Saving Seafood

Omega Protein comes out swinging as magazine questions MSC’s integrity

May 14, 2019 — US firm Omega Protein has come out fighting following a column, published in Sport Fishing Magazine, made claims of impropriety in the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certification process of the Atlantic menhaden fishery.

In the editorial, Sport Fishing Magazine “impugns the integrity of both the [MSC] and the Atlantic menhaden fishery,” said Omega Protein. In response to the recommendation by the independent auditor that the menhaden fishery be MSC certified, editor Doug Olander made accusations of impropriety rather than critiquing the fishery, the independent assessment, or the MSC process on its merits, it said.

“MSC certification has always been based on objective criteria, which are evaluated by independent, third-party auditors,” the company said. “The process is entirely transparent, publicly available and easily accessible to [the magazine’s editor, Doug] Olander. If a fishery doesn’t score high enough on the assessment, it isn’t certified. Fisheries can be denied certification, and several fisheries have lost their certification for not maintaining standards.”

Olander wrote that Omega Protein was “buying its way to public respectability”, and looking to “wrap itself in a cloak of respectability by claiming it’s a certified sustainable fishery”. In fact, said Omega Protein, as made clear in the report compiled by the independent auditors, the menhaden fishery does meet the criteria for MSC certification.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

Omega Protein: New York menhaden law a ‘feel good’ for environmentalists

April 26, 2019 — Omega Protein says it won’t be hurt by a new law that blocks it from fishing for menhaden in New York state waters in order to preserve the forage fish for whales and other wildlife because it never goes there.

Rather, it’s “feel-good legislation for the environmental community, but it will have zero impact on the company’s operations”, commented Ben Landry, director of public affairs for the Houston, Texas-based division of Canada’s Cooke, when called by Undercurrent News Tuesday for a response.

The legislation passed unanimously, 61-0, by New York’s Senate in February (companion bills S. 2317 and A. 2571) went into effect immediately upon being signed by Governor Andrew Cuomo on Thursday. The new law, which was sponsored by Democratic senator Todd Kaminsky and assembly member Steve Englebright, prohibits the taking of menhaden with the use of purse seine nets within three miles of the state’s coast.

Because menhaden are sensitive to oxygen levels in the water and can die off by the thousands when large schools become too confined in one area during hot weather, the law allows the state’s Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) to issue a temporary order to allow purse seiners to reduce the population.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

Thousands of dead fish wash up in N.J. river, bay area over weekend

March 18, 2019 — Thousands of dead fish washed up in creeks that are part of the Shrewsbury River estuary in Monmouth County over the weekend after the large school of menhaden were pursued by predatory fish and depleted the oxygen from the shallow water, state environmental officials said.

The adult menhaden, a species in the herring family, were found near boats in docks in Oceanport Creek, Parker’s Creek and Blackberry Bay in Oceanport early Saturday, the state Department of Environmental Protection said Monday. The fish kill numbered in the “thousands and thousands,” Hajna said.

Read the full story at NJ.com

MSC Certification Recommended for Atlantic Menhaden Fishery

March 8, 2019 — SEAFOOD NEWS — SAI Global, an independent certification body, has officially recommended that the Atlantic menhaden purse seine fishery be certified sustainable against the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) fisheries standard.

In order to receive MSC certification, fisheries are evaluated against 28 performance indicators in three categories: suitability of the stock, minimizing environmental impacts and effective fisheries management. The Atlantic menhaden fishery cored 82.5, 86.0, and 92.2, respectively, in the three categories.

“We’re very pleased with today’s recommendation, which takes us right up to the fish line of the MSC certification process,” said Bret Scholtes, President and CEO of Omega Protein. “As we complete this process, we will continue working collaboratively with independent certifiers and our management partners to ensure a healthy and sustainable fishery.”

