Saving Seafood

Fisheries of the U.S Report: 2018 a Strong, Successful Year for U.S. Fishermen

February 21, 2020 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

In 2018, U.S. fishermen landed 9.4 billion pounds of fish valued at $5.6 billion at ports around the nation—consistently high figures on par with recent years, which bring economic benefits up and down the seafood supply chain.

According to the Fisheries of the United States report, which is compiled by NOAA using data and analysis not immediately available at the same end of a fishing year, U.S. highest value species groups in 2018 included lobster ($684 million), crabs ($645 million), salmon ($598 million), scallops ($541 million), and shrimp ($496 million).

Dutch Harbor in Alaska, and New Bedford in Massachusetts, continue to dominate the list of top ports driven by landings of pollock for Alaska (the nation’s largest commercial fishery) and top-valued sea scallops in Massachusetts.

New Bedford brought in $431 million in 2018, up from $390 million in 2017, making it the top port by value in the country for the 19th straight year. Other top ports by value in the New England/Mid-Atlantic region include Cape May/Wildwood, NJ ($66 million), Point Judith, RI ($64 million), Stonington, ME ($60 million), Hampton Roads Area, VA ($55 million), and Gloucester, MA ($53 million).

Top ports by landings in the New England/Mid-Atlantic region are Reedville, VA (353 million pounds), New Bedford, MA (114 million pounds), Cape May/Wildwood, NJ (102 million pounds), Gloucester, MA (59 million pounds), Point Judith, RI (48 million pounds), and Portland, ME (46 million pounds).

Read the full release here

MAINE: Union-owned Lobster 207 gets “Fair Trade” certification

February 21, 2020 — Lobster 207, the wholesale and retail cooperative owned by the Maine Lobstering Union, can now market its lobsters with the trademarked “Fair Trade” seal after certification by the nonprofit Fair Trade USA.

Based on compliance with the organization’s extensive, 105-page Capture Fisheries Standard, the certification confirms that lobstermen selling their catch to the co-op, and the co-op itself, have met the rigorous standards set by Fair Trade for environmental stewardship, social responsibility and fair labor practices. According to a statement released by Lobster 207, more than 4,500 fishermen around the world have been certified under the Fair Trade Capture Fisheries Standard. Lobster 207 represents the only group of lobstermen worldwide who have received the certification.

The Fair Trade certification can have significant benefits for marketers. Among them, Lobster 207’s catch may be sold with the “Fair Trade Premium” that allows a percentage of the sale proceeds to be returned to the lobstermen’s community.

“With our Fair Trade Premium, a portion of every pound of Fair Trade lobster sold will go into a community development fund,” Mike Yohe, CEO of Lobster 207, said in a statement. “This money will go right back into our communities to improve the livelihoods of our lobstermen and their families.”

Read the full story at The Ellsworth American

Maine wants more credit from feds for efforts to save whales

February 14, 2020 — Maine’s top marine official has told the federal government that his state deserves more credit for the efforts it has made to try to save an endangered species of whale.

Maine is tasked with coming up with new regulations that make the oceans safer for North Atlantic right whales, which number only about 400 in the world. The proposed new protections place new restrictions on the lobster fishing business, which is critical to Maine’s economy and heritage.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration informed Maine in January that its proposal to protect the whales doesn’t go far enough.

But Patrick Keliher, the commissioner of the Maine Department of Marine Resources, sent a letter to NOAA on Wednesday that outlined numerous existing and additional proposed protections that he said play a key role in protecting the whales.

Read the full story at the Associated Press

Regulators to hold hearings about planned changes to New England’s herring fishery

February 14, 2020 — Interstate fishing regulators are holding a series of public hearings in March about plans to try to better manage the fishery for Atlantic herring.

Herring are the subject of a major fishery on the East Coast, as the fish are used as food for humans and as bait for species such as lobsters. The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission said in a statement that a recent assessment of the herring stock found downward trends in the health of the population.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the Bangor Daily News

Maine Congressional Delegation Asks Feds To Shift Focus Of Right Whale Protections

February 7, 2020 — Maine’s congressional delegation is trying to up the pressure on federal fisheries regulators to look beyond the state’s lobster industry when seeking to reduce threats to the endangered North Atlantic right whale.

In a letter to top officials at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) this week, the delegation calls on the agency to provide more information about reducing the risk of ship strikes off the United States and Canada – strikes that they say are as much a threat to the whales’ survival as entanglement with lobster fishing gear.

Maine 2nd District Rep. Jared Golden, a Democrat, notes that just last month, a newborn right whale calf was sighted off Florida with an apparent ship-strike injury. He says Maine’s lobster industry is being asked to bear too much of the burden and is at a disadvantage compared to powerful shipping and conservation organizations.

