Saving Seafood

Pelagic Data Systems honored as SeaWeb Seafood Champion Finalist; FISH-i Africa Wins Innovation Award

June 6, 2017 — The following was released by Pelagic Data Systems:

Pelagic Data Systems (PDS) was honored as a finalist at the Seafood Champion Awards, held yesterday at the SeaWeb Seafood Summit in Seattle. FISH-i Africa, a partnership of eight East African nations, was presented with the Seafood Champion Award for Innovation for their low-cost information-sharing solution to combat illegal fishing in the Western Indian Ocean.

“It is an honor to be recognized as a finalist among such innovative and forward-thinking organizations and individuals,” said PDS Chief Scientific Officer Melissa Garren. “Pelagic Data Systems thanks Mark Spalding and the entire SeaWeb team for bringing together such a passionate group of people united by a common goal of seafood sustainability. We’d also like to offer our congratulations to FISH-i Africa on their victory and their exemplary, collaborative work fighting illegal fishing.”

FISH-i Africa was established in 2012 when eight East African nations – Comoros, Kenya, Madagascar, Mauritius, Mozambique, Seychelles, Somalia and Tanzania – united with the goal of halting large-scale illegal fishing. By bringing together national enforcement authorities, as well as technical and legal experts, FISH-i Africa is proving that regional cooperation and information-sharing can be powerful tools to stop illegal catch from getting to market.

This is the 11th year that SeaWeb has presented Seafood Champion Awards at its annual Seafood Summit. The Seafood Champion Awards program features four categories – Innovation, Vision, Leadership, and Advocacy – with four finalists in each category. The awards were created to honor organizations and individuals that promote environmentally sustainable seafood.

The Seafood Champion Award for Innovation recognizes those who identify and apply new solutions to ecological challenges, market needs, or sustainability barriers. In addition to PDS and FISH-i Africa, finalists included Karl Warr of Better Fishing, who has improved the sustainability of bottom trawling with a new cage mechanism, and Alan Lovewell of Real Good Fish, a California-based community-supported fishery (CSF).

PDS recently formed a partnership with Mr. Lovewell to outfit fishing boats working in his CSF with PDS’s vessel tracking technology. PDS’s technology provides Real Good Fish subscribers with a detailed look at where, when, and how their fish was caught.

About Pelagic Data Systems

Pelagic Data Systems (PDS) is the creator of ultra-lightweight vessel tracking systems for boats of all sizes. PDS’s innovative vessel tracking system is completely solar-powered and affordable, and helps fishers and regulators alike collect the fishing data that they value most. PDS is active in Southeast Asia, Africa, and throughout the Americas where its technology is being used to combat illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing and help fishers maintain their livelihoods.

Lawsuit takes aim at kings of the tuna industry

June 5, 2017 — Clandestine phone calls. Surreptitious emails. In-person meetings to avoid a paper trail.

The purpose of all the secrecy? To keep the price on packaged tuna — the quick source of protein found in cans and pouches — artificially high.

New details of exactly how the country’s three largest tuna companies, including Pittsburgh’s StarKist Co., allegedly spent years sharing information and collaborating are included in a pile of amended complaints submitted last month in federal court by numerous grocers, restaurants and suppliers.

It’s the latest round in an ongoing court battle alleging price fixing in the packaged seafood industry. Bumble Bee Foods and Tri-Union Seafoods, which trades under Chicken of the Sea, both based in San Diego, are also named.

The U.S. Department of Justice, which is conducting its own investigation into alleged price fixing in the industry, announced in early May that Bumble Bee Foods agreed to pay a $25 million fine after pleading guilty to conspiring with competitors to fix prices. The DOJ said the company also is cooperating with the antitrust investigation. It’s the third charge to be filed in the investigation.

The DOJ had released information that triggered the amended complaints, according to one attorney.

