Saving Seafood

Gulf of Saint Lawrence snow crab fishery withdraws from MSC, launches new FIP

June 16, 2021 — A new comprehensive fishery improvement project (FIP) has been launched by New Brunswick and Quebec seafood processors and fishermen associations, which they hope will lead to reduced entanglements with North Atlantic right whales.

The main objective of the new FIP is to regain Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certification for the fishery, which was suspended for Area 12 and Sub-Areas 12 E and 12 F in 2018 due to incidents resulting in right whale deaths. As part of the launch of the new FIP, the fishery has “decided to withdraw” from the MSC program to focus its efforts on the improvements needed to regain certification – in part because the FIP would run past the expiration date of the suspended certification – according to a release by the recently launched “snow crab zone 12.”

Read the full story at Seafood Source

ASC to tackle “one of biggest threats to aquaculture’s reputation” with new feed standard

June 15, 2021 — After years of development, the Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC) launched a new feed standard on Tuesday, 15 June, seeking to “tackle one of biggest threats to aquaculture’s reputation.”

Recognizing that “unsustainable and irresponsible practices across the aquaculture feed-supply chain risk undoing the positive impact of the farming industry,” ASC’s new standards requires feed mills to meet a series of “strict environmental and social requirements; source ingredients from socially responsible suppliers; and use environmentally responsible raw materials.”

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Red Lobster latest seafood vendor to get hit with sustainability-focused lawsuit

June 15, 2021 — A growing number of class-action lawsuits are being filed against seafood retailers and foodservice outlets, claiming their offerings do not meet their own sustainability claims.

Earlier this month, in a complaint filed in the U.S. Superior Court in the District of Columbia, ALDI was accused of false advertising and marketing, with the advocacy group GMO/Toxin Free USA alleging ALDI’s claim that its salmon is sustainably sourced is not credible. Earlier this year, Mowi agreed to settle a similar lawsuit for USD 1.3 million (EUR 1.1 million). The complaint alleged that the sustainability claims on its Ducktrap River of Maine smoked salmon were false.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Walton Family Foundation grants USD 6.7 million to Sustainable Fisheries Partnership

June 9, 2021 — The Walton Family Foundation has pledged USD 6.7 million (EUR 5.5 million) to support the Sustainable Fisheries Partnership, renewing its foundational grant to the seafood sustainability-focused nonprofit.

The Walton Family Foundation support of SFP is aimed at advancing sustainability initiatives covering octopus, tuna, shrimp, squid, mahi, whitefish, reduction fisheries, blue swimming crab, and snapper and grouper. SFP is in the midst of its Target 75 campaign, which seeks to move 75 percent of the global production of crucial seafood sectors into fisheries certified as sustainable (Marine Stewardship Council-certified or equivalent) or classified as improving under a credible fishery improvement project.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Bumble Bee Seafood pursuing MSC certification for two longline tuna fisheries

May 24, 2021 — San Diego, California, U.S.A.-based Bumble Bee Seafood and its parent company, FCF Co., announced on 24 May they will be pursuing Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certification for two of their tuna fisheries.

The companies will pursue MSC fishery assessments of two longline fisheries that span multiple nations, including Taiwan, Fiji, Vanuatu, and others. The fishery covers three oceans, three tuna species, and more than 250 longline vessels, predominantly catching albacore tuna. The fisheries represent approximately 50 percent of Bumble Bee’s entire albacore tuna production.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Fraudulent Fish Foiled by Cancer-Catching Pen

May 18, 2021 — When chemistry graduate student Abby Gatmaitan first visited the University of Texas at Austin on a recruiting tour, she learned about the MasSpec Pen—a handheld device that scientists there were developing to diagnose tumors on contact. “I knew that was where I wanted to do my research,” she says. Shortly after joining the lab, she realized that if the pen could categorize human tissue, it would probably also work on other animals.

