Saving Seafood

Massachusetts senator talks $300m seafood relief in COVID-19 call with industry

April 1, 2020 — US senator Edward Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat and one of the handful of lawmakers responsible for getting $300 million worth of assistance for the seafood industry in the recently passed $2.2 trillion coronavirus stimulus bill, talked to dozens of fishing industry leaders, state legislators and mayors on Saturday about the state of the crisis, the Cape Cod (Massachusetts) Times reports.

He warned them that it was going to get worse.

“These numbers are mounting, the number of cases, and it could go on potentially for a sustained period of time,” Markey said. He described the relief package as a life raft and said Congress was “fully prepared to come back as many times as it takes to make sure we keep all industries afloat in this health care crisis.”

The fishing industry responded that the $300m won’t be enough.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

Markey: Aid for fishermen only the beginning

March 30, 2020 — Sen. Edward Markey warned members of the fishing community Saturday that the country was just at the beginning of the coronavirus health crisis.

“These numbers are mounting, the number of cases, and it could go on potentially for a sustained period of time,” Markey said to dozens of fishing industry leaders, state legislators and mayors on a weekend conference call.

“Three hundred million is a great start, but it’s hard to imagine it will go very far,” said Jeffrey Reichle, president of Lund’s Fisheries of Cape May, New Jersey, of the $300 million economic aid package to the fisheries, contained in the $2.2 trillion coronavirus economic stimulus bill signed Friday by President Donald Trump.

Markey said the relief package was a life raft to get them through the immediate crisis period. Congress, he said, was “fully prepared to come back as many times as it takes to make sure we keep all industries afloat in this health care crisis.”

Markey was critical of the Trump administration’s handling of the crisis and how it was affecting businesses such as the $1 billion New England fishing industry. The shortage of virus test kits, and the delay invoking wartime powers to push industries to convert to producing needed supplies such as masks and ventilators, meant they were on uncertain ground in telling them how long it might take to get back to work.

Read the full story at the Cape Cod Times

New Jersey-based herring fleet sues over at-sea monitoring rule

February 25, 2020 — New Jersey herring fishermen are going to court challenging a new rule forcing them to pay for at-sea monitoring, which they say will cost more than $700 a day for observers and cut their revenue from herring trips by more than 20 percent.

A half-dozen vessels associated with Lund’s Fisheries, based near Cape May, N.J. are named in the lawsuit filed last week against the New England Fishery Management Council, NOAA and the Department of Commerce.

Cape Trawlers, H&L Axelsson and Loper Bright Enterprises contend regulators have no statutory authority from Congress to impose industry-paid monitoring in addition to a separate, federally-funded observer program.

“The regulation also has the potential to modify other New England fishery management plans to allow for standardized implementation of additional industry-funded monitoring programs in the future,” Lund’s Fisheries said in a joint announcement with the Cause of Action Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based legal and free-market advocacy group.

A final rule published in the Federal Register Feb. 7, to take effect March 9, would require Atlantic herring trawlers with areas A and B permits to pay toward a 50 percent at-sea monitoring coverage target for the first time.

Originating with the 2018 Industry-Funded Omnibus Amendment approved by the New England council, the potential for levying new monitoring requirements had been in the background since being okayed by the Department of Commerce.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

Lund’s-linked vessels sue NOAA over industry funded at-sea monitors

February 24, 2020 — A group of US Atlantic herring trawlers linked to major New Jersey scallop and squid supplier Lund’s Fisheries have sued the US National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) arguing that a new rule requiring them to pay for the cost of at-sea monitoring violates federal laws.

The lawsuit, filed Feb. 19 in a Washington, D.C., federal court, alleges that NOAA’s Feb. 7 publication of a “final rule” that will pave the way for industry-funded monitoring claims that the rule exceeds the agency’s authority granted under the Magnuson-Stevens Act, the main legislation that regulates fishing in US federal waters.

The lawsuit further claims that the rule improperly infringes on “Congress’s exclusive taxation authority” and violates three other federal laws — the Anti-Deficiency Act, the Miscellaneous Receipts Act and the Independent Offices Appropriations Act, all of which regulate how the government collects and spends money.

The rule, according to the lawsuit, could cost herring harvesters as much as $700 per trip for the monitors, third-party observers hired by the vessel owner.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

Family Fishermen Challenge Illegal, Industry-Killing At-Sea Monitoring Rule

February 20, 2020 — The following was released by Lund’s Fisheries and Cause of Action Institute:

Cause of Action Institute (“CoA Institute”) today filed a lawsuit on behalf of a group of New Jersey family fishermen to block a new regulation that would force them to pay for third-party “at-sea monitors.” The industry-killing rule-which was designed by the New England Fishery Management Council and promulgated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and U.S. Department of Commerce-will require certain boats in the Atlantic herring fishery to carry “at-sea monitors” and at their own cost.

