Saving Seafood

Marine Stewardship Council’s Certifier MRAG Americas Calls for Audit on Gulf of Alaska Cod

January 9, 2020 — SEAFOOD NEWS — The Marine Stewardship Council’s certifying agency for Gulf of Alaska Pacific cod, MRAG Americas of Florida, announced an expedited audit for the GOA Pcod based on the new stock assessment that resulted in the fishery’s 2020 closure last month.

“New information on stock status provided by NOAA Fisheries and decisions of the North Pacific Fisheries Management Council in December of 2019” is the basis for a desk-based audit covering Principle 1 (stock status) only, the MSC announcement reads.

Read the full story at Seafood News

Russian cod and halibut get MSC certification

January 9, 2020 — Members of the Russia-based Longline Fishery Association (LFA) have earned Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certification for their Pacific halibut and Pacific cod fisheries in three zones of the Bering Sea.

Six fisheries got certificates: Interrybflot, YAMSy, Polaris, Sigma Marine Technology, Tymlatsky rybokombinat, and Dalrybprom. The certification covers the Chukchi, West Bering Sea, and East Kamchatka fishery zones of the Bering Sea.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

The World is Your Sustainable, Traceable Oyster

December 19, 2019 — The following was released by the Marine Stewardship Council:

Prestige Oyster Texas and Louisiana private oyster fishery achieved MSC certification today, marking a first for a wild oyster fishery in the Americas to achieve certification. The certification comes following a rigorous 10-month assessment carried out by independent, third party assessor MRAG Americas, to ensure the fishery meets the MSC fisheries standard, including ensuring sustainable fish stocks; minimizing environmental impact, and ensuring there are responsive management systems in place. MSC certification recognizes and rewards sustainable fishing practices and is helping create a more sustainable seafood market.

“Oysters play an integral part in a healthy ocean environment, so having an oyster fishery committed to the long term health of the wild oyster population by gaining MSC certification is a win for a healthy ocean,” said Brian Perkins, MSC Regional Director, Americas. “This is especially timely given the threats facing the ocean from climate change. Congratulations to Prestige Oysters on this achievement.”

“Prestige is proud to lead the industry in sustainable oyster harvesting. MSC certification is a testament to our fishery, for the past two years we have gone up against the rigorous standards of the MSC and to be the first certified oyster fishery in the Americas is an immensely proud feeling. I want to thank both Texas Parks and Wildlife Department and the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries for their assistance through this process. A special thank you to Laura Picariello at Texas SeaGrant for her guidance and commitment to this project. Certification would not have been possible without the dedicated, hardworking men and women of these institutions. Sustainable harvesting has always been at the core of my company, and now with MSC certification, consumers can trust that Prestige Oysters are harvested in the most sustainable practices. Over the past decade, we have seen initiatives from foodservice to retail customers to source MSC certified seafood, and I excited to offer that demand.”

The American cupped oyster (Crassostrea virginica) are wild oysters native to Texas and Louisiana and are harvested by boat dredges on private leases. Private leases may contain oyster reefs that are either natural or constructed from deposition of cultch (oyster shell, limestone, concrete, etc.) placed on soft bottom in suitable depths for oyster growth. Without additional cultch or natural growth of oysters that provides dead shell, the reefs would disappear over time, leaving little impact on the marine environment.

Oysters play an important role in the marine ecosystem, as both a habitat for a variety of sessile plants and animals and free-swimming fish and shellfish, and as filter feeder because they feed upon phytoplankton (algae)i. The Texas and Louisiana Oyster fishery is certified through 2024 and can enter reassessment after the five year period. During the five-year certification, the fishery must undergo annual surveillance audits in order to ensure their ongoing compliance with the MSC requirements.

The MSC standard was established in 1997 and is the only wild caught seafood standard and ecolabeling program to meet United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (UNFAO) guidelines as well as meet Global Sustainable Seafood Initiative (GSSI) benchmarking criteria. The standards used to evaluate fisheries have been developed in deliberation with scientists, industry, and conservation groups, and reflect the most up-to-date fisheries science and management practices.

The MSC fishery standards are based on three core principles that every fishery must meet:

  1. Sustainable fish stocks: Fishing activity must be at a level which ensures it can continue indefinitely.
  2. Minimizing environmental impact: Fishing operations must be managed to maintain the structure, productivity, function, and diversity of the ecosystem.
  3. Effective Management: The fishery must comply with relevant laws and have a management system that is responsive to changing circumstances.

Atlantic Capes, Northern Wind, Don’s Gulf lead launch of new Mexican bay scallop FIP

December 6, 2019 — Three companies involved in the Mexican bay scallop fishery have launched a collaborative effort to create a fishery improvement project (FIP) in the hopes of securing Marine Stewardship Council certification of the fishery.

