Saving Seafood

Poll: Americans say seafood should not be caught using slave labor, illegal fishing

January 28, 2021 — The following was released by Oceana:

Oceana today released the results of a nationwide poll finding that Americans overwhelmingly support policies to end illegal fishing and seafood fraud. Included among the key findings, 89% of voters agree that imported seafood should be held to the same standards as U.S. caught seafood. Additionally, 81% of voters say they support policies that prevent seafood from being sold in the U.S. that was caught using human trafficking and slave labor. 83% agree that all seafood should be traceable from the fishing boat to the dinner plate, and 77% support requirements for all fishing vessels to be publicly trackable.

“American consumers shouldn’t have to worry if their seafood was caught illegally or fished using forced labor. All seafood sold in the U.S. should be safe, legally caught, responsibly sourced and honestly labeled,” said Beth Lowell, Oceana’s deputy vice president for U.S. campaigns. “It’s clear that Americans want and need to know more about the seafood they’re eating. President Biden and his administration have an opportunity to lead in the fight against illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing while leveling the playing field for American fishers and seafood businesses while protecting consumers. It’s a win for everyone.”

Key findings among registered voters include:

  • 87% agree that seafood caught using human trafficking and slave labor should not be bought or sold in the U.S.
  • 92% agree that consumers should be confident in the seafood they eat, including that it is safe, legally caught, honestly labeled and responsibly sourced.
  • 90% agree that seafood mislabeling is unfair for honest fishers, suppliers and restaurants that honestly label their seafood.
  • 75% want to know more about the seafood they eat, including what fish it is and where and how it was caught.
  • 60% say they are willing to pay more to ensure their seafood was not caught illegally.
  • 87% agree that the government needs to do more to ensure that consumers are purchasing properly labeled seafood.
  • Republicans and Democrats overwhelmingly agree that the government needs to do more to protect consumers and to implement policies that end illegal fishing. The findings show strong bipartisan agreement on all major issues and policies that address ending illegal fishing.
    • Eight in ten Republicans (79%) and Democrats (83%) support ensuring all seafood in the U.S. is legally caught.
    • 91% of Democrats and 85% of Republicans agree that the U.S. Government needs to do more to ensure that consumers are purchasing properly labeled seafood.
    • Eight in ten Democrats (82%) and Republicans (77%) support requirements for fishing vessels to be publicly trackable.
    • 84% of Republicans and 85% of Democrats agree that seafood should be traceable from the fish boat to the dinner plate.
    • 89% of Democrats and 87% of Republicans agree that seafood caught using human trafficking and slave labor should not be bought or sold in the U.S.

“Americans overwhelmingly agree that consumers should be confident in the seafood they eat, including that it’s safe, legally caught, honestly labeled and responsibly sourced,” said Lowell. “Unfortunately, current policies don’t go far enough to prevent illegally caught seafood from entering the U.S. market. But the solutions are simple and widely supported – all fishing vessels should be publicly trackable, and all seafood should be traceable from the boat (or farm) to the dinner plate. Now is the time to finally remove the U.S. from inadvertently supporting the worldwide web of illegal fishing, slave labor and human trafficking. These are issues that Americans on both sides of the aisle agree upon, and President Biden should build on the efforts of previous administrations to stamp out illegal fishing once and for all.”

According to Oceana, illegal fishing poses one of the greatest threats to our oceans. It is estimated that up to 30% of the seafood caught worldwide is a product of Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing, valued from $25 to $50 billion annually. In the United States, up to 90% of the fish consumed is imported, with up to one-third of wild-caught imports being sourced from IUU fishing. IUU fishing can include fishing without authorization, ignoring catch limits, operating in closed areas, and fishing with illegal gear or for prohibited fish or wildlife. These illicit activities can destroy essential habitat, severely deplete fish populations, and threaten global food security. These actions not only contribute to overfishing, but also give illegal fishermen an unfair advantage over those that play by the rules. It also undermines the responsible management of commercial fishing and ocean conservation.

Forced labor and human rights abuses are also commonly associated with IUU fishing. IUU fishing is a low-risk, high-reward activity, especially on the high seas where a fragmented legal framework and lack of effective enforcement allows it to thrive. In 2018, the federal government required catch documentation and traceability for seafood at risk of illegal fishing and seafood fraud, but the Seafood Import Monitoring Program (SIMP) currently only applies to 13 types of imported fish and only traces them from the boat to the U.S. border. In 2019, Oceana released the results of a seafood fraud investigation, testing popular seafood not covered by SIMP and found that 1 in every 5 fish tested nationwide was mislabeled. Seafood fraud ultimately hurts honest fishermen and seafood businesses that play by the rules, masks conservation and health risks of certain species, and cheats consumers who fall victim to a bait-and-switch.

