Saving Seafood

Brexit Leaves French Fishermen On The Hook

September 12, 2017 — France’s busiest port, Boulougne-sur-Mer, sits just across the English Channel from Britain, in the Calais region.

Seagulls glide above scores of brightly painted boats docking to unload the catch of the day — mainly sole but also cod, roussette, crab and scallops.

It’s all sold at a bustling seaside market where Marie-Laure Fontaine sells seafood from a fishing boat called Providence.

“Sole and cod and turbot, we get these all from British waters,” Fontaine says. “And this is a worry.”

Up to 80 percent of fish caught by fishermen here comes from British waters, which are about a two-hour boat ride away.

French fishermen have been nervous since Britain voted to leave the European Union last year. That’s because when the divorce is final, the U.K. will also leave what’s called the Common Fisheries Policy.

“After that, the U.K. will be an independent coastal state, like Norway or the Faroe Islands or Iceland,” says Barrie Deas, chief executive of the U.K.’s National Federation Fishermen’s Organisations. “The U.K. will determine its own fishing quotas and access arrangements. So I think it’s realistic for the French to be worried.”

Read and listen to the full story at NPR

Mediterranean countries looking elsewhere for seafood

May 26, 2017 — European Mediterranean countries now import almost twice as much seafood as they produce, according to a report just released by WWF.

Decades of rising demand, coupled with falling fish stocks due to increasing use of industrial techniques, poor catch monitoring, the spread of illegal, unregulated and unreported (IUU) fishing and numerous environmental factors have all contributed to less seafood productivity from the once-abundant Mediterranean Sea.

For local inhabitants and tourists who flock to the region, fresh local fish is as much a part of the Mediterranean experience as its golden beaches and sunny climate. Artisanal fishing communities, fish markets, seafood restaurants and maritime heritage are all central to the area’s unique economic, social and cultural identity.

The report, “WWF Seafood and the Mediterranean 2017,” finds that the idealized image no longer matches the reality of the situation in the Mediterranean, where more than 93 percent of assessed fish stocks are threatened by overfishing.

The largest catches in the region are made up of sardines and anchovies (42 percent), demersal species (21 percent), cephalopods (8 percent), crustaceans (7 percent), molluscs and bivalves (6 percent), and tuna and swordfish (5 percent).

European Mediterranean nations such as Spain, France, Greece, Italy, Slovenia, and Croatia now harvest three times as much of their catch from Atlantic waters as they do from the Mediterranean. For every kilo of seafood caught by these nations, another two kilos are imported, the majority from developing countries including Morocco, Turkey, Mauritania, Tunisia, Egypt, Algeria, and Libya. Product is also exported to these countries, particularly low-value processed and canned products, fishmeal and baitfish.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

After Whirlpool battle, Le Pen and Macron clash over fish

April 27, 2017 — After “the battle of Whirlpool,” when Marine Le Pen and Emmanuel Macron both went hunting for France’s blue-collar vote at a threatened home appliance factory, the presidential candidates clashed over fish in a return to more traditional campaigning on Thursday.

The anti-European Union far-right populist Le Pen was up before dawn to cruise aboard a fishing trawler on the Mediterranean. The sea trip was her latest television-friendly effort to portray herself as the candidate of France’s workers against the centrist former banker and economy minister Macron, whom she paints as the candidate of the financial, political and pro-EU elite.

“My grandfather was a fisherman, so I am in my element,” Le Pen said after her pre-dawn voyage aboard the “Grace of God 2” trawler.

She said France will take back control of its maritime policies if she is elected in the second-round vote on May 7. She again tore into Macron’s more pro-market, free-trade economic program. Macron fired back on Twitter, saying her proposals to take France out of the EU would sink France’s fishing industry.

“Have a nice trip. Europe’s exit she proposes, it’s the end of French fishing. Think about it,” he tweeted, before visiting the ethnically mixed Paris suburb of Sarcelles.

As he met with residents, Macron continued the counter-attack, calling Le Pen’s National Front party “xenophobic.”

“There’s Marine Le Pen’s project of a fractured, closed France….On the other hand, you have my project which is a republican, patriotic project aiming at … reconciling France,” he said.

Macron went into a gymnasium to meet members of an association that works to socially integrate local youth through sports and by helping them to set up businesses and find jobs.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the Seattle Times

EU Tightens Fishing Rules in North Atlantic, Ups Some Quotas

December 14th, 2016 — European Union nations have reached a deal to tighten some fishing rules in its Northeastern Atlantic waters and the North Sea to edge closer toward a fully sustainable industry by 2020, but environmentalists said lenient quotas still allowed for far too much overfishing.

After marathon talks that started Monday and finished only early Wednesday, EU fisheries ministers said more stocks will be fished at maximum sustainable yield in hopes of pushing more species to within safe biological limits after decades of overfishing.

Ministers from fisheries nations such as Britain and France came away happy enough with increased quotas for some stocks of cod and mackerel, a sign environmentalists and maritime scientists would be left grumbling about the slow recovery of the EU’s vast eastern waters.

