Saving Seafood

FAO’s guidelines for human rights in fishing delayed after pushback

April 10, 2020 — Baseline international standards for human rights, labor conditions, and social responsibility in the seafood industry will have to wait.

Countries pushed back against draft guidance on social responsibility in fish value chains developed by the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) when it was first officially presented in November in Vigo, Spain. As a result, FAO is spending the next year-plus creating a scoping paper that will more explicitly spell out what should be included in the guidance.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Seafood importing countries could lock out illegal fish with better control schemes, group says

February 26, 2020 — Aligning countries’ seafood import control schemes would reduce cost burdens for seafood companies while helping prevent illegally caught fish from reaching global markets.

A coalition of NGOs is arguing that major seafood importing countries and Regional Fishery Management Organizations (RFMOs) need to ensure that their import regulations require the collection of 17 key data points that reveal the who, what, when, where, and how of seafood in the supply chain. Currently, a lack of data prevents cross-checking against authorization records – making it impossible to confirm the legality of imported seafood.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Big Brother is watching at Global Fishing Watch

January 2, 2020 — In 2016, the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation joined with Google, Oceana and Environmental Defense, and other funding partners to create a mapping and data platform called, Global Fishing Watch. The system currently tracks over 65,000 fishing vessels worldwide. In November 2019, the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) released the “Global Atlas of AIS-based Fishing Activity,” utilizing the data.

“With the data Global Fishing Watch provides, governments, fishery management organizations, researchers and the fishing industry can work together to rebuild fisheries and protect critical marine habitats,” De Caprio says, on the GFW website. It appears the FAO agrees.

Global Fishing Watch uses AIS and other tracking systems, such as government run vessels monitoring systems to follow the activities of large fishing vessels in near real time, and the UN is using that data in its report. At the start, the technology was intended to help nations to stop illegal fishing off their coasts, assist in certification of sustainably harvested seafood, and keep vessels out of marine protected areas.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

Global salmon production set to rise 6.5% in 2019, the highest increase since 2014

December 6, 2019 — Global production of farmed Atlantic salmon is expected to rise by around 6.5% this year, to approximately 2.6 million metric tons, which would be the highest year-on-year increase since 2014.

This was pointed out by a new report produced by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations. The bullish scenario could be offset, however, by a mounting challenge with sea lice in Chile, the report predicted.

For 2020, the FAO foresees Atlantic salmon supply to grow around 4–5% year-on-year, but it noted that the ability of the Chilean industry to bring the biological situation under control will be an important consideration.

In the longer-term, the inherent growth limitations of traditional open net-pen aquaculture will continue to drive the development of alternative regions and methods for salmon production, the FAO said.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

FAO Symposium Discusses the Future of Fisheries and Global Food Security

December 4, 2019 — Organized by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO), the International Symposium on Fisheries Sustainability discussed opportunities to reform the capture fisheries sector to contribute to global food security, eradicate hunger, promote gender equality, and achieve the SDGs. At the event, the High Level Panel on the Sustainable Ocean Economy released a blue paper that analyzes the current status and future potential of food production from the ocean.

The Symposium convened from 18-21 November 2019, in Rome, Italy. The Forum focused on the theme, ‘Strengthening the Science-Policy Nexus’ and aimed to identify pathways to strengthen the science-policy interface in fisheries production, management and trade based on sustainability principles. Panelists discussed opportunities for the fisheries sector to respond to challenges and support the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021-2030).

The High Level Panel released a paper titled ‘The Future of Food from the Sea,’ at the Symposium. The paper finds that the ocean could provide more than six times the food it does today with improved management and technological innovation. In comparison with current fishing projections, the report stresses that reforming the world’s capture fisheries by ending overfishing and improving global fisheries management could result in 20% more catch compared to today and 40% more fisheries catch than current projected future catch. This amount is over two-thirds of the animal protein needed to feed projected future global populations. In addition, the paper emphasizes “highly nutritious nature of seafood,” which contains essential vitamins, minerals, omega-3 fatty acids and other nutrients not contained in terrestrial animal proteins or plant-based foods. The report also highlights the potential of the sustainable expansion of marine aquaculture to enhance food security and help eradicate hunger, in line with the SDG 2 (zero hunger).

Read the full story at ISSD

China’s tilapia exporters holding onto US sales with price cuts

December 2, 2019 — Exporters in China’s key tilapia producing region of Hainan have been able to hold onto their sales to the United States despite ramped-up tariffs now reaching upwards of 25 percent, according to Alno Wu, head of overseas sales at Hainan Sky-Blue Ocean Foods Co (SBO).

Wu said firms like his, a vertically integrated firm processing tilapia in Hainan Province, are doing so thanks to lower prices, which they have been able to offer due to a surge in production across the province. Projections of stricter enforcement of environmental regulations leading to lower production have not come to pass, as thus far, Hainan has gotten greater leeway in implementation than other regions, according to Wu.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Deadly life at sea: UN partners spotlight depths of danger in fishing industry

November 22, 2019 — The following was released by the United Nations:

“Every hour fishers die doing their job – not just men, women too”, Maria Helena Samedo, chief for Climate and Natural Resources at the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), explained at a major conference organized by the agency in Rome, coinciding with World Fisheries Day on 21 November.

“Human rights violations and unacceptable practices at different stages of the value chain are increasing in fisheries and aquaculture”, she added.

Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing leads to over-exploitation of fish stocks, already drained by pollution and climate impacts, and financially burdens honest fishers and the communities that depend on them, FAO and the International Labour Organisation (ILO)  said  in a joint statement at the conclusion of the International Symposium on Fisheries Sustainability.

Beyond injuring biodiversity and economies, IUU casts a dark shadow on already physically-taxing sea labour, with many IUU fishers engaging in transnational crimes, such as human and drug trafficking and piracy.

Read the full release here

FAO leaders assess state of the world’s fisheries at sustainability symposium

November 20, 2019 — The number of overfished stocks has been growing for years, but the commonly cited statistic that 90 percent of stocks are in peril doesn’t accurately reflect the health of the world’s oceans.

Manual Barange, the policy and resource director at the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization’s Fisheries and Aquaculture division, carefully differentiated maximally fished stocks and overfished stocks during his keynote address at FAO’s International Symposium on Sustainable Fisheries in Rome, Italy this week.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Med countries commit to fight illegal fishing, preserve ecosystems

November 12, 2019 — The General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean (GFCM) — under the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization — has moved to increase fisheries transparency, protect threatened corals, and preserve fish breeding grounds.

The enforcement of a package of measures will be vital to help revert the “overfishing crisis” of this sea, said NGO Oceana, since they will create areas where fish can reproduce safely and will hinder illegal fishing.

“Mediterranean countries have taken an important step to restore the abundance of this sea and protect some of its most vulnerable wildlife. Oceana urges them now to enforce these decisions and adopt robust compliance systems including sanctions, so that these decisions are truly effective. GFCM’s credibility will be at stake as long as the Mediterranean remains the world’s most overexploited sea,” said Pascale Moehrle, executive director for Oceana Europe.

Oceana particularly welcomed commitments to fight illegal fishing, protect corals and fish habitats, and comply with “fisheries restricted areas”, or FRAs.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News