As part of the certification process, in addition to their commitment to menhaden’s long-term sustainability, Omega Protein has agreed to work with management partners at the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) and the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) on the three sustainability objectives. Omega is supporting the ASMFC’s development of harvest strategy, as well as new rules that take into consideration the ecological role of Atlantic menhaden. They are also working with NMFS to improve the frequency of observer coverage, making sure bycatch and interactions with marine mammals and endangered, threatened and protected species remain at minimal levels.

This story was originally published on SeafoodNews.com, a subscription site. It is reprinted with permission.

Read the full report from SAI Global here

Atlantic menhaden purse seine fishery one step closer to MSC certification

March 6, 2019 — The Atlantic menhaden purse seine fishery has been recommended for Marine Stewardship Council sustainability certification by independent certification body SAI Global, following the completion of a review of the fishery.

The announcement is positive news for Houston, Texas-based Omega Protein, which was pursuing the certification. By the review’s standards, the fishery scored an 82.5 for sustainability of the stock, an 86 for minimizing environmental impacts, and a 92.2 for effective fisheries management – surpassing the average score of 80 required for each category.

“We’re very pleased with today’s recommendation, which takes us right up to the finish line of the MSC certification process,” Omega Protein President Bret Scholtes said. “As we complete this process, we will continue working collaboratively with independent certifiers and our management partners to ensure a healthy and sustainable fishery.”

The certification recommendation comes after a wave of heavy opposition from environmental advocates, including The Pew Charitable Trusts, which pushed for and successfully attained cuts to the quota for menhaden in the Chesapeake Bay, one of the main fishing grounds for the species. The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Council had reduced the quota to 51,000 metric tons (MT) from 87,216 MT.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Read the full report from SAI Global here

 

Cooke another step closer to getting MSC label for Atlantic menhaden

March 6, 2019 — The independent certification body SAI Global on Wednesday officially recommended that the Marine Stewardship Council grant certification to the Atlantic menhaden fishery, the US’ second-largest source of the fish.

The announcement was the expected conclusion following the release of a report by SAI in early December, though a number of environmental advocacy groups had expressed concerns about the harvesting of the important forage fish and were expected to publish critical comment letters.

“We’re very pleased with today’s recommendation, which takes us right up to the finish line of the MSC certification process,” said Bret Scholtes, president and CEO of Omega Protein, the Houston, Texas-based company that initiated the MSC-related review in June 2017.

“As we complete this process, we will continue working collaboratively with independent certifiers and our management partners to ensure a healthy and sustainable fishery.”

The Atlantic menhaden fishery scored well in all three categories (82.5, 86.0 and 92.2), well above the minimum 60, the company noted in a press release. The assessment report compliments the fishery for having a comprehensive fishery management plan and menhaden-specific conservation and management measures in place.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

Read the full report from SAI Global here

Fatty Acid Dynamics In The Fish Gulf Menhaden

March 6, 2019 — “Essential fatty acids” are critical to organismal growth and development and, because they cannot be synthesized, they must be obtained through the diet. The role of essential fatty acids have been known to the medical community for decades – these components of the diet play a critical role in human health, growth, and development.

The well known omega-3 fatty acids are one example and are used to reduce the risk of heart disease, pain from rheumatoid arthritis, and depression. Other animals, like fishes, also rely on essential fatty acids for their growth and development, and the importance of fatty acid composition is critical in the success in aquaculture because they play an important role in growth, reproduction, and swimming abilities of fishes.

Omega-3 fatty acids like EPA and DHA have recognized physiological functions and are critical during endogenous and early exogenous feeding. Poor growth and survival may occur without sufficient levels of essential fatty acids. Because these biological precursors are so important to organismal development, we sought to describe the intra-annual changes in the fatty acid composition of Gulf Menhaden. This small fish is termed a “forage fish” because it is thought to be a major prey item, and a major ecological role, to a variety of avian, fish, and mammal predators. The Gulf Menhaden stock also supports the largest commercial fishery in the Gulf of Mexico. This fishery is a called a “reduction” fishery because it converts the live fish to both fish oil and fish meal. Fish oil from Gulf Menhaden is rich in EPA and DHA and is widely used for human consumption. Similarly, the fish meal produced is used in a variety of aquaculture and agriculture applications. The implications of seasonal variation in the characteristics of fish oil and fatty acid composition have implications to the dynamics of the reduction fishery as well as to the predators that rely on Gulf Menhaden. In this work, we describe general and specific characteristics of oil content and fatty acid composition of Gulf Menhaden.

