Saving Seafood

Australia deploys new underwater technology to fight illegal fishing

November 23, 2020 — Australia has deployed a new underwater technology across the Torres Strait aimed at combating illegal foreign fishing, according to the Australian Fisheries Management Authority.

The Maritime Border Command (MBC), an agency within the Australian Border Force (ABF), was in charge of deploying the technology in partnership with the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organizations (CSIRO), which developed the new hydrophones. The hydrophones are capable of detecting and logging vessel sounds, which can differentiate between different kinds of vessel activities.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

MSC urges WTO to end harmful fishing subsidies by end of 2020

November 23, 2020 — The following was released by the Marine Stewardship Council:

The Marine Stewardship Council – an environmental not-for-profit whose mission is to end overfishing – has joined calls for the World Trade Organisation to abolish harmful fishing subsidies and to deliver the UN target which calls for their elimination by 2020.

More than $22 billion of harmful ‘capacity building’ fishing subsidies contribute to overfishing, and lead to the loss of livelihoods and income for coastal communities. They have also been linked to Illegal, unregulated, and unreported (IUU) fishing activity. [1]

Harmful fishing subsidies are incompatible with and undermine the MSC’s vision of healthy and productive marine ecosystems with seafood supplies safeguarded for this and future generations.

The World Trade Organisation (WTO) negotiations on fishing subsidies began nearly two decades ago at the 2001 Ministerial Conference in Doha. Since then overfished stocks have increased from 27% to 34%, in part enabled by harmful subsidies. [2]

In 2015, the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were adopted by 193 nations and the WTO was tasked with the implementation of SDG 14.6. This specific target calls for the establishment by 2020 of a mechanism to eliminate subsidies that contribute to overfishing and overcapacity, including illegal, unregulated, and unreported fishing.

As the end of 2020 approaches, the MSC adds its voice to calls made by Ambassador Peter Thomson, UN Special Envoy for the Oceans and Co-Chair of Friends for Ocean Action, The Pew Charitable Trusts, The Environmental Justice Foundation, WWF International and more than 170 civil society organisations to urge WTO delegates to deliver on this mandate and not to postpone their decision.

The MSC’s Chief Executive, Rupert Howes said, “Humanity is at a crossroads. Urgent and ambitious action is required now. As the world emerges from the global Covid pandemic progress must be made to deliver the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.  The ending of harmful fishing subsidies will benefit the oceans, fishers and their communities and consumers. It will also release much needed funding to support sustainable fishing and the delivery of the remaining ocean-related targets in the SDGs, if redirected appropriately. We hope that the WTO will seize this enormous opportunity before them.”

A New Generation of Autonomous Vessels Is Looking to Catch Illegal Fishers

November 20, 2020 — The first time engineers from Open Ocean Robotics pushed Scooby, a three-meter robotic boat, onto a lake near their office in Victoria, British Columbia, the small craft drove straight into the bushes. Clearly, the team had more work to do on the vessel’s autopilot.

Since that early mission last year, the start-up has won innovation awards, secured seed funding, and “spent tons of time on the water” ironing out the kinks in their autonomous vessels, says Julie Angus, the company’s CEO and cofounder. The 12-person team is now up against Connecticut-based tech company ThayerMahan and Marine Advanced Robotics from Silicon Valley in a cutting-edge design challenge to build a robot that can police illegal fishing in marine protected areas (MPAs). Scooby‘s successor (named after another character) completed the first stage in the multiyear project: a three-day field demonstration using surveillance technology to track boats, detect fishing activity, and collect evidence.

To protect marine wildlife and ecosystems and sustain fisheries, the United Nations, governments, and NGOs are pushing for more and bigger MPAs. But without a clear means of enforcing the regulations that govern them, these areas often draw criticism for being little more than paper parks. In partnership with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW), these three robotics companies are racing to prove that uncrewed vessels are up to the task.

Originally, the trial was planned for the Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary off Santa Barbara, California, but pandemic restrictions meant the participants tested their prototypes separately from around North America and presented the results to the judges remotely. Justin Manley, founder of Just Innovation, the Massachusetts-based marine robotics consultancy coordinating the project, says the upside of the disparate testing is that it let them see how effectively the robots detected different types of fishing boats.

Read the full story at Smithsonian Magazine

US ramping up pressure on China’s use of forced labor in distant-water fishing

November 19, 2020 — Fishery products from China and Taiwan have been added to a list of commodities associated with forced labor in the latest edition of a US government report on child and forced labour globally.

The 2020 edition of the List of Goods Produced by Child Labor or Forced Labor – a report required by the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2005 – claims that the majority of workers on Chinese distant-water fishing vessels are migrants from Indonesia and the Philippines.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Dr. Hilborn: No-take MPAs “do nothing to mitigate” problems facing U.S. oceans

November 18, 2020 (Saving Seafood) — WASHINGTON — Yesterday, at a House Natural Resources Committee hearing on the Ocean-Based Climate Solutions Act, respected fisheries scientist Dr. Ray Hilborn criticized the marine protected area (MPA) provision of the bill, which he called “the wrong tool for adapting to climate change.”

The provision, known as the “30 by 30” plan, would require the establishment of MPAs in at least 30 percent of American waters by 2030. In his testimony, Dr. Hilborn, professor of sustainable fisheries at the University of Washington, cited numerous threats facing U.S. oceans, including climate change, ocean acidification, exotic species, land-based runoff, plastics and illegal fishing.

