Saving Seafood

Lobstermen Asked to Look Out for Tagged Crustaceans

August 29, 2018 — New England’s lobster fishermen are being asked to keep an eye out for tagged lobsters that are part of a survey of the valuable crustaceans.

The lobsters are tagged with green bars that say “SNECVTS” and black acoustic tags. They are part of a tagging program that’s part of a southern New England lobster study being conducted from May to November by Commercial Fisheries Research Foundation and the University of Rhode Island.

The study is designed to find out about lobster and Jonah crab abundance and distribution in the RI/MA Wind Energy Area, which is located south of Rhode Island and Massachusetts, in the area of Cox’s Ledge.

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

Chinese buyers hesitant to buy Alaska seafood as U.S. weighs another round of tariffs

August 28, 2018 — In the first round of what seems to be an escalating trade dispute between the U.S. and China, tariffs have been levied on billions of dollars worth of goods in both countries. The Alaska fishing industry, which harvests roughly 60 percent of all wild seafood in the U.S., has been caught in the crosshairs of that disagreement.

But it’s not the Chinese tariffs that’s giving the industry heartburn. It’s a proposed tariff on seafood imported from China.

The Alaska seafood industry has a unique relationship with China. Nearly $1 billion worth of Alaska seafood was exported into the country in 2017, but that’s just the first step in a global supply chain.

“So much of our exports to China are reprocessed and re-exported,” Garrett Everidge, a fisheries economist with the McDowell Group, said.

Everidge explains that after those fish are reprocessed, they’re exported into markets around the world, including the U.S. Although, it’s hard to discern from trade data just how much winds back up in the U.S. market.

China kept its relationship with the Alaska seafood industry in mind when it levied a 25 percent tariff on U.S. seafood earlier this summer.

Read the full story at Alaska Public Media

BETH CASONI: Canada needs to do more to protect right whales

August 28, 2018 — For generations, Massachusetts lobstermen have been part of a revered tradition of marine coexistence that has sustained a proud New England fishing industry and protected an ecosystem for marine mammals. Now, that coexistence is threatened and international action is needed.

The North Atlantic right whale is critically endangered and faces extinction within our lifetime. For centuries, these enormous and majestic animals have migrated through New England waters, but largely due to unintentional human harm from ship strikes and entanglement in fishing gear, today the right whale population is estimated to be down to as few as 435. And the last year has been especially disastrous, with 17 confirmed right whale mortalities and no new calves sighted in the most recent calving season.

Now is the time for cooperative international intervention to turn this situation around and head off the preventable tragedy of extinction of this species.

For decades, the Massachusetts Lobstermen’s Association has worked in concert with conservation organizations like the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and the International Fund for Animal Welfare to be good stewards of the ocean and marine mammals. Facing serious concerns about how to make a living and keep businesses going, we work to find middle ground between our industry and the efforts of conservationists to advance the shared aims of all.

Over the years, regulators have imposed restrictions on U.S. Atlantic Coast fisheries in an effort to reduce harm to endangered species including the right whale. The MLA is proud of our history of adopting and complying with these requirements. To name a few: Vessels, aircraft or other approaches must be restricted within 500 yards of a right whale; and, all vessels 65 feet or longer must travel at 10 knots or less in certain locations along the East Coast of the United States at certain times of year to avoid collision with right whales.

Read the full opinion piece at the New Bedford Standard-Times

Fisheries and Climate Change: What’s Going On in New England?

August 28, 2018 — From cod to lobster, it’s no secret that New England’s fisheries are suffering at the hands of rising water temperatures and ecological shifts related to climate change. But, sometimes, it smacks you in the face.

This past week alone, a new assessment found no improvement in the Gulf of Maine shrimp fishery, which has been closed for five years. And another study linked rising water temperatures to the spread of a shell disease that has hit lobsters in southern New England hard in recent years.

