Saving Seafood

Japan’s seafood sector holds breath through advances and setbacks on Fukushima radiation

March 8, 2019 — On 13 February, a robot arm successfully picked up pebble-sized pieces of radioactive fuel at Japan’s Fukushima nuclear plant. The plant operator, Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO), sent a remote-controlled probe to the bottom of the plant’s Number 2 reactor. It grasped five small pieces of debris from the fuel rods and lifted them a couple of inches.

The robot did not actually remove the fuel debris. This was just a test to see if it could be moved. The company plans to actually remove some fuel debris as a sample by March 2020. Robots have already been used to remotely observe the inside of the reactor. The purpose of the latest test was to see whether the fragile material would crumble when picked up. Actually removing the melted fuel is considered the most difficult part of the clean-up operation.

This marks a step forward in the clean-up, but setbacks continue and lingering problems remain. Just as the Japanese government was making a new push to ease import restrictions in Taiwan and Hong Kong, radioactive cesium above the legal limit was detected in a fish caught off Fukushima. And though scientists are gaining a better understanding of how radioactivity forms hotspots, a new release of stored radioactive cooling water appears unavoidable.

More than seven years after the accident, fear of radiation now poses a greater obstacle to the economic recovery of the region’s seafood industry than any actual physical damage. Several countries have put in place bans on Fukushima’s seafood as a preventative measure.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

SFP notes progress, work ahead for squid sector in new report

March 5, 2019 — The following was released by the Sustainable Fisheries Partnership:

The global squid sector has made notable progress in the past year toward sustainability goals, but much work remains to be done, according to the latest Target 75 sector report from Sustainable Fisheries Partnership (SFP).

The report is an update of the same sector report released last year, with updated data and conclusions. SFP will be updating this and other sector reports until the end of 2020, the deadline for achieving the T75 goal—to get 75 percent or more of global seafood production by volume to be classified as sustainable or improving toward sustainability.

According to the report, a confirmed 14 percent of global production is now recognized as sustainable or improving. Much of the improvements can be traced back to efforts by the Committee for the Sustainable Management of the Southern Pacific Jumbo Flying Squid (CALAMASUR). The group has been working on key projects such as the Peruvian Jumbo Flying Squid Fishery Improvement Project (FIP), and negotiations with the South Pacific Regional Fisheries Management Organization (RFMO) to address stock structure issues, improved data collection, and other issues.

SFP also credits the development of a preliminary stock assessment model presented to the RFMO, as well as the launching of a FIP covering Japanese flying squid. “The current FIP volume reflects a relatively small percentage of global production, but the total Japanese flying squid production across China, Japan, and Korea makes up a significant volume and is essential to the T75 goal,” said Sam Grimley, who leads the Global Squid Supply Chain Roundtable for SFP.

The report notes there is potential for much more of the sector to meet the T75 criteria.

“There are, fortunately, a number of fisheries making incremental improvements that are not yet publicly recorded under FIPs,” the report’s authors wrote. “It is possible that existing supply chain leverage and interest may be able to influence an additional 43 percent of global production.”

Management of fishing fleets in international waters will be the key. The report recommends working with Chinese and South Korean fisheries operating in waters off the coast of South America by leveraging market demand.

“SFP has always operated from the philosophy that industrial stakeholders can drive change by using the markets themselves,” said SFP CEO Jim Cannon. “Here we see a prime opportunity to demonstrate the real power the industry has to work toward more sustainable seafood production.”

Read the full report here

Earth’s fish are disappearing because of climate change, study says

March 1, 2019 — Climate change is endangering fish worldwide, shrinking populations by up to 35% in coastal regions near China and Japan, scientists say.

Ocean warming has led to a 4% global decline in sustainable catches, the greatest amount of fish that can be caught without depleting stocks long-term, according to a study published Thursday in the journal Science.

Using global data on fisheries and ocean temperature maps, scientists from Rutgers University in New Jersey analyzed changes in sustainable catches triggered by temperature rises between 1930 and 2010.

The scientists said they were “stunned” to discover that global warming has significantly affected fish stocks worldwide and warned that the decline could threaten the livelihoods and food supplies of millions of people.

More than 56 million people worldwide work in the fishing industry, and seafood provides up to half of all animal protein eaten in developing countries, the scientists said.

The most drastic decline was recorded in Asia’s coastal regions, including the East China Sea and Japan’s Kuroshio Current, where stocks plummeted by 15% to 35% over the past 80 years.