A spokesperson for Starkist, Chicken of the Sea and Bumble Bee declined to comment on pending litigation, but in 2016 attorneys representing StarKist urged the court to dismiss the case. They argued that it’s not unusual for people working in the same industry to know each other and to meet at industry gatherings.

But a lot of retailers are arguing that the evidence shows the exchanges were not so innocent.

The latest court documents — which are heavily redacted — include details such as Walmart and Ohio-based grocer Kroger charging that executives “used misleading subject lines on emails to affirmatively conceal the conspiratorial nature of their communications from those not involved in the conspiracy.”

Read the full story at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Tuna Traceability Declaration 2020 seeks traceability, social commitments from tuna industry

June 2, 2017 — A new “Tuna Traceability Declaration” is seeking to encourage the tuna industry to improve sustainability and social conditions in the tuna-fishing industry.

The Tuna 2020 Traceability Declaration was created in advance of United Nations Ocean Conference, taking place 5 to 9 June in New York City. The declaration is not legally binding, but is meant to encourage actions and partnerships from and between tuna harvesters, processors, retailers, traders and related nonprofits and concerned governments, to improve the health of tuna populations worldwide. The initiative is in response to the U.N.’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for the conservation and sustainable use of oceans, seas and marine resources.

The declaration is being promoted by the nonprofit World Economic Forum, which brings together global leaders from diverse backgrounds, including business and government to aid the organization’s mission of being “committed to improving the state of the world.”

According to the World Economic Forum, The declaration requires the following commitments from its signees:

  1. Tuna traceability commitment
    1. Pledge that all tuna products in our supply chains will be fully traceable to the vessel and trip dates, and that this information will be disclosed upon request at the point of sale either on the packaging or via an online system.
  2. Commitment to a socially responsible tuna supply chain
    1. Pledge to eliminate any form of slavery and ensure suppliers at least meet minimum social standards in management practices as recommended in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Labour Organization’s conventions and recommendations.
  3. Commitment to environmentally responsible tuna sources
    1. Pledge to source from tuna fisheries that have implemented: a) Robust science-based management plans, including harvest strategies that can maintain stocks at, or restore them at least to, levels which can produce maximum sustainable yield; and b) Measures to ensure that impacts of fisheries on the environment are sustainable, including bycatch mitigation techniques.
    2. Put this pledge into effect by continuing to explore new opportunities to support the multi-stakeholder initiatives mentioned above, and work to continually increase sourcing from tuna fisheries certified by schemes that are internationally recognized by the Global Sustainable Seafood Initiative (GSSI).

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Ramped-Up Efforts to Protect Mexican Fisheries Netting Results

June 2, 2017 — Criminal charges filed against a father-son duo accused of illegally importing sea cucumbers from Mexico for huge profit by selling the seafood delicacy for $17.5 million in Asia have highlighted the tension between keeping fishing sustainable and ensuring fishermen can maintain their livelihood off the ocean. Courthouse News took a deep dive into the current state of Mexican fisheries and found while some depleted fisheries have been restored in recent years, the stakes have been raised for those who make their living selling the prized delicacies.

Last week David Mayorquin and Ramon Torres Mayorquin were arraigned in San Diego’s federal court on charges related to the illegal trafficking of sea cucumbers through San Diego’s port of entry. The two owned and operated Arizona-based seafood company Blessings Inc. and had a legal permit to import the sea creatures – which are related to sea urchins and starfish.

But the Mayorquins skirted international rules on importing sea cucumbers, which allow them to be fished only in season. The animals must also be a certain size and caught in limited quantities to maintain the population in Mexican fisheries like the one in Yucatan where the sea cucumbers purchased by the family were allegedly poached from.

Since the U.S. Attorney’s Office began investigating illegal quantities of sea cucumbers coming through San Diego’s port of entry, the border city has seen a stark drop in imports of the sea creature: over 90 percent in the past three years, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Office of Science and Technology.

In 2013, more than 2.4 million pounds of sea cucumbers worth over $27 million crossed San Diego’s border from Mexico. By 2016, only 155,000 pounds of imported sea cucumbers worth $1.1 million was declared at San Diego’s port of entry, according to NOAA.