Andrew Pershing, the chief scientific officer for Gulf of Maine Research Institute shared his thoughts on what’s happening in the New England fisheries, and while it’s not great, it’s not all bad news.

“You have to really put lobster in Maine and New Hampshire and north-of-Cape-Cod in the winner category, where the warming over the last 30 years has been a real boon to that population and it’s helped them achieve the record catches that people in Maine have had over the last three or four years,” Pershing said.

But in southern New England, those warming waters have been the cause of a decline. They’re essentially making it too hot for baby lobsters to thrive, and now it also seems to be contributing to the spread of a lobster shell disease.

Read the full story at WCAI

Seafood industry counters PETA protest with anger, humor

August 27, 2018 — Anti-seafood advertising messages in a few U.S. and Canadian cities are gaining attention this summer – positive, negative, and humorous.

Timed before major summer seafood festivals, the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA)-sponsored billboards express the individuality of crustaceans. For example, the current billboard displayed in Baltimore, Maryland, which includes an image of a Maryland blue crab, states: “I’m me, not meat. See the individual. Go vegan.”

The billboard, near Baltimore’s Inner Harbor and several seafood restaurants such as Phillips Seafood, McCormick & Schmick’s, and The Oceanaire Seafood Room, will be in place for the Baltimore Seafood Festival on 15 September.

In late July, PETA posted ads with the same message: ”I’m ME, Not MEAT. See the Individual. Go Vegan,” along with the image of a Maine lobster, on the concourse in the Portland International Jetport. The ads are near several airport restaurants, including Linda Bean’s Maine Lobster Cafe, which sells live lobsters.

A previous PETA investigation of Linda Bean’s Maine Lobster revealed that live lobsters were “impaled, torn apart, and decapitated – even as their legs continued to move,” PETA said in a statement.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

 

NFI testifies against proposed tariffs against China

August 23, 2018 — The National Fisheries Institute testified before the United States Trade Representative on 22 August in strong opposition to new tariffs proposed by the Trump Administration on Chinese goods.

The tariffs, which could be either 10 or 25 percent, would impact USD 200 billion (EUR 172 billion) in goods sourced annually from China. Robert DeHaan, representing NFI, said the tariffs would harm the seafood industry in the United States.

“USTR’s proposal will punish American fishermen and the communities that rely on them by making their products more expensive for American families to eat,” said DeHaan. “Of the [USD 2.7 billion (EUR 2.32 billion)] in annual seafood shipments subject to this proposal, an estimated [USD 950 million (EUR 819 million)] – more than a third – comes from an American fisherman – primarily an Alaska fisherman – harvesting in U.S. waters in a U.S.-flag vessel using a U.S. crew.”

The Trump Administration’s stated goal for the tariffs – making China respect its obligations regarding intellectual property rights – don’t line up with tariffs on seafood, added DeHaan.

“How punishing these harvesters – and these businesses for ‘Buying American’ – will convince China to respect its obligations regarding intellectual property rights and technology transfers is difficult to fathom,” he said. “Cutting fish is not an intellectual property secret.”

Read the full story at Seafood Source

The modern lobster trap was almost a model for Trump’s border wall. Its inventor is dead at 88.

August 22, 2018 — The ocean floor off the coast of New England is dotted with rectangular boxes split into two compartments — a “kitchen,” where lobsters are lured into the trap, and a “parlor,” where the crustaceans remain before they’re hauled up, rubber bands slipped over their menacing claws. Along with the multicolored buoys that mark their location, these underwater boxes are the chief emblems of the hard-knock marine endeavor that supplies the Atlantic delicacy.

Once rendered in wood, lobster traps are now mostly fashioned out of welded wire mesh, thanks to a Massachusetts man, James Knott Sr., who died last week of natural causes, according to the company he founded, Riverdale Mills Corp. He was 88.

He was acclaimed by the company as a “profoundly influential innovator, whose products help millions of people.”

