Saving Seafood

US squid fishery looks to tackle a world first

July 10, 2017 — The Northeast United States longfin inshore squid fishery is on its way to becoming the first of its kind in the world to undergo a successful Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certification assessment, Lund’s Fisheries and The Town Dock announced on 7 July.

Lund’s, based out of of Cape May, New Jersey, and The Town Dock, based out of Point Judith, Rhode Island, have requested the assessment, which is being conducted by independent auditor SCS Global Services. Following a positive pre-assessment completed in January, the requesting companies decided to go ahead with submitting the longfin squid fishery, which dates back to the late 19th century, for MSC certification.

“Throughout our 37 years of business, our goal has always been to provide customers with a healthy and sustainable seafood product,” said Katie Almeida, fishery policy analyst at The Town Dock, which is the largest supplier of longfin squid in the United States. “By certifying longfin squid, we hope to take that promise of sustainability a step further, and to provide our customers with squid for many years to come.”

“For over 60 years, we have constantly strived to improve the quality and sustainability of our products to meet the high standards of our customers,” added Jeff Kaelin, government relations coordinator at Lund’s Fisheries. “Our effort to certify longfin and Illex squid as sustainable is another example of our commitment to producing the best, most responsibly sourced seafood possible for our customers.”

Read the full story at Seafood Source

First Squid Fishery Begins Marine Stewardship Council Assessment

Northeast United States Longfin Inshore Squid Fishery Becomes the First Squid Fishery in the World to Undergo MSC Certification

June 29, 2017 — The following was released by Lund’s Fisheries and The Town Dock:

The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) announced today that the U.S. Northeast longfin inshore squid fishery has entered a sustainability assessment for MSC certification. It is the first squid fishery in the world to undergo MSC certification.

The Town Dock of Point Judith, Rhode Island, and Lund’s Fisheries, Inc. of Cape May, New Jersey requested the sustainability assessment. It is being conducted by SCS Global Services, the first independent sustainability certifier to be MSC-accredited. A positive pre-assessment of the fishery was completed in January. The Town Dock and Lund’s Fisheries have also agreed to have the Illex (Illex illecebrosus) squid fishery assessed under the MSC standards as soon as possible.

The Longfin Inshore Squid Fishery

The longfin inshore squid (Doryteuthis pealeii) fishery dates back to the late 19th century, and the squid most often makes its way onto dinner plates across the country as calamari, served either fried or sautéed in salads. Longfin squid also serves as an important source of bait for many other high-profile fisheries.

The longfin squid fishery is concentrated in the Northeast, and the species is most abundant in the waters between Georges Bank, off the coast of Massachusetts, and Cape Hatteras, off the coast of North Carolina. The fishery is largely comprised of small-mesh bottom trawl boats, with mid-water trawls and pound nets comprising a much smaller portion of the catch.

Leading Squid Producers and Suppliers

The Town Dock, one of the companies requesting the assessment, is the largest supplier of longfin squid in the country.

“Throughout our 37 years of business, our goal has always been to provide customers with a healthy and sustainable seafood product,” said Katie Almeida, Fishery Policy Analyst at The Town Dock. “By certifying longfin squid, we hope to take that promise of sustainability a step further, and to provide our customers with squid for many years to come.”

Lund’s Fisheries, the other company requesting the assessment, is the only company that participates in all three U.S. squid fisheries on the east and west coasts, and sells its products worldwide. A family company in business since 1954, Lund’s is also one of the largest producers of Illex squid, and was instrumental in developing the Illex fishery with substantial investments made in shoreside processing. It is a member of the American Scallop Association, which has worked with MSC to certify U.S. Atlantic sea scallops.

“For over 60 years, we have constantly strived to improve the quality and sustainability of our products to meet the high standards of our customers,” said Jeff Kaelin, Government Relations coordinator at Lund’s Fisheries. “Our effort to certify longfin and Illex squid as sustainable is another example of our commitment to producing the best, most responsibly sourced seafood possible for our customers.”

Marine Stewardship Council’s Fisheries Standard

The MSC Fisheries Standard for sustainability was developed in deliberation with scientists, industry, and conservation groups, and reflects the best fisheries science and management practices. It is based on three principles that every certified fishery must meet: the health of the fish stock; the impact of fishing on the marine environment; and management of the fishery.

SCS Global Services, an accredited third-party conformity assessment body, is conducting the assessment. SCS will assemble a team of fishery science and policy experts to evaluate the fishery according to the three principles of the MSC Fisheries Standard. The process takes around 14 months and is open to fishery stakeholders. All results are peer reviewed and no decision will be made about the fishery’s sustainability until after the assessment is complete. Those interested in the longfin inshore squid fishery assessment can participate by contacting Jenn Humberstone at jhumberstone@scsglobalservices.com.