While enforcement efforts on both sides of the border appear to be deterring illegal poaching and overfishing of protected species such as sea cucumbers, the stakes are higher for those who stand to make millions off delicacies prized in Asian markets.

Read the full story at the Courthouse News Service

Global Ghost Gear Initiative welcomes Pelagic Data Systems (PDS) as new member


June 2, 2017 — The following was released today by the Global Ghost Gear Initiative and Pelagic Data Systems:

Pelagic Data Systems (PDS) has joined the Global Ghost Gear Initiative (GGGI) as a new member. GGGI and PDS, both finalists for the 2017 SeaWeb Seafood Champion Awards, will team up to align approaches and collaborate on projects to reduce ghost fishing gear and remove it from the world’s oceans.

Pelagic Data Systems deploys ultra-lightweight, solar-powered vessel tracking systems to help fishers and regulators collect valuable fishing data for boats of all sizes. PDS works extensively in Southeast Asia, Africa, and throughout the Americas, where its technology is used to combat illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing.

As a participant in the GGGI, PDS will bring valuable field experience from fisheries in Indonesia and the Pacific, which will inform and support efforts by the GGGI to address ghost fishing in upcoming projects in those regions. Their technical experience will be invaluable in the current development of projects focused on the marking and tracking of fishing gear to enable gear recovery and reduce gear discards.

“We look forward to working together with the committed and talented array of GGGI members to develop creative solutions that support healthy fisheries and fishing communities, and reduce the detrimental impacts of ghost gear,” said Melissa Garren, Chief Scientific Officer at PDS.

Launched by World Animal Protection in 2015, the GGGI is a cross-sectoral alliance committed to driving solutions to the problem of lost and abandoned fishing gear, known as ghost gear, worldwide. GGGI members collaborate to improve the health of marine ecosystems, protect marine animals, and safeguard human health and livelihoods. IUU fishing, which PDS works to combat, has been shown to contribute to the accumulation of ghost gear in the world’s oceans.

“We are so excited to have Pelagic Data Systems, with its innovativeness and technological leadership, join the Global Ghost Gear Initiative,” says Elizabeth Hogan of World Animal Protection and the GGGI. “The unique expertise they bring will augment the GGGI’s global efforts to mark and track lost fishing gear.”

Ghost gear is fishing equipment which has been abandoned or lost and is now causing harm to fisheries and ocean ecosystems. Each year, an estimated 640,000 tons of fishing gear is lost or abandoned in oceans, estuaries, and bays. Whether intentionally discarded or accidentally lost, this gear persists for hundreds of years, and it catches and wastes targeted marine species, entangles marine wildlife, adds to ocean waste, and presents additional expenses and hazards for fishers and marine communities.

PDS was founded in San Francisco in 2014 with the goal of increasing transparency and traceability in the global seafood supply chain. Its vessel tracking system, roughly the size of a typical smartphone, records a vessel’s location multiple times per minute, and automatically and securely transmits stored data within network range. Using this data, fishers and regulators can track vessel and fleet fishing activity, confirming the legality and location of catch and the type of gear that was used.

To learn more about the GGGI, visit www.ghostgear.org

To learn more about PDS, visit www.pelagicdata.com/

About Pelagic Data Systems:

Pelagic Data Systems (PDS) is the creator of ultra-lightweight vessel tracking systems for boats of all sizes. PDS’s innovative vessel tracking system is completely solar-powered and affordable, and helps fishers and regulators alike collect the fishing data that they value most. PDS is active in Southeast Asia, Africa, and throughout the Americas where its technology is being used to combat illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing and help fishers maintain their livelihoods.

