Saving Seafood

FCF-linked vessels outed by US government as likely using forced labor

August 18, 2020 — The U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s Office of Trade has placed a Withhold Release Order (WRO) on all seafood harvested by the Taiwanese-owned, Vanuatu-flagged fishing vessel Da Wang “due to reasonable suspicion of forced labor on the vessel.”

The WRO will require detention of seafood harvested by the Da Wang at all U.S. ports of entry. Importers of any detained shipments “will have an opportunity to export their shipments or submit proof to CBP that the merchandise was not produced with forced labor,” according to a CBP press release.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Satlink leading shift from human fishery observers to land-based electronic monitoring

August 11, 2020 — Madrid, Spain-based Satlink, which specializes in technological solutions and developments based on satellite communications, has launched a program designed to train on-board human fishery observers to perform fishery monitoring through video data and satellite imaging.

The program will give regional fishery management organizations (RFMOs), governments, and fishing companies a method of observational compliance that sidesteps complications regarding placing observers on-board vessels during the coronavirus pandemic.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Despite Federal Ruling, Fish Farm Company Says Gulf Project Moving Forward

August 10, 2020 — This week a federal court ruled that offshore fisheries cannot be permitted in the Gulf of Mexico under existing policy. Opponents of a proposed fish farm off Sarasota’s coast called the decision a victory, but the CEO of the company spearheading the local project says he’s pushing ahead.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled that it was illegal for the Department of Commerce to issue regulations that would have permitted large-scale aquaculture operations offshore in U.S. federal waters. The ruling affirmed a 2018 decision, which the Trump Administration had appealed.

“Basically, the case hinged on whether aquaculture could be considered fishing under the law and the court decided that it couldn’t,” said Marianne Cufone, a Tampa and New Orleans based environmental law attorney who argued against fish farming.

“That seems correct,” she said. “Fishing and fish farming are not the same thing–just like duck hunting and duck farming aren’t the same thing. The agency was essentially saying that because they pull the fish from the water out of the net pens, that that equates to harvesting a wild fish and as the court said in its opinion, they wouldn’t bite.”

Read the full story at WUSF

Global Fishing Watch launches transshipment portal, gets agreement with Costa Rica

July 30, 2020 — Global Fishing Watch has launched a public web portal to track the activity of at-sea transshipment, and has also signed an agreement with the government of Costa Rica to give it access to its vessel-tracking data.

Global Fishing Watch is a partnership between Google and the advocacy groups Oceana and SkyTruth founded in 2015. The new portal, hosted on Global Fishing Watch’s platform, aims to reveal the breadth of transshipment activity worldwide, with the goal of raising awareness among fish suppliers and consumers of the commonality of transshipment and improve transparency. The Pew Charitable Trusts contributed to the development of the portal to guide its effectiveness and application, according to Global Fishing Watch CEO Tony Long.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

New reports detail threat to Pacific tuna observers, including from COVID-19

July 27, 2020 — The non-governmental organization Human Rights At Sea earlier this month published a report with numerous recommendations to better protect fisheries observers who monitor fish catches by tuna vessels in the Pacific.

The report, Fisheries Observer Deaths at Sea, Human Rights and the Role and Responsibilities of Fisheries Organisations, highlights “the often challenging and solitary working conditions for observers who are away at sea without any immediate physical support,” according to the group – a registered charity in England and Wales that promotes the development and enforcement of human rights at sea.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

US signs agreement to help Vietnam strengthen fisheries law enforcement

July 24, 2020 — The U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL), and the Vietnamese Agriculture Ministry’s Directorate of Fisheries (DFISH), have entered into a memorandum of understanding in order to strengthen Vietnam’s fisheries management and law enforcement capabilities.

Vietnam Agriculture Ministry Director General Tran Dinh Luan and U.S. Ambassador to Vietnam Daniel J. Kritenbrink signed the MoU in Hanoi on 22 July, according to the Directorate of Fisheries.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Satellites uncover widespread illegal fishing in Pacific Ocean

July 23, 2020 — Orbital observations have revealed extensive illegal fishing of Pacific flying squid (Todarodes pacificus) in the Pacific Ocean around Russia, Japan and North and South Korea in 2017 and 2018, a new study reports.

In fact, “extensive” may not be a strong enough word. More than 900 vessels of Chinese origin probably violated United Nations sanctions by fishing in North Korean waters in 2017, and another 700 did the same in 2018, the study found.

These scofflaw ships likely hauled in more than 176,000 tons (160,000 metric tons) of Pacific flying squid over those two years, a catch worth about US $440 million, study team members said. That’s nearly equivalent to the combined T. pacificus catch of Japan and South Korea over the same span.

“The scale of the fleet involved in this illegal fishing is about one-third the size of China’s entire distant-water fishing fleet,” said study co-lead author Jaeyoon Park, a senior data scientist at Global Fishing Watch, an international nonprofit organization dedicated to increasing ocean sustainability via greater transparency.

Read the full story at MSN

Study: Chinese ‘dark fleets’ illegally defying sanctions by fishing in North Korean waters

July 23, 2020 — Chinese “dark fleets” illegally fished a $440 million haul of the squid species Todarodes pacificus in North Korean waters during 2017 and 2018, according to a study published today in the journal Science Advances.

The study used a novel set of satellite images to track fishing vessels operating off the northeast coast of the Korean peninsula, including satellite synthetic aperture radar (SAR), visible infrared imaging radiometer suite sensors (VIIRS), high-resolution optical imagery, and identification beacon data from some of the vessels themselves. Its authors say that this is one of the first times those technologies have been combined to map illicit fishing at such a large scale over a years-long period.

“We believe that this study marks the beginning of a new era in fisheries management, transparency, and monitoring,” said Jaeyoon Park, senior data scientist at Global Fishing Watch and a co-lead author of the paper.

Park and his colleagues used data collected from Planet Labs, an Earth-imaging company that has also been instrumental in tracking deforestation caused by hard-to-track illegal gold mining, to map the movement of fishing boats in contested waters around the Korean peninsula. They found that in 2017, more than 900 Chinese fishing boats traveled to an area in North Korea’s exclusive economic zone, followed by another 700 in 2018.

Read the full story at Mongabay

The United States International Trade Commission Holds a Virtual Public Hearing on Seafood Obtained via Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated Fishing: U.S. Imports and Economic Impact on U.S. Commercial Fisheries

July 23, 2020 — The following was released by the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council:

The U.S. International Trade Commission is investigating the extent to which imports of seafood products obtained via illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing impact the U.S. commercial fishing industry. Information about the ongoing investigation can be found here.

A virtual public hearing is being held in connection with this investigation. The hearing is scheduled to begin at 9:30 a.m. on September 3, 2020. Requests to appear at the hearing are due by 5:15 p.m., August 12, 2020. Instructions for participating in this hearing can be found here.

In lieu of or in addition to participating in the hearing, interested parties may file written comments. All written submissions should be received no later than 5:15 p.m., October 9, 2020. Written comments must be made through the Commission’s Electronic Document Information System (EDIS, https://edis.usitc.gov).