Saving Seafood

Florida’s freshwater turtles falling prey to the international black market

March 4, 2020 — Florida freshwater turtles are being illegally caught and exported live in increasingly large numbers to keep up with demand for their meat, their supposed medicinal purposes and their value as pets, state wildlife officials said this month.

The black market trade is putting a strain on the state’s already vulnerable fresh water and terrestrial turtle populations, and officials say they expect demand to grow along with the dollar amount poachers in Florida can fetch.

Depending on the species, harvesters can make anywhere from $300 to more than $16,000 for a single turtle, officials say.

The appetite for freshwater turtles in Asian countries like China, Indonesia and India is already measured in tons per day, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, and it has reached the point where it is unsustainable. While China has large farms raising turtles, the demand for wild caught adult turtles in the country is exploding.

Turtles live a long time, some species from 80 to more than 100 years, and they reach sexual maturity later in life than many other animals. This combination makes their populations particularly at risk to not only poaching, but to development, traffic and predatory animals, as well as sea level rise and climate change.

Read the full story from the Miami Herald at the Baltimore Sun

SADC states developing joint strategy to combat IUU

March 3, 2020 — As campaigns against illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing continue in Africa, at least eight countries have resolved to develop a common strategy to counter the practice.

The eight countries, all members of the Southern Africa Development Community – an inter-governmental organization headquartered in Gaborone, Botswana – are drawing up a plan of action on monitoring, control, and surveillance (MCS) methods. Those methods are planned for both the marine and inland water fisheries in the country, with the intention of countering illicit activities such as illegal fish landings, transshipment at sea, violations of catch limits, and deployment of illegal equipment.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

WPFMC Leaders Express USCG Appreciation for Combatting IUU Fishing in Western Pacific Region

March 2, 2020 — Western Pacific Fishery Management Council Chair Taotasi Archie Soliai and Executive Director Kitty M. Simonds laud the US Coast Guard’s recent success in combating illegal, unregulated and unreported (IUU) fishing in the Western Pacific Region.

On Monday, the Maritime Executive reported that for the first time since 2012, the Coast Guard’s Honolulu-based 14th District intercepted foreign vessels illegally operating within the U.S. exclusive economic zone waters off Guam and Hawai’i.

Read the full story at Seafood News

WPRFMC: Kudos to the Coast Guard for Combatting IUU Fishing in the Western Pacific Region

February 28, 2020 — The following was released by the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council:

Taotasi Archie Soliai and Kitty M. Simonds, chair and executive director of the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council, laud the US Coast Guard’s recent success in combating illegal, unregulated and unreported (IUU) fishing in the Western Pacific Region.

On Monday, the Maritime Executive reported that for the first time since 2012, the Coast Guard’s Honolulu-based 14th District intercepted foreign vessels illegally operating within the US exclusive economic zone (EEZ) waters off Guam and Hawai’i.

“While regulation compliance among US fishers is near 97 percent, some of the lowest policed areas, such as the waters in the Western and Central Pacific, are responsible for the highest percentage of significant violations,” said Lt. Jason Holstead. He reported that the Coast Guard has addressed foreign incursions in the EEZs of partner countries and IUU fishing on the high seas but not in the US EEZ in the past eight years.

The interdiction of the foreign vessels in the US EEZ came on the heels of last week’s 2020 State of the United States Coast Guard address delivered by Admiral Karl Schultz. “China, with the world’s largest distant water fishing fleet, is one of the worst predatory fishing offenders, engaging in what we call illegal, unreported, unregulated fishing–or IUU,” Schultz said. “This is far more than just about conservation and sustainability, this is a national security challenge warranting a clear response.”

Schultz noted that many Pacific Island Countries, “and even American island territories, lack the capability and capacity to fully police their sovereign waters …”

“To enhance maritime domain awareness across the Pacific Ocean, we are fostering a partnership with Global Fishing Watch,” Schultz said. Additionally, the Coast Guard is “on track to take delivery of the first two 154-foot Fast Response Cutters to be home-ported in Guam” by the end of the year, Schultz added. They will replace 40-year-old vessels and strengthen the Coast Guard’s capabilities in the region.

