Saving Seafood

Sustainable Fisheries Partnership announces new joint aquaculture improvement project in Indonesia

March 18, 2019 — The following was published by the Sustainable Fisheries Partnership:

Sustainable Fisheries Partnership (SFP) is pleased to announce the initiation of a new sustainable aquaculture improvement project in Indonesia.

The project, scheduled for two years in Banyuwangi, East Java, will focus on improving the sustainability of aquaculture in the region, as well as governance and management of ongoing shrimp farming.

“Effective management of the natural resource base and protection from disease is critical to ensure the long-term investability of the shrimp industry,” said SFP Aquaculture Director Anton Immink.

SFP is working to coordinate the project, together with Conservation International, IDH—the Sustainable Trade Initiative, and Longline Environment. The Indonesian Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries, the Indonesian Ministry of National Development Planning, and the Financial Service Authority of Indonesia will all be collaborating on the project as well.

“This program will support the ministry’s efforts to grow sustainable shrimp exports from Indonesia,” said Machmud, Directorate General of Product Competitiveness for the Indonesian Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries.

The approach is designed to address disease risks and environmental impacts across a politically and ecologically relevant location, to attract investment and insurance and create a scalable model that can be exported to other geographies.

“This project builds positively on the guidelines we jointly developed and creates the action needed to ensure a sustainable future for the shrimp industry in Indonesia,” said Dane Klinger, Aquaculture Innovation Fellow at CI.

The project is supported by the Walton Family Foundation and the Packard Foundation.

Handline tuna fishery becomes first of its kind in Indonesia to pursue full MSC assessment

March 1, 2019 — North American sushi-quality tuna provider Anova Food, LLC., has put its Fair Trade fishery in North Buru Island, Indonesia, up for full assessment against the Marine Stewardship Council’s sustainability standards, the company announced on 26 February.

The handline tuna fishery has become the first of its kind in Indonesia to pursue the MSC assessment, Anova Food said in a press release. The company is working closely with its processing partner Harta Samudra as well as NGO Masyarakat Dan Perikanan Indonesia (MDPI) and the North Buru Fair Trade Committee to compile the documentation required for the assessment. A site visit has been scheduled for March, wherein the compliance assessment body (CAB) will meet with government representatives and other stakeholders to kick off the rigorous process.

“Years of data collection and sustainable fishery practices by Fair Trade fishermen have set the stage for fulfilling the rigorous demands of MSC certification for this handline fishery and we couldn’t be more thrilled,” said Blane Olson, managing director of Anova Technical Services. “Anova first launched the Fair Trade Capture Fishery in North Buru Island five years ago and while it’s successfully been Fair Trade certified, we’ve had our sights set on MSC certification as it’s extremely important for us and our supply chains to reach the highest available standards.”

“At [Indonesia’s Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries] MMAF, we are proud and excited to see the first Indonesian handline tuna fishery enter an MSC full assessment,” added Pak Zulficar Mochtar, director general of capture fisheries. “This assessment sets a precedent not only for Indonesia, but also for small-scale fisheries around the world for which the MSC standard is most challenging to achieve. This has been made possible thanks to the hard work and commitment in the past few years of all parties involved.”

Read the full story at Seafood Source

While global tilapia production increases, US imports fall

February 4, 2019 — Tilapia production globally has steadily increased over the past decade – with 2018 production estimated at nearly 6.3 million metric tons (MT) – yet U.S. imports were forecast to likely be at their lowest level in several years.

The data, shared at the Value Finfish panel during the 2019 Global Seafood Market Conference in Coronado, California earlier this month, estimates that the U.S. imported around 300,000 MT of tilapia in 2018. That’s significantly lower than the 500,000 MT high in 2012.

“Through October, through 2014, things have been on a pretty steady decline,” Todd Clark of Endeavor Seafood said.

The declines are clear in U.S. broadline sales, with virtually every commercial category having a steady three-year decline in sales. Commercial medium chains, representing chains with between 100 and 249 units, fell the most with a 46 percent drop in sales. Non-commercial restaurants, which make up the largest share of tilapia purchasing at over 14 million pounds, dropped six percent.

“Each one of those categories has been on a steady decline,” Clark said.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

India is top exporter of shrimp to US for fourth straight year

February 1, 2019 — India is once again the top country of origin for shrimp entering the United States.

India outpaced Indonesia, Thailand, and Ecuador to take the title for most shrimp exports to the U.S. for the fourth straight year.

