Saving Seafood

French fishermen mount protests against offshore wind

May 14, 2021 — The start of construction for 62 wind turbines off the northwest coast of France triggered intense protests from commercial fishermen who fear potential impacts on scallops and other fisheries.

The project off the Côtes-d’Armor region of Brittany brought out a May 7 demonstration by a reported 72 fishing vessels that maneuvered around the 457-foot wind turbine installation vessel Aeolus.

Dutch offshore operator Van Oord is installing jacket foundations for the 496-megawatt project by Ailes Marine, a subsidiary of Spanish renewable energy company Iberdrola. The developers successfully defended the plan against court challenges and the first piling installations started May 3.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

France, UK escalate fight over post-Brexit fishing access

May 6, 2021 — The row between the United Kingdom and France over post-Brexit fishing rights continues to escalate.

On Thursday, 6 May, dozens of French fishing boats set off for Saint Helier, the main port of Jersey, a British Crown dependency, threatening to mount a blockade. In response, the U.K. sent two Royal Navy gunboats to keep watch. Fishing crews set off flares, sounded their horns and displayed banners. The two sides currently remain in a stand-off, and thus far, the protest has remained peaceful.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

‘We’ve lost 30 years’: Brexit shatters supply chains for French fish hub

January 12, 2021 — French fishmongers and seafood factories are suspending orders from Britain and battling to salvage just-in-time supply chains, after they were upended by post-Brexit red tape that impedes next-day delivery of salmon and lobster from Britain to Europe.

Importers in Boulogne-sur-Mer told Reuters that deliveries were sometimes being held up because the Latin names of fish species were incorrectly entered on papers.

Other reasons for delays included sanitary certificates missing the required stamps and French agents adopting a zero-tolerance approach to mistakes in the cumbersome process.

The result is a chaotic breakdown in supply chains from the outer reaches of the British Isles to the northern French port of Boulogne, which used to see Scottish langoustine and scallops in French shops just over a day after they were harvested.

Deliveries were taking at least one or two days longer than previously, if they got through at all.

Read the full story at Reuters

AP Interview: France wants Biden to calm trade disputes

November 11, 2020 — France’s trade minister hopes that U.S. President-elect Joe Biden acts soon to calm trade tensions fueled by Donald Trump, which have led to escalating trans-Atlantic tariffs hitting billions of dollars worth of wine, planes and other goods.

In an interview Tuesday with The Associated Press, French Trade Minister Franck Riester accused the U.S. under Trump of threatening global commerce by blocking the appointment of the World Trade Organization’s next director, and urged Biden to break the logjam.

“I hope we are going to be able to rebuild the trans-Atlantic relationship with the Biden administration,” Riester said. He said France is “optimistic” about the Biden presidency, and welcomed Biden’s pledges to re-join the 2015 Paris climate accord and other multilateral organizations that Trump snubbed.

With the U.S. and European economies hammered by the pandemic, Riester said, “We are mobilized for dialogue at all levels … for de-escalation, to ensure that we are no longer in this trade tension.”

Read the full story from the Associated Press at NJNN

Sea bass bad, scallops super: charity updates sustainable fish guide

October 7, 2020 — Consumers are being urged to steer clear of wild-caught sea bass fished from French and Spanish waters, but to eat farmed king and queen scallops to alleviate pressure on threatened fish stocks.

Sea bass caught in the southern Bay of Biscay and Atlantic Iberian waters have been rated red in the Marine Conservation Society’s updated 2020 Good Fish Guide – joining its “fish to avoid” list – because of serious risk to local dolphin and porpoise populations.

The charity warns the use of trawling and static nets in these areas has led to dolphins and porpoises increasingly being caught as bycatch; a problem now so severe that they could disappear. Consumers are instead advised to opt for certified farmed or line-caught sea bass.

Read the full story at The Guardian

EU ready to ease fisheries demands in Brexit talks: sources

May 27, 2020 — The EU is willing to shift its stance on fisheries in negotiations with Britain next week, sources said, in what would be the first major concession from the bloc in talks on their new relationship after Brexit.

