Saving Seafood

US to ban port access to Mexican boats fishing in the Gulf of Mexico

January 18, 2022 — Starting in February, NOAA Fisheries will enact a ban prohibiting port access for all Mexican fishing boats that operate in the Gulf of Mexico.

The federal agency said in a statement that the move, which will become effective Monday, 7 February, comes as the U.S. issued a “negative certification” against its southern neighbor for illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing in a report to Congress last August. American officials noted that they made the determination in 2019 after making similar determinations in 2015 and 2017.

Read the full story at SeafoodSource

 

Biden administration turning attention to seafood’s labor issues

January 14, 2022 — The administration of U.S. President Joe Biden has released an action plan to combat human trafficking at home and abroad, an initiative that includes a focus on labor issues in the global seafood industry.

The U.S. Trade Representative National Action Plan to Combat Human Trafficking, released in December 2021, involves better coordination among American agencies as well as with other countries’ law enforcement bodies to track and prosecute human trafficking on fishing vessels and in onshore seafood processing facilities. Under the plan, the USTR will ramp up its efforts to encourage other countries to put in place bans on imports of goods made with forced labor.

Read the full story at SeafoodSource

Major seafood players alleged to be connected to IUU fishing in Planet Tracker report

December 8, 2021 — The nonprofit Planet Tracker has publicly named several large seafood companies it alleges are involved with illegal, unreported, or unregulated (IUU) fishing.

The report, “Do You IUU?” lists Seoul, South Korea-based Dongwon Industries Co., and Shenzen, China-headquartered Rongcheng Xinlong Aquatic Products Co. and CNFC Overseas Fisheries Company as having ties to IUU fishing, with vessels listed on the Combined IUU Fishing Vessel List – a consolidation of global IUU vessel lists established by the world’s regional fisheries management organizations (RFMOs).

Read the full story at SeafoodSource

Seafood2030: How technology, government efforts, and market action are aligning to address IUU fishing

December 6, 2021 — The direct economic impacts of illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing on the seafood industry are becoming better understood, as is the reputational risk that these practices cause for the entire seafood industry.

These impacts can be most harmful for developing nations struggling to manage their fisheries sustainably. According to the Stanford Center for Oceans, nearly one billion people worldwide rely on fish as their main source of protein.

Read the full story at SeafoodSource

 

A provocative proposal: sell fishing rights in protected seas to prevent poaching

December 1, 2021 — Marine protected areas can be a victim of their own success. By banning or restricting fishing within their waters, these reserves can build healthy populations of fish, with some swimming into neighboring waters where they can be caught. But sometimes the brimming schools are too much of a temptation, with poachers furtively darting into the protected zone for an illegal haul. Preventing this poaching is hard, experts say, because at-sea enforcement can be complicated and expensive.

Now, researchers have proposed a provocative and heretical-sounding solution: sell fishing rights within parts of plentiful marine reserves and use the money to guard other parts that remain off-limits. And in what might seem like a paradox, the approach could even end up producing more fish, the researchers reported on 17 November in Environmental Research Letters.

The proposal has received mixed reviews. “The idea may sound horrible,” says Christopher Costello, an environmental economist at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB). And some say it’s far too risky because it could encourage governments to shrink reserves to nothing. “I don’t think you should be reducing existing no-take areas to allow more fishing,” says Jon Day, who spent 39 years helping manage Australia’s Great Barrier Reef Marine Park. “That’s really dangerous.”

But other scientists and advocates are intrigued. “I could see the concept working,” says Matt Rand, who leads the large-scale marine habitat conservation program at the Pew Charitable Trusts. “It has a lot of promise.”

Read the full story at Science

USCG, Canadian Coast Guard Target IUU Fishing in North Pacific

November 5, 2021 — The U.S. Coast Guard has wrapped up a joint patrol with Canadian, South Korean and Japanese fisheries officials to target illegal fishing operations in the North Pacific. The operation was hosted by the US Coast Guard Cutter Bertholf, and it included the deployment of a Fisheries and Oceans Canada aircraft patrol based in Japan.