Thirty-two percent of all shrimp imported into the U.S. came from India, and India continues to build market share, as it realized a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 25.2 percent between 2014 and 2017, outpacing total U.S. shrimp demand CAGR growth of 7.1 percent, according to India’s Business Standard.

Shrimp exports to the U.S. were up 16 percent in 2018 over 2017 through November, despite lower prices due to a high supply volume, according to ShrimpTails magazine. The anomaly may be due to the expansion of the U.S. Seafood Import Monitoring Program to cover shrimp in 2019.

“As all markets that export shrimp to the U.S. will have to adhere to the requirements set out by SIMP, it seems inevitable that importers and their suppliers are trying to move as much product into the country as they can before it takes effect,” analysts Willem van der Pijl and Ken Salzinger wrote. “Especially for a country like India, which deals with tens of thousands of small-scale farmers, exporters are struggling to trace shrimp all the way back to the original farm, which is part of the requirements under SIMP.”

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Data noose tightening on “handful” of nations responsible for overfishing

January 24, 2019 — Tony Long is the CEO of Global Fishing Watch, a freely accessible and near real-time digital map of the global ocean aimed at exposing illegal fishing. With Japan, Peru, and Indonesia all recently agreeing to share data with Global Fishing Watch as part of an effort to combat illegal fishing, Long is now pushing for more countries to contribute data. Additionally, Long’s office is working with governments and NGOs to make the Global Fishing Watch map more complete and allow the tracking of vessels guilty of illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing. 

SeafoodSource: How important are the ongoing World Trade Organization negotiations on eliminating fishing and fuel subsidies in the fight against IUU fishing?

Long: Cutting or eliminating fuel subsidies are an important fisheries management measure because … fuel subsidies are part of the overcapacity equation – especially for distance fleets and also high-seas fishing. People following the negotiations closely tell me that there are disagreements within the WTO as to whether this is the case. It is vital that this matter can be resolved during the negotiations.

SeafoodSource: You point to a “handful of wealthy countries” as being culpable in IUU fishing. Is this a corporate or a government problem?

Long: It’s both, but ultimately, governments are the ones that allow IUU fishing practices in their fleets to continue. There are many factors beyond harmful subsidies, including weak penalties, poor enforcement and licensing flags of convenience that allow IUU fishing to occur. That said, individual corporations also have huge responsibility. In particular, they can help drive out practices such as bonded labor and slavery at sea, they can demand cleared provenance to their catch by demanding complete and proper tracking of vessels, catch documentation and open licensing as part of their contract with the supply chain. The recent green card given to Thailand is a good example of government, corporations, and NGOs working together to improve a dire situation.

SeafoodSource: According to an article in Science Advances, “On the high seas, 97 percent of all such fishing effort detectable by AIS is conducted by vessels flagged to higher-income nations. Dominance of this high-seas industrial fishing effort at the level of flag nation was highly uneven. The vast majority (86 percent) of this effort can be attributed to only five higher-income countries/entities, in rank order high to low: China, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, and Spain.” Have rich countries also been willing to work with you and to share information?

Long: We have a [memorandum of understanding] signed with Japan to improve research and understanding of IUU fishing in the North Pacific and share data. We have staff in Korea and Taiwan to take forward the benefits of transparency. [And] we are in the very early stages of working with a coalition of European Union-based NGOs to look at the E.U. fleet and coastal states where [those vessels] fish. We are engaging with NGOs and foundations interested in China in order to identify a strategy on working with China.

Read the full Seafood Source

Global shrimp supply will remain high for foreseeable future

January 18, 2019 — The glut in the global supply of shrimp that persisted throughout 2018 will remain in 2019, as cold storage facilities in the United States continue to have supplies lasting months in storage.

A panel of experts at the Global Seafood Market Conference in Coronado, California on 17 January said cold storage facilities in the U.S. had, at times, 30 percent more shrimp in storage in 2018 than they did in 2017.

In addition, the panel predicted that the reserves will not be drawn down significantly in 2019. The primary reason for that is production of shrimp in India, which panelists said will remain close to its record high of 740,000 metric tons (MT), with production in other countries starting to increase as well.

“It all comes back to, ‘What are we going to do with all this shrimp?’” said Jeff Goldberg, president of Fortune Imports.

Estimates indicate that there’s 290 million pounds of shrimp currently in cold storage facilities in the U.S., representing a supply that, with no further production or imports, could last more than three months.

That high amount of supply in storage is coupled with increasing supply coming from countries like Ecuador. Between 2013 and 2018, production of shrimp in Ecuador more than doubled, going from 219,412 MT to 471,026 MT.

