solutions. We look forward to working with the European Union and our other world partners to solve this problem.”

Read the full story at Yahoo! Finance

Coalition of Thai Seafood Companies Agree to Use Electronic Catch Reporting System

April 28, 2016 — SEAFOOD NEWS — The European Union’s threat to maintain its yellow card on Thai seafood imports over illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing has not dented the private sector’s hopes for a positive ruling from the bloc next month.

The sector cited its partnership with the government in taking action to tackle the issues, including the use of an electronic marine catch purchasing document from this coming Sunday.

The new system will also control the trade of aquatic products and aquaculture development including sanitation. This will help to accurately trace the sources of Thailand’s aquatic species according to the Fisheries Act.

The Department of Fisheries, Fish Marketing Organization, Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives, Command Center for Combating Illegal Fishing, Board of Trade and the Thai Fishery Producers Coalition (TFPC) signed a letter of cooperation Wednesday to set up the marine catch purchasing document.

The TFPC comprises the Thai Frozen Food Association, Thai Food Processors’ Association, Thai Shrimp Association, Thai Tuna Industry Association, National Fishery Association of Thailand, Thai Overseas Fishery Association, Thai Fishmeal Association and the Thai Fishmeal Producer Association.

Poj Aramwattananont, president of the TFPC and vice-chairman the Board of Trade, said the problems of the fishing industry and related industries had accumulated over many years.

The government and private sector are committed to tackling fishery issues and view the issue as a national agenda, he said.

The government released Fisheries Decree 2558 on Nov 13 last year with the aim of preventing fishing by unlawful methods. This also included the welfare of workers on fishing boats and management of fisheries so that they can be sustainable, Mr Poj said.

“From now on, it’s the government’s duty to explain in a written statement to the EU about Thailand’s intentions and efforts,” he said.

“We admit that to tackle the accumulated problems about fishing practices and to amend existing laws could not be achieved in the short term. But if the EU rules to maintain the yellow card or even to issue a red card, it would need to have a very clear explanation for the action in a written statement.”

He also said the upcoming EU ruling on the IUU issue should not be politically motivated.

Isara Vongkusolkit, chairman of the Thai Chamber of Commerce, said the chamber was gravely concerned about the IUU issue and had tried its best to promote cooperation with private counterparts in the fishing industry to create a traceability system for products.

Mr Poj insisted that, whatever the EU’s ruling, it was unlikely to greatly affect overall fishery product exports but would damage the country’s image.

Despite the termination of Generalised System of Preferences tariff privileges in European countries and IUU pressure, Thailand’s frozen seafood shipments are expected to grow this year, he said.

Tuna exports are expected to fetch about 90 billion baht, up from 80 billion baht last year, with shrimp shipments increasing to about 70 billion baht from 58 billion baht in 2015 as production improves to 300,000 tonnes this year from 230,000 tonnes last year.

Associated Press news agency reported last week that the EU was maintaining its threat of a seafood import ban on Thailand because the country was not doing enough to improve fishery and labour practices.

The 28-nation bloc is keeping up the pressure after Thai legislation enacted last year to curb illegal practices yielded insufficient follow-up in subsequent months, said two EU officials.

Seafood exports make up 40% of Thai food exports, worth 1 trillion baht annually.

This story originally appeared on Seafoodnews.com, a subscription site. It is reprinted with permission.

EU declines to recommend endangered label for American Eel

April 26, 2016 — The European Union has decided not to recommend listing American Eel as an endangered species at the upcoming CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) Conference of the Parties, to be held later this year.

In a report submitted to CITES (“Conservation of and trade in Anguilla SPP.”), the EU and its Member States instead recommended funding for a study of eel species not listed as endangered by CITES and noted that data on eels in the Northeast U.S. is more comprehensive than elsewhere in the world.

The European Eel (Anguilla anguilla) has been listed in CITES Appendix II since 2009. Currently export and import of European Eel from and into the EU is illegal, and EU Member States have enacted a zero export quota for the species since 2011. That led to an increased demand for other eel species, and an increase in illegal trade. As the EU report explains, U.S. fisheries managers passed a harvest quota and regulations to limit the expansion of the harvest of American Eel (Anguilla rostrata). The U.S. harvest is restricted to one fishery in Maine and a smaller fishery in South Carolina.

The report states that, for American Eel, “there are data for most of this species’ life stages (glass, elver, yellow and silver) from the northern part of its range (Canada and central Atlantic States).” It is more critical of data on eels in the Caribbean, northern South America, and East Asia, and pushes for more information that would lead to effective conservation and management of eels.

In its recommendations, the EU encourages parties involved in the trade of eel species to provide CITES with specific information to inform a potential study, and to participate in workshops where they can share their expertise and knowledge on priority topics.

The EU report comes ahead of the CITES Seventeenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties, which will convene from September 24 to Octobers 5 in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Read the full report at the European Commission of the European Union

Portland Press Herald: Case for EU ban on live Maine lobsters doesn’t hold water

April 21, 2016 — Thirty-two lobsters. Taken off the same shore in one day, and it’s a grand start toward a summer feast.

But picked out over a long stretch of coast in an eight-year period? That hardly warrants an absent-minded mention at the dinner table, much less an international trade incident.