Future Illex Squid Assessment

The Town Dock and Lund’s Fisheries have also requested an MSC certification assessment for the Northwest Atlantic Illex fishery. Northwest Atlantic Illex, also known as northern shortfin squid, are a commercially important species that span the northern Atlantic Ocean, from eastern North America to Iceland and the United Kingdom.

About The Town Dock
For the last 35 years, The Town Dock has been a recognized leader in calamari (squid) products worldwide. With a waterfront location, multiple processing facilities, exceptional partnerships, and a company-owned fishing fleet, The Town Dock is the largest purchaser of US domestic East Coast squid. The company offers a full line of domestic and imported calamari products, and markets these products to customers in both the foodservice and retail segments.

About Lund’s Fisheries, Inc.
Lund’s Fisheries, Inc. is a primary producer of fresh and frozen seafood located in Cape May, N.J. Lund’s purchases, produces and distributes nearly 75 million pounds of fresh and frozen fish annually. Its fresh and frozen domestic sales stretch from Maine to Texas while its frozen exports extend to markets around the world. Lund’s has about 30 fishing vessels delivering a variety of seafood to its facility year round. Lund’s is committed to developing and managing systems and practices to track seafood back to the harvest location to ensure it is sourced from fisheries that are well-managed, certified sustainable or actively working towards implementing more responsible and sustainable harvesting practices.

About the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC)  
The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) is an international non-profit organization. Its vision is for the world’s oceans to be teeming with life, and seafood supplies safeguarded for this and future generations. The MSC certification program recognizes and rewards sustainable fishing practices and is helping create a more sustainable seafood market.

The blue MSC label on a seafood product means that:

  • It comes from a wild-catch fishery which has been independently certified to the MSC’s science based standard for environmentally sustainable fishing.
  • It’s fully traceable to a sustainable source.

More than 300 fisheries in over 35 countries are certified to the MSC’s Standard. These fisheries have a combined annual seafood production of almost 10 million metric tons, representing close to 12% of annual global marine harvest. More than 25,000 seafood products worldwide carry the blue MSC label.

About SCS Global Services
SCS Global Services is a global leader in third-party quality, environmental and sustainability verification, certification, auditing, testing, and standards development. Its programs span a cross-section of industries, recognizing achievements in green building, product manufacturing, food and agriculture, forestry, power generation, retail, and more. In addition to its Emeryville, California, headquarters operation, SCS has affiliate offices in Latin America, Asia/Pacific, Europe and Africa. Its broad network of auditors are experts in their fields, and the company is a trusted partner to many environmental NGOs due to its dedication to quality and professionalism. SCS is a chartered benefit corporation, reflecting its commitment to socially and environmentally responsible business practices.

Drop in herring a mystery in Maine as bait price booms

March 13, 2017 — ROCKLAND, Maine — Maine’s booming lobster industry has a big problem involving a little fish.

The state’s iconic lobster fishery is healthy, having set records for volume and value in 2016. But the fishery for herring, a small schooling fish that lobsters love to eat, is another story.

Herring is suddenly the second-most valuable fishery in the state, and Maine’s most valuable species of fish, bringing in $19 million at the docks in 2016. It’s also the most popular bait used in lobster traps, and the climb in value corresponds with demand from the hungry lobster fishery and a drop in catch of herring off of New England.

Scientists and fishermen are trying to figure out why Maine’s Atlantic herring catch — the largest in the nation — has fallen from 103.5 million pounds in 2014 to 77.2 million last year. The per-pound price of the fish at the dock has gone up 56 percent since 2014, and that price is eventually borne by people who buy lobsters.

“The whole dynamic of the fishery has changed,” said Jeff Kaelin, who works in government relations for Lund’s Fisheries, which lands herring in Maine.

Kaelin, and others who work in and study the fishery, thinks climate and the way the government manages herring may have played a role in the decline of catch. Atlantic herring are managed via a quota system, and regulators have slashed the quota by more than 40 percent since the early 2000s.

Read the full story at the Associated Press

The real reason why you’re suddenly seeing whales in N.J. and N.Y. waters

November 28, 2016 — If you’ve spent any time walking the beaches or boating the ocean waters of New Jersey or New York in recent weeks, you’ve likely been treated to spectacle that has been a rarity in these parts for most of the past century or so: whales.

They’ve been seemingly everywhere.

Breaching just past the sandbars in Asbury Park.

Swimming past groups of surfers in Rockaway Beach.

Bumping into boats off Belmar.

And this week’s ultimate cetacean sensation: a humpback whale swam up the Hudson River for a photo op in front of the George Washington Bridge.

