Saving Seafood

Fishermen, Dealers, Processors – Join USITC Roundtable on Impacts of Imports and Illegal Fishing

September 15, 2020 — The following was released by the New England Fishery Management Council:

Dear fishermen, seafood dealers, processors, and other fishing industry stakeholders,

This message is about an important discussion you may want to participate in.  A flyer for the event is attached.

WHAT’S THIS ABOUT:  The U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC) will host a virtual roundtable to gather input from New England and Mid-Atlantic fishing industry stakeholders on two topics: (1) the impacts of illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing on the U.S. fishing industry; and (2) the impacts of seafood imports on U.S. products and markets.

WHEN WILL THIS HAPPEN:  The roundtable is being held alongside the New England Fishery Management Council’s next meeting.  The roundtable itself will take place on Tuesday, September 29, 2020 at 6:00 p.m. or shortly following the close of Council business that day.

WHO CAN PARTICIPATE:  All stakeholders are encouraged to join the discussion.  Anyone who fishes for, sells, or processes seafood in New England or the Mid-Atlantic region may be able to provide helpful information to the USITC as it works to brief Congress on IUU fishing and impacts of imports on U.S. fisheries.

HOW DO I JOIN THE ROUNDTABLE:  To participate:

  • Visit this link and select “join from your browser.”  You will be asked to provide your full name and an email address.
  • If you are accessing the videoconference via a Webex application, copy and paste 199 705 4058into the box for the meeting number/access code and Y7Byi8h6Hu2 for the password.
  • Also, if you think you may join the roundtable discussion, email the USITC’s Daniel Matthews at daniel.matthews@usitc.gov to let him know you’re interested.
WHAT DOES THE USITC WANT TO KNOW FROM ME:  Anything related to impacts on U.S. fishermen from seafood imports or illegal fishing!  Here are some examples of questions the commission is interested in. 
  • Competition with Imports:  How is the squid fishery off the East Coast impacted by squid imports?
  • Demand Trends:  Have groundfish buyers, whether sourcing supply for U.S. markets or key export markets, required increased traceability in recent years?
  • Pricing Trends:  Do imported scallops directly compete with U.S. markets and influence the price U.S. fishermen receive for their product
  • Substitutability:  Do Atlantic cod and haddock imports reduce demand for U.S.-caught cod and haddock?
  • Supply Chains: Do U.S. squid processors process both domestic and imported product?

QUESTIONS:  Email the USITC’s Dan Matthews at daniel.matthews@usitc.gov with any questions you have about the upcoming roundtable.  He is happy to help.

MORE USITC INFORMATION:  At the request of Congress, the USITC is conducting the following investigation.  All related documents are available at the links below.

Move to increase EU’s seafood supply-chain transparency welcomed by environmental groups

September 14, 2020 — The European Parliament’s Committee on the Environment (ENVI) has voted in favor of steps that would bring more transparency to E.U. fisheries activities and traceability to seafood supply chains.

ENVI’s proposed amendments to the fisheries control regulation include:

  • Vessel tracking and catch reporting to be required for all E.U. vessels.
  • The use of cameras on part of the fleet to ensure full and verifiable documentation of seafood catches.
  • Migrating the current paper-based seafood traceability systems into a digital format.
  • Information on fisheries monitoring and control efforts to be made public.
  • Making the sanctioning system more effective and considerate of environmental rules in all member states.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Trial delayed for U.S. captain held in British Virgin Islands

September 11, 2020 — Michael Foy, the U.S. longline captain jailed in the British Virgin Islands since June 11, has seen his trial postponed on Tortola until Oct. 1 as the island goes through another round of covid-19 partial shutdowns, according to Foy’s family.

Foy, 60, of Manahawkin, N.J., was initially charged with illegal entry in violation of the island’s covid-19 precautions, then with a charge of illegal fishing, although he had been fishing south of Puerto Rico.

Foy and his local attorney arrived in court as scheduled Sept. 9 only to be told the hearing was rescheduled, according to his brother Joe Foy.

