Saving Seafood

Five countries account for 90 percent of distant-water fleet effort

November 15, 2019 — The global distant-water fishing industry benefits just a handful of fishing countries, while capturing the bounty of coastal nations that often have poor governance and limited resources.

A new report published by the Stimson Center identifies the top distant-water fishing fleets in the world, where they operate, and their connection to illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing. The report argues that the current distant-water fishing industry is unsustainable, and makes concrete recommendations for how to increase transparency and accountability.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Your seafood dinner could be tied to slavery on fishing vessels, says journalist

November 13, 2019 — Desperate to escape a life of slavery on a fishing ship in the South China Sea, Cambodian Lang Long took his chances — and jumped overboard.

He was trying to swim to a nearby vessel, but his attempt was short-lived, said investigative journalist Ian Urbina.

“They caught him, brought him back, and from then forward he was shackled by the neck when he was not working,” Urbina told The Current’s interim host Laura Lynch.

He added that after his escape attempt, Long was also routinely beaten.

Urbina interviewed Long for a 2015 New York Times investigation into human trafficking and slavery on fishing vessels, which he described as roach- and rat-infested and men and boys are worked 20 hours a day, six days a week.

His new book, The Outlaw Ocean: Journeys Across The Last Untamed Frontier, returns to the topic of human trafficking and slavery on the high seas, which Urbina said is driven in part by the economics of the fishing industry.

Read the full story at CBC News

International Seafood Sustainability Foundation Announces New Conservation Measure to Bolster Fish Aggregating Device (FAD) Management across Global Tuna Fisheries

November 12, 2019 — The following was released by the International Seafood Sustainability Foundation:

The International Seafood Sustainability Foundation (ISSF) today announced the adoption of a new conservation measure requiring that fishing vessels have publicly available fish aggregation device (FAD) management policies to comply with ISSF supply-chain recommendations for marine ecosystem health. These policies must be in line with science-based best practices outlined in ISSF’s report, “Recommended Best Practices for FAD Management in Tropical Tuna Purse Seine Fisheries.”

“Since ISSF’s founding 10 years ago, we’ve prioritized better management of FADs and the reduction of bycatch and other marine ecosystem impacts across all oceans,” explains ISSF President Susan Jackson. “This new conservation measure gives leading seafood companies a clear framework, based on years of scientific research, in sourcing tuna from vessels that are following best practices in designing, deploying, and recovering FADs – and also in reporting FAD data to Regional Fisheries Management Organizations (RFMOs).”

ISSF Conservation Measure 3.7 Transactions with Vessels or Companies with Vessel-based FAD Management Policies, approved by the ISSF Board of Directors to take effect in 2021, states that ISSF participating companies shall conduct transactions only with those purse seine vessels whose owners develop and make public FAD management policies that include the activities purse seine and supply vessels are undertaking (if any) on the following elements:

  • Comply with flag state and RFMO reporting requirements for fisheries statistics by set type
  • Voluntarily report additional FAD buoy data for use by RFMO science bodies
  • Support science-based limits on the overall number of FADs used per vessel and/or FAD sets made
  • Use only non-entangling FADs to reduce ghost fishing
  • Mitigate other environmental impacts due to FAD loss including through the use of biodegradable FADs and FAD recovery policies
  • For silky sharks (the main bycatch issue in FAD sets), implement further mitigation efforts

Helping global tuna fisheries become capable of achieving Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certification without conditions has long been an ISSF objective, and improved FAD management is an important component of meeting the MSC standard. Conservation Measure 3.7 is ISSF’s second measure focused on FADs specifically, and its tenth measure focused on bycatch mitigation in tuna fisheries.

For full details on Conservation Measure 3.7, read the complete text here: https://iss-foundation.org/what-we-do/verification/conservation-measures-commitments/bycatch-mitigation-3-7-transactions-with-vessels-or-companies-with-vessel-based-fad-management-policies/

Supply Chain Conservation Measure Expanded to include FisheryProgress.org and MSC-certified Fisheries

ISSF conservation measures directly affect how 26 global seafood companies that are ISSF participating companies environmentally manage their respective tuna supply chains.

To support ISSF participating companies in sourcing sustainable tuna from processors and vessels and achieving greater supply-chain transparency, the ISSF Board has amended Conservation Measure 2.4 Supply Chain Transparency, Audit, Reporting and Purchase Requirements.

In addition to purchasing tuna from Supplier Source categories — peer ISSF participating companies, ISSF Data Check companies, direct from vessels — ISSF participating companies now can source tuna from an expanded array of sources represented by these Fishery Source categories:

By January 31, 2020, and annually thereafter, to comply with measure 2.4, participating companies must publicly report the percentage of tuna sourced from the Supplier Source and/or Fishery Source categories.

The complete measure is available here: https://iss-foundation.org/what-we-do/verification/conservation-measures-commitments/traceability-data-collection-2-4-supply-chain-transparency-audit-reporting-and-purchase-requirements/.

ISSF provides application forms for companies interested in becoming a participating company or Data Check company, including Terms and Conditions for Data Check Companies.

Med countries commit to fight illegal fishing, preserve ecosystems

November 12, 2019 — The General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean (GFCM) — under the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization — has moved to increase fisheries transparency, protect threatened corals, and preserve fish breeding grounds.

