Saving Seafood

NOAA to reimburse fishermen 85 percent for at-sea monitoring costs

June 23, 2016 — HAMPTON, N.H. — The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration will reimburse New England fishermen for 85 percent of the cost of at-sea monitors in 2016, U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen’s office announced Wednesday.

NOAA is expected to launch a program July 1 through the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission where fishermen will be reimbursed for costs they pay this year to the at-sea monitors, according to Shaheen’s office. Fishermen have said the costs, which began this year, are too much for them to pay and could sink their already weakened industry.

Shaheen’s staff said NOAA is paying for the reimbursement program through extra funds left over from the 2015 fiscal year and does not intend to cover costs for at-sea monitors in 2017.

At-sea monitors – third-party workers hired to observe fishermen’s compliance with federal regulations – must join commercial fishermen on 10 percent of their trips and cost fishermen an estimated $700 per day, officials have said.

NOAA paid for at-sea monitoring until May 1 when it began mandating fishermen cover the cost. The agency has received pushback from the fishing industry and New England’s congressional delegates who say it is unfair for fishermen to fund their own policing.

NOAA officials said they were withholding comment until Thursday.

Shaheen, D-N.H., said Wednesday she is happy fishermen will get relief this year from the costs. She and U.S. Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., have been vocal about their opposition to NOAA forcing fishermen to pay for the at-sea monitors.

Read the full story at the Portsmouth Herald

Dozens of countries just agreed to shut pirate fishermen out of their ports. Here’s why.

June 9, 2016 — Indonesia has a ruthless strategy for dealing with pirates: blow up their boats.

Over the past two years, the Indonesian Navy has seized more than 100 vessels flagged from Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, and the Philippines — all accused of fishing illegally in Indonesian waters. Whenever this happens, authorities detain the crew, load the empty boat with explosives, and let it burn as a warning to others:

Except it doesn’t work. Or at least it’s not nearly enough. There are always more boats, more desperate fishermen looking for work. And the oceans are vast; it’s impossible to board every last pirate ship out there. Last year, New Zealand’s navy spent two weeks chasing illegal fishing vessels at sea before running out of fuel and giving up.

Worldwide, illegal fishing vessels now catch some 26 million tons of fish a year, worth $23.5 billion, or one-fifth of the entire world’s annual wild catch. It’s one of the biggest problems in marine policy. Experts say these catches undermine fishing limits that nations put in place to prevent fish stocks from getting depleted too rapidly and collapsing. Illegal fishing also undercuts the legal fishermen trying to earn a living. And many of these ships end up killing protected species, like sharks.

Read the full story at Vox

SEA TO TABLE: Fixing a Broken System

June 9, 2016 — The US exclusive economic zone (EEZ) in the ocean is the world’s largest, and American fishery management is the world’s best. Yet more than 90% of all seafood consumed in the US is imported, and more than 75% is one of only four species: shrimp (mostly farmed in Asia), salmon (mostly farmed in Chile), tuna (almost all canned), and whitefish (mostly tilapia farmed under the most dubious conditions).

Wild fishing is the last true hunting on earth. Seafood is universally considered the healthiest protein. With the waters surrounding America’s traditional wild fishing communities blessed with dozens of abundant, sustainable, healthy and delicious species, why don’t Americans accept the incredible gifts bestowed on them?.

Americans are accustomed to cheap protein. Corn, soy and wheat are government subsidized and provide artificially low cost feed to industrial meat production. That means cheap meat for consumers, but at a frightening cost to the environment, small farmers, animal welfare, and human health.

Illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing is a worldwide scourge, and last year’s AP investigative report shone a light on rampant seafood slavery. Harvesting fish illegally without any labor cost is an excellent business model for cheap imported seafood.

Meanwhile traditional American fishing communities have struggled under the stringent but essential US fisheries management policies that have brought our fisheries back from the brink to the rebuilt status of today. We owe it ourselves to reward domestic fishermen for their gallant efforts.

Read the full opinion piece at the Huffington Post

The Future of Seafood Security: The Fight Against Illegal Fishing and Seafood Fraud

June 8, 2016 — In December 2006, the U.S. Congress passed a comprehensive reauthorization of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, which governs America’s fisheries. In the decade since, this law has been lauded around the globe as a model for both ending overfishing and allowing science to drive management of the world’s last major commercial hunting industry. As a result, regulators are required to set catch limits at the most sustainable levels possible. It has been so effective that the European Union used it as a model for revising its comparable law, the Common Fisheries Policy, in 2014. The upshot of the 2006 Magnuson-Stevens Act reauthorization is that overfishing has effectively been ended in U.S. waters. And yet, despite this fact, Americans are still consuming millions of tons of unsustainably caught seafood every year.

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA, more than 90 percent of the seafood consumed in the United States is imported. This means it is harvested, farmed, or processed in nations that, in almost all cases, lack the high standards that the United States has mandated for domestic producers. Making matters more difficult, it is exceedingly hard for buyers who seek sustainable seafood to identify its provenance with any degree of confidence; mislabeling—either accidental or purposeful—is rampant. So the combination in many countries of low enforcement capacity on the water and in processing facilities and substantial short-term economic incentives for unscrupulous fishermen and dealers means that those who would seek to exploit or circumvent national and international standards and regulations have all but unlimited capacity to do so.