But that’s just where Sweden is taking its find, as the country seeks to ban all imports of live American lobster into the European Union’s 28 member nations.

The ban would be a $10 million annual hit to the pockets of Maine lobstermen – and roughly $150 million for the U.S. industry as a whole – all over a number of bugs that would have a boat captain cursing if it were one day’s haul.

Sweden’s proposal, backed by dubious science and questionable motives, is now in front of the EU, which should reject the ban, and tell Sweden to find a solution much more on scale with the problem.

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

State Department enters trade dispute over Maine lobsters

April 18, 2016 — The U.S. State Department is adding its muscle to help resolve an impending trade dispute between exporters of live Maine lobsters and the European Union.

Responding to a letter from Maine’s congressional delegation, officials in the Obama administration have committed the State Department to address the trade threat. In March, Sweden announced it was attempting to ban live North American lobsters from the 28-country EU, citing concerns that some of them have been found in European waters and are an “invasive species” that threatens Europe’s native lobster species.

“The State Department is on our side,” Sen. Angus King said Friday evening, “and I think they’re going to be aggressive.”

King said the response from the State Department was strong and suggested a concerted effort with other U.S. agencies to offset the risk of a ban. According to a letter from the State Department, the EU would have to consider the economic impact of a ban, along with the science, before blocking imports of U.S. lobsters.

King said the government “needs to press on all levels” to try to keep the EU from banning imports of live North American lobster, also known as Maine lobster.

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

Are Maine lobsters invading Europe? Even among Swedes, not everyone’s buying it

April 11, 2016 — There’s a bounty on the head of any Maine lobster found in Scandinavian waters.

Homarus americanus is a parasite-carrying, disease-spreading invasive alien threatening to breed infertile hybrids and destroy the local species.

That’s the view of researchers and politicians in Sweden, where Maine’s biggest export product is a feared intruder. Swedish officials describe a race against time to stop the invasion as they try to convince the 28-member European Union to halt all imports of the North American lobster, a move that could cost Maine lobstermen almost $11 million a year.

But some European chefs, whose patrons value the meaty North American crustacean over its tiny European cousin, say such a ban is premature and would have dire consequences for their establishments.

Sweden has been sounding the alarm since 2008, when a trawler first netted three North American lobsters with rubber bands on their claws off its west coast. Since then, 32 North American lobsters have been caught in Swedish waters, a sign they had been released into the ocean or escaped despite national prohibitions to hold American lobsters in net cages. Most of them have been caught in the Gullmar Fjord, causing increasing alarm among researchers at the Department for Aquatic Resources in the Swedish city of Lysekil.

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

EU Negotiators Agree on Multi-Annual Plan for Fish Stocks in the Baltic Sea

March 28, 2016 — Leaders of the European Union reached agreement in March on a multi-annual plan (MAP) for certain fish stocks in the Baltic Sea. The compromise among representatives of the European Fisheries Council, Parliament, and Commission follows 10 months of trilogue negotiations.

During that process, Parliament representatives argued strongly against efforts by the Council to set aside key elements of the EU’s reformed Common Fisheries Policy. The result is a plan that places greater emphasis on flexibility than on strict adherence to the law’s requirements.

Last spring, after the Commission published its MAP proposal, Parliament established its position on the Baltic plan by agreeing to a negotiation mandate in line with the CFP. The policy calls for restoring and maintaining fish populations above levels that can produce what is known as maximum sustainable yield (MSY), the largest average catch that can be taken from a stock without significantly affecting reproduction levels.

Read the full article at the Pew Charitable Trusts

Bring on the Drones: Mediterranean Sees Severe Overfishing

February 9th, 2016 — BRUSSELS — Experts say almost all species in the Mediterranean are still overfished despite decades of seeing stocks dwindle — and that is forcing the European Union to consider creative solutions like using drones or space technology to catch fraudulent fishermen.

EU Fisheries chief Karmenu Vella said Tuesday some stocks “are on the verge of depletion. All in all, 93 percent of the fish stocks assessed are overexploited.” On top of that, he said one in two fish caught in the Mediterranean are not even recorded with authorities — raising the specter of even worse depletion.

Read the full story at The New York Times

NGOs applaud new EU measure to combat illegal fishing

January 22, 2016 — Non governmental organizations Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF), Oceana and WWF welcome a new European Commission (EC) requirement that all EU fishing vessels, and foreign vessels fishing in EU waters, need to have unique vessel numbers from construction to disposal.

The measure will affect up to 8,205 European vessels.

The decision is a key reform that helps close a decades-old loophole allowing fishing vessels around the world to evade scrutiny, fueling illegal fishing.

EJF’s Executive Director Steve Trent said, “This is a powerful signal by the EU that fisheries must become more transparent. Sometimes the simplest reforms can have profound impacts, and that is the case here.

“It is ridiculous that planes, cars and even European cows have unique numbers to enable lifetime tracking, but fishing vessels haven’t. This has allowed unscrupulous operators to fish illegally in one country and then swiftly change identity and nationality and do the same elsewhere.”

Until recently, a global scheme operated by the International Maritime Organisation(IMO) that assigned unique numbers to vessels for their entire lives specifically excluded fishing vessels.

Read the full story at FIS