Ecuador and India aren’t the only countries with increasing supply. Indonesia, Vietnam, and Mexico also saw growth. The most dramatic growth occurred in Guatemala, which has consistently increased between 30 to 40 percent year-over-year.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

US tilapia demand falls

January 15, 2019 — Americans’ consumption of tilapia has fallen in recent years, while demand from Russia has surged, according to a new report.

While the United States is still the largest importer of tilapia, imports slid an estimated 10 KT in 2017, according to a Fact.MR report.

The U.S. trends mimic the global tilapia market, which declined 6 percent in the first two quarters of 2017, thanks to weakening consumer demand, Fact.MR found.

Consumers globally are buying other specialty fish and are more interested in pangasius, analysts said.

“A special palate for pangasius has been witnessed among seafood consumers worldwide,” Fact.MR said in the report. “The U.S. and China continue to remain the largest consumers of pangasius. Following the increasing domestic demand and lower prices of pangasius, Chinese tilapia farmers are adopting farming of other fish varieties including pangasius.”

Meanwhile, the Russian Federation imported 4 KT more tilapia in 2017 versus 2016.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

SFP report: Path to mahi sustainability requires more data

December 20, 2018 — The Sustainable Fisheries Partnership released its latest sector report on mahi, finding that the biggest obstacle to the fishery reaching its “Target 75” goal is a lack of data in the fishery.

The report, released on 19 December, indicates that 59.3 percent of the mahi fishery can be considered either sustainable or improving. That number is largely related to eight fishery improvement projects (FIP) covering the mahi fishery, with the largest of those centered in Peru.

“The mahi-mahi FIP in Peru produces by far the largest of this ‘improving’ volume (53,297 tons),” the SFP report said

Peru produces the largest amount of mahi in the world by a significant margin, with 61,900 metric tons (MT) of mahi produced in 2015. That total is followed by Ecuador, at 11,400 MT; and Indonesia at 11,300 MT. Together, the three countries represent 70 percent of the world’s mahi production. The three countries currently have FIPs that could be expanded to cover larger portions of their fisheries.

“Mahi is an important large pelagic commodity, especially in the U.S.,” SFP CEO Jim Cannon said. “We’re pleased to see so many fisheries already functioning sustainably or involved in improvement projects that are showing progress. This is good news for the sector.”

According to SFP, if FIPs in Peru, Ecuador, Indonesia, and Costa Rica are expanded to cover the entirety of those nation’s production, the improving category would increase by another 15.3 percent.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Japanese boat owners charged with helping smuggle shark fins

December 17, 2018 — U.S. prosecutors in Hawaii are accusing the owners and officers of a Japanese fishing boat of helping Indonesian fishermen smuggle nearly 1,000 shark fins, worth about $58,000 on the black market.

It’s against U.S. law to remove the fins of sharks at sea. Prosecutors say the fishermen harvested fins from sharks that were still alive, then discarded their carcasses into the ocean. Fins are a pricey delicacy often used in soups

The boat’s owner, Japanese business Hamada Suisan Co. Ltd., and JF Zengyoren, a Japanese fishing cooperative that the vessel belongs to, were charged with aiding and abetting the trafficking and smuggling of 962 shark fins, the U.S. attorney’s office in Hawaii said. The boat’s captain, fishing master and first engineer were also charged.

Read the full story at the Associated Press

SFP: Farmed shrimp has significant sustainability concerns

December 14, 2018 — A new report released by the Sustainable Fisheries Partnership on 12 December indicates that the world’s farmed shrimp production has lingering sustainability concerns with little improvement likely on the horizon.

The new report, which is a part of SFP’s “Target 75” initiative, classifies just 8.8 percent of the global production of farmed shrimp as “improving,” and none is classified as sustainable under the Target 75 standards. The major shrimp production regions that were assessed – China, Ecuador, India, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam – all have high chances of supply chain disruption and have significant sustainability concerns, according to SFP.

“The report highlights the need to work collaboratively across the supply chain to launch aquaculture improvement projects at the zonal scale and improve aquaculture governance,” Casey Marion of Beaver Street Fisheries said.

The biggest target for sustainability improvements, according to the report, are export-heavy markets that engage with countries more actively concerned about sustainability.

“This includes Ecuador, India, Indonesia, Thailand, and Vietnam. Together, these production regions account for 2.1 million metric tons, representing almost 42 percent of global production,” the report states.

Read the full story at Seafood Source