Fishing is particularly politically sensitive for France, and the 27-nation bloc says it would not seal a new trade deal with Britain without a stable agreement on that issue.

Currently, fishing mostly takes place in UK waters but most of the catch goes to European Union fishermen.

Britain wants to unwind that after Brexit materialises at the start of next year, saying that, as a newly independent coastal state, it wants to be in control of its waters and fish.

But the EU has so far sought to maintain the status quo, a demand an official with the bloc suggested was a primarily starting point for negotiations.

Read the full story at Reuters

Fishing Presents a Vexing Snag in Brexit Talks

March 16, 2020 — In the pitch black of early morning, huge waves hurled the 30-ton vessel from side to side, drenching crewmen who struggled to keep their footing as they cast the trawler’s nets into the swirling seas.

But, once back on the bridge, the skipper, Dave Driver was oblivious to the stomach-churning motion of the boat, and dismissive of the perils of his work — even as he recalled once falling overboard and, on another occasion, rescuing two fishermen from drowning.

“I’m my own boss, I do what I want, I think it’s the best job in the world,” said Mr. Driver, who left school at age 15, but now owns the 1.2 million pound trawler Girl Debra, named after his wife.

He has only one major gripe in life: the French.

Mr. Driver thinks French boats are allowed to take too many fish too close to the British coast — touching on a deeply emotional issue on both sides of the channel that could dash hopes of a post-Brexit trade deal between Britain and the European Union.

Read the full story at The New York Times

France to Britain: No fish for finance deal

February 7, 2020 — The European Union must not give the UK concessions on access to EU financial markets in exchange for rights to fish in British waters, Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said on Thursday.

French fishermen temporarily lost access to waters off Guernsey, one of the Channel Islands situated near the French coast of Normandy, when a European fisheries treaty expired automatically on Jan. 31 with Britain’s exit from the EU.

While the fishermen are due to regain access to the area off Guernsey, future fishing rights in UK waters more generally are likely to be a flashpoint in the negotiations between Brussels and London on a post-Brexit relationship.

Read the full story at Reuters

Going fishing? Watch out for chemical weapons

May 15, 2019 — The US Army will destroy stockpiles of mustard gas and nerve agents this summer as part of its commitment to a 1997 treaty banning the production and use of chemical weapons. The undertaking will require specialized personnel—toxic-materials handlers, chemical-accountability managers, surety specialists, ammunition surveillance/quality assurance specialists, and a coterie of supervisors.

In the decades immediately following World War II, America’s military wasn’t quite so buttoned up about its chemical cast-offs. Until Congress outlawed dumping of munitions at sea in 1972, there were an estimated 74 offshore chemical weapons disposals through 1970, 32 of which took place in US waters and 42 abroad.

Oceanographers at Texas A&M University have estimated that at least 31 million pounds of munitions of all types were dumped in waters off 16 states and in the Gulf of Mexico, although “that could be a very conservative estimate.”

The problem is not limited to US waters. Sections of the Baltic and North Seas are known to contain large numbers of abandoned chemical weapons, and such munitions have turned up off the coasts of France, Sweden, and Germany.

Read the full story at Quartz

MSC, ASC sustainable seafood week in France urges consumers to eat responsibly

April 30, 2019 — A joint campaign in France run by the Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC) and the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC), has just landed the two organizations a Grand Prix Award for Social Responsibility. It was presented during a ceremony in Paris at PRODURABLE, the fair for Sustainable Development and Corporate Social Responsibly.

The prize was awarded for “Semaine de la Peche Responsible” (Sustainable Seafood Week), which was first run in February 2017 and has since become an annual event.

The week of activities highlighted issues including overfishing, illegal fishing, and the importance of safeguarding marine biodiversity and habitats, and fish stocks for future generations. The event has been growing quickly in both size and public profile in recent years.

In competition with 48 other brands, the ASC and MSC were joint winners of the best NGO label category, in recognition of their collaborative efforts with partners, brands, aquariums, institutions and distributors, to mobilize public support for sustainable fisheries and responsible fish farming.

The award was shared with French retailer Carrefour, which won for its support of programs to find permanent living solutions for the homeless.

Read the full story at Seafood Source