Read the full story at Maine Public

Coronavirus Slams Florida’s Lobster Industry

February 7, 2020 — His boat loaded with empty lobster traps, Gary Nichols pulls up to his fish house on Conch Key.

“Another happy day to get to the dock,” as his crew tied up his boat and began unloading the traps.

Although China is 9,000 miles away, the coronavirus is causing the lobster season to end early for Nichols and many of the other lobstermen of the Florida Keys.

“Traditionally we fish to the middle or end of March,” Nichols explained. “But the Chinese have stopped the buying due to the coronavirus.”

With the virus spreading across China, commercial flights from the United States were recently halted. But even before the airlines stopped flying, the major buyers in China were canceling orders for Florida’s spiny lobster. Fear surrounding the virus was hitting the country’s economy and keeping people out of restaurants.

Florida lobster is considered a delicacy in China and is often the star of any celebratory dinner, especially during Chinese New Year which has been underway for the past week. For Florida’s lobstermen, this is when prices soar.

“We had just gotten our prices up to a decent level,” Nichols explained. “This is when our price is normally between $12 and $20 a pound for lobster.”

Read the full story at CBS 4

Crab, sole, plaice among nine seafood items receiving exemptions from US tariffs

February 4, 2020 — Nine seafood items have received special exclusions from tariffs placed by the United States on goods imported from China.

The items – which must be individually frozen or frozen in blocks to qualify, depending on the harmonized tariff system (HTS) classification code – include Alaskan sole, Alaskan plaice, flounder, sole, slipper lobster, king crab, snow crab, Dungeness crab, and meat from crabs other than king, snow, Dungeness, and swimming crab.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Final 2019 Maine lobster harvest landings were better than first feared

January 28, 2020 — Despite all of the concerns expressed about the 2019 Maine lobster harvest, landings improved at the end of the year and weren’t as bad as feared, Sheila Adams, vice president of sales and marketing and co-founder of processor Maine Coast, told attendees at the National Fisheries Institute’s Global Seafood Market Conference last week.

Though lobster can be harvested all year off the coast of Maine, the season typically picks up in earnest in July and August. So many in the industry were made nervous in November when Maine harvesters were widely reported as saying they believed their landings were going to finish 2019 between 30% and 50% lower than the 2018 season total (about 54,000t).

Based on Urner Barry estimates, shared at the event, the 2019 harvest in Maine was not quite as bad as that, garnering about 43,226t, down 21% from the year before. The state of Maine’s Department of Marine Resources never publishes its official tally for the previous year’s lobster harvest until March, so it will be a while before the final numbers are known.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

Maine wants to ‘put the brakes on’ fast-growing lobster bait fishery

January 23, 2020 — The Maine Department of Marine Resources wants to close a fast-growing lobster bait fishery to newcomers for two years so it has time to come up with a new management, licensing and enforcement plan.

“Closing fisheries is kind of a radical step and a dangerous step because it eliminates diversity,” said Commissioner Pat Keliher. “We’re not saying close it in perpetuity. Close it to see if there is a different approach here that would allow us to get both enforcement and reporting back under control.”

Vincent Balzano of Saco, who fishes for menhaden – also known as pogy – out of Portland, supports temporarily closing the menhaden fishery to new applicants.

“It allows us to put the brakes on, get a handle on the fishery,” said Balzano, a third-generation fisherman. “Sound, responsible fishery management is a benefit to all. It’s a benefit to the industry, a benefit to the resource and a benefit to the state as a whole.”

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

Salmon’s rise, shrimp’s stagnancy, growing consolidation reshape seafood’s top 100

January 22, 2020 — The movements in this year’s edition of our World’s 100 Largest Seafood Companies report reflect some key trends that shaped the industry last year.

Salmon farmers, particularly those in Chile, and several key multi-species consolidators such as Canada’s Cooke and Parlevliet & Van der Plas (P&P) of The Netherlands had a strong year.

2019 wasn’t as fortunate for several other sub-sectors in the seafood business such as shrimp suppliers, and Japanese-based distributors and wholesalers that face the challenge of difficult population demographics.

This year’s list also features six companies that are newcomers to our ranking: Spanish tuna processing and catching group Atunes y Lomos, Vietnamese pangasius producer Vinh Hoan, US lobster and scallops supplier East Coast Seafood, processors Iceland Seafood International and Seachill UK — which made past rankings under its past incarnation Icelandic Group — and Spanish fishing firm Grupo Iberica de Congelados, which is better known by its abbreviation, Iberconsa.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News