Read the full story at Science Trends

 

VA won’t be penalized over menhaden regs if it stays under cap

March 5, 2019 — Virginia will not face penalties for failing to formally adopt new catch limits on Atlantic menhaden — as long as harvests stay within limits established by East Coast fishery managers.

The decision by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission in February headed off a potential legal showdown as to whether it had scientific justification for slashing the commercial menhaden harvest in the Bay in 2017, even as it raised catch limits along most of the coast.

Since then, the Virginia General Assembly has twice failed to adopt the commission’s mandated annual Bay cap of 51,000 metric tons.

Failure to adopt the limit put the state out of compliance with the commission’s regulations. As a result, the ASMFC could ask the U.S. Department of Commerce to impose a moratorium on all menhaden harvests in Virginia. Twice last year the ASMFC considered, but delayed, such an action.

Steven Bowman, who heads the Virginia Marine Resources Commission, said his agency monitored 2018 harvests both through catch records and aerial surveillance and would continue to do so. “The cap was not exceeded,” he said. “It did not come close to being exceeded.”

Read the full story at the Bay Journal

Virginia dodges sanction on menhaden

February 13, 2019 — A threat to shut down Virginia’s menhaden fishery disappeared after an interstate commission decided it wouldn’t find the state out of a compliance with a new quota for the oily fish.

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission cut the quota for menhaden caught in the Chesapeake Bay by purse-seine vessels by 42 percent back in 2017 — but the General Assembly balked this year and last at enacting that lower quota into state law.

This month, the commission indefinitely postponed taking any action to find Virginia out of compliance, a finding that could trigger a federal moratorium on the fishery.

Menhaden has made tiny Reedville the biggest U.S. fishing port, measured by pounds, outside Alaska. Reedville’s fleet of purse seine vessels — large former offshore oil service ships or former minesweepers — scoop up menhaden schools with giant nets, then deliver the fish to the Omega Proteins processing plant, where they’re turned into fish oil and animal feed.

The commission said that if the Reedville fleet catches more than 51,000 metric tons in the Bay — its current quota — it could still decide Virginia is out of compliance. But it noted that the Bay catch since 2012 has been below that level — Virginia’s noncompliance is strictly that it hasn’t enacted the commission’s cap into state law.

Read the full story at the Daily Press

 

Menhaden Fishery Managers Won’t Pursue Punishment for Virginia

February 11, 2019 — Virginia’s menhaden fishery gets a major victory, as Atlantic fisheries managers decide not to hold the Commonwealth out of compliance with its most recent catch limits.

Back in fall of 2017, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) voted to reduce the maximum allowable harvest on the Chesapeake Bay from 87,216 metric tons to 51,000 metric tons a year.

Virginia’s legislature failed to adopt the reduced catch limits, after the East Coast menhaden fishery’s biggest player, Omega Protein, argued the reduction was unnecessary. Under law, the U.S. Department of Commerce can put an immediate moratorium on a state that doesn’t comply with catch limits.

ASMFC won’t seek a moratorium from the Department of Commerce, announcing it has “indefinitely postponed” action to find Virginia out of compliance. ASMFC explains, the Virginia fishery has stayed within the limits of a precautionary “Bay Cap” that was imposed to protect the small, oily fish as an important link in the Chesapeake Bay food chain.

In a statement, ASMFC writes, “This action is contingent upon the Chesapeake Bay reduction fishery not exceeding the cap. If the cap is exceeded, the Board can reconsider the issue of compliance. In making its decision, the Board took into account the fact that reduction fishery harvest within the Chesapeake Bay has been below the cap level since 2012, including 2018 harvest. “

Read the full story at Chesapeake Bay Magazine