Gatmaitan had a very specific problem in mind, and her hunch paid off. Her research, published this spring in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, showed that touching the tip of the “pen” to a sample of raw meat or fish could correctly identify the species it came from. The device was tested on five samples and took less than 15 seconds for each of them. Roughly the length of a typical ink pen, the tool provided answers about 720 times faster than a leading meat-evaluating technique called polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing—and it was much easier to use. Gatmaitan says it could help scientists tackle a global conservation issue: mislabeled seafood.

Seafood fraud is not just a concern for the restaurant diner who orders expensive, wild-caught red snapper, only to wind up with a plate of mercury-laden tilefish. Such deception also threatens the environment. Mislabeled fishes often come from poorly managed fisheries that can harm local ecosystems. Sometimes a fish is passed off as the wrong species or is falsely claimed to have been caught in a different geographical area in order to evade conservation laws or sell a catch for more money than its market value.

Read the full story at Scientific American

Fishery consultant claims MSC reputation damaged in Australia after roughy certification failure

May 14, 2021 — An Australian fishery consultancy, which has taken a financial hit from the fallout of the failed Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certification of the orange roughy fishery, claims the MSC’s reputation may be damaged in the country by the certification’s failure.

“Just as MSC was about to take a step forward in Australia it takes several backwards and will become less relevant,” Simon Boag, a fisheries advisor at Australian-based Atlantis Fisheries Consulting Group – which was engaged by a number of orange roughy east quota owners to seek MSC accreditation – said.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Northeast squid: Recovery slow, but Rhode Island harvesters welcome restaurants’ return

May 4, 2021 — More than half of all squid landings in the Northeast come from Rhode Island. But last year, as a result of the pandemic, some Rhode Island fleets saw earnings dip by 30 percent.

Jason Didden, a fishery management specialist at the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council, says that so far in 2021, total longfin landing are off to a slow start at less than 5 million pounds landed, compared to this time last year when around 11 million pounds had been landed. Illex season typically gets started in May and 2021 squid quotas are the same as 2020: 23,400 metric tons for longfin and 30,000 metric tons for illex. (The illex quota was expected to be reviewed in May.)

Coming off a troubling year has taken great effort. Kat Smith, Director of marketing and communications at Town Dock, a large processor distributor based in Narragansett, R.I., says “at this point, things are still not back to normal — although we’re glad that the light at the end of the tunnel gets closer every day. There continues to be a global shipping container shortage, covid-related disruptions, and now, the Suez Canal issue, all of which have supply chain impacts for seafood and many other industries.” 

Two Town Dock products, says Smith, Rhode Island calamari (longfin inshore squid) and premium domestic calamari (northern shortfin squid), which are both caught in Rhode Island and are Marine Stewardship Council certified sustainable, are always popular.

“When we look at our foodservice offerings, we are certainly better than this time last year — restaurants are ramping up with states’ reopening plans, and more people are vaccinated and excited to go out to eat. Calamari — and seafood, in general — has also enjoyed year-over-year growth in retail and grocery stores. The demand is very good; once the supply chain has sorted itself out, we are excited for the opportunities ahead.”

Read the full story at National Fisherman

MSC grants awarded to boost fisheries management efforts

April 30, 2021 — Global efforts to improve the management of fisheries through efficient collection and utilization of high-quality data have received a boost with a GBP 650,000 (USD 907,834 EUR 753,562) grant from the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC).

The MSC grant, channeled via the Ocean Stewardship Fund, will help strengthen the at-sea fishery observer safety initiative, reduce unwanted bycatch, and improve fisheries’ harvest strategies and the sustainability of bait fishing, according to a statement by the Council.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

StarKist says all its salmon and tuna now sustainably-sourced

April 26, 2021 — Starkist is now sourcing all of its tuna and salmon from sustainable sources.

The Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S.A.-based company is now sourcing 100 percent of its tuna and salmon from suppliers that meet the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) standard for sustainable fishing or are working toward certification, including those participating in a comprehensive fishery improvement project (FIP), the tuna supplier said in a press release.

Read the full story at Seafood Source