Saving Seafood

Latest Scientific Analysis Supports Increased Atlantic Menhaden Quota

Aug 1, 2016 – The following was released by the Menhaden Fisheries Coalition:

WASHINGTON (MFC) – An analysis conducted by scientists at the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) finds that the coastwide Atlantic menhaden quota can be substantially raised without impacting the sustainability of the species.

In a memo by the ASMFC’s Atlantic Menhaden Technical Committee on June 22, the Committee described projections it ran using nine different potential quota levels for the 2017 fishing season. These projections found a 0 percent chance of overfishing menhaden in 2017, even when menhaden quota was increased by up to 40 percent. Projections were run 1,000 times for each potential quota level to ensure that a full range of potential scenarios were accounted for in the estimates.

The Atlantic Menhaden Technical Committee is composed of 21 scientists from 13 states along the U.S. Atlantic coast and the National Marine Fisheries Service. The Committee’s projections were short-term (2014-2017) to eliminate uncertainty inherent in longer-term projections.

The ASMFC will hold its summer meeting August 2-4 in Alexandria, Va., where it will discuss, among other topics, Atlantic menhaden, and the possibility of raising its quota for 2017.

Atlantic menhaden catch totaled 171,900 mt tons in 2014. The ASMFC set menhaden quota at 187,800 mt for 2015 and 2016.

In 2015, the ASMFC’s Atlantic menhaden stock assessment found that the menhaden stock was healthy and sustainably managed, with the species neither overfished nor experiencing overfishing. It also found that fishing mortality is at an all-time low, and that menhaden fecundity (egg production) has been strong in recent years. Based on these findings, the ASMFC raised the menhaden quota by 10 percent last year.

Menhaden are used to produce fishmeal, fish oil, and fish solubles due to their high concentration of healthy Omega-3 fatty acids. They are also prized for their use as bait in other fisheries.

About the Menhaden Fisheries Coalition

The Menhaden Fisheries Coalition is a collective of menhaden fishermen, related businesses, and supporting industries. Comprised of over 30 businesses along the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts, the Menhaden Fisheries Coalition conducts media and public outreach on behalf of the menhaden industry to ensure that members of the public, media, and government are informed of important issues, events, and facts about the fishery.

View the release here

JACK WHITACRE: When a fish is more than a fillet

FREEPORT, Maine — The expression “Waste not, want not” originated in America. By surveying the best seafood utilization practices around the world, Maine could lead the United States in reviving thrift and increasing profits and sustainability.

Maine lobster has become synonymous with value. But what if there were additional profits waiting to be unlocked in what we currently toss out?

Surprisingly, chitin, a natural polymer found in lobster shells, can be harvested and amassed for high-value agricultural, industrial and medical applications. Chitin from crustacean shells is just one example of 100 percent seafood utilization.

Just like Native Americans used every part of the buffalo, there are now opportunities to fully use seafood and push upward on the value chain. Investing time and resources in the utilization movement could generate new jobs, products and startups in Maine and beyond.

The Center for a Livable Future at Johns Hopkins University estimates that the United States wasted 4.6 million metric tons of edible and inedible seafood from 2009 to 2013. During this same period, the center calculated, at least 1.8 trillion milligrams of fish oil was wasted.

With raw fish oil selling for $9 a pound and fish oil capsules selling for $370 a pound, the raw oil wasted in the United States represents millions of dollars in potential value if worked up to pharmaceutical quality. This is just one example of an opportunity for economic and environmental improvement.

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

No clear evidence fish oil linked to prostate cancer

May 31, 2016 — Q: I have really high triglyceride levels (over 600). My cardiologist wants me to take fish-oil supplements.

I’m worried, though, because I have read fish oil can increase the risk of prostate cancer, which runs in my family. I feel torn between my heart health and my prostate risk.

What can you tell me?

A: Fish oil and a low-carb diet can help bring down triglycerides, so your cardiologist is justified in this recommendation (Journal of Clinical Lipidology, January-February 2014).

A review of 36 studies over the past 20 years found no consistent evidence of a link between fish oil and prostate cancer (Journal of the American College of Nutrition online, Nov. 23, 2015).

Read the full story at the Seattle Times

Is Fish Oil Beneficial for the Brain?

April 19, 2016 — One element that distinguishes humans from other primates is the high levels of omega-3 fatty acids within the brain. These long chain polyunsaturated fats play an important role in the cell membranes of neurons and other cells of the body, increasing permeability and controlling some signaling between cells. Deficiencies in omega-3 in both animals and humans has been shown to be correlated with increased mental health problems and even a higher risk of suicide.

Over the years, a lot of research has been done with omega-3s to see if supplements could help with various psychiatric problems from depression to autism to dementia. Anyone following news coverage will see headlines going from boom to bust for omega-3s, “no help” says one study, “strong benefit for depression” says another. How do we make sense of it all?

First a little overview. Omega-3 fatty acids for supplementation come in three major varieties, ALA, EPA, and DHA. It’s a bit of an alphabet soup, but bear with me. ALA is the precursor molecule that can be converted to EPA and DHA in the body, but the rate of conversion is never higher than 20% or so. That means if you take a lot of ALA (found in flax or chia seeds), you end up with a lot of excess omega-3 in your body that may not be particularly useful to the brain. All polyunsaturated fatty acids are delicate, easily made rancid with exposure to oxygen, so having extra omega-3s the body can’t use well may not be the best idea. EPA and DHA, on the other hand, are the fatty acids found in fish oil, and DHA is the major long chain omega-3 fatty acid in the human brain. There is an algae-made vegan DHA supplement that is added to milk and formula that you might have seen in the grocery store.

