Saving Seafood

How small-scale seafood supply chains adapt to COVID-19 disruptions

May 3, 2021 — In February 2020, Rio (not his real name), a crab and sea snail processor in Langkat regency on the Indonesian island of Sumatra, found his business drying up. Normally at this time of year his business would have been booming from seafood exports to China and Hong Kong for the Lunar New Year festival.

Like many others in small-scale seafood supply chains across the world, Rio was feeling the impacts of COVID-19.

In the early months of the pandemic, community lockdowns and public health risks combined with restrictions on worker movement and seafood trade forced small-scale fishing communities in several parts of the world to close down their businesses. They were left in a state of economic and social uncertainty.

Some small, local seafood vendors, like Indonesian pedagang along-along who sell fish, vegetables and other perishable foods from motorbikes, adapted. They were able to continue selling seafood despite the pandemic.

How did they cope? What helped or hindered others in small-scale seafood supply chains as they dealt with uncertainties generated by COVID-19?

Read the full story at PHYS.org

How new technology is helping to identify human rights abuses in the seafood industry

February 26, 2021 — After being at sea for two long years, 37-year-old Indonesian fisherman Darmaji finally stepped off the Taiwanese tuna fishing vessel he had been working on and back onto firm ground in May of 2020. Verbally abused daily, Darmaji’s largely Indonesian crew of 22 often worked 18-hour days—even when seven-meter waves flooded the boat interior—and were typically allowed to sleep for only three hours. Meals consisted of gummy rice, boiled chicken or fish, and, at times, even bait fish. The crew had to pay for any other food they consumed and drank largely distilled saltwater.

As if the daily indignities weren’t enough, Darmaji didn’t receive the full pay he was promised in his contract, and even had to pay a $1,200 security deposit before receiving his monthly salary. “It’s a prison at sea,” Darmaji said.

Lured by the promise of high wages offered by recruitment agencies, Darmaji is one of an estimated 23,500 Indonesians working on foreign boats. Globally, capture fishing employs 27 million people, primarily from developing countries. Indonesia is one of the biggest sources of cheap migrant labor for fishing fleets from China, South Korea, and Taiwan.

Darmaji experienced verbal abuse, debt manipulation, underpayment, and atrocious living conditions, but he is one of the luckier ones—thousands of other forced laborers also endure physical abuse at sea. Beatings for insubordination are not uncommon, said Max Schmid, deputy director at the Environmental Justice Foundation, a nonprofit that aims to raise public awareness of environmental and human rights abuses. One worker described getting locked in a freezer, and later electrocuted with a tool used to kill tuna, he notes. Schmid and colleagues have interviewed hundreds of Indonesian fishermen about working conditions on distant water fishing vessels mainly flagged to Taiwan, China or South Korea; over 20 percent of them described physical violence.

Read the full story at The Counter

Third Indonesia tuna fishery achieves MSC certified sustainable status

January 29, 2021 — The following was released by the Marine Stewardship Council:

The Indonesia pole-and-line and handline, skipjack and yellowfin tuna of Western and Central Pacific archipelagic waters is the third tuna fishery in Indonesia to meet the globally recognized standard for sustainable fishing, set by the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC), an environmental non-profit.

The certification signals an encouraging result for the Indonesian Pole and Line and Handline Tuna Fisheries Association (AP2HI) and the International Pole and Line Foundation (IPNLF) that manage the fishery and have committed to ensuring all Indonesian tuna fisheries become sustainable.

To be MSC certified, a fishery must show the stock it catches is healthy, that it minimizes its impact on the environment and has effective management in place.

Around 60% of the total 11,000 tons caught by the certificate holders is yellowfin tuna, distributed as loin, poke (pronounced poh-keh) and saku, while the certified skipjack will be sold as frozen product to export markets in the U.S and UK.

Eight fisheries are involved, consisting of 380 fishing vessels, scattered throughout the Indonesian archipelago from North Sulawesi and North Maluku to the Banda Sea, and East and West Flores.

Independent assessors, NSF International, determined the fishery should be certified following detailed assessments and stakeholder consultations with the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC) – the regional body responsible for 60% of the world’s tuna catch – as well as national and provincial government.

As MSC fisheries are expected to meet a high bar for sustainable fishing, the association has eight goals it must meet within five years to retain its certificate, relating to harvest strategies and stock management.

The MSC is working with the fishing industry in Indonesia, to help more fisheries to achieve sustainable fishing.

Members of Indonesian Pole and Line and Handline Tuna Fisheries Association (AP2HI) have been in a fishery improvement project since 2014 and have been in part supported through MSC’s Fish for Good project.

In 2019, the Indonesian Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries (MMAF) and the MSC signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), affirming a joint commitment to strengthening collaboration on sustainable fishing. In May 2020, the North Buru and Maluku Fair Trade Fishing Associations, Indonesian Handline Yellowfin Tuna was certified to the MSC Standards, the second fishery in Indonesia, demonstrating the success of the MoU.

