Saving Seafood

MASSACHUSETTS: New Bedford launches seafood branding campaign

July 28, 2017 — NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — For generations New Bedford fishermen withstood the elements to do their jobs. Through rain storms they fished. In choppy waters they fished. Against harsh winds they fished.

So it was fitting that the unveiling of the city’s newly-created seafood brand was delivered in the rain at the Custom House Square in downtown New Bedford Thursday evening.

“We are the biggest, the baddest, the most comprehensive fishing port in America,” Mayor Jon Mitchell said. “We are going to scream from the mountain tops that we are the biggest fishing port in America. We are a real seaport and real fishing port. We want everyone to know that.”

In unabashed self-promotion, the city’s seafood brand initiative aims to make New Bedford synonymous with fresh, sustainable seafood much like Maine is with lobster and Alaska is with salmon. The logo, designed by Moore & Isherwood Communications, features a western rig fishing vessel, a major cog that’s helped make the Port of New Bedford the most lucrative fishing port in the country.

When buyers, whether they’re locally, nationally or internationally-based, purchase seafood from the Port of New Bedford, the products will have the logo on the packaging to serve as a visual reminder of what they are eating.

But more than just self-promotion, the branding will also tell consumers that the product they purchased has also been through rigorous testing in any of the city’s processing centers to ensure quality.

“Outside of our region, not enough people know how important New Bedford and our fishing industry are to providing sustainable, fresh, delicious fish to buyers and consumers everywhere,” Ed Anthes-Washburn, port director, said.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

CHRISTIAN PUTNAM: Local seafood in global competition: Time to fight back

July 28, 2017 — Most of our seafood is imported. “Most” means 92 percent; sometimes a higher number is quoted. That leaves eight percent of the seafood that is consumed in the United States sourced within our boarders. As was discussed last week, a piece of fish that is caught off the coast of Scituate, returned to shore properly handled but not frozen, processed locally and sold within a day or so is far superior to a frozen foreign product. Superior in both health and quality benefits. It would be hard to find someone to argue against this supposition.

Why would a consumer that lives in or near a fishing port every buy the foreign frozen version of something that is much better tasting and for you when caught locally? The answer is two-fold. One issue is that the seafood market is clearly global. Foreign players often have cost leverage over local operations. Second, many consumers do not realize they are buying or ordering a foreign-sourced fish and may not realize it has been frozen. Sometimes products are misrepresented on menus, sometimes the fish case at the grocery store is missing the required sign when a product is foreign and often the consumer just doesn’t think to ask.

While cognitively consumers know local is better, the differentiation between local and product from elsewhere simply enough to change behavior. A piece of fish is a piece of fish to many. Plus, after years of lackluster economic growth, many consumers are still very driven by price.

Read the full column at Wicked Local

CONNECTICUT: Industry expert says consumers have a role in saving local seafood

July 28, 2017 — STONINGTON, Ct. — Finding fresh, locally caught fish isn’t easy, but if educated consumers are persistent, they will not only help local fishermen, they’ll also help rebuild weakened domestic seafood markets that have been deeply gouged by imports and regulations.

Meghan Lapp, fisheries liaison for Seafreeze Ltd., a producer and trader of frozen seafood in North Kingstown, explained these points and more in her presentation, “Sea to Table: Bringing the Bounty of the Sea to You,” before an audience of about 40 people at the La Grua Center Thursday night.

In attendance were state Sen. Heather Somers, R-Groton, First Selectman Rob Simmons and a number of longtime local fishermen. The Stonington Economic Development Commission sponsored Lapp’s presentation.

She was joined by a panel comprised of Tom Williams, a generational fisherman with two sons who are commercial fishermen; Rich Fuka, president of the Rhode Island Fishermen’s Alliance; and Mike Gambardella, owner of Gambardella Wholesale Fish at the Stonington Town Dock.

Lapp said the fishing industry was so over-regulated, “You practically have to be a lawyer to go fishing.”