The national online poll, conducted by the non-partisan polling company Ipsos, surveyed 1,005 American adults from across the U.S. between December 11 and 14, 2020, and found widespread bipartisan support for policies aimed at increasing transparency and seafood traceability.

Oceana is campaigning to stop illegal fishing, increase transparency at sea, and require traceability of all seafood to ensure that all seafood is safe, legally caught, responsibly sourced and honestly labeled.

View the full polling results here.

The national security imperative to tackle illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing

January 26, 2021 — Over the last few years illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing has become more recognized as a national security concern. At first glance, fish hardly seem to be on par with other cutting edge national security issues — cyber, space, artificial intelligence, drones, nuclear proliferation, and perhaps most importantly the return of strategic competition now commonly referred to “great” power rivalry (although perhaps not for long). But in the years to come, make no mistake, fishin’ may indeed become an increasingly important mission for the United States and its security partners and allies around the world, and most certainly those in the Indo-Pacific.

To succeed in this mission, the Biden administration should lean on the U.S. Coast Guard to do what it does best, especially in the Pacific, where Chinese fishing fleets do double-duty as maritime militias that threaten and intimidate the fishers from neighboring nations. The administration should also continue to develop counter-IUU bilateral agreements, including those that may allow prosecuting masters of vessels that commit “grave breaches.” It may also need to make a hard choice between partnering with China’s neighbors, or with China itself, to best address this threat.

Fishing, a $401 billion global industry, provides 20% of the protein intake for nearly half of the world’s population, and global fish consumption has been on the rise for almost 60 years. Yet 93% of the world’s fish stocks are fully exploited, overexploited, or significantly depleted, and global climate change is adversely affecting stocks.

Read the full story at the Brookings Institute

US officials working to address IUU fishing in Latin America

January 21, 2021 — The U.S. announced late last week several moves officials hope will curb illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing in the Caribbean and Latin America.

On Friday, 15 January, the U.S. Department of Labor issued a news release stating it plans to make available up to USD 8 million (EUR 6.6 million) in grant funding through its Bureau of International Labor Affairs. The bureau’s mission is to push for a fair playing field for workers in the U.S. and across the world by fighting child and illegal labor practices and bolstering labor standards worldwide.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

NOAA Joins USAID in Effort to Combat IUU Fishing Overseas

January 13, 2021 — The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is joining the U.S. government’s effort to fight illegal fishing in far-flung waters. NOAA has entered into an agreement with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) to combat illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing (IUU fishing) across borders and to promote sustainable fisheries abroad.

The two agencies plan to expand on their existing programs, strategies and investments in order to support developing countries’ efforts to strengthen their own enforcement capacity; promote private sector and government innovations to combat IUU fishing; and heighten both the positive incentives for compliance with fisheries rules and the negative consequences for violations.

The agreement builds on progress made under the Maritime Security and Fisheries Enforcement (SAFE) Act of 2019, which requires multiple agencies to form a joint working group on maritime security and counter-IUU fishing measures. Over the past year, NOAA has been working with the U.S. Coast Guard and the Department of State under this framework.

Read the full story at The Maritime Executive

How can Southeast Asia benefit from the new U.S. policy on illegal fishing?

January 11, 2021 — In September 2020, the United States Coast Guard (USCG) released a new USCG IUUF Strategic Outlook. The USCG created such a comprehensive position and strategy in reiterating the U.S.’s strong commitment to the war against illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing, known as IUUF, all over the world. The document recognizes IUUF as the biggest threat to maritime security, even more dangerous than piracy.

The document shows that IUUF has a huge impact not only on fisheries in the U.S. but also on fisheries stocks all over the world. For instance, it shows that 93% of the world’s major marine fish stocks are classified as fully exploited, overexploited, or significantly depleted, and that it also results in tens of billions of dollars of lost revenue for legal fishers every year.

Indeed, IUUF has been a huge threat to all countries all over the world. In Southeast Asia particularly, IUUF has been a major challenge. In Indonesia alone, there are several estimates for how Indonesia suffers from IUUF. It is estimated that Indonesia suffers $3 billion in losses annually from IUUF. Mas Achmad Santosa, CEO of the Indonesian Ocean Justice Initiative (IOJI), an NGO, argues that the huge prevalence of IUUF in Indonesia is because of the economic benefit from IUUF, and weak governance and law enforcement.

During Susi Pudjiastuti’s tenure as Indonesia’s minister of maritime affairs and fisheries, Indonesia took serious measures in combating IUUF. The policy of sinking foreign fishing vessels that conduct IUUF in Indonesian waters was claimed to be effective in reducing IUUF practices in Indonesia. Susi, who left office in 2019, also actively championed globally at many international conferences for IUUF to be recognized as a form of transnational organized crime.