Atlantic Capes Fisheries, of Fall River, Massachusetts, U.S.A., Northern Wind of New Bedford, Massachusetts, and Don’s Gulf Select of Louisiana have announced a joint FIP to bring the fishery into line with international standards and move toward MSC certification.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Two Fisheries Science and Management Experts Appointed to ISSF Environmental Stakeholder Committee

December 4, 2019 — The following was released by the International Seafood Sustainability Foundation:

The International Seafood Sustainability Foundation (ISSF) announced today that Dr. Alexia Morgan of the Sustainable Fisheries Partnership (SFP) and Bill Holden of the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) have joined the ISSF Environmental Stakeholder Committee (ESC).

Alexia Morgan, Ph.D., is the Science Lead for Tuna and Large Pelagic Species at the Sustainable Fisheries Partnership (SFP).  Dr. Morgan provides scientific and technical advice to producers and suppliers on key issues related to the fisheries they source from and ways in which they can improve these fisheries, including bycatch issues. In addition to these roles, Dr. Morgan conducts seafood assessments of tuna and large pelagic fisheries for SFP. Previously, Dr. Morgan was a Research Biologist at the Florida Program for Shark Research at the University of Florida and has worked as a consultant for various NGOs on a variety of elasmobranch-related issues. Outside of SFP, Dr. Morgan’s interests and research focus primarily on ecosystem impacts and spatial management of elasmobranch species in the Atlantic. Dr. Morgan has a Ph.D. in Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences from the University of Florida and an M.S. in Marine Biology from Nova Southeastern University.

“Dr. Morgan’s hands-on experience with producers and suppliers coupled with an impressive scientific background will be a significant asset for our team. Her position on the ISSF Environmental Stakeholder Committee continues ISSF’s long-time engagement with the Sustainable Fisheries Partnership,” said ISSF President Susan Jackson.

Mr. Bill Holden is the Senior Fisheries Manager, Oceania & South East Asia, for the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC), a global fisheries certification and ecolabel program. He began working with the MSC in February 2009 and is based in the Sydney office. His work involves fisheries outreach in the Pacific and Indian Oceans, with a focus on tuna fisheries. Mr. Holden has a wealth of experience in fisheries management from more than 20 years as an owner, operator and skipper of snapper and tuna longliners in the Kingdom of Tonga. During that time, he was the President of the Fishing Industry Association of Tonga (FIAT) and a director of the Pacific Islands Tuna Industry Association (PITIA).  Along with his vast industry experience and knowledge of fishing and marketing operations, Mr. Holden’s work in associations provides him with an understanding of regional management, and he maintains an extensive Pacific network of colleagues, associates and friends. Mr. Holden graduated from the University of California, Santa Barbara, in 1984 with a B.A. in Political Science and Communications.

“ISSF’s objective is for all tuna fisheries to be capable of achieving MSC certification without conditions. Having regular representation from MSC on ISSF’s Environmental Stakeholder Committee has been important for ISSF,” said ISSF President Susan Jackson. “As our newest ESC member from MSC, Bill brings regional management experience and expertise in the Western Pacific and Indian Ocean that is especially vital to our collaborative work. We look forward to his advice and counsel, especially in that critical part of the tuna-fishing world.”

Read the full release here

US Pacific cod TAC set to drop below Russia’s next year, 2021 reduction also likely

December 3, 2019 — The total allowable catch (TAC) for US Pacific cod will drop again in 2020 and beyond, as Russia increases its TAC way past the Alaskans and also has now Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) for a large chunk of its fishery.

Alaska’s Pacific cod biomass is down considerably in 2020 and will drop further in 2021, according to the draft stock assessment and fisheries evaluation (SAFE) report on stocks in the eastern Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands, which will be discussed Monday at the North Pacific Fishery Management Council (NPFMC) meeting, held from Dec. 2-10, 2019, at the Hilton Hotel in Anchorage, Alaska.

At the end of the meeting, TACs for Pacific cod, pollock and other species will be recommended to the government. According to historical catch data, the last time Russia had a higher Pacific cod catch than the US and Canada was 1987, when it was 175,271t compared to 150,591t.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

SFP unveils joint global seafood data project

November 18, 2019 — The following was released by the Sustainable Fisheries Partnership:

Sustainable Fisheries Partnership (SFP), together with four other NGOs, is pleased to announce that a new data tool for measuring seafood sustainability worldwide is now online and available for public use.

The Sustainable Seafood Data Tool is designed to offer users a clearer picture of environmental and social performance for global seafood production, along with a more detailed look at eight priority seafood sectors.

The Seafood Certification & Ratings Collaboration, a collective group of five NGOs—The Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch Program, SFP, the Aquaculture Stewardship Council, the Marine Stewardship Council, and Fair Trade USA, worked together to produce the tool, which includes sustainability-related data from all five NGOs.

Information available through the tool includes rating and certification status where applicable, whether a fishery or seafood farm is improving through a targeted project, and whether or not sustainability improvements are needed in a specific fishery or seafood farm. Users can filter the data by wild or farmed, region, or country.

