Saving Seafood

Private Sector Demonstrates that Seafood Traceability is Possible and Profitable

March 9, 2016 — Ordering seafood off a menu in your favorite restaurant or from your local grocery store’s seafood counter may not be as simple as you think. Right now, it is far too difficult for consumers to know basic facts about the seafood on their plates, such as what species of fish they are actually buying, where the fish is coming from, and how it was caught. The prevalence of illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing around the world means that you might be eating an endangered species caught in a protected area, and seafood fraud – the mislabeling of seafood products – means you probably wouldn’t know if you were. Fortunately, a new report released this week by Oceana demonstrates that full-chain traceability for our seafood – a full accounting of its path from catch to consumption – is both achievable and beneficial.

Last month, the Obama administration’s Presidential Task Force on Combating IUU Fishing and Seafood Fraud released a proposed rule that requires traceability to the first point of entry into U.S. commerce for certain species considered “at risk” of these activities. While it is an encouraging sign that the administration is addressing the problems of IUU and seafood fraud, the actions proposed do not go far enough. The proposed rule is currently open for public comment until April 5. Ultimately, the final rule should expand the documentation requirements to all seafood and extend traceability throughout the entire seafood supply chain.

Consumers deserve accurate information about the origins of their seafood, and Oceana’s new report, Fish Stories: Success and Value in Seafood Traceability, demonstrates the feasibility of such a practice. Oceana’s report spotlights the efforts of more than 15 companies that are using traceability now. As the report details, full-chain traceability isn’t just possible; it’s a profitable option for businesses that helps their customers make responsible choices.

Read the full story at The Huffington Post

Jail terms sought for men trafficking fishermen in Indonesia

February 27, 2016 — TUAL, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesian prosecutors are seeking prison sentences of up to 4 1/2 years for five Thais and three Indonesians accused of human trafficking in connection with slavery in the seafood industry.

The suspects were arrested in the remote island village of Benjina last May after the slavery was revealed by The Associated Press in a report two months earlier.

The victims — 13 fishermen from Myanmar who testified under protection of Indonesia’s Witness and Victim Protection Agency — told the court that they had been tortured, forced to work up to 24 hours a day and were not paid. They also said they were locked up in a prison-like cell in the fishing company’s compound.

In their sentencing demand, prosecutors on Friday sought 4 1/2-year sentences for Thai captain Youngyut Nitiwongchaeron and four countrymen — Boonsom Jaika, Surachai Maneephong, Hatsaphon Phaetjakreng and Somchit Korraneesuk — as well as Indonesian Hermanwir Martino.

They sought 3 1/2-year sentences for two other Indonesians, Yopi Hanorsian and Muklis Ohoitenan.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at Gloucester Daily Times

Slave Labor on the High Seas

February 20, 2016 — Shocking revelations about the international fishing industry’s reliance on slave labor have caused many people to question the origin of the shrimp or tuna they eat. The disclosures have also led the United States to take some important new steps to clamp down on the use of indentured workers and discourage other unlawful activities on the high seas.

President Obama is expected to sign legislation that effectively bans American imports of fish caught by forced labor in Southeast Asia. The bill, passed by Congress this month, would close a loophole in the Tariff Act of 1930 that prohibits imports made by convicts or forced labor but exempts such goods if American domestic production could not meet demand. Now that is expected to end. The president recently signed an agreement allowing officials to deny port services to foreign vessels suspected of illegal fishing.

In another useful move, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration this month said it would improve how seafood is tracked from catch to market by imposing new reporting requirements on American importers, who purchase from overseas sources 90 percent of the seafood that humans and pets consume in the United States. These new requirements would affect 16 species, including cod, snapper and some tuna, and are intended to protect species that are overfished or at risk of being overfished by cracking down on illegally caught or mislabeled fish.

Read the full editorial at The New York Times

Proposed Rule – 1st Phase of a U.S. Seafood Traceability Program to Combat IUU Fishing Products & Seafood Fraud

February 9, 2016 — The following was released by NOAA

Today, NOAA Fisheries is publishing the proposed rule to establish the first phase of a seafood traceability program through the collection or retention of data regarding the harvest, landing, and chain of custody of certain fish and fish products imported into the United States that have been identified as particularly vulnerable to IUU fishing and seafood fraud. It is important to note that there will be no new reporting requirements for domestic landings of wild-caught seafood. Similar information for domestically harvested seafood is already reported under numerous state and federal regulatory requirements.

Establishing a traceability program is a key tool for ensuring these illicit activities are prevented from entering U.S. Commerce and helping combat them in the complex system of international seafood trade.

This proposed rule is designed to build on existing resources and processes—maximizing effectiveness and efficiency, while minimizing impacts on the fishing and seafood trade community. To achieve these objectives, NOAA Fisheries is encouraging detailed comments from the fishing and seafood industry, conservation community, and other interested stakeholders engaged with sustainable seafood. Additionally, we have scheduled two webinar conference calls in February and an in-person public meeting on March 7, at the Seafood Expo N. America in Boston to provide opportunities for anyone to ask questions.