Responding to urgent requests from his lawyers in Tortola and the U.S., the National Marine Fisheries Service produced 27 pages of documentation from Foy’s vessel monitoring system, with data showing he fished far from BVI waters. They have that evidence in hand for when they do get a court hearing, according to Joe Foy.

Michael Foy’s vessel Rebel Lady was laid to offshore June 8, waiting for customs clearance to enter the port of Road Town as he had done many times before, but Foy was arrested after BVI authorities instructed him to follow a customs vessel into the harbor.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

International Crime Ring That Trafficked in Shark Fins Is Dismantled, U.S. Says

September 8, 2020 — Shark fin soup, considered a delicacy in some countries, has long fueled demand for illegally harvested fins. But federal authorities in Georgia announced this week that they had dismantled at least one source for the ingredient: a multimillion-dollar organization they described as an international money laundering, drug trafficking and illegal wildlife trade ring.

A dozen people, including Terry Xing Zhao Wu, 45, of Burlingame, Calif., and two businesses on opposite ends of the country face multiple charges, including fraud and money laundering, for their roles in what the authorities called the “Wu transnational criminal organization,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Georgia said in a statement on Thursday.

“United with our partner agencies, we have shut down an operation that fed a seemingly insatiable overseas appetite for illegally traded wildlife, and seized ill-gotten assets derived from that despicable criminal enterprise,” Bobby L. Christine, the U.S. attorney for the district, said in the statement.

Read the full story at The New York Times

New paper highlights spread of organized crime from global fisheries

September 8, 2020 — A new paper calls for greater coordination by governments around the world to tackle the persistent problem of organized crime in the fisheries industry impacting the wider economy.

The “blue paper” published Aug. 18 by the High Level Panel for a Sustainable Ocean Economy, an initiative by 14 world leaders, highlights the extent of crimes associated with global fisheries beyond illegal fishing, including fraud, money laundering, corruption, and drug and human trafficking. They occur worldwide throughout the entire fisheries value chain: onshore, at sea, in coastal regions, and online, it says.

The paper says these crimes are profit-driven while depriving states of national revenue, threatening the livelihoods of coastal communities and endangering marine ecosystems around the world. The authors add that the perpetrators behind organized crime in the fisheries industry are companies with complex operational activities in many countries. Some of these crimes are corporate in nature, as in the laundering of criminal proceeds through offshore financial centers where ownership can’t be traced.

Read the full story at Mongabay

Change.org Petition Has Over 4,000 Signatures to Free Imprisoned Commercial Fisherman Michael Foy

September 2, 2020 — A petition created on Change.org to free imprisoned commercial fisherman Michael Foy has gathered over 4,000 signatures.

Foy, who lives in Puerto Rico, has been imprisoned in Tortola, the largest of the British Virgin Islands, since June 8. As the captain of commercial fishing vessel Rebel Lady, Foy departed Puerto Rico for a fishing expedition on May 29. His vessel was carrying 7,000 pounds of fish when he was detained for illegally entering the British Virgin Islands during the pandemic. Foy allegedly believed that the BVI port had been closed, not the border itself. He was reportedly drifting near the coastal border off Norman Island while waiting to get customs clearance to return to Puerto Rico when a patrol boat escorted him to shore. Authorities arrested Foy for not only illegal entry, but for illegal fishing. His vessel was seized, as well as the cargo, which was worth a reported $60,000. He was placed in a cell, where he’s been sitting ever since.

Read the full story at Seafood News

Supporters seek U.S. government help for jailed longline captain who faces half-million-dollar fine

September 2, 2020 — Family and friends of an American longline captain are pressing the U.S. government to help free him from jail and return his boat that was seized after he was led by customs officers into a British Virgin Islands port.

Michael Foy, 60, of Manahawkin, N.J., has been jailed in Tortola since June 11, initially charged with illegal entry in violation of the island’s covid-19 precautions, then with a charge of illegal fishing — although he had been fishing south of Puerto Rico, far away from BVI waters.