The boarding and inspections teams found prohibited fishing gear; failure to maintain records of catch; improper vessel markings; and illegal retention of salmon. Overall, the operation detected 42 violations of regional fisheries management organization rules, including 25 serious violations. These will be reported to the vessels’ flag states, which could potentially choose to exercise the option to take enforcement action.

Read the full story at The Maritime Executive

 

Amended IUU fishing bill approved by House committee would expand SIMP

October 18, 2021 — A U.S. congressional committee has passed an amended bill that seeks to prevent more seafood produced through illegal practices from entering the country – in part by expanding the Seafood Import Monitoring Program (SIMP).

The U.S. House Natural Resources Committee on Wednesday, 13 October, voted to advance the Illegal Fishing and Forced Labor Prevention Act, legislation sponsored by U.S. Reps. Jared Huffman (D-California) and Garret Graves (R-Louisiana).

Read the full story at SeafoodSource

 

 

32 countries dinged for failure to advance Cape Town Agreement

October 14, 2021 — Two tuna-conservation organizations have accused 32 countries of hindering the fight against illegal, unregulated, and unreported fishing (IUU).

The Global Tuna Alliance (GTA) and Tuna Protection Alliance (TUPA) have, in two joint letters, said the failure by 32 governments to ratify the 2012 Cape Town Agreement (CTA) is complicating efforts to battle illegal fishing. At least 18 nations have yet to sign the agreement, and another 14 have signed but have yet to complete its ratification and implement standards mandated by the agreement, they said.

Read the full story at SeafoodSource

 

US Representative Jared Huffman defends AIS requirement in IUU bill that fishing industry finds redundant

September 30, 2021 — Nearly 130 members of the U.S. fishing industry signed a letter sent earlier this month to the top members of the U.S. House of Representatives subcommittee that oversees fishing policies, expressing concerns about a bill they said would create technological redundancies, add to their costs, and raise privacy concerns.

The industry members told U.S. Reps. Jared Huffman (D-California) and Cliff Bentz (R-Oregon), in the 14 September letter they oppose a proposed requirement in H.R. 3075, also known as the Illegal Fishing and Forced Labor Prevention Act, that would mandate automatic identification systems (AIS) be used to track fishing activities in both U.S. waters and the open seas.

Read the full story at SeafoodSource

 

Great Wall of Lights: China’s sea power on Darwin’s doorstep

September 24, 2021 — It’s 3 a.m., and after five days plying through the high seas, the Ocean Warrior is surrounded by an atoll of blazing lights that overtakes the nighttime sky.

“Welcome to the party!” says third officer Filippo Marini as the spectacle floods the ship’s bridge and interrupts his overnight watch.

It’s the conservationists’ first glimpse of the world’s largest fishing fleet: an armada of nearly 300 Chinese vessels that have sailed halfway across the globe to lure the elusive Humboldt squid from the Pacific Ocean’s inky depths.

As Italian hip hop blares across the bridge, Marini furiously scribbles the electronic IDs of 37 fishing vessels that pop up as green triangles on the Ocean Warrior’s radar onto a sheet of paper, before they disappear.

Immediately he detects a number of red flags: two of the boats have gone ‘dark,’ their mandatory tracking device that gives a ship’s position switched off. Still others are broadcasting two different radio numbers — a sign of possible tampering.

The Associated Press with Spanish-language broadcaster Univision accompanied the Ocean Warrior this summer on an 18-day voyage to observe up close for the first time the Chinese distant water fishing fleet on the high seas off South America.

The vigilante patrol was prompted by an international outcry last summer when hundreds of Chinese vessels were discovered fishing for squid near the long-isolated Galapagos Islands, a UNESCO world heritage site that inspired 19th-century naturalist Charles Darwin and is home to some of the world’s most endangered species, from giant tortoises to hammerhead sharks.

Read the full story from the AP