Asia Pacific Director at the Marine Stewardship Council, Patrick Caleo, stated: “We extend our congratulations to AP2HI for their hard work and success in progressing another tuna fishery to achieve MSC certification. Managing various fisheries with different specifications for assessment needs a rigorous strategy and clear implementation.”

Acting Director General of Capture Fisheries, the Indonesian Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries, Ir. Muhammad Zaini, M.M. said: “Again, we have successfully shown the world our commitment towards sustainable tuna fishing in Indonesia. As the one of the largest tuna producers in the world, it is vital we enable the certification journey through a fisheries improvement project in order to sustainably grow while remaining viable for future livelihoods. Support from stakeholders to our small-scale tuna fisheries which help accelerate progress towards sustainability, is pivotal to this goal. Indonesia is proud to have our third tuna fishery meet the highest global fisheries sustainability standard.”

Chairwoman of the Pole & Line and Handline Fishery Association, Janti Djuari said: “Working together towards sustainable fisheries has been our commitment since 2012. Certification owned by the association is a synergy of collective industry with support from the Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries, local government, business, IPNLF and other stakeholders – and provides value added to the sustainable skipjack and yellowfin tuna stock. Even though 2020 was colored by the pandemic impacting the tuna business in Indonesia, this certification is a new start. We are confident that this certification will encourage our members in the association to develop a more sustainable and traceable fishing practice.

Director of IPNLF Southeast Asia, Jeremy Crawford, said: “We are pleased to be part of this important process of building value in the local one-by-one tuna supply chains. Together with our local partners, and with the support of the Indonesian Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries (MMAF), IPNLF has been able to realize significant improvements in fishery operations, governance, and in securing livelihoods. Members of IPNLF and supply chain partners, such as AP2HI, play an important role in securing the sustainability pillars – environmental, social and economic benefits – which is our first priority. This is the only way to ensure that vulnerable communities are securing access to food security and economic well-being for the long term.”

Indonesia’s new intelligence hub wields data in the war on illegal fishing

September 30, 2020 — In late July, a high-speed chase stirred the waters northeast of Indonesia’s Natuna Islands, as patrol officers pursued a Vietnamese vessel suspected of illegal fishing.

Having fled when authorities approached it for questioning, the Vietnamese crew tossed a fishing net to purge implicating evidence, burned tires to cloud their sight, and zigzagged across the water to evade capture, according to the Indonesian side’s account of the incident. Indonesian officers ordered the sailors to stop. Instead, they tried to ram into the patrol boat.

A visit, board, search and seizure team fired a warning shot into the air, but the Vietnamese attempted to escape. It was only after the team shot the fishing vessel’s platform that it slowed down and yielded to inspection, which uncovered two tons of fish.

The Indonesian Maritime Information Center (IMIC), launched days earlier, on July 22, had helped detect the Vietnamese boat by pooling high-quality surveillance data from several government bodies, according to Demo Putra from the Indonesian Coast Guard (Bakamla), which oversees this initiative.

Read the full story at Mongaby

Chinese Customs finds traces of COVID-19 on Indonesian, Russian seafood packaging

September 21, 2020 — China’s Customs authorities have announced the discovery of traces of COVID-19 on the packaging of seafood originating from Indonesia and Russia.

A shipment of frozen hairtail shipped by Medan City, Indonesia-based Pt. Putri Indah was held by the General Administration of Customs after its packaging was found to contain traces of the novel coronavirus. In response, China has announced that imports from the firm will be barred for a week, according to the Announcement No. 103 from the Chinese Customs Administration.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Drug trafficking could be putting ‘fragile fisheries’ at risk, study says

July 6, 2020 — The fishing boat flew a Singaporean flag as it sailed toward Batam Island in Indonesia. But when Indonesian Navy officers intercepted the vessel and boarded it in February 2018, they discovered that the boat, and its four-person crew, were actually from Taiwan. Flying a false flag wasn’t the only offense — customs officials also found 41 rice sacks packed with a ton of methamphetamine, or crystal meth, hidden beneath food supplies in the vessel’s hold.

The use of fishing vessels to transport drugs is a fairly common occurrence, according to a new study published in Fish and Fisheries. In fact, the study found that drug trafficking on fishing vessels has actually tripled over the last eight years, accounting for about 15% of the global retail value of illicit drugs.

Dyhia Belhabib, the paper’s lead author as well as the principal fisheries investigator at Ecotrust Canada and founder of Spyglass, an online tool that maps out vessels involved in maritime crimes, said there’s actually a distinct lack of data on drug trafficking in the fisheries sector. This study aimed to bridge that gap.