The agencies are forcing this requirement on the fisherman despite no statutory authority to do so and in addition to a separate, federally funded observing program. The regulation also has the potential to modify other New England fishery management plans to allow for standardized implementation of additional industry-funded monitoring programs in the future.

“The herring trawl fishery and been vilified and over-regulated, with little demonstrated biological benefit to the herring resource, for too long. If our vessels are forced to pay these at-sea monitoring fees, it may drive some of us out of business, as several boats have already been forced out of the fishery through reduced quotas and burdensome regulation,” said Jeff Kaelin, Director of Sustainability and Government Relations at Lund’s Fisheries, Inc., and representative for the Plaintiffs. “The herring trawl fishery is heavily monitored and regulated already-with everything from exclusion zones covering hundreds of square miles of ocean where we have historically fished, to move-along rules enforced when a mechanical failure may occur. Monitoring New England’s and the Mid-Atlantic’s commercial fisheries is an inherent governmental function. Herring fishermen have worked with the Councils for years in advancing conservation and the sustainability of the herring resource and fishery. The Omnibus Amendment will not benefit those goals in any significant way and has been developed with no Congressional authority for doing so. This is the last straw.”

At-sea monitoring is expected to cost over $700 a trip. Herring fishermen will suffer a drop in income projected as at least 20%, which will challenge companies to remain profitable and subsequently have the effect of driving up costs to lobster and crab fishermen throughout the region. Monitors are required to live with the fishermen at sea, observe their activities, check their compliance with federal regulations, and file reports upon return to the dock. This increased regulatory burden comes despite herring fishermen successfully complying with complex, multi-layered state and federal fishing regulations since the Atlantic herring fishery management plan was adopted in 1999.

As many stakeholders explained in the lead-up to the new regulation, regulators have no statutory authority to require these family fishermen to pay for their own policing. And the process by which the government imposed the new rule for the herring fishery is procedurally suspect. CoA Institute is stepping-in to stop this unlawful overreach. If the industry-funding requirement moves forward, it will imperil one of America’s oldest and most-storied professions.

“The federal government finalized this regulation despite having no authority from Congress to do so. Commercial fishermen and their friends have been raising concerns about the inadequate legal basis for industry-funded at-sea monitoring for years,” said CoA Institute Counsel Ryan Mulvey. “But regulators have ignored these arguments. We cannot let the administrative state push rules that go beyond its power and crush an already-beleaguered industry. We are proud to represent America’s fishermen.”

A copy of the Complaint can be found HERE.

Plaintiffs are represented by CoA Institute counsels Ryan P. Mulvey and Eric R. Bolinder.

Lund’s lands New Bedford scallop processing facility, closes frozen office

November 22, 2019 — Lund’s Fisheries has added a new piece to its growing Atlantic scallop puzzle in US fishing hub New Bedford, Massachusetts, acquiring JT Sea Products from its founder along with its processing facility, the company has confirmed with Undercurrent News.

Cape May, New Jersey-based Lund’s has been, for the past few years, building scallop sales to match the size of its dominating squid business. Though he declined to provide annual revenue figures, Lund’s president Jeff Reichle told Undercurrent in an earlier interview that scallops have already gone from representing between 5% and 10% of his 64-year-old company’s sales three or four years ago to as much as 40%.

At least seven of Lund’s 19 vessels are equipped with scallop permits, and other scallop owner-operator vessels have been working out of Lund’s facilities for the past 20 or 30 years, he said.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

MFC Members Won’t Seek Menhaden Quota Increase Out of Respect for Work on Ecological Reference Points

August 5, 2019 — The following was released by the Menhaden Fisheries Coalition:

It is the long-standing view of the members of the Menhaden Fisheries Coalition (MFC) that the quota for Atlantic menhaden should have been raised substantially in 2017 due to the documented strength of the stock in the last assessment. However, contrary to the claims of some activists from special interest groups, MFC members will not be pursuing a quota increase at this week’s meeting of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) out of respect for the Commission’s ongoing work on ecological reference points (ERPs).

“Our long-standing commitment to the sustainability of Atlantic menhaden has repeatedly been confirmed by the best available science,” said Jeff Kaelin, government relations coordinator at Lund’s Fisheries, an MFC member based in New Jersey. “While that science supports a substantial increase in the quota right now, we look forward to the Commission’s conclusions on ERPs, which will help guide management moving forward.”

The findings of the ASMFC’s 2017 update stock assessment and the 2014 benchmark stock assessment clearly indicate that Atlantic menhaden is thriving up and down the Atlantic Coast. The 2017 assessment again indicated that the menhaden population is not overfished nor is overfishing occurring. Additionally, the assessment showed mortality rates have remained below the overfishing threshold since the 1960s, and fishing mortality has been decreasing throughout the history of the fishery.

An analysis conducted by ASMFC scientists in 2016 showed that the menhaden quota could be increased by up to 40 percent with a 0 percent chance of leading to overfishing. Another analysis by the MFC using data from the ASMFC’s 2017 stock assessment found that the fishery already leaves 92 percent of fish in the water to serve their ecological role.