“There are solutions to each of these problems,” Dr. Hilborn said. “But it is not no-take MPAs – they do nothing to mitigate these problems.”

Dr. Hilborn praised current fisheries management under the regional council process, which he called science-based and credible with industry and other stakeholders. He also pointed out that MPAs would simply push fishing pressure outside of the protected area into other parts of the ocean, with no net gain.

“MPA advocates ignore the fact that ‘30 by 30’ would cause 70 percent of U.S. oceans to see increased fishing pressure from the vessels that moved out of the 30 percent closed, and thus potentially be less resilient to climate change. Do we really want to make 70 percent of our oceans less resilient to climate change?” Dr. Hilborn said.

The hearing kicked off with Ranking Member Rob Bishop (R-UT) introducing a letter organized in part by Saving Seafood and signed by over 800 seafood industry members opposing the “30 by 30” plan. Rep. Bishop added that “30 by 30” is “woefully misguided, does not improve fisheries, it undermines the Magnuson-Stevens Act, and even worse, it’s detrimental to Americans, especially American fishermen.”

Read Dr. Hilborn’s written testimony here

Watch the full hearing here

Sunken boats. Stolen gear. Fishermen are prey as China conquers a strategic sea

November 13, 2020 — On a warm, cloudless morning in June, a giant vessel blasted through the still waters of the South China Sea toward a wooden fishing boat painted in cerulean blue and flying the red flag of Vietnam.

The veteran fishing captain cranked up the engine to flee, but the approaching ship dropped two motorized dinghies into the sea with uniformed officers aboard. The rubber crafts raced along either side of the fishing boat, squeezing it like a pincer.

As the captain slowed to avoid a collision, the large ship was soon upon them. The large letters across its steel hull read: China.

Crammed into their cabin for safety, the 17 men were knocked to the deck by a jolt that nearly tipped the boat. Then another. And another. “Like war,” recalled crew member Nguyen Day.

Read the full story at the Los Angeles Times

How the digital wave is contributing to the rise of sustainable fisheries

November 12, 2020 — World fish consumption has almost doubled between the 1960s and now, and some estimates suggest fish contributes to at least 50 percent of total animal protein intake in developing nations. Despite higher demand for seafood and fish, world reserves have not kept up, and aquaculture is becoming more common as a result.

Aquaculture uses techniques of breeding marine species in all types of water environments as a means to supplement seafood demand. The practice comes with many advantages, including reducing the dependence on wild-caught species, but also raises environmental concerns, which some industry experts are trying to address with up-and-coming technologies such as analytics, blockchain, artificial intelligence and the internet of things.

Jennifer Kemmerly, vice president of global ocean initiatives at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, said a focus on sustainability is necessary in the field, as 3 billion people rely on seafood, and 60 million people rely on the seafood industry for their livelihood. But this demand comes with noticeable problems, Kemmerly observed during a breakout session during VERGE 20 in late October.

“There’s a lot of overfishing, or depleted fish stocks on the wild side of capture fisheries. There is illegality and mismanagement traceability back to the source of where the seafood is coming from, even whether it is farmed or wild… There are environmental issues and concerns that need to be dealt with,” she said.

Read the full story at GreenBiz

‘Prevent, discourage, confront’: South American states tackle Chinese fishing boats

November 5, 2020 — Four South American countries have joined forces in a bid to combat illegal fishing by huge Chinese fleets off their coasts.

Chile, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru have threatened measures “to prevent, discourage and jointly confront” illegal fishing near their exclusive economic zones in the Pacific.

The joint statement made no specific mention of China but environmental groups Greenpeace and Oceana have repeatedly warned of the growing presence of Chinese fishing fleets in the area.

The South American quartet said they would boost “cooperation and real-time exchange of information” to highlight the illegal fishing.

Ecuador in July complained to China over a 300-vessel fleet off Galapagos, saying around half of them had turned off their tracking systems so they could not be located.

Read the full story at The Guardian

Stafford fisherman free from British Virgin Islands jail after plea deal

November 3, 2020 — After a five-month ordeal in which he was imprisoned in the British Virgin Islands, Stafford fisherman Michael Foy accepted a plea deal Friday and is free to go, aside from paying a $4,000 fine.

Foy, 60, was arrested June 8 by British Virgin Islands custom officials and charged with illegal entry for violating the islands’ COVID-19 curfew.

He was subsequently charged with unregistered and unlicensed fishing, and failure to arrive at a customs port.

The Magistrates Court dropped the illegal fishing charges on Oct. 9. Foy’s attorney Paul Edwards of the law firm Hunte & Co. on Tortola, the largest of the British Virgin Islands, said Foy accepted a plea deal that would allow him to keep his fishing vessel, Rebel Lady.

Read the full story at the Asbury Park Press

WWF report finds unregulated fishing escalating in Indian Ocean

November 3, 2020 — A new report by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and Trygg Mat Tracking (TMT) indicates that gaps in regulations resulting in unregulated fishing is putting fisheries in the Indian Ocean at risk.

The new report, titled “Unregulated Fishing on the High Seas of the Indian Ocean,” delved into the unregulated aspect of illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing by examining fisheries that have gaps in regulatory coverage. Released on 2 November, the report shows where unregulated fishing is happening, its impacts on species, and how it has expanded.

Read the full story at Seafood Source