To investigate the relationship between the drug trade and global fisheries, Belhabib and her co-researchers gathered all of the available data on 292 reported global cases between 2010 and 2017, and used estimation techniques to fill in any missing information. For instance, when they had the amount of drugs, but not the price, they calculated prices based on data on the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) database.

Read the full story at Mongabay

Chinese boat that dumped Indonesian crews at sea was also shark-finning: Reports

May 14, 2020 — Conservationists are calling for an investigation into alleged illegal fishing by a Chinese tuna company that kept Indonesian seamen as virtual slaves, leading to the deaths of four of them.

China’s Dalian Ocean Fishing Co. Ltd. has been under scrutiny after reports in early May linked four of its high-seas boats — Long Xing 629, Long Xing 802, Long Xing 605 and Tian Yu 08 — to the human rights abuses of its Indonesian crew members. Four Indonesians died between December 2019 and April 2020 due to the hazardous working conditions on board the boats. The bodies of three of them were dumped overboard for fear of infection, sparking a diplomatic outcry from Jakarta.

Migrant boat crews from Southeast Asia are seen as a source of cheap labor, making up a large proportion of Asia’s distant-water fleets. But deadly conditions await the workers aboard the vessels, such as overwork, having their wages withheld, being forced into debt bondage, and experiencing physical and sexual violence.

The Indonesian government has condemned the abuses of the Indonesian crew on the Chinese boats and called on Beijing to investigate the matter. But conservationists are also calling for both countries to look into allegations that the boats were engaged in illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing (IUU).

Read the full story at Mongabay

National-level fishery improvement project launched in Indonesia

January 29, 2020 — The following was released by the Sustainable Fisheries Partnership:

Sustainable Fisheries Partnership (SFP) is pleased to announce the official launching of an industry-led national-level fishery improvement project (FIP) covering longline tuna in Indonesia. The FIP is listed on the Fishery Progress website as the Indonesia Indian Ocean and Western Central Pacific Ocean tuna – longline FIP.

The comprehensive FIP is being implemented by the Indonesia Longline Tuna Association (ATLI). The scope of the FIP includes:

  • Albacore, yellowfin, and bigeye longline fisheries in the Indian Ocean, within the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of Indonesia and international waters
  • Yellowfin and bigeye longline fisheries in the Western Central Pacific Ocean, within the archipelagic waters and EEZ, as well as on the high seas.

A total of 14 companies, consisting of fishing companies and processors and ATLI, signed a letter of commitment at the recent FIP launch meeting, which took place at the ATLI Secretariat in Benoa Harbour, Bali, Indonesia, on January 23, 2020. The launch was also attended by the navy commander of Bali Province, representatives from the Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries, the quarantine office of Bali, and ATLI members.

The FIP’s goals include four key areas of focus:

  • Improve data collection on catch and bycatch and improve fishing practices
  • Increase onboard observer coverage in the fleet
  • Strengthen the decision-making process for research, monitoring, and evaluations of the fishery
  • Achieve MSC certification.

”Indonesia is a leading producer of tuna, and implementing this national-level FIP, involving more than 250 longline vessels, can make a global impact in increasing the proportion of  shelf-stable and fresh and frozen tuna from well-managed sources,” said Dessy Anggraeni, director of SFP’s Indonesia FIP work.

Members of the Global Fresh and Frozen Tuna Supply Chain Roundtable (SR) are lending their support to the project and 13 SR members have signed a letter expressing their support for development of this FIP.

Dwi Agus Siswa Putra, chairman of ATLI, said, “We are committed to implement the improvement actions listed in the workplan of the longline tuna fishery improvement project, and hope to move towards MSC certification. Furthermore, we strive to make the Indonesia longline tuna regain its position as a prominent product from Indonesia, that is sustainable and that will make all of us proud.”

EDITOR’S NOTE: You can read more about the FIP on the Fishery Progress website here.

Indonesia’s President Visits Island in Waters Disputed by China

January 9, 2020 — President Joko Widodo visited an island in waters disputed by China on Wednesday to assert Indonesia’s sovereignty amid a standoff between Indonesian and Chinese vessels.

The confrontation began in mid-December when a Chinese coast guard vessel and fishing boats, entered waters in Indonesia’s exclusive economic zone, off the coast of the northern Natuna islands, prompting Jakarta to summon Beijing’s ambassador.

Widodo told reporters on Natuna Besar island that the disputed waters belong solely to Indonesia.

“We have a district here, a regent, and a governor here,” he said. “There are no more debates. De facto, de jure, Natuna is Indonesia.”

Widodo also met with fishermen on the island. Earlier this week, Indonesia deployed more ships and fighter jets to patrol the surrounding waters. Nursyawal Embun, the director of sea operations at the Maritime Security Agency, said as of Wednesday morning that two Chinese coast guard vessels remained, while 10 Indonesian ships were on patrol.

Read the full story from Reuters at The New York Times