Read the full story at Psychology Today

SCOTT TESORO: Fish oil benefits

March 28, 2016 — In Dr. Feinsinger’s March 14 column “Ignore the fish oil salesman,” his bias against fish oil focuses on the debate over whether fish oil prevents heart disease and stroke. Because studies in the medical literature are mixed, he suggests that fish oil is useless. He reduces the issue to simple profit motives by the fish oil industry.

Unfortunately, Dr. Feinsinger’s conclusion fails to take into account the basic human health requirement for EPA and DHA, the fatty acids found in fish oil. These omega 3 fats are deemed “essential” to human health, meaning that they are “nutritional substances required for optimal health. These must be in the diet, because they are not formed within the body.” (Farlex Medical Dictionary).

According to the journal “Advances in Nutrition,” the role of EPA and DHA include promoting healthy fetal and retinal development, as well as providing over half the dry weight of the brain. EPA and DHA also help in modulating inflammation and are an important component of healthy cell membranes.

Read the full letter at the Citizen Telegram

Shift to plant-based fish feed could hurt health, environment

March 25, 2016 — In an effort to make fish farming more sustainable, the aquaculture industry has been cutting back on feed made of other fish and replacing it with plant-based alternatives. But a new study warns that may make the fish less healthy to eat and have negative impacts on the environment.

Many fish species that are farmed, including Atlantic salmon, the most farmed fish in Canada, are carnivores that eat feed traditionally based on fish meal and fish oil. Environmental advocates such as Greenpeace have criticized the practice as unsustainable, as wild fish that could be used to feed people or maintain wild populations need to be caught in order to produce the fish food.

“They realized that we’re grinding up a lot of fish to feed the fish,” said Jillian Fry, director of the Public Health and Sustainable Aquaculture Project at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Md.

The price of fish meal and fish oil has also increased with demand.

Omega-3 concerns

The study said the use of plant-based ingredients could reduce the amount of healthy omega-3 fatty acids in fish – one of the things that makes fish like salmon attractive and tasty to consumers.

While this is something salmon farmers are aware of and trying to avoid, Fry says, omnivorous fish that already eat more plant material and have less omega-3s, such as tilapia, may end up with even lower levels.

“Anywhere it’s decreasing in our diet, we need to pay attention.”

Read the full story at CBC News

Study eyes fisheries for menhaden— a key forage fish

March 21, 2016 — Gloucester, Mass. — Interstate fishing managers will commission a study of the commercial fisheries for Atlantic menhaden, an important forage fish that is caught all along the East Coast.

Menhaden are an important bait fish and are also caught for use as fish oil and fish meal. States from Maine to Florida have been the site of commercial fisheries for menhaden in the past ten years.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at The San Francisco Chronicle

Farm-Raised Seafoods Fed Plant-Based Diet Have Lower Levels of Omega-3 Fatty Acids

March 14, 2016 — A change in how farmers are raising seafood is expected to affect human nutrition, a new study found.

According to the research team from the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future (CLF) at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, the University of Minnesota’s Institute on the Environment and McGill University, there has been a global shift in the type of feed that is being used in fish farming.

The team explained that prior to this shift, farm-raised seafood ate feed made from fish meal and fish oil, which came from wild fish. However, since catching wild fish to use as feed was no longer sustainable, farmers have been relying on plant-based options, such as soybean meal. The researchers noted in 2008, aquaculture feed contained 50 percent more soybean meal than fish meal. They estimated that from 2008 to 2020, the use of plant-based ingredients can increase by 124 percent.

Read the full story at HNGN

‘Supplements and Safety’ Explores What’s in Your Supplements

January 19, 2016 — Americans spend an estimated $1.3 billion on fish oil products every year, making them one of the most commonly consumed dietary supplements in the country.

But do you know what’s in your fish oil?

A new documentary, “Supplements and Safety,” pulls back the curtain on some of America’s most popular supplements, and it suggests that many people who buy them may not be getting what they are paying for. The program, airing on the PBS investigative series “Frontline” on Tuesday night, is a collaboration between “Frontline,” The New York Times and The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

The program examines the widespread use of potent vitamins, herbs, fish oil and fat-burning supplements. Millions of Americans use these products safely every year. But researchers have found that in many cases they can cause unexpected side effects. And because dietary supplements are largely unregulated by the federal government, adulteration and contamination are common, experts say.

The Frontline documentary investigates large outbreaks of disease tied to tainted vitamins and fat-burning supplements, including one case in which a workout supplement was linked to more than 70 cases of liver damage. The company whose products were at the center of that outbreak, USPlabs, is among 117 companies and individuals that the Justice Department filed criminal and civil enforcement actions against last year.

Read the full story at The New York Times

Fish oil turns fat-storage cells into fat-burning cells in mice, study finds

December 18, 2015 — Fish oil has long been known to confer a wide range of health benefits, including boosting the cardiovascular system and potentially even treating the effects of schizophrenia. Now a new study from Japan says it could also help people trying to lose weight.

Researchers from Kyoto University found that mice fed on fatty food and fish oil gained considerably less weight and fat than mice that consumed fatty food alone. The findings suggest that fish oil is able to transform fat-storage cells into fat-burning cells – and if the same process occurs in humans, fish oil could help us reduce weight gain, especially as we age, when our fat-burning cells are in lesser supply.

While we might think of our fat tissue as primarily a fat storage system, this isn’t always so. White fat cells store fat, but brown fat cells metabolise fat to maintain a stable body temperature. Our bodies metabolise fat more easily when we’re young, as we have a greater amount of brown fat cells in youth, but we start to lose them in maturity.

Read the full story at Science Alert