“We have advised the government over the years that China is an aggressive player in Oceania in search of natural gas, minerals, fish and other raw materials,” said Simonds. “This aggressiveness is in part demonstrated by its heavy subsidizing of its fishing fleets.” According to Marine Policy (vol. 68), in 2013 the Chinese central government spent $6.5 billion on fisheries subsidies. In recent years, China’s South Pacific albacore catch has increased to 40 to 50 percent of the total catch for all countries, while the catch by American Samoa has decreased to 2 percent of the total catch, which has jeopardized the local albacore longline fleet. In response, the Council recommended allowing the local fleet access to waters from 12 to 50 nautical miles of shore in the US EEZ around American Samoa. “It is good to see that our government has begun to recognize the threat to our nation’s fisheries in the Western Pacific,” Simonds said.

Sean Martin, president of the Hawaii Longline Association, noted that China’s presence is in the Eastern Pacific as well. It recently received a quota for 6,000 metric tons (mt) of longline-caught bigeye tuna transferred from Japan. Korea also received a 2,000-mt quota transfer from Japan. “One third of Hawai’i effort is in Eastern Pacific,” Martin said, noting that 8,000 mt is equivalent to the total annual bigeye tuna catch of the Hawai’i longline fleet in both the Western and Central Pacific and Eastern Pacific combined.

The issue of international tuna management and enforcement is on the agenda for the Council’s 181st meeting, which convene March 10-12 in Honolulu. Prior to this meeting, the Council’s Scientific and Statistical Committee will meet next week to review the scientific aspects of the topics on the Council’s agenda. For more information on these meetings, go to http://www.wpcouncil.org/meetings-calendars/ or contact the Council at (808) 522-8220 or by email at info.wpcouncil@noaa.gov.

Carlos Rafael’s boats set to sail again with new owners

February 27, 2020 — Several boats once owned by disgraced fishing mogul Carlos Rafael, infamous in the region for being nicknamed the “Codfather,” will once again set sail, thanks to new management.

Blue Harvest Fisheries has bought several of the boats that became disused due to Rafael’s conviction for ignoring fishing quotas and limits, as well as smuggling profits overseas. Rafael was sentenced to four years in prison and can never run a fishing operation ever again.

The company says its acquisition will help keep locals employed on the New Bedford waterfront and maintain the tradition that made it the Whaling City for generations of fishermen.

“Our goal here is to create jobs and opportunities for New England fisheries,” Blue Harvest CEO Keith Decker said. “Everyone, in general, is very excited about what this means to the greater New Bedford area.”

Read the full story at WPRI

Coast Guard Commandant: Illegal Chinese Fishing a ‘National Security Challenge’ That Warrants U.S. Response

February 27, 2020 — The “Great Power Competition” with Russia and China isn’t limited to winning allies in geostrategic flash points or sailing through contested areas to promote freedom of the seas, according to the commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard.

Near-peer adversaries “are actively exploiting other nations’ natural resources, including fish stocks. In many cases [they are] challenging the sovereignty of smaller or less-developed nations,” Adm. Karl Schultz said in his annual State of the Coast Guard address, live-streamed Feb. 20 from Charleston, South Carolina.

Schultz identified China, which has the world’s largest distant water fishing fleet, as “one of the worst predatory fishing offenders,” engaging in Illegal, unreported, unregulated fishing (IUU). The problem goes beyond conservation and sustainability, he said — “This is a national security challenge warranting a clear response.”

An essential protein source for more than 40% the world’s population, fish stocks are critical to the sovereignty and economic security of many nations. The most conservative estimates put the annual loss to the global economy from IUU fishing at more than $23 billion.

Read the full story at Seapower

USCG Intercepts Illegal Fishing Vessels Off Guam and Hawaii

February 27, 2020 — For the first time in eight years, the U.S. Coast Guard has intercepted illegal fishing vessels within American EEZ areas in the Central and Western Pacific. Fishing boat interdiction is a common task for the Coast Guard off the coast of Texas, where Mexican “lancha” fishing boats are routinely intercepted in U.S. waters, but IUU fishing by foreign vessels is almost unheard of in America’s far-flung Pacific Ocean EEZ regions.

“While we’ve seen incursions into the EEZs of partners and illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing on the high seas, these are the first interdictions we’ve had in the U.S. EEZ since 2012,” said Lt. Jason Holstead of the Coast Guard’s 14th District, which is responsible for most of the Pacific from Hawaii west. “The combination of partnerships, electronic methods, and putting assets on the scene to catch violators in the act is essential to deterring IUU fishing in Oceania.”