World’s biggest fishing vessel penalized for illegal activities in Pacific

February 2, 2016— The South Pacific Regional Fisheries Management Organization, or SPRFMO, decided to keep on its list of banned vessels the world’s biggest fishing ship, the Peruvian-flagged Damanzaihao, a step praised by the international conservation group Oceana.

The decision comes almost one year after the ship, which has changed flags several times and is also known as the Lafayette, was banned from Pacific waters despite an appeal by its owner, Sustainable Fishing Resources.

“The Damanzaihao presents a real danger for oceans due to its huge storage capacity,” Liesbeth van der Meer, director of the Fisheries Campaign with Oceana Chile, told reporters.

“Controlling illegal fishing is urgent for the sustainability of fisheries and, in particular, when dealing with overfished species, such as Pacific mackarel, which have great commercial and social relevance,” Van der Meer said.

In February 2015, SPRFMO added the Damanzaihao to its lists of vessels involved in illegal, undeclared and unregulated fishing, after detecting an unauthorized trans-shipment and false reporting to authorities about cargo of frozen Pacific mackarel.

The Peruvian Production Ministry, acting on the designation, cancelled the fishing permit for the 49,367-ton ship, which now flies the Peruvian flag, and slapped a fine on Sustainable Fishing Resources.

The company appealed the decision and Peru’s courts voided the fine but ordered a new process to impose new penalties, which will keep the Damanzaihao on the pirate ships’ list until 2017.

Read the full story at Fox News

Judge Upholds Rule Allowing More Hawaii Bigeye Tuna Fishing

December 27, 2015 — HONOLULU (AP) — A federal judge has ruled longline fishermen in Hawaii may continue catching more bigeye tuna, or ahi, than the maximum set by international regulators.

U.S. District Judge Leslie Kobayashi on Wednesday issued the ruling rejecting environmental groups’ claims that the extra fishing is illegal.

The opinion came just in time for the year-end holidays when Hawaii consumers crowd stores to buy ahi sashimi for Christmas and New Year’s celebrations. A ruling adverse to the fishermen had the potential to shut down or curtail the Hawaii fishery for the rest of the calendar year.

Michael Tosatto, the Pacific Islands regional administrator for the National Marine Fisheries Service, said Thursday the agency is happy the judge found the rules lawful.

“I think we’re just pleased that the fishery remains on a stable footing without the need for further action,” Tosatto said.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at CNS News

Global Supermarkets Selling Shrimp Peeled by Slaves

December 13, 2015 — SAMUT SAKHON, Thailand (AP) — Every morning at 2 a.m., they heard a kick on the door and a threat: Get up or get beaten. For the next 16 hours, No. 31 and his wife stood in the factory that owned them with their aching hands in ice water. They ripped the guts, heads, tails and shells off shrimp bound for overseas markets, including grocery stores and all-you-can-eat buffets across the United States.

After being sold to the Gig Peeling Factory, they were at the mercy of their Thai bosses, trapped with nearly 100 other Burmese migrants. Children worked alongside them, including a girl so tiny she had to stand on a stool to reach the peeling table. Some had been there for months, even years, getting little or no pay. Always, someone was watching.

No names were ever used, only numbers given by their boss — Tin Nyo Win was No. 31.

Pervasive human trafficking has helped turn Thailand into one of the world’s biggest shrimp providers. Despite repeated promises by businesses and government to clean up the country’s $7 billion seafood export industry, an Associated Press investigation has found shrimp peeled by modern-day slaves is reaching the U.S., Europe and Asia.

The problem is fueled by corruption and complicity among police and authorities. Arrests and prosecutions are rare. Raids can end up sending migrants without proper paperwork to jail, while owners go unpunished.

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More than 2,000 trapped fishermen have been freed this year as a result of an ongoing Associated Press investigative series into slavery in the Thai seafood industry. The reports also have led to a dozen arrests, millions of dollars’ worth of seizures and proposals for new federal laws.

Read the full story at the Associated Press

 

Overfishing is Getting Filleted by Markets

December 9, 2015 — Overfishing is a serious threat to the nearly 200 million people who depend on the world’s oceans for sustenance. After all, nearly one in five people around the world consume fish as their primary source of protein and overfishing has deleterious cascade effects on other marine ecosystems.

Illegal and excessive fishing are to a degree inevitable because oceans, rivers and many lakes are publicly administered. This gives fishermen an incentive to take from them as much as is legally possible. Yet, market-based resource management is offering a concrete solution to this “tragedy of the commons” and has already begun alleviating strains on U.S. fish stocks.

The U.S. economy is intertwined with the fate of the high seas. By conservative estimates, commercial and recreational fishing alone account for 1.3 million jobs and nearly $60 billion in economic activity. Overfishing has pernicious effects on Americans’ livelihoods: commercial anglers can lose out on up to 80 percent of potential revenue when local fish species see drastic population decline, as was the case in New England when cod, flounder, and halibut populations were unexpectedly low in 2009.