Read the full story at Mongabay News

Something’s fishy: Recent study discusses harmful consequences of mislabeled seafood

January 8, 2021 — In 2017, Carlos Rafael was sentenced to nearly four years in prison, fined $3 million, and prohibited from ever returning to his job, all because of one thing: fish. Specifically, 800,000 pounds of mislabeled fish.

The fishing magnate, perhaps better known as the “Codfather,” had been caught illegally overfishing American plaice and selling it as haddock in order to avoid paying for larger quotas. Estimated to have caught 10% of the entire annual catch limit, Rafael had done significant damage to the plaice population by the time he was arrested.

Illegal practices like Rafael’s that threaten to endanger or overexploit marine life aren’t entirely uncommon.

As a recent study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) points out, mislabelling doesn’t only mean the wrong species’ name appearing on the wrapper. Information about the seafood’s geographical origin and whether or not it was farmed or wild can also be misrepresented, undermining consumers’ ability to buy from well-managed and sustainable fisheries.

Read the full story at The Daily

Four South American countries prepare to challenge Chinese fishing abuses at COMM9

January 5, 2020 — A fleet of more than 300 mostly Chinese-flagged fishing ships that caused consternation among the governments of Ecuador and Peru this summer when it was spotted fishing around their respective exclusive economic zones, has continued to fish in the Pacific Ocean around South America, and affected countries are coordinating actions to stop it.

The fleet was spotted by Ecuadorian maritime officials in mid-July as it arrived outside of the Galápagos Marine Reserve in international waters near Ecuador’s exclusive economic zone. The fleet was subsequently accused of shutting off its GPS trackers to enable it to fish illegally in protected waters without being detected.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

US CBP takes action against Taiwanese trawler, accusing it of using forced labor

January 4, 2021 — U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has issued a withhold release order against a Taiwanese tuna trawler, saying it has received credible information that the vessel was involved in the use of forced labor.

The agency, a division of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, on 31 December ordered its personnel at all U.S. ports of entry to detain tuna and other seafood harvested by the Lien Yi Hsing No. 12, a Taiwanese-flagged and -owned distant-water fishing vessel. The agency said its investigation concluded the Lie Yi Hsing 12’s operators had used deceptive hiring practices, withholding of wages, and debt bondage in staffing the vessel. In a press release, the CBP said it will provide the owner of the vessels the opportunity to demonstrate its merchandise was not produced with forced labor, or to export any of their shipments that have been detained to a third country.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Slavery and overfishing on the high seas can’t hide from these researchers

December 22, 2020 — A tracking system designed to help ships avoid crashing into each other has become an important tool for spotting bad behavior on the high seas. Researchers can now put a spotlight on corporations that dominate fishing in unregulated international waters where it’s easier to get away with overfishing. And it’s giving us a better idea of how widespread slave labor could be on fishing vessels.

Two recently published papers use this technology, the maritime Automatic Identification System (AIS), to make high-seas fishing a little less mysterious. The first study, published in the journal One Earth on December 18th, traces the origins of thousands of high-seas fishing vessels back to big-time corporations that keep store shelves stocked with seafood. Other researchers use AIS to reveal telltale markers of forced labor on fishing boats, which were published today in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). That all makes it easier to make companies answer for any abuses they commit at sea.

The technology, the maritime Automatic Identification System (AIS), has actually been around for about two decades. Basically, vessels carry around a box that sends out radio signals that anyone else can pick up on. Those radio signals share information about the ship, an identifying number, and other things like its size, course, and speed. That’s supposed to help vessels spot each other so they don’t get in each other’s way.

Read the full story at The Verge

Pacific Island Nations Wary of Chinese Fishing Fleets

December 21, 2020 — Long a topic discussed in connection with the South China Sea, illegal Chinese fishing vessels are of increasing concern for Pacific Island nations.

As recently as early this week, the archipelago nation of Palau, east of the Philippines and north of New Guinea, announced that it had intercepted and detained a Chinese fishing vessel and six smaller boats in its territorial waters after it was confirmed the vessel had entered unlawfully and was illegally fishing sea cucumber.

The fishing vessel was apprehended in Helen Reef, Palau’s most southernmost region, by a Guardian-class patrol boat that Australia had delivered to Palau in September.

“They did have sea cucumber on there… it’s estimated about 500 pounds (225 kilograms),” Victor Remengesau, director of Palau’s division of marine law and enforcement, told reporters. “It’s unlawful entry. We may care about COVID and the spread of COVID, but we can’t just let people do whatever they want, and disguise [illegal activity].”

Read the full story at The Diplomat