“SFP is working to ensure that by 2020 at least 75 percent of global production in key seafood sectors is sustainable or moving toward sustainability,” said Braddock Spear, SFP Systems Division director. “The collaboration is critical for this goal, because it harmonizes improvement advice for specific fisheries and aquaculture sources and aligns efforts to engage the industry from key and emerging markets in driving improvements.”

International Seafood Sustainability Foundation Announces New Conservation Measure to Bolster Fish Aggregating Device (FAD) Management across Global Tuna Fisheries

November 12, 2019 — The following was released by the International Seafood Sustainability Foundation:

The International Seafood Sustainability Foundation (ISSF) today announced the adoption of a new conservation measure requiring that fishing vessels have publicly available fish aggregation device (FAD) management policies to comply with ISSF supply-chain recommendations for marine ecosystem health. These policies must be in line with science-based best practices outlined in ISSF’s report, “Recommended Best Practices for FAD Management in Tropical Tuna Purse Seine Fisheries.”

“Since ISSF’s founding 10 years ago, we’ve prioritized better management of FADs and the reduction of bycatch and other marine ecosystem impacts across all oceans,” explains ISSF President Susan Jackson. “This new conservation measure gives leading seafood companies a clear framework, based on years of scientific research, in sourcing tuna from vessels that are following best practices in designing, deploying, and recovering FADs – and also in reporting FAD data to Regional Fisheries Management Organizations (RFMOs).”

ISSF Conservation Measure 3.7 Transactions with Vessels or Companies with Vessel-based FAD Management Policies, approved by the ISSF Board of Directors to take effect in 2021, states that ISSF participating companies shall conduct transactions only with those purse seine vessels whose owners develop and make public FAD management policies that include the activities purse seine and supply vessels are undertaking (if any) on the following elements:

  • Comply with flag state and RFMO reporting requirements for fisheries statistics by set type
  • Voluntarily report additional FAD buoy data for use by RFMO science bodies
  • Support science-based limits on the overall number of FADs used per vessel and/or FAD sets made
  • Use only non-entangling FADs to reduce ghost fishing
  • Mitigate other environmental impacts due to FAD loss including through the use of biodegradable FADs and FAD recovery policies
  • For silky sharks (the main bycatch issue in FAD sets), implement further mitigation efforts

Helping global tuna fisheries become capable of achieving Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certification without conditions has long been an ISSF objective, and improved FAD management is an important component of meeting the MSC standard. Conservation Measure 3.7 is ISSF’s second measure focused on FADs specifically, and its tenth measure focused on bycatch mitigation in tuna fisheries.

For full details on Conservation Measure 3.7, read the complete text here: https://iss-foundation.org/what-we-do/verification/conservation-measures-commitments/bycatch-mitigation-3-7-transactions-with-vessels-or-companies-with-vessel-based-fad-management-policies/

Supply Chain Conservation Measure Expanded to include FisheryProgress.org and MSC-certified Fisheries

ISSF conservation measures directly affect how 26 global seafood companies that are ISSF participating companies environmentally manage their respective tuna supply chains.

To support ISSF participating companies in sourcing sustainable tuna from processors and vessels and achieving greater supply-chain transparency, the ISSF Board has amended Conservation Measure 2.4 Supply Chain Transparency, Audit, Reporting and Purchase Requirements.

In addition to purchasing tuna from Supplier Source categories — peer ISSF participating companies, ISSF Data Check companies, direct from vessels — ISSF participating companies now can source tuna from an expanded array of sources represented by these Fishery Source categories:

By January 31, 2020, and annually thereafter, to comply with measure 2.4, participating companies must publicly report the percentage of tuna sourced from the Supplier Source and/or Fishery Source categories.

The complete measure is available here: https://iss-foundation.org/what-we-do/verification/conservation-measures-commitments/traceability-data-collection-2-4-supply-chain-transparency-audit-reporting-and-purchase-requirements/.

ISSF provides application forms for companies interested in becoming a participating company or Data Check company, including Terms and Conditions for Data Check Companies.

Sustainability gaining ground in Chinese market

November 6, 2019 — Among the sea of Chinese companies exhibiting a huge variety of species and equipment at the China Seafood Expo in Qingdao, China, one thing was in greater abundance in 2019 than ever before: Displays showcasing products certified to a sustainability scheme.

Certifications – like that of the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) or the Global Aquaculture Alliance’s Best Aquaculture Practices (BAP) certification – have been catching on in the world’s most populous country, with multiple China-based companies now holding a certification of some kind. The number of products, too, showcasing certifications has increased rapidly.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Grocery chain calls attention to seafood via new sustainability ranking

November 4, 2019 — Natural Grocers, a large natural grocery chain operated by Vitamin Cottage, is drawing attention to the traceability and sustainability of its fresh and frozen seafood with its new sustainability ranking system for shoppers.

In a massive overhaul, the Lakewood, Colorado-based operator of 153 stores is calling attention to its meat and seafood departments by more effectively communicating the sustainability and other benefits – such as “Certified Organic” and “Dolphin Safe” – of its current offerings.

Read the full story at Seafood Source