Saving Seafood

New report finds many local species hard to buy in New England

May 13, 2019 — It’s not hard to find lobster, sea scallops, haddock, or cod at your local fishmonger in New England, but look for more locally sourced fish like scup, dogfish, and skate and you’re usually out of luck.

Authors of a new study released Monday by the nonprofit group Eating with the Ecosystem describe a stark discrepancy between what’s swimming in local waters and what’s available on local seafood counters.

“Our findings show that there are many local species that are underrepresented in the marketplace and yet many of these species are also quite abundant in our local waters,” program director and study coordinator Kate Masury told SeafoodSource in an email. “Species experiencing this kind of mismatch should be the first priority for a marketing boost as they have the most to gain from an economic benefit perspective and balancing their harvest with their ecological production can help alleviate impacts on marine food webs.”

Read the full story at SeafoodSource

Just Five Types of Fish Dominate our Fish Counters. It Doesn’t Have To Be This Way.

May 12, 2019 — Dozens of species of fish and shellfish are caught in New England’s waters. But only a handful show up in most seafood retailers. You can probably list them: cod, haddock, scallops, clams, lobster.

Now, it’s not just anecdotal. A citizen science initiative has found that five species dominate at New England seafood counters and that some of the species that are most common out in the ocean are the rarest in our markets.

That’s largely a reflection of our food tastes but it can have ecological – as well as economic – ramifications.

So, Eating with the Ecosystem – the group that ran the citizen science project – has also released a cookbook to help us enjoy a greater diversity of seafood. It’s called Simmering the Sea: Diversifying Cookery to Sustain Our Fisheries.

Read the full story at WCAI

Changes to Northeast Cod, Flounder Fishery up for Discussion

April 25, 2019 — Federal fishing managers are looking to change some of the rules governing important species of food fish this year, and they’re seeking feedback from the industry and the public.

The fishing year in the Northeast begins on May 1, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is considering changes to catch limits for seven species of fish. They include species of cod, haddock and flounder that are important commercial species.

NOAA is taking comments about the changes until May 6. The proposal would increase quotas for some species of cod, haddock and flounder, but decrease quotas for halibut and some other species of flounder.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at U.S. News

Reminder: Gulf of Maine Cod and Haddock Recreational Measures

April 4, 2019 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

Recreational fishing measures from fishing year 2018 for the Gulf of Maine cod and haddock fishery remain in place until we develop and implement any changes in fishing year 2019.

The recreational Gulf of Maine haddock fishery reopens April 15, 2019:

  • Bag Limit: 12 fish
  • Minimum size: 17 inches

Gulf of Maine cod possession is prohibited.

The New England Fishery Management Council has recommended fishing year 2019 (May 1, 2019-April 30, 2020) recreational groundfish measures. We are currently developing the proposed rule. We do not expect to publish a final rule implementing any changes by May 1, 2019. Therefore, the 2018 regulations will remain in effect until they are replaced.

For more, read the permit holder letter posted on our website.

NOAA Fisheries Announces Increase in Common Pool Possession and Trip Limits for Gulf of Maine Cod and WITCH Flounder

March 12, 2019 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

The common pool possession and trip limits for Gulf of Maine (GOM) cod and witch flounder are increased, as summarized in the table below, for the remainder of the 2018 fishing year, through April 30, 2019.

The Small Vessel Category trip limit of 300 lb of cod, yellowtail flounder, and haddock combined remains in place.

For more information read the rule as filed in the Federal Register or the bulletin as posted on our website.

Read the full release here

Seafood mislabeling common across North American supply chains, study finds

February 7, 2019 — New research completed at the University of Guelph in Guelph, Ontario, Canada, has found mislabeing is prevalent throughout the supply chain.

Researchers found that 32 percent of fish overall were mislabeled. The highest rate of mislabeling was at retailers (38.1 percent), followed by processing plants (27.3 percent) and importers (17.6 percent).

Conducted in collaboration with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA), the study was published in the journal Food Research International.

“We’ve been doing seafood fraud studies for a decade,” Robert Hanner, the lead author of the study and associate professor at the University of Guelph, said in a press release. “We know there are problems. But this is the first study to move beyond that and look at where the problems are happening throughout the food supply chain.”

“If you can see the name is changing across the supply system, that’s a red flag,” Hanner told SeafoodSource.