With market-based resource management, data from September 2015 show that the total number of wild stocks placed on the “overfishing” watch list has fallen to its all-time lowest level since 1997. Since the 2007 reauthorization of the Magnuson-Stevens Act, annual catch limits (ACLs) have allowed the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to reduce the number of overfished U.S. stocks by nearly 75 percent since 2007 alone (from 41 in 2007 to only 10 in 2014). ACLs create total tonnage allotments based on a series of population growth factors specific to certain fish species.

Read the full story at Economics 21

 

Wellfleet, Mass. shellfisherman charged with illegal sales to restaurants

December 2, 2015 — WELLFLEET, Mass. — A Wellfleet man had his state commercial shellfishing license suspended and was charged with 45 violations of state shellfishing regulations after he allegedly was caught selling oysters to at least two Outer Cape restaurants without having a wholesale license.

The evidence also indicates that David Paine, 57, may not have complied with regulations that protect the public from infections from the bacteria Vibrio parahaemolyticus.

Paine was arraigned in Orleans District Court on Monday on violations of state shellfishing regulations between July 2014 and June of this year. His girlfriend, Kristi Johns, 41, who is a co-owner of Paine’s aquaculture grant, was arraigned Oct. 26 on four counts of violating fisheries regulations in arranging for sales of the oysters to The Whitman House in Truro.

Neither Paine nor Johns could be reached for comment. The phone number listed to them has been disconnected.

According to a report by Massachusetts Environmental Police Officer Daniel McGonagle contained in court documents, Paine sold oysters directly to The Whitman House and The Lost Dog Pub in Orleans. McGonagle wrote in his report that on June 22, he and Environmental Police Sgt. Kevin Clayton were notified of a possible oyster violation by a state Department of Public Health inspector who was investigating The Whitman House for allegedly selling striped bass before the season opened and marketing it as pollock.

Read the full story at the Cape Cod Times

 

Statement by U.S. Commissioner Russell F. Smith III at the Conclusion of the 2015 Annual ICCAT Meeting

December 3, 2015 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries: 

This year’s International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) meeting was characterized by an unprecedented level of engagement from a broad range of parties that joined together to promote the sustainable management in ICCAT fisheries. This collaboration is critical to the effective work of ICCAT, and we hope that these relationships will continue to be fostered and strengthened in the future.

Negotiations on amendments to the 1969 ICCAT Convention were advanced to a near-final stage. The amended Convention will reflect modern principles, such as the precautionary and ecosystem approaches to fisheries management, clarify the Commission’s management authority, particularly for sharks, and improve the governance of the Commission.

In keeping with another major U.S. priority, the electronic system for tracking bluefin tuna catch and trade is near completion and is anticipated to be ready for full implementation in the spring of 2016. This should help address and prevent illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing and help improve management of the stock by providing ready access to data about catch and trade.

Agreement was reached on the development of harvest control rules and management strategy evaluation as important tools to support future decision-making. This measure details the process by which alternative biological reference points (i.e., threshold and limit biomass levels, and the target fishing mortality rate) will be identified and tested by the Standing Committee on Research and Statistics (SCRS). North Atlantic albacore will be the first stock; a management objective has been defined and the development of harvest control rules will continue in 2016. The Commission will provide specific input in three areas for individual stocks: (1) management objectives; (2) acceptable levels of probability (e.g., of achieving targets or avoiding limits); and (3) timeframes for ending overfishing and/or rebuilding.

We are disappointed that the Commission did not do more to address overfishing of bigeye tuna despite the clear advice from the SCRS, which called for a reduction in the total allowable catch (TAC) and in the fishing mortality on the smallest juvenile bigeye tuna that are caught in the Gulf of Guinea. Tropical tunas support important U.S. commercial and recreational fisheries. With this in mind, we sought a more comprehensive approach to rebuild the stock with greater certainty, including a lower TAC as well as a longer and larger time/area closure to protect juveniles. Although these positions were rejected by the major players in the fishery, we will continue to manage bigeye tuna responsibly within the United States.

Atlantic-wide TAC levels for overfished stocks of blue marlin and white marlin will remain in effect until new scientific advice is available in 2018. We had hoped to include provisions to require the use of circle hooks to minimize post-release mortality, and related scientific research, but these efforts were rejected.

With respect to sharks, a new measure requires the release of porbeagle sharks encountered alive in ICCAT fisheries and, if catches of porbeagle increase beyond 2014 levels in the future, additional actions will be considered. The United States again proposed to prohibit shark finning at sea and to require sharks that are landed to have fins naturally attached. The number of co-sponsors for this proposal increased substantially, from 12 in 2014 to 30 in 2015, now more than a majority of all ICCAT parties. Despite this groundswell of support, a few parties declared their staunch opposition to this measure, and it was not adopted.

ICCAT invested a significant amount of time and effort to review the compliance of its 50 Contracting Parties with existing obligations, evaluating various reporting requirements as well as conservation and management measures. There was demonstrated improvement in ICCAT parties’ reporting of catch data and other information this year, but there is further work to do to ensure that all parties are in full compliance with all reporting obligations. The United States will continue to push ICCAT and its parties to be forward leaning and to prioritize the implementation of a robust and transparent compliance process.

Read the statement from NOAA online