Saving Seafood

HAWAII: Fishing boat captains face an impossible choice: Lose money at sea or lose money at home

April 20, 2020 — Hawaii’s fishing industry is far from a comeback after the price of fish plummeted and the market crashed in mid-March due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Many fishing boat captains have been forced to lay off crew members and keep their vessels docked until it is financially viable to return to the sea.

Each trip out costs money and the price of ahi is so low, many crews are actually losing money when they operate.

Prices have rebounded slightly, but they are nowhere close to what they used to be.

Read the full story at Hawaii News Now

Hawaii’s fishing industry financially impacted by COVID-19

April 2, 2020 — The state’s fishing industry has been financially impacted by COVID-19 but it provided an unexpected benefit for consumers. United Fishing Agency runs the auction at Pier 38 every morning. The manager says they started to feel the effects around mid-March when restaurants were ordered to go take-out only. At one point, ahi dropped to about $1 per pound, that’s about a 500 percent drop from normal prices.

As expected, sales at restaurants and hotels have gone down during the coronavirus outbreak and the fishing industry is adapting to a new normal by changing up the way they do business.

“You see a lot of businesses selling retail, slabs of fish that normally wouldn’t have done in a regular market,” Michael Goto, United Fishing Agency auction manager, said. “It really hurts everybody. It hurts the vessels, it hurts us here at the auctions.”

Goto believes how well his industry does depends on how tourism is doing so he’s unsure when numbers will go back to normal.

Read the full story at KITV

National Listening Session on Fisheries Management Held in Honolulu – No Reauthorization of Fisheries Management Act Expected This Year, Branding of US Produced Seafood Discussed

February 24, 2020 — The following was released by the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council:

The seventh stop of a nationwide listening tour on fisheries management issues was held today in Honolulu. Initiated by Rep. Jared Huffman (D-Calif.), chair of the House Subcommittee on Waters, Ocean and Wildlife, the session was hosted by Rep. Ed Case (D-Hawai’i) with Huffman participating by Skype. Members of the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council and the Hawai’i seafood industry were among the invited panelists. Their statements echoed the general consensus nationally that America’s primary fishing law, the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, is overall doing its job and doing it well.

“Hawai’i seafood is globally recognized for its high quality and comprehensive management regime, built largely using the MSA framework,” noted Michael Goto, a member of the Council and the auction manager and assistant vice president of United Fishing Agency, the nation’s only daily tuna auction. “Every fish that is sold through the auction can be traced back to the vessel, contributing to the traceability of our seafood. We are confident when we say ‘every pound can be found,’ which I know for a fact can’t be said for foreign vessels supplying our same market.”

“The Hawai’i longline fleet is globally considered a golden standard in pelagic fisheries,” said Ed Watamura, Council vice chair (Hawai’i). “Through the MSA process, the Council has developed and implemented measures that have formed the basis of international standards for regional fishery management organizations, such as the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission and the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission.”

Watamura also noted the success of the MSA requirement for annual catch limits in the Hawai’i bottomfish fishery. “The MSA manages fish stocks throughout their range. Thus, the fishery is jointly managed by the State of Hawai’i and the Council through an annual catch limit (ACL) as prescribed in the MSA. … Because ACL management is working, the State has opened several bottomfish restricted fishing areas, a move supported by fishermen and scientists alike.”

“While being a major contributing industry to Hawai’i, the [longline] fishery is minor compared to international fisheries for tuna operating in the Pacific; for example, the fishery lands less than 2 percent of the total Pacific tuna catch,” said Eric Kingma, executive director, Hawaii Longline Association. “International tuna management is a highly politicized arena and the US needs to be doing more to protect its tuna fisheries,” he added.

Council Member Anthony Benavente, who serves as the secretary of the Department of Lands and Natural Resources, Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas Islands (CNMI), said the territory is “very supportive of the bottom-up approach in managing fisheries as all stakeholders and interested residents have a chance to participate.” He added, “Despite the success of the MSA in the Western Pacific, the Council has had to deal with extraneous conservation efforts that complicate the management decision-making process, as well as hurt US fishing communities and fishers.” Examples provided include “the unilateral designation of numerous National Marine Monuments throughout the Western Pacific region,” recent legislation that prohibits Hawai’i and the US Pacific territories from marketing their sustainably caught US billfish off island, and current legislation passed by the House that would prohibit the sale of fins from sustainably and legally caught sharks.

During the discussion period, Case said MSA reauthorization would likely not occur this year, but he heard the common thread that our fisheries are better managed than other fisheries and asked what could be done. Kingma noted the Country of Origin Label is already required but hard to find and not required for US domestic seafood. He suggested that something easily recognizable like a US flag on US seafood could be an indicator of sustainably managed seafood.

For the full statements of the Council and industry members, go to www.wpcouncil.org/msa-testimony. For comments from members of other Regional Fishery Management Councils during earlier listening sessions, go to http://www.fisherycouncils.org/msa-reauthorization.

US Commerce Department appoints Regional Fishery Management Council members

June 29, 2018 — The U.S. Commerce Department announced on 27 June that is has made 30 appointments to the eight regional fishery management councils that partner with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Adminstration to manage fish stocks.

The councils, established by the Magnuson-Stevens Act, help prepare fishery management plans for each of the eight regions: New England, Mid-Atlantic, South Atlantic, Caribbean, Gulf of Mexico, Western Pacific, Pacific, and North Pacific.

Of the councilors appointed, 29 are receiving three-year terms, starting on 11 August, that will run through to 10 August, 2021. One member, Michael K. Goto of Hawaii, is  filling a recently vacated at-large seat in the Western Pacific council and will serve out the remainder of that term through 10 August, 2020.

The council members come from diverse backgrounds, including commercial fisheries, recreational fisheries, environmental organizations, and academic institutions. Appointments take place each year, when the U.S. Secretary of Commerce appoints roughly one-third of the 72 total council members from the eight councils. Appointments are made based on nominations from the governors of the fishing states, territories, and tribal governments.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Fishing Industry Says It’s Working To Stop Abuse Of Foreign Crews

September 21, 2016 — Hawaii longline industry leaders say they have formed a task force and hired an expert on slavery in response to media reports about human trafficking, forced labor and poor working conditions aboard some of their boats. 

“We’re trying to get a sort of fleet assessment, get our arms around the problem and see where we’re going to take it,” said Jim Cook, who owns several longline fishing boats and serves on the Hawaii Longline Association board of directors.

He said Monday that the goal is to weed out the “bad actors,” in part by requiring a universal crew contract that incorporates international norms to address forced labor. That contract is being finalized and should be “ready to rock” in the next couple days, Cook said.

Starting Oct. 1, the Honolulu Fish Auction won’t let fishermen unload tuna and swordfish unless they have a signed contract as well as copies of their passports and I-95 Crewman’s Landing Permits from U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

“The auction has taken a zero-tolerance stance for fishing vessels involved in forced labor,” said Michael Goto, a task force member from the United Fishing Agency, which runs the fish auction.

The task force also includes John Kaneko, program manager of the Hawaii Seafood Council, Khang Dang, president of Quota Management, and Katrina Nakamura, who was also hired as a consultant to provide guidance to the industry. She has developed criteria to address working conditions, such as amount of time off, whether the employee is bonded by debt and where the payments for their work are going.

Read the full story at the Honolulu Civil Beat