“We worked constructively to put people’s livelihoods first,” Scottish Fisheries Secretary Fergus Ewing said, adding he had “secured crucial increases for the majority of our key species.”

However, what sounded appealing to many of the fishermen left a bad taste in the mouth of environmental organizations.

The EU has about 145,000 fishermen, many of whom have struggled as overfishing depleted stocks and increasingly tight quotas were imposed. The EU is legally bound to return to sustainable fishing by 2020, but faces an uphill task to get there in time.

That task only will become tougher if fishing quotas are set too high as the deadline approaches.

The EU said that under Wednesday’s decision, 44 stocks will now be fished to maximum sustainable yield compared to only 36 last year.

“Overall, more fish stocks are being fished sustainably,” EU Fisheries Commissioner Karmenu Vella said.

Read the full story at The New York Times 

French retailers, companies guided on avoiding illegal fishing

December 5th, 2016 — NGOs Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF), SeaWeb Europe and WWF-France have issued a joint advisory note in collaboration with retailer Carrefour to inform French industry, retailers and brands of the risks associated with illegal fishing.

Following the positive acceptance of a similar guide issued to the U.K. supply chain last year, the French adaptation offers expert advice on source risk assessment and mitigation, and encourages action to prevent illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishery products entering French supply chains.

Presented in Paris, France, the new advisory sets out key recommendations, including:

  • Strengthened transparency and traceability of supply chains
  • Support for the effective ratification of the FAO Port State Measures Agreement (PSMA) and ILO Conventions relevant for fisheries
  • The introduction of IMO numbers or alternative unique verification identifiers linked to a global record of fishing vessels
  • Promote harmonization of import verification procedures across all EU member states, including an electronic catch certification system

According to EJF Executive Director, Steve Trent, there is a growing appetite for information on where seafood is coming from.

“Knowing where, and under what conditions, seafood is caught is vital for building legal and sustainable fisheries, and companies have a right to demand suppliers provide information on where products come from,” he said.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

$5.3B Pledged for Marine Conservation at US Summit

September 19th, 2016 — A 90-nation conference devoted to the world’s oceans ended Friday with $5.3 billion in pledges for marine conservation, which U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said proves “we are making progress.”

Forty significant new or expanded marine protected areas were created at the Our Ocean summit, including President Barack Obama’s announcement of the first U.S. marine reserve in the Atlantic Ocean — an area totaling 13,000 square kilometers and known for its underwater mountains and canyons off the coast of New England.

Commercial fishing, oil exploration and other activities are limited in such areas to protect ecosystems.

Kerry said in closing remarks Friday that he had been in conversations with Russian officials about Moscow’s consent for a ban on fishing in the 960,000-square-kilometer Ross Sea, a pristine ecosystem in the Antarctic.

“We remain hopeful Russia will step up and join us in this endeavor,” Kerry said.

New technologies to fight pollution

The third Our Ocean event collected pledges of more than $1 billion to combat maritime pollution.

“It’s not just the dollars being brought to the table, but new technologies,” Kerry emphasized.

Five countries also detailed plastic bag bans: Mauritius said it has banned the import, manufacture, sale or supply of non-biodegradable plastic bags. Morocco announced that it has banned the production, import, export or acquisition of plastic shopping bags for sale or distribution. Ghana’s ban covers the manufacture of plastic bags thinner than .02 millimeter, and France informed delegates of its prohibition on all single-use plastic bags thinner than .05 millimeter. Senegal has banned the production and use of plastic bags.

In addition, France announced that it, Morocco and Monaco have launched an international coalition to ban single-use plastic bags.

Not only are the bags especially harmful to marine wildlife, they also litter the seas.

Read the full article from VOA News 

Priorities for Indian Ocean Tuna Fisheries Ahead of Indian Ocean Tuna Commission (IOTC) Meeting

May 19, 2016 — The following was released by the International Seafood Sustainability Foundation:

WASHINGTON — The International Seafood Sustainability Foundation (ISSF) has released its position statement in advance of the 20thSession Meeting of IOTC in La Reunion, France on May 23-27.

At the top of the statement, ISSF urges IOTC to take additional steps beyond last year’s workshops to adopt reference points and harvest control rules (with particular attention to Indian Ocean yellowfin), create closed vessel registries to address fleet capacity issues and continue to improve the region’s management and data collection of fish aggregating devices (FADs).

“In collaboration with our NGO partners and participating companies, ISSF has issued strong appeals to IOTC – from the adoption of measures that will reduce catches of IO yellowfin tuna and rebuild the stock to the development of an integrated monitoring, control and surveillance strategy,” said ISSF President Susan Jackson. “IOTC delegates have received numerous outreach letters from ISSF participating companies as well as like-minded NGOs and industry colleagues prior to this meeting, and we hope that this unified call for action will be taken into account for the yellowfin issue, as well as other outstanding work that can and should be achieved in the region.”