About the Global Ghost Gear Initiative:

Founded in 2015 by World Animal Protection, the Global Ghost Gear Initiative (GGGI) is a cross-sectoral alliance committed to driving solutions to the problem of lost and abandoned fishing gear (ghost gear) worldwide. The GGGI aims to improve the health of marine ecosystems, protect marine animals, and safeguard human health and livelihoods. Members include TriMarine, Sainsbury’s, Young’s Seafood, Northern Prawn Fisheries, and the International Pole and Line Foundation.

MASSACHUSETTS: Black sea bass poachers on Buzzards Bay return with the season

May 28, 2017 — Harbormaster and shellfish employees waded knee-deep in the Wareham River last weekend, fetching dead, floating fish and dropping them into black plastic trash bags.

Each fish would serve as evidence. An angler had spied Environmental Police seizing 225 black sea bass from another boat and dumped his own illegal catch to avoid arrest.

On the same sunny Sunday, beach-goers snapped cellphone pictures of boats that buzzed to the shoreline to drop off coolers, which Wareham Harbormaster Garry Buckminster believes were filled with illegal fish. The boats then motored back offshore to catch more.

“It’s really a wild west in some of these areas,” Buckminster said.

Black sea bass season had officially begun.

Hundreds of anglers converged on Wareham, Mattapoisett and other SouthCoast communities to take advantage of the pristine fishing conditions and haul sea bass from close-to-shore shallow waters. Most began the recreational season bagging the limit of five per person. But others hauled in 30 times that much, likely with their eyes on the black market, where black sea bass can sell for $5 a pound.

“As long as you have people buying the stuff, people are going to poach it,” Maj. Pat Moran of the Environmental Police said.

Smugglers stow the bass in hidden compartments within their boats, using false bottoms, plastic bags and beer coolers to collect their catch. Then it’s a rush to shore and out of town before they’re spotted by environmental police.

“They’ve really got their racket put together,” Buckminster said. “They’d going to do whatever they can. They’ve got a plan in place and they’re trying to make it happen.”

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

Maine’s latest fishing frenzy brings in $1,200 a pound – and it’s not lobster

May 26, 2017 — It is just past midnight, rain clouds stalking a full moon, and Julie Keene is out on a muddy riverbank in thigh-high rubber boots and a camouflage jacket, a headlamp strapped over her hair.

As she wrestles with an oversize fishing net, Keene tells how she went from rags to riches, and that’s not a story many fishermen tell.

Just a few years ago, the sardine factory in her hometown of Lubec had closed, and Keene was scrounging for a living digging clams and gathering periwinkles from the beach.

“We were so damn poor we were on food stamps,” Keene said.

Then came what for Maine was the equivalent of a gold rush. It was slimy, squirmy baby eels — in such demand in Asian markets that they were suddenly more profitable than even the beloved Maine lobster.

One memorable night in 2012 when the baby eel were running strong, Keene was paid $36,000 — in cash — for her catch.

“I almost threw up. I felt like I had robbed a bank. I couldn’t grasp the concept of that much money,” Keene recalled.

The eel rush allowed Keene, the daughter of a lighthouse keeper, to buy a small farm, a tractor and a truck. She even started a retirement account.

Government regulators have since stepped in to slow the fishing frenzy, but with American glass eels fetching $1,200 a pound and up, federal and state authorities have launched a wide-ranging criminal investigation to halt what has become a multimillion-dollar international smuggling industry that is threatening the survival of the much-maligned species.

Eleven people have pleaded guilty in Maine and South Carolina since last year to illegally trafficking in baby eels, and two more are awaiting trial.

“Skyrocketing prices for juvenile American eels in Asia have led to a surge in poaching and trafficking in this unique species, threatening to wipe it out in the rivers of the Northeast,” Dan Ashe, then director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, said when the case was announced in October.

Europe has had serious problems. The eel population has declined by 90% across the continent over the last 30 years, and with the fish now considered critically endangered there, exports to Asia have been banned.

