June 14, 2021 — A group of more than 200 businesses and industry associations sent an open letter to the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden and the U.S. Congress yesterday asking for lasting protections in Bristol Bay, Alaska, home to world’s largest sockeye salmon run.
The letter was signed by large foodservice and retail players like Sysco, Hy-Vee, Wegmans, and Publix, as well as outdoor recreation and commercial fishing companies like Grundéns, Patagonia, Costa del Mar, and Keen.
August 17, 2020 — The following was released by the Seafood Nutrition Partnership:
Eat Seafood America!, a rapid-response initiative launched in early April aimed at helping Americans stay healthy during the COVID-19 public health crisis as well as help boost the U.S. seafood economy, has been successful in encouraging consumers to eat more fish and shellfish. Of consumers surveyed in June and July, those who reported seeing the Eat Seafood America! messaging were three times more likely to have increased their seafood consumption in the last two months.
Supported by the newly formed Seafood4Health Action Coalition of 44 organizations (full list is available at eatseafoodamerica.com), convened by Seafood Nutrition Partnership, this unified consumer outreach campaign works to help Americans build habits to eat more sustainable seafood. As the Eat Seafood America! momentum continues, heading into September and October for National Seafood Month, additional organizations have joined the coalition along with retail partners, including Giant Eagle, H-E-B, Hy-Vee, Meijer and Publix.
Read the full press release online.
April 26, 2019 — A coalition of more than 200 businesses that includes Patagonia, Hy-Vee, Whole Foods, and PCC Markets drafted a letter this week to speak out against Pebble Mine, a proposed open-pit copper, gold, and molybdenum mine at the headwaters of the world’s largest sockeye salmon fishery in Bristol Bay, Alaska.
The letter from the group, known as Businesses for Bristol Bay, was addressed to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Anchorage and requested that the Corps suspend its review of the permit application from the mining group, the Canada-based Pebble Limited Partnership.
Echoing the concerns of many, the Businesses for Bristol Bay said the process is incomplete and that officials are trying to rush the permit through.
February 22, 2019 — The Bristol Bay Regional Development Association (BBRSDA) is expanding a marketing campaign it believes will make Bristol Bay sockeye salmon a nationally recognized brand.
In 2016, the association launched a pilot marketing program in nine grocery stores in Boulder, Colorado, U.S.A.. The association put its new eye-catching, salmon-hued logo on aprons, printed fish wrap, and stickers, and handed out recipe cards and branded mugs while their representatives touted wild-caught sockeye from the pristine water of Bristol Bay, Alaska. Point-of-sale promotions were bolstered by a social media push, which included vivid photographs of Bristol Bay and interviews with the men and women who fish there.
Fast forward two years, and that same program that started in a handful of stores in Boulder has expanded to more than 1,000 across the country, forming partnerships with major chains like Hy-Vee, QFC, and Pavilions.
February 1, 2018 — The Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch program, known best for its red, yellow and green sustainable seafood-rating scheme, is unveiling its first Seafood Slavery Risk Tool on Thursday. It’s a database designed to help corporate seafood buyers assess the risk of forced labor, human trafficking and hazardous child labor in the seafood they purchase.
The tool’s release comes on the heels of a new report that confirms forced labor and human rights abuses remain embedded in Thailand’s fishing industry, years after global media outlets first documented the practice.
The 134-page report by Human Rights Watch shows horrific conditions continue. That’s despite promises from the Thai government to crack down on abuses suffered by mostly migrants from countries like Myanmar and Cambodia — and despite pressure from the U.S. and European countries that purchase much of Thailand’s seafood exports. (Thailand is the fourth-largest seafood exporter in the world).
For U.S. retailers and seafood importers, ferreting slavery out of the supply chain has proved exceedingly difficult. Fishing occurs far from shore, often out of sight, while exploitation and abuse on vessels stem from very complex social and economic dynamics.
“Companies didn’t know how to navigate solving the problem,” says Sara McDonald, Seafood Watch project manager for the Slavery Risk Tool.
The new Seafood Watch database, which took two years to design, assigns slavery risk ratings to specific fisheries and was developed in collaboration with Liberty Asia and the Sustainable Fisheries Partnership. Like Seafood Watch’s color-coded ratings, the Seafood Slavery Risk Tool aims to keep it simple — a set criteria determines whether a fishery will earn a critical, high, moderate or low risk rating.
A “critical risk” rating, for example, means credible evidence of forced labor or child labor has been found within the fishery itself. Albacore, skipjack and yellowfin tuna caught by the Taiwanese fleet gets a critical risk rating. A “low risk” fishery, like Patagonian toothfish in Chile (also known as Chilean seabass), is one with good regulatory protections and enforcement, with no evidence of abuses in related industries.
Read the full story at National Public Radio
August 4, 2017 — New Bedford, Massachusetts scallop distributor and processor Northern Wind has received certification from non-profit Fair Trade USA for fresh scallops. The processor has placed the scallops in stores run by the midwest grocer Hy-Vee, a longtime Northern Wind customer.
The status goes a step beyond other sustainability frameworks like the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) to consider social and labor aspects of trade, George Kouri, the company’s co-CEO, told Undercurrent News.
Under the concept of “fair trade,” the growing conditions of products typically seen as commodities such as coffee or bananas are monitored by a third-party and assessed to higher labor and social standards than those that would otherwise occur in the market. Small-scale producers are often paid higher wages for the products, which are marketed accordingly and carry a premium price.
In the case of scallops — which have enjoyed strong pricing lately — some of the proceeds from the fair trade system will go to fund community projects, education, the Fisheries Survival Fund and other worthy efforts, Kouri said.