Besides inspiring a chorus of oohs and aahs, the increase in sightings is adding a blubbery new wrinkle to a raging debate over a far smaller fish: the Atlantic menhaden. It’s the menhaden, also known as “bunker” — clumsy, multidinous, slow swimming virtual floating hamburgers — that those whales are chasing.

Even as the whales were gulping down bunker along the coast of New Jersey, the ASMFC has been pushing the commercial quotas back up closer to pre 2012 catch levels. Last year, the catch limit was raised 10 percent, with the ASMFC citing data that showed bunker were not being overfished.

And, then, three weeks ago, the council voted to raise the commercial catch limits another 6.5 percent.

That move has been cheered by commercial fishing operations who argue the limits were never necessary and simply jeopardized an industry that employs hundreds of people from New Jersey to Virginia, where the largest menhaden processing operation, Omega Protein Corp, is located.

“The fact that there’s a lot of fish around has nothing do with reducing these quotas,” said Jeff Kaelin, spokesman for Lund’s Fisheries, a Cape May commercial fishing company that sells bunker as lobster bait. The increased number of whale sightings is simply the result of smaller fish growing to a larger size due to “environmental conditions.”

“The stock was not overfished,” he said. “It’s never been.”

Kaelin said the 20 percent coast-wide reduction translated into a roughly 50 percent cut for New Jersey companies that harvest bunker, because it shut down the fishery early in the year and put the state’s crucial fall harvest off limits.

“If the science says we need to cut back we will, but in this case we feel very strongly that we’re underfishing the stock,” he said.

Read the full story at NJ.com

Commission could increase menhaden catch

August 2, 2016 — New Jersey commercial bait fishermen want to see the coastwide catch of menhaden increased nearly 80,000 metric tons.

“We’re focused on the science. If the science supports an increase, we want to take it,” said Jeff Kaelin from Lunds Fisheries, a commercial fishing operation in Cape May.

The amount of menhaden fishermen will be able to take from the water next year will be decided Wednesday in Alexandria, Virginia, when the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission meets.

The Atlantic Menhaden Technical Committee has given the ASMFC options that would allow the catch to increase by as much as 10,000 to 80,000 metric tons.

Only one option is to keep the status quo at 187,880 metric tons. There is no option to reduce the catch.

Kaelin said Jersey purse seiners have been shut out of the fishery since July 4, after fishermen reached their allocation for this year. He said if they had more quota, they could be selling bait to New England lobstermen who are clamoring for bait.

Read the full story at the Asbury Park Press

Changing Migration Patterns Upend East Coast Fishing Industry

May 11, 2016 — Summer flounder that once amassed in North Carolina have gradually shifted about 140 miles to New Jersey—one facet of the northward migration of fish species that is upending traditional fishing patterns.

The move north has sparked debate among regulators over how to respond to changing natural resources that could affect commercial fisheries across the eastern seaboard.

For the first time, a group of researchers backed by the federal government is trying to ascertain what the northward movement means for fishermen’s income and way of life.

“Some fisherman will end up losing out and some will win big,” said Malin Pinsky, an assistant professor of ecology and evolution at Rutgers University, who is part of a team of scientists from Rutgers, Princeton University and Yale University studying the phenomenon.

Funded through a piece of a $1.4 million National Science Foundation grant, the team of scientists is examining how shifting patterns of where fish congregate is affecting commercial anglers and how they are changing their practices. They are also studying what kind of regulations may be needed to adapt to these changing realities.

For Lund’s Fisheries, for example, the northward creep has forced the company’s boats to catch the flounder in New Jersey and then spend time traveling to North Carolina, where regulations allow them to bring them on shore in more abundant quantities. When the boats travel south, the fishery can’t catch sea bass, scup and other species they may have reeled in at the same time in waters off New Jersey.

“It does cause us to drive fish around the ocean longer than we have historically. That gets factored into the cost of doing business,” said Jeff Kaelin, an executive at the company, which has facilities in Cape May, N.J., and North Carolina.

Read the full story at the Wall Street Journal

Woman shot on fishing vessel in Port of Cape May

October 5, 2015 — The New Jersey State Police said a Lower Township man was arrested for attempted murder after he shot a Whitesboro woman aboard a fishing vessel docked at Lund’s Fisheries.

Capt. Stephen Jones of the State Police said Ernest Davis, 43, of Lower Township was being held in the Cape May County Correctional Center in lieu of $1 million cash bail, charged with attempted murder, aggravated assault, and weapons charges related to the shooting.

Jones said Lower Township Police Department called in the state police after they responded to Lund’s Fisheries at the Port of Cape May, Oct. 3, at around 10:32 p.m., after the report of a person being shot. After determining the shooting was aboard the fishing vessel Storm, the LTPD called the State Police, which responded with officers from their Marine Bureau.

Read the full story from Shore News Today