Therefore, while American fisheries approach the 10th anniversary of the enactment of some of the world’s strongest seafood sustainability standards, much work remains in the fight to maintain global fish populations, the industry that relies on them, and, ultimately, the primary source of protein for more than one billion people worldwide. President Barack Obama’s administration, with assistance from leaders in Congress, has begun to take significant steps toward addressing the two-track problems of combating illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing activity—also known as IUU fishing—and enhancing the traceability of seafood in order to combat trade in fraudulent fish. NOAA recently ended the public comment period on a new proposed rule that would boost efforts on both fronts, and last fall, the U.S. Senate acted to ratify a treaty requiring countries where fishermen land their products—known as port states—to take additional measures to block vessels engaged in illegal fishing activity from entering their harbors.

Read the full story at the Center for American Progress

Video equipment installed on Cape fishing boats

May 31, 2016 — On the Dawn T, commercial fisherman Nick Muto inked “Big Brother” next to a switch that turns on a sophisticated video system that will record everything on deck from the time he leaves the dock to his return.

Between 10 and 20 fishermen from Rhode Island to Maine on Wednesday will flip the switch and turn on the cameras. Three Cape fishermen have had the equipment installed on their vessels, and three more are scheduled to be outfitted.

“We all need to take ownership of what we are doing,” Muto said. “If we want to see a future in fishing, we need more accurate information.

While there have already been pilot programs to evaluate video monitoring, this is the first time, under what is known as an Exempted Fishing Permit, that the information gathered by video will be incorporated into the management process. The fishermen, Muto included, volunteered for the program.

Read the full story at the Cape Cod Times

Cameras to be Used for Monitoring On Some New England Groundfish Vessels

May 27, 2016 — HARWICH, Mass.– A commercial fishing association says a group of fishermen from Massachusetts and Maine will use digital cameras instead of human monitors to collect data during trips at sea.

Cape Cod Commercial Fishermen’s Alliance says up to 20 fishermen who catch groundfish such as cod and flounder will use the cameras in a first-time program.

The fishermen are required to bring monitors on some fishing trips. Many fishermen say the cost of human monitors is prohibitive.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the Bristol Herald Courier

NISHAN DEGNARAIN & MICHAEL POSNER: Time to crack down on seafood industry’s worst abuses

May 24, 2016 — Over the last year, a series of Pulitzer Prize-winning news stories have revealed human trafficking, forced labor, and other abuses in the seafood industry. The complexity of global seafood supply chains and significant gaps in regulation have made it very difficult to track, much less remedy, these abuses.

Recently, the U.S. government has begun to expand its efforts to monitor and better regulate the seafood industry, recognizing the links between environmental sustainability and food safety. But these efforts have paid too little attention to addressing labor abuses. The solution to these labor problems will require increased regulation, improved corporate sourcing practices, and greater transparency, all predicated on a sharing of responsibility between industry, governments and other stakeholders.

According to the World Bank an estimated 2.5 billion people worldwide depend on fish for nutrition. Demand for seafood will continue to rise in the future, as population growth, increasing income, and the rising middle class in developing countries like China and India drive demand.

Read the full opinion piece at CNBC

Port State Measures targeting IUU fishing takes effect June 5

May 19, 2016 — The international Agreement on Port State Measures to Prevent, Deter, and Eliminate Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated Fishing will go into effect next month as one more step in curbing a worldwide network of fish piracy.

On May 16, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization announced that 29 nations and the European Union have joined the international agreement, representing 62 percent of worldwide fish imports and 49 percent of fish exports, that were $133 billion and $139 billion in 2013, according to official state estimates.

The agreement only needs 25 countries to enter into force. It will go into effect on June 5.

The agreement is an international attempt to control illegal, unreported and unregulated, or IUU, fishing by tightening port controls for member nations.

It requires participating nations designate specific ports for foreign vessels. Foreign vessels may only enter with permission after providing a host of fishing documentation, and participating nations must compile lists of vessels known as IUU fishermen. These vessels should be refused port entry.

Read the full story at the Alaska Journal of Commerce

Sens. Blumenthal and Portman ask president to expand seafood traceability rule

May 17, 2016 — U.S. Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Rob Portman (R-OH), co-chairs of the Senate Caucus to End Human Trafficking, sent a letter to the president today asking that he expand a proposed rule on seafood traceability.

“We welcome the Administration’s proposed rule on seafood traceability as a further step in combatting illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing and seafood fraud,” the Senators wrote. “However, we remain concerned that the steps outlined will not adequately address these problems and do little to confront human trafficking within the seafood supply chain.”

The letter urged the Administration to ensure the final version of the rule enhances enforcement requirements on the high seas to prevent human trafficking on vessels, expands seafood traceability to all species, and strengthens tracking requirements beyond the first point of entry into U.S. commerce.

“As a world leader, the U.S. must do all within its power to provide adequate safeguards against illegal and exploitative seafood supply chains,” the Senators concluded.

Read the full letter here

 

United Nations Treaty to Fight Illegal Fishing Will Take Effect

May 17, 2016 — The Port State Measures Agreement (PSMA), an international treaty intended to help stop illegal fishing, will enter into force now that it has been ratified by more than the 25 governments needed.

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) announced May 16 that six countries—Dominica, Guinea-Bissau, Sudan, Thailand, Tonga, and Vanuatu— had ratified the binding agreement, bringing the total to 30. They join other governments large and small around the world, including the United States and the European Union, and demonstrate the broad range of support for the PSMA.

This is a critical step in the global fight to end illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU)  fishing and  should lead to more governments signing  on to the treaty.  That would strengthen the PSMA and extend its reach to new regions.  We know that more countries are in the process of ratifying the pact, and we expect the numbers to grow.

Read the full story at the Pew Charitable Trusts