Read the full story at the Westerly Sun

MASSACHUSETTS: Seafood being added to state Farm to School Project

January 3, 2017 — BOSTON — The state Division of Marine Fisheries’ Massachusetts Seafood Marketing Program has partnered with the nonprofit Massachusetts Farm to School Project to promote the consumption of local seafood in schools.

“The Massachusetts commercial fishing and seafood industries provide delicious food and employment for thousands of people in the Commonwealth,” said Gov. Charlie Baker in a news release. “This is a great connection to make and we look forward to the partnership between Massachusetts fishermen and farm-to-school programs to provide the Commonwealth’s children with fresh, nutritious seafood products that support cognitive development.”

Energy and Environmental Affairs Secretary Matthew Beaton, in the release, said “Increasing sales of local seafood to schools will not only help find new markets for Massachusetts fishermen, but will also address the critical issue of access to healthy food, and introduce future consumers to the benefits of incorporating seafood into their diet.”

During the two-year partnership, the partners will promote seafood as part of Massachusetts Farm to School’s Massachusetts Harvest of the Month campaign, hold a series of local seafood cooking demonstrations for institutional food service providers, and have already offered a seafood focus track at the Massachusetts Farm & Sea to Cafeteria Conference in November 2016.

“This partnership helps DMF better increase awareness and preference of Massachusetts seafood to support the Commonwealth’s seafood industry and communities by reaching schools, universities, and hospital food service staff, educators, and families though Massachusetts Farm to School’s network,” said DMF Director David Pierce.

The Baker-Polito Administration launched the Massachusetts Seafood Marketing Program in August 2016 to increase awareness and demand for local seafood products and support Massachusetts’ fishing and seafood industries.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

Aquarium program offers food for thought on eating sustainably

May 4, 2016 — For decades, the National Aquarium has entertained millions of visitors while also teaching them about the need to conserve aquatic resources. The Baltimore institution has rescued marine animals off the coast of Ocean City, built floating wetlands to help clean the Inner Harbor’s water and featured Chesapeake Bay creatures in its tanks and exhibits.

But the aquarium was nearly silent on the subject of seafood consumption. The dark, serpentine halls told the story of precious resources being overfished. But that story didn’t have an ending — a solution for how to stem the decline. It had no programs to guide visitors on where to buy local fish caught sustainably, or how a customer could even understand what that meant.

That’s starting to change. A year ago, the aquarium hired its first director of sustainable seafood: T. J. Tate, who built a sustainable seafood program in the Gulf of Mexico. Tate is bringing together chefs, watermen and others in the seafood industry to talk about catching, raising, buying and eating locally caught fish, crustaceans and shellfish.

It is increasingly part of the story told by aquariums everywhere, at a time when overfishing is rampant worldwide while customers often overlook local products. Even fish that customers think is sustainable comes from far away — farm-raised salmon from Norway, or wild varieties from Alaska — and those distances have ramifications for air and water quality, too.  Visitors often ask what they should eat, and the aquarium wanted to find an engaging way to guide them.

“Telling the local seafood story in an integrated fashion — I mean the sustainable aquaculture supply and wild supply — is one of the most important things we can do to get people connected to oceans and the Bay,” said Eric Schwaab, who hired Tate when he was chief conservation officer at the aquarium. “There’s no better place to do that than Baltimore.”

Read the full story at the Bay Journal

MASSACHUSETTS: School district signs up for local seafood

July 14, 2015 — CHICOPEE, Mass. (AP) — A Massachusetts public school system is the first school district to sign on to a Maine science institute’s seafood certification system.

A spokesman for Gulf of Maine Research Institute in Portland, Maine, announced the partnership with the Chicopee district on Tuesday. The institute says the agreement means the district’s 7,800 students will be able to eat seafood that is responsibly harvested and traceable to the Gulf of Maine.

Chicopee sustainability coordinator Madison Walker says the move supports the region’s food economy. She says it will also help teach students about the fishing industry and marine ecosystems.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the Boston Herald