“Ecosystems in East Asia have seen enormous declines in productivity. These areas have particularly rapid warming [and] also have historically high levels of overfishing,” said lead researcher Chris Free, a quantitative ecologist at the University of California,

Read the full story at CNN

The Most Expensive Seafood in the World Lands in New York

February 29, 2019 — New York has drastically increased its number of unagi-ya, or Japanese-style freshwater eel restaurants, of late—from zero to two.

Hachibei in Midtown East and Unagi in SoHo both specialize in traditional preparations of the slippery ray-finned fish. In Japan, eel is as prized as Kobe beef (and more endangered), but in New York—which is more accustomed to consuming the far less expensive anago (sea eel) in sushi—it’s relatively unknown, at least for now.

Japan is devouring the delicacy at an alarming rate. Nearly 75 percent of the world’s unagi is consumed in the country; 99 percent of that is industrially farmed from baby glass eels (anguilla Japonica). Conservationists warn that the species is overfished and could face a fate similar to that of bluefin tuna.

Read the full story at Bloomberg

The World Biggest Fish Market Tsukiji Moved To Toyosu. How Is The New Market Doing?

February 26, 2019 — If you are a sushi lover, most likely you have eaten fish from the Tsukiji Market in Tokyo. It would not be an overstatement that Tsukiji served as the foundation of the current global popularity of sushi.

The 23-hectare Tsukiji opened in 1935, and became the space for over a thousand vendors dealing with the freshest seafood from all over the world. In 2015, the market traded around 1,700 tons of seafood, and the sales amounted to $14 million a day, although the figures are declining lately due to competition with other routes of seafood distribution.

Because Tukiji was built to accommodate the railroad-based transportation system, the facilities became outdated for the modern truck-based system. As a result, relocation of the market became an agenda in 1960s. After multiple discussions and postponements over the past years, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government (TMG) finally declared the move to the new location in Toyosu, which is less than two miles away from Tsukiji, in 2001.

Read the full story at Forbes

Japan Whalers Discuss Plan to Resume Commercial Hunt July 1

January 24, 2019 — Japanese whalers discussed plans Thursday to resume their commercial hunting along the northeastern coast on July 1, for the first time in three decades.

Their preparation follows Japan’s decision in December to leave the International Whaling Commission, abandoning decades-long campaigning in hopes of gaining support within the organization that has largely become a home for conservationists.

The Fisheries Agency said whalers in six Pacific coast towns, including Taiji, which is known for dolphin hunts, were expected to bring five vessels to form a joint fleet beginning July 1, one day after Japan formally withdraws from the IWC.

Taiji is leading the effort as a traditional whale town and will contribute one vessel to the fleet that will catch minke whales. Exact locations and hunting plans will be decided based on results of research operations planned by the end of June, said Shigeki Takaya, a Fisheries Agency official in charge of whaling.

Catch quota and hunting schedule are yet to be decided. Japan’s national broadcaster NHK said the coastal whaling will start from Hachinohe in northern Japan, or Kushiro, a main whaling hub farther north, on the island of Hokkaido. Each vessel would then head southward to Chiba, near Tokyo, while making several stops along the coast before heading back to Kushiro for more hunts later in the year, NHK said. Experts are deciding the sustainable catch quota using the IWC method. Japan plans to remain as observer of the IWC.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at U.S. News

Data noose tightening on “handful” of nations responsible for overfishing

January 24, 2019 — Tony Long is the CEO of Global Fishing Watch, a freely accessible and near real-time digital map of the global ocean aimed at exposing illegal fishing. With Japan, Peru, and Indonesia all recently agreeing to share data with Global Fishing Watch as part of an effort to combat illegal fishing, Long is now pushing for more countries to contribute data. Additionally, Long’s office is working with governments and NGOs to make the Global Fishing Watch map more complete and allow the tracking of vessels guilty of illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing. 

SeafoodSource: How important are the ongoing World Trade Organization negotiations on eliminating fishing and fuel subsidies in the fight against IUU fishing?

Long: Cutting or eliminating fuel subsidies are an important fisheries management measure because … fuel subsidies are part of the overcapacity equation – especially for distance fleets and also high-seas fishing. People following the negotiations closely tell me that there are disagreements within the WTO as to whether this is the case. It is vital that this matter can be resolved during the negotiations.

SeafoodSource: You point to a “handful of wealthy countries” as being culpable in IUU fishing. Is this a corporate or a government problem?