Hanner said he could not definitively prove whether some of the mislabeling is intentional, but found a “pretty significant price differential” in certain substitutions, such as farmed salmon labeled as wild salmon, tilapia labeled as red snapper, and basa labeled as haddock and cod.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Haddock broadline sales up, prices likely to rise

January 23, 2019 — Haddock, a species that for decades has largely been popular in New England and the Middle Atlantic, is starting to proliferate down the U.S. East Coast, according to the latest data.

Broadline sales of haddock increased in nearly every U.S. market between 2016 and 2018. At the low end, sales in the “East North Central” area stayed relatively flat, while sales in the West South Central region of the U.S. (Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Louisiana) increased by 92 percent.

Broadline sales everywhere else increased too: Middle Atlantic by seven percent, South Atlantic by 21 percent, Mountain-Pacific by 44 percent, West North Central by 49 percent, and East South Central by 48 percent.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

DON CUDDY: New England surf clam fishery is headed for disaster

January 7, 2019 — When it comes to fishery management controversy never seems to be too far away. Last month you may have read about the dubious nature of a decision by the New England Fishery Management Council to close a large area of Nantucket Shoals to fishermen who harvest surf clams there, ostensibly to protect fish habitat. Questionable actions such as these undermine industry confidence in fishery regulators and serve only to alienate, and embitter, fishermen and the many others on the waterfront whose livelihoods are threatened by such draconian measures. With respect to protecting fish habitat allow me to quote from NOAA Fisheries’ own web site (fishwatch.gov) which bills itself as ‘U.S. Seafood Facts.’ The salient quote, with respect to the Atlantic surfclam, spissula solidissima, is this: “Fishing gear used to harvest surfclams has minimal impacts on habitat.” In spite of this fact these traditional grounds have now been designated as essential fish habitat and clamming is banned there indefinitely. NOAA also tells us that surfclams support a valuable fishery. Well, come April 9 it will not be nearly as valuable for those who participate in the harvest and that includes fishermen and shore workers in New Bedford, Gloucester and Bristol, Rhode Island where Galilean Seafood employs around 120 people in this fishery.

“There were five areas out there where we harvested our clams and the two areas with the most historical tows are the ones they closed,” Alan Rencurrel told me. Alan knows surf calms. He owns Nantucket Sound Seafood in New Bedford where the clams he catches are hand shucked. “If you steam ’em open they get chewy,” he said. He’s been fishing on the Shoals since 1992. “And there were boats out there before me.”

He also played me some high-resolution video, taken from a dredge-mounted camera, showing the sea bed in the area known as the Rose and Crown, the largest of the areas to be closed. There were no fish, rocks or cobble to be seen, just a solitary skate, on a sandy bottom littered with old mussel shells. “We can’t tow over rocky bottom like a scallop dredge,” he told me. It’s too hard on the gear and anyway clams prefer sand bottom, he said. Conversely, groundfish such as cod and haddock are found on hard bottom.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

Fishing quotas for cod, haddock to get a boost next year

December 10, 2018 — Commercial fishermen will be able to catch a little bit more cod and haddock off New England next year.

Fishermen seek the valuable groundfish species and others off the East Coast, with most coming to land in New England states. The New England Fishery Management Council has approved new catch limits for several species for the fishing year that begins May 1.

The largest catch limit will be for Georges Bank haddock. It’ll increase by almost 20 percent to more than 117 million pounds (53 million kilograms).

Read the full story from the Associated Press at WTNH

Bleak outlook for Pacific cod could see 2019 US pollock TAC hike, despite reduced biomass

December 5, 2018 — Although the biomass for pollock in the US eastern Bering Sea fishery is coming down, the total allowable catch (TAC) for 2019 could actually be increased, due to the outlook for further cuts to Pacific cod.

The TACs for pollock and cod, especially in light of the gloomy outlook for the latter, will be a major focus of the North Pacific Fishery Management Council (NPFMC) meeting in Anchorage, Alaska, this week, which will go ahead, after an earthquake hit the city last Friday. With whitefish prices set high, the Barents Sea cod and haddock fisheries coming down for 2019 and the Russians only increasing their pollock quota for next year marginally, industry players globally are looking to what happens at the meeting.

First, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) scientists present their views on the outlook for 2019, then the council will decide on TAC levels for pollock, cod, yellowfin sole and other fish. There is uncertainty around pollock and cod moving further north, as previously reported by Undercurrent News. 

Read the full story at Undercurrent News