Highlights from the ISSF position statement include:

Tuna Stocks

The IOTC Scientific Committee projected that a 20% reduction in catch could rebuild the yellowfin stock to the Maximum Sustainable Yield (MSY) level with 50% probability by 2024 and recommended that a rebuilding plan for the stock should be driven by an agreed Management Procedure (Harvest Strategy), including Harvest Control Rules, and based on the agreed interim target and limit reference points.

ISSF therefore urges the IOTC to adopt measures to reduce the catches of yellowfin by longline, gillnet, handline and purse seine by at least 20% and supports the Scientific Committee’s recommendation regarding a rebuilding plan.

Harvest Strategies

In order to further progress the adoption of Harvest Strategies, ISSF urges the Commission to fully support the recommendation from the ongoing IOTC workshops promoting dialogue among scientists, managers and stakeholders related to the formulation of management objectives, and to provide assistance to developing members.

Fishing Capacity

ISSF urges the Commission to implement the recommendations of the second IOTC Performance Review on fishing capacity management and to consider the outcomes of the 2014 ISSF workshop.  ISSF urges the Commission to amend Resolution 03/01 to create a comprehensive closed vessel registry.

FAD Management

ISSF encourages all fleets to implement, as soon as possible, provisions regarding the use of non-entangling FADs designs to reduce the incidental entanglement of non-target species, using biodegradable material as much as possible, based on the principles outlined in Resolution – a critical step in the reduction of shark mortality and reduction of other ecosystem impacts in the Indian Ocean.

Shark Management

ISSF endorses the Scientific Committee’s recommendations that the Commission develop mechanisms to encourage members to comply with their data-reporting requirement and adopt sufficient measures to limit fishing mortality on sharks.

Observer Coverage

ISSF strongly urges the adoption of 100% observer coverage on large-scale tropical tuna purse seine fleets. Where human onboard observers are not possible for certain fleets or vessel sizes, the Commission should immediately explore electronic monitoring systems and establish policies and guidelines for their use.

Maine lobster suppliers strategize to foil EU ban

May 9, 2016 — Maine lobster suppliers met behind closed doors with dealers from some of Europe’s biggest lobster importing countries in Brussels last week to discuss a pending ban on importing live North American lobsters into Europe.

The six Maine companies joined their Massachusetts and Canadian peers, as well as national trade officials, to discuss the proposed ban with buyers and trade officials from eight European countries, including the three biggest importers of Homarus americanus: France, Italy and Spain. The meeting occurred at the world’s largest seafood industry trade show, said spokesman Gavin Gibbons of the National Fisheries Institute, an American seafood industry trade group.

About 75 people met for 90 minutes to talk about how to avoid the all-out ban that Sweden asked the European Union to adopt in March after finding North American lobsters in European waters.

“Brussels was productive,” Gibbons said. “Unnecessarily excluding live North American lobsters from that market would have real impacts on both sides of the Atlantic, sales and jobs. So, no one is taking this lightly.”

In March, Sweden petitioned the European Union to declare the North American lobster an invasive species, which would ban live imports to the EU’s 28 member states. It based its petition on an 85-page risk assessment that claims the discovery of a small number of North American lobsters in the waters off Great Britain, Norway and Sweden over the last 30 years, including one female lobster carrying hybrid eggs, proved cross-breeding had taken place. The Swedish scientists say a ban would protect the European lobster from cross-breeding and diseases carried by the North American lobster.

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

Norway Posts Record Fish, Salmon Exports Despite Russian Embargo

SEAFOODNEWS.COM [Agence Press France] — January 6, 2016 — Norway registered record fish exports in 2015 thanks to a weaker currency which compensated for a Russian food embargo, an industry body said Tuesday.

Norway’s fish exports totalled 74.5 billion kroner (7.75 billion euros, $8.35 billion), more than double the level 10 years ago and a rise of eight percent from the record year of 2014, according to the Norwegian Seafood Council.

“In a year with trade restrictions in several markets and an import embargo in Russia, the result was better than expected,” director Terje Martinussen said in a statement.

Russia suspended food imports from most Western countries in August 2014 in retaliation for sanctions the West imposed on Moscow over its role in the Ukraine crisis. Russia had until then been one of the biggest markets for Norwegian fish exports.

China, which froze diplomatic ties with Oslo after the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to imprisoned dissident Liu Xiaobo, has also imposed drastic restrictions on Norwegian salmon imports, officially citing veterinary concerns.

But the weaker Norwegian currency, partly caused by plummeting prices for oil, another main Norwegian export, helped compensate for the Chinese and Russian declines.

In volume, Norway’s exports decreased by 2.2 percent to 2.6 million tonnes.

Salmon, Norway’s star product, and trout, accounted for two-thirds of seafood exports, for a sum of 50 billion kroner which was also a new record.

Two-thirds of exports went to the EU, where Poland, Denmark and France were the main takers.

This opinion piece originally appeared on SeafoodNews.com, a subscription site. It has been reprinted with permission.