In the United States, the American eel was at “very high risk” of extinction in the wild as of 2014, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

Read the full story at the Los Angeles Times

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

Sustainable Shark Alliance, Southeastern Fisheries Association Applaud Florida Law Cracking Down on Illegal Shark Finning

May 25, 2017 — The following was released today by the Sustainable Shark Alliance and the Southeastern Fisheries Association:

The Sustainable Shark Alliance (SSA) and the Southeastern Fisheries Association (SFA) applaud the State of Florida, Governor Rick Scott, and the Florida Legislature for passing a new law strengthening prohibitions against the illegal act of shark finning. The bill was passed unanimously by both chambers of the Florida Legislature and signed into law yesterday by Gov. Scott. It will take effect beginning in October.

The legislation raises existing fines and penalties for shark finning, which has been illegal under federal law for decades, and codifies a Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission rule prohibiting this practice. Anyone caught removing shark fins before the shark has been landed at the dock will be subject to escalating punitive measures, such as fines and suspended permits, that culminate in a loss of all Florida fishing license privileges for a third offense.

“The SSA is grateful to Florida’s lawmakers for taking an approach that both protects sharks and allows law-abiding fishing families to continue to earn a living,” said Shaun Gehan, an attorney for the SSA. “This is the right way to eliminate shark finning and promote shark conservation. While some have proposed measures that would totally eliminate the sustainable harvest of sharks, Florida is showing why U.S. shark fisheries continue to be the gold standard around the globe.”

As originally introduced, the bill would have completely eliminated the sale and trade of shark fins in Florida. But after industry and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission presented facts about how Florida’s commercial fishermen responsibly land and harvest sharks, the bill was altered to specifically target those engaged in illegal shark finning. It was introduced in the Florida Senate by Sen. Travis Hutson, where it passed 39-0, and in the Florida House by Reps. Joe Gruters and Alex Miller, where it passed 115-0.

“This bill started out bad but ended up good, because lawmakers listened to their constituents and listened to the science,” said SFA Executive Director Bob Jones. “Our commercial fishermen catch the whole shark in a process that is rigorous and transparent. We despise anyone that would take any kind of animal and cut part of it off and just throw the rest away. That’s immoral and that’s wrong.”

About the Sustainable Shark Alliance

The Sustainable Shark Alliance (SSA) is a coalition of shark fishermen and seafood dealers that advocates for sustainable U.S. shark fisheries and supports healthy shark populations. The SSA stands behind U.S. shark fisheries as global leaders in successful shark management and conservation.

About the Southeastern Fisheries Association

The Southeastern Fisheries Association (SFA) is a Florida-based nonprofit trade association founded by a core group of fish dealers in 1952. The SFA defends, protects, and enhances the commercial fishing industry in the Southeastern United States while maintaining healthy and sustainable stocks of fish.

Japan joins Port State Measures Agreement

May 24, 2017 — Japan has become the 48th country to join the Port State Measures Agreement (PSMA), a global treaty designed to help eradicate illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing.

The treaty was ratified in June 2016 after it reached the threshold of 25 signatories. Since it went into effect, an additional 20 countries have become parties to PSMA, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Japan’s movement to become a part of the treaty is significant due to its large consumption of imported seafood – ranked third globally behind the European Union and the United States.

“The ratification of the agreement signifies a critical step in Japan’s efforts to close its ports to illegal fishers,” the Pew Charitable Trusts said in a statement.”

Tony Long, director of Pew’s Ending Illegal Fishing Project, delivered high praise Japan for its action.

“Japan is one of the world’s top fishery producers and has demonstrated a growing concern about illegal fishing in the past several years through its membership in all regional fisheries management organizations and its consistent support of catch documentation schemes and IUU fishing measures,” Long said. “Although fertile fishing grounds surround the country, its fishery production has been on the decline for the past few decades, making it more dependent on imports. Given Japan’s importance as both a fishing nation and consumer of seafood, its accession to the Port State Measures Agreement is an important step toward eliminating it both as a market and opportunity to land seafood that has been caught illegally.

Read the full story at Seafood Source