The enforcement of a package of measures will be vital to help revert the “overfishing crisis” of this sea, said NGO Oceana, since they will create areas where fish can reproduce safely and will hinder illegal fishing.

“Mediterranean countries have taken an important step to restore the abundance of this sea and protect some of its most vulnerable wildlife. Oceana urges them now to enforce these decisions and adopt robust compliance systems including sanctions, so that these decisions are truly effective. GFCM’s credibility will be at stake as long as the Mediterranean remains the world’s most overexploited sea,” said Pascale Moehrle, executive director for Oceana Europe.

Oceana particularly welcomed commitments to fight illegal fishing, protect corals and fish habitats, and comply with “fisheries restricted areas”, or FRAs.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

EEZs deter unauthorized fishing – but only in high-value fisheries

November 8, 2019 — Exclusive economic zones (EEZs) deter unauthorized fishing by foreign vessels, but only in a handful of countries where the value of the fishery surpasses steep enforcement costs.

A new study finds that unauthorized fishing is 81 percent lower just inside the 200-mile EEZ boundaries compared to just outside them, an indication that assigning nations fishing property rights could lead to protecting fisheries from unauthorized fishing.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Sacred Cod, Sustainable Scallops

October 31, 2019 — “I am a pirate,” Carlos Rafael once told a group of federal regulators at a Fisheries Management Council meeting. “It’s your job to catch me.” And they did.

Rafael, aka the Codfather, was one of the most successful fishermen on the East Coast. He owned more that 50 boats, both scallopers and ground-fishing vessels, in New Bedford, the #1 value fishing port in the U.S. All the boats were emblazoned with his trademark “CR.”

Scallops sit in the sand underwater in the Nanatucket Lightship area. This photo was taken duringIn 2016, after an undercover sting, he was arrested on charges of conspiracy and submitting falsified records to the federal government to evade federal fishing quotas. In addition to his boats, the Codfather owned processors and distributors on the docks. When he caught fish subject to strict catch limits, like cod, he would report it as haddock, or some other plentiful species. He got away with it, at least for a while, because he laundered the illegal fish through his own wholesalers, and others at the now defunct Fulton Street Fish Market in New York City.

“We call them something else, it’s simple,” Mr. Rafael told undercover cops who feigned interest in buying his business. “We’ve been doing it for over 30 years.” He described a deal he had going with a New York fish buyer, saying at one point, “You’ll never find a better laundromat.” Caught on tape, the jig was up. In 2018, Rafael, 65, was convicted on 28 counts, including conspiracy, false labeling of fish, bulk cash smuggling, tax evasion and falsifying federal records. CR? Caught red-handed!

Read the full story at Medium

Cape Town Agreement on vessel safety gains public support from nearly 50 countries

October 28, 2019 — Forty-eight countries have signed a public declaration that they intend to bring the Cape Town Agreement on vessel safety into force by October 2022, including major fishing countries such as China, South Korea, Indonesia, and the United Kingdom. South American countries also made a strong showing with Peru, Chile, and Argentina signing the declaration.

The countries signaled their intent during the Torremolinos Ministerial Conference on Fishing Vessel Safety and Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated Fishing, which took place in Spain from 21 to 23 October.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

China is Key to Closing Ports to Illegally Caught Fish

October 28, 2019 — The United Nations has a straightforward solution to the illegal fishing that is decimating marine life and pushing some species toward extinction: close the world’s ports to vessels engaged in the US$23 billion black market.

Deprived of safe harbours to offload their illicit cargo, the economic incentive to plunder the seas would begin to evaporate. That’s the idea behind the Port State Measures Agreement (PSMA), which came into effect in June 2016 and requires participating nations to restrict entry of foreign fishing vessels to designated ports.

What is the Port State Measures Agreement?

A UN treaty requiring countries to close their ports to illegal fishing vessels, and to share real-time information to make that possible.

Before allowing them to dock, countries must verify where the ship is registered, conduct inspections and take other actions to ensure they are not transporting illegally caught fish. That information is to be shared in real time among port states, casting an electronic net over pirate ships.

But for this remedy to this tragedy of the aquatic commons to be effective, all coastal countries must join the PSMA and enforce its provisions. Otherwise, rogue vessels would likely still be able to find ports of call to get illegal, unregulated and unreported (IUU) seafood to market. To date, 61 nations plus the European Union have ratified the PSMA. That leaves 78 coastal nations not signed up, including the world’s fishing superpower – China.

Read the full story at The Maritime Executive

Florida regulators crack down on harvest, sale of undersized spiny lobsters

October 16, 2019 — Kent Alexander Quinn Downs, a 33-year-old commercial spiny lobster fisherman from Marathon, Florida, was arrested Oct. 10 and charged with 11 counts of possessing undersized lobsters on his vessel as well as a felony charge related to destroying evidence, the Miami Herald reports.

Quinn Downs and his boat, That’s Right, were spotted in the East Bahia Honda Channel by Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FFWCC) officer Joshua Peters in the afternoon and hailed for an inspection. Peters said he then noticed a man dumping half a basket of undersized lobsters into the water.

Quinn Downs later admitted there were about 15 undersized lobsters in the basket and that he dumped them when he saw the officer’s blue lights, according to the arrest report.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News