“There are numerous positive signs for the health of the menhaden fishery,” said Ben Landry, director of public affairs at Omega Protein, an MFC member based in Virginia. “That’s why Omega Protein is pursuing certification of the fishery’s sustainability by the highly respected Marine Stewardship Council, a process that is nearing its conclusion.”

Even though all current signs indicate a menhaden quota increase is warranted, industry stakeholders are supportive of efforts to better understand the role Atlantic menhaden play in the ecosystem. Therefore, while the ASMFC Biological and Ecological Reference Points (BERP) workgroup continues its work developing ERPs for the menhaden fishery, the MFC will not request a quota increase at this week’s meeting.

Multiple ASMFC Commissioners have stated that increasing the quota in past years was premature and that we should wait until the ERPs are conducted. MFC members believe the same should be true for any potential reallocation of the current quota at this week’s meeting.

US squid catchers turn to innovation, MSC in push to boost consumption

May 13, 2019 — The US’ two largest squid catchers and suppliers are taking a similar tack when it comes to plans to boost consumption of their species: product innovation at home targeted at millennials, and the recent Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certification of their fisheries to open up new markets, particularly in Europe.

The companies –Narragansett, Rhode Island-based The Town Dock and Cape May, New Jersey-based Lund’s Fisheries — recently teamed up to receive MSC approval for the US Northwest northern shortfin squid (Illex Illecebrosus) fishery. This comes nearly a year after obtaining the MSC’s stamp for the US Northeast longfin inshore squid (Loligo pealeii) bottom trawl fishery last year, the world’s first MSC certification for a squid species. The two firms also catch California market squid (Doryteuthis opalescens) and harvest or procure a wide range of other squid and fish species.

Americans don’t consume a lot of squids — in 2015, the average US consumer ate around four ounces per year, roughly equivalent to a serving of fried calamari rings. That’s where the opportunity lies, Jeff Reichle, Lund’s president, told Undercurrent News.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

Lund’s Fisheries Now Proud to Offer MSC-Certified Illex Squid

May 3, 2019 — The following was released by Lund’s Fisheries:

Lund’s Fisheries is pleased to announce that the U.S. Northeast Northern Shortfin Squid (illex) fishery has been certified as sustainable against the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) fisheries standard. Lund’s now offers the only two species of squid in the world to have obtained MSC certification: the company’s loligo squid fishery was certified as sustainable last year.

“Lund’s is at the forefront of providing consumers with fresh, sustainably harvested seafood,” said Wayne Reichle, President of Lund’s Fisheries. “MSC certification for illex squid is just the latest example of our commitment to ensuring that all of our products are responsibly harvested and sustainably sourced.”

With an MSC label, consumers can be sure that their seafood comes from a fishery that is managed effectively and sustainably, and from one that minimizes its environmental impact. MSC certification is widely considered one of the strictest certification labels in the world, the “gold standard” of sustainable seafood. Through its active pursuit of the MSC label for its squid and Atlantic sea scallop products, and its sustainable sourcing of the rest of its product line, Lund’s is a leader in bringing environmentally friendly products to the U.S. and European markets.

“Consumers can be confident that when they purchase squid, scallops, or any other seafood from Lund’s, it comes with a commitment to support the long-term health of our oceans and marine life,” Mr. Reichle said.

Illex squid are migratory and occupy a large range, from Newfoundland to Florida. Unlike many other species of fish, illex squid likely to not be significantly affected by climate change, and some studies indicate that the species may even benefit from warmer ocean temperatures. Fisheries managers are confident enough in the future health of the species that they are proposing to raise the quota this year from 22,915 mt to 24,825 mt, an 8 percent increase.

Lund’s will be showcasing its sustainable squid products at this year’s Seafood Expo Global, taking place in Brussels, Belgium from May 7-9. Stop by booth 6-1225 to meet with our U.S. and European sales staff, who are dedicated to providing sustainable squid and scallop options for you and your customers.

Read the full release here

Second squid species gains MSC certification

May 3, 2019 — A second squid fishery has been certified against the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) standard, according to a release by the MSC.

The successful certification of the U.S. Northeast Northern shortfin squid (Illex illecebrosus) makes it the second squid fishery in the world, and the region, to gain MSC certification. The assessment was executed by SCS Global Services, and was requested by Lund’s Fisheries, in Cape May, New Jersey; and The Town Dock, in Point Judith, Rhode Island. The two companies were also responsible for the first-ever MSC certification of a squid fishery, when they gained certification of the Northeast longfin inshore squid (Loligo pealeii) fishery.

“The certification of the North Atlantic Illex fishery is very exciting for us and for sustainability-minded consumers,” Ryan Clark, CEO of The Town Dock, said in the release. “It has always been important for us to sustainably manage our squid fisheries, so a second MSC certification is welcome news. And now, we can offer our customers around the globe two certified sustainable USA squid species in Loligo and Illex.”

Read the full story at Seafood Source