In both cases, the Coast Guard was conducting surveillance flights in the zones off Guam and Hawaii with HC-130 aircraft crews based near Pearl Harbor. Case packages for the intercepts were forwarded to the NOAA Office of Law Enforcement for further action, and the investigations are pending.

Read the full story at The Maritime Executive

Seafood importing countries could lock out illegal fish with better control schemes, group says

February 26, 2020 — Aligning countries’ seafood import control schemes would reduce cost burdens for seafood companies while helping prevent illegally caught fish from reaching global markets.

A coalition of NGOs is arguing that major seafood importing countries and Regional Fishery Management Organizations (RFMOs) need to ensure that their import regulations require the collection of 17 key data points that reveal the who, what, when, where, and how of seafood in the supply chain. Currently, a lack of data prevents cross-checking against authorization records – making it impossible to confirm the legality of imported seafood.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

FLORIDA: Proposed shark fin sale ban dismays fishermen

February 24, 2020 — Dave Campo has been catching sharks since he was 12. He spends his nights bobbing on the Gulf of Mexico or the Atlantic Ocean, waiting patiently in the dark for his catch and hauling the 80- to 300-pound fish on board his boat, the Miss Maggie, with his crew.

When the Miss Maggie docks, each shark, already gutted and beheaded, is carefully lifted out of a large icebox that takes up about a quarter of the boat. Crew member Ed Zirkel, 30, dressed in white rubber overalls and bright orange gloves, grabs a sharp knife and, from the dorsal to the lower tail lobe, systematically slices off each fin. With the rubber waders off, a thick scar is visible on the front of his leg — it’s from a shark bite.

Once the sharks’ stomachs are removed, each heavy carcass is weighed, chopped into fillets, skinned, packaged and weighed again. By the time the men have finished their work, the floors of the boat and the fish house are covered with a thin layer of watery blood.

Pending state legislation in Florida could soon quash this scene.

In the U.S., shark finning — the gruesome process of stripping living sharks of their fins, dumping the fish back in the water and leaving them to struggle for life, drown or bleed to death — has been outlawed since the Shark Finning Prohibition Act was signed into law by President Bill Clinton on Dec. 21, 2000. Many states since then have also banned the import, export and sale of fins, which is different from finning, but nonetheless controversial. Two bills — HB 401 and SB 680 — are currently moving through the Florida Legislature to ban all fin sales.

Robert Hueter, director of the Sarasota-based Mote Marine Laboratory’s Center for Shark Research, said the anti-finning bills may be well-intended but would have negative consequences.

Hueter said banning the import and export of fins in Florida will merely push the illegal trade underground, preventing regulation, and promote wastefulness by forcing local fishermen to throw away the fins on the sharks they catch.

Read the full story at The Gainesville Sun

MASSACHUSETTS: Most of ‘Codfather’ fishing fleet sold

February 24, 2020 — Except for a few loose ends, Carlos Rafael’s fleet has now been sold.

Blue Harvest Fisheries, with facilities in Newport News, Virginia, and Fairhaven and New Bedford, finalized the purchase Thursday of 12 large fish trawlers, 27 fishing permits and their quota allocations that once belonged to the disgraced New Bedford fishing industry mogul.

Once dubbed “The Codfather” for his outsize presence and influence across the Northeast commercial fishing industry, Rafael is serving a 46-month sentence in a federal prison at the former Fort Devens in Harvard. He pleaded guilty to falsely labeling fish, smuggling cash, tax evasion and falsifying federal records as part of a scheme to catch and sell fish for which he did not have the necessary quota.

Under the terms of an agreement in a civil case brought by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Rafael agreed to leave commercial fishing and to sell off all his vessels by December 2020. His attorney, John Markey, said 95% of that divestiture is now complete. All that remain are a herring trawler and its permit, two fishing permits that are already under a sales agreement that has not been executed and two fishing vessels that have no permits.

Blue Harvest CEO Keith Decker and Markey would not disclose the amount paid for the dozen trawlers, but Markey said Rafael has now paid off his debts.

Read the full story at the Cape Cod Times