Foy’s family says his vessel Rebel Lady was laid-to offshore June 8, waiting for clearance to enter the port of Road Town as he had done many times before. He and his crew were approached by BVI authorities and instructed to follow their boat into port. Foy was under the impression that he was getting customs clearance. Instead, to his surprise, he was taken into custody by officers at the dock, and the Rebel Lady was impounded.

Initially charged with illegal entry, Foy was also charged a few days later with not arriving at an “authorized port,” and with operating an unlicensed or unregistered fishing vessel — a move that suddenly jacked up potential penalties to $511,000.

Foy’s family and other fishermen have pressed the U.S. State Department for action, invoking a 1970s law called the Fishermen’s Protection Act. According to a summary of its provisions, the law requires that the federal government, “after a U.S. vessel has been seized by a foreign government, to take such steps as are necessary to protect the vessel and the health and welfare of its crew; to secure the release of such vessel and the crew; and to determine the amount of any fine, license fee, registration fee, and any other direct charge that is reimbursable.”

Read the full story at National Fisherman

Federal charges filed in a 2018 shark fin trafficking case

September 1, 2020 — Hamada Suisan Co. Ltd., the owner of a Japanese-flagged fishing vessel, was charged in federal court Monday tied to the illegal trafficking of shark fins.

The charges of aiding and abetting the attempted export of shark fins stems from a November 2018 discovery of hundreds of fins in the possession of workers from the fishing vessel, M.V. Kyoshin Maru No. 20.

According to the Department of Justice, the vessel’s Indonesian workers legally came to Hawaii to board flights out of the Honolulu International Airport. During routine TSA screenings of carry-on luggage, agents found some 962 shark fins within their bags, weighing in approximately 190 pounds.

Read the full story at Hawaii News Now

The human impact of organized crime in fisheries extends far beyond the ocean

September 1, 2020 — Despite the name, organized crime in fisheries is not only about fishing. While illegal fishing is a serious problem across many regions of the world, organized crime in the fisheries sector extends much farther. It occurs globally throughout the entire fisheries value chain: on-shore; at-sea; at the coastal interface; and in cyberspace. Regardless of where it occurs or how it happens, its harmful effects take a massive toll on human populations worldwide.

Organized crime in the fisheries sector can take various forms including drug and human trafficking, fraudulent catch documentation, money laundering and corruption — crimes that have potentially dire humanitarian implications. These crimes are profit-driven, diverting government revenue to the shadow blue economy at the expense of coastal communities and the pursuit of key sustainable development goals such as zero hunger, zero poverty and peace, justice and strong institutions. These crimes also directly can endanger those who are exploited in their perpetration.

People in many coastal nations, particularly developing countries, depend on the fisheries sector for food and jobs. Large ocean nations are particularly vulnerable to disruptions in the sector, as recently exposed by the impacts of COVID-19. Criminal networks operating in the fisheries sector exacerbate the economic dislocation of local coastal communities, threaten already tenuous food security and divert much-needed state revenue. But there is hope: effectively tackling organized crime in fisheries will help foster a sustainable ocean economy which, in turn, will benefit communities reliant on the ocean and its resources.

Read the full story at GreenBiz

US family fighting to free commercial fishermen held prisoner in British Virgin Islands

September 1, 2020 — A U.S. family from New Jersey is fighting to get the U.S. State Department to intervene in the imprisonment of Mike Foy, a commercial fisherman who has been held in the British Virgin Islands since 8 June.

Foy, according to a Change.org petition nearing 5,000 signatures, was waiting in the waters of Tortola for clearance to enter the island’s port in order to obtain passport stamps for the crew so they could obtain clearance to Puerto Rico – a requirement of U.S. Customs. Instead, Foy was imprisoned and charged with “illegal entry and unlicensed fishing” after being told to dock his boat off the coast.

Read the full story at Seafood Source