Most who enjoy a buttered lobster tail are benefiting from Knott’s creation. Aquamesh, the wire mesh fabric he invented, is used for 85 percent of lobster traps in North America, the company said. In a testament to its broad applications, a variant of the welded wire almost became an option for President Trump’s border wall, funding for which remains in limbo.

Read the full story at The Washington Post

FLORIDA: ‘It’s Going To Be A Rough Year’: Key Largo Fishermen Feel Effects Of Chinese Lobster Tariffs

August 22, 2018 — At 6 a.m. on a recent Thursday morning, Ernie Piton and his son dragged wooden lobster traps across their dock in Key Largo. They stabbed sharp wires through ripe, glossy fish heads, preparing for the grind of baiting and checking Florida spiny lobster traps. As the fishermen turned the key, rumbling their boat to life, they hoped for a good haul.

Lobster fishing is grueling work, with long hours spent reeling in nearly 300 lobster traps each day. But it’s been the family’s livelihood for 35 years.

Piton sells lobster and stone crab through his family-run operation, Risky Business II. His 21-year-old son, Travis, also depends on this lobster boat for his full-time job.

For the last decade, the Pitons have sold almost exclusively to the Chinese market. During three of those years, they’ve sold lobster through a third-party buyer that works out of Miami, Ocean Dragon Seafood. But since June, the Trump Administration’s trade war with China has threatened their livelihood and that of many Florida fishermen. That comes as many are still recovering from losses during the 2017 hurricane season.

Read the full story at WJCT

MASSACHUSETTS: Gloucester hopes catch can claw its way to top

August 20, 2018 — Building on the success of its Gloucester Fresh seafood branding campaign, the city of Gloucester plans to apply the same formula to help brand and market Massachusetts lobsters to lobster lovers the world over.

Couldn’t happen in a better place.

If you go by the numbers, there is no better Bay State lobster port to take up the banner for distinguishing Massachusetts lobsters from those hauled from the waters of neighboring states.

Gloucester has dominated the lobster trade in Massachusetts and the industry’s high profile here has helped mitigate some of the misery foisted upon the community by the continuing groundfish crisis.

It is the state’s No. 1 port in both number of active lobstermen — an average of 136 annually during the past five years — and amount of lobster annually landed. Gloucester has averaged 2.94 million pounds per year over the past five years, according to the state Division of Marine Fisheries.

During that period, no other Massachusetts lobster port ever claimed more than 60 active lobstermen in any given year, and none but Gloucester ever cracked double-digits in the percentage of statewide landings.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

Will Trade Tariffs Cause The American Fish Industry To Flop?

August 16, 2018 — An estimated $900 million worth of American-caught or -farmed seafood — from fish sticks to cod fillets — may get a lot more expensive thanks to the U.S.’s current trade war with China.

How? Well, last month the Trump administration proposed a 10% duty on a wide range of imports from China, including many varieties of fish. Trade representatives will finalize the tariffs, which could increase to 25%, in September. While these tariffs are designed to punish China for unfair trade practices, when it comes to seafood, it’s the U.S. that may be on the hook.

Here’s a surprising fact: In many cases seafood labeled as “from China” is actually American. That $900 million of seafood I mentioned earlier? It’s seafood that is first caught or raised in the U.S., sent to China for processing, and then subsequently imported back into the U.S. by companies that sell it to American consumers.

Why would pink salmon or squid that’s caught in U.S. waters be labeled a product of China? Well, thanks to our confusing Country of Origin Labeling law (COOL for short), American products that undergo a “substantial transformation” abroad — such as calamari being breaded or pink salmon being filleted and canned — must then be labeled as coming from the country where they were processed. For example, in some cases a package of frozen “Alaskan Cod” fillets may say “product of China” on the back. The fish was caught in Alaska, but it was cleaned, filleted, and frozen in China. (If you’re interested in more, the USDA has a good blog post on the subject.)

Read the full story at Forbes