Long: It’s both, but ultimately, governments are the ones that allow IUU fishing practices in their fleets to continue. There are many factors beyond harmful subsidies, including weak penalties, poor enforcement and licensing flags of convenience that allow IUU fishing to occur. That said, individual corporations also have huge responsibility. In particular, they can help drive out practices such as bonded labor and slavery at sea, they can demand cleared provenance to their catch by demanding complete and proper tracking of vessels, catch documentation and open licensing as part of their contract with the supply chain. The recent green card given to Thailand is a good example of government, corporations, and NGOs working together to improve a dire situation.

SeafoodSource: According to an article in Science Advances, “On the high seas, 97 percent of all such fishing effort detectable by AIS is conducted by vessels flagged to higher-income nations. Dominance of this high-seas industrial fishing effort at the level of flag nation was highly uneven. The vast majority (86 percent) of this effort can be attributed to only five higher-income countries/entities, in rank order high to low: China, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, and Spain.” Have rich countries also been willing to work with you and to share information?

Long: We have a [memorandum of understanding] signed with Japan to improve research and understanding of IUU fishing in the North Pacific and share data. We have staff in Korea and Taiwan to take forward the benefits of transparency. [And] we are in the very early stages of working with a coalition of European Union-based NGOs to look at the E.U. fleet and coastal states where [those vessels] fish. We are engaging with NGOs and foundations interested in China in order to identify a strategy on working with China.

Read the full Seafood Source

Japanese seafood giants invest in land-based aquaculture

January 8, 2019 — Two of Japan’s largest seafood companies, Maruha Nichiro and Nippon Suisan Kaisha, or Nissui, soon expect to begin commercial shipments of fish farmed in land-based facilities in Japan, reports Nikkei.

At a land-based salmon farm in the town of Yuza, in the northwestern prefecture of Yamagata, Maruha Nichiro farms a variety of salmon known locally as sakuramasu. Maruha, which developed the system with valve maker Kitz, expects to ship its first batch of sakuramasu soon.

Maruha president Shigeru Ito said he aims to market the fish as a Japanese product in a country that relies on imports for 90% of its salmon consumption.

Meanwhile, Nissui plans to begin inland farming of mackerel next year, according to Nikkei, aiming to become the first company in Japan to sell farmed mackerel commercially. The key goal of the project is to cut costs by teaming up with a business in another industry that has a water treatment technology.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

Japan’s ‘King of Tuna’ Pays Record $3 Million for Bluefin at New Tokyo Fish Market

January 7, 2018 — The first tuna auction of the year at Tokyo’s new fish market set a high bar on Saturday after a restaurant chain paid a record price — more than $3 million — for a giant bluefin tuna.

The city’s famed Tsukiji fish market was relocated to the new space, in the Toyosu neighborhood, late last year to make way for the 2020 Olympics. The market was well known for its pre-dawn tuna auctions, a tradition that is continuing at the new location.

On Saturday, dozens of buyers walked along row after row of giant tuna, examining the fish before making their bids. The $5.3 billion enclosed, air-conditioned facility at Toyosu is a far cry from the grime and grit of Tsukiji, which served as the city’s main fish market for 83 years.

Read the full story at The New York Times

Japan Reportedly Will Leave International Whaling Group To Resume Commercial Hunts

December 20, 2018 — Japan will withdraw from an international organization established to limit whale hunts in an apparent attempt to resume commercial whaling, according to Japanese media outlets.

Public broadcaster NHK reports that government officials informed ruling party lawmakers on Thursday. The Asahi Shimbun, citing unnamed sources, said a formal announcement was likely “within days.”

Japanese whaling expeditions in Antarctic and Pacific waters kill hundreds of whales annually, ostensibly for research.

As NPR’s Colin Dwyer explained last year:

“Under the rules of the International Whaling Commission, of which Japan is a member, there has been an international ban on commercial whaling since 1986 — though there is an exception for whaling conducted with ecological research in mind. It is this exception that allows Japan’s whaling fleet to embark on its yearly hunt in the icy waters of Antarctica.

“Yet many critics view this use of the exception as a fig leaf, exploited by Japan’s Fisheries Agency to cover for the practice of reportedly selling whale meat commercially.”

In 2014, the International Court of Justice ruled that Japan wasn’t conducting enough research to justify the hunts, and ordered Japan to revoke Antarctic whaling permits. After a year’s pause, Japan began what it said was a scaled-back whaling program.

Read the full story at NPR