Saving Seafood

National Fisheries Institute launches campaign defending US seafood jobs

August 3, 2018 –The National Fisheries Institute is rebranding its AboutSeafood.com website in an effort to support U.S. seafood workers, the organization announced on Thursday, 2 August.

The move comes on the heels of existing and potential future tariffs between the United States and China. What started out as a set of tariffs initiated by U.S. President Donald Trump in January eventually escalated into a full-blown trade war, which hit the the seafood industry when China implemented 25 percent tariffs in June on several items, including seafood.

The United States soon responded with its own tariffs on seafood in July. China, in turn, said it would take “firm and forceful measures” in response. Now, President Trump has threatened still more tariffs as U.S. fishermen seek relief for the damage already being done by existing tariffs on their goods.

The NFI’s new campaign, “Seafood, See Jobs,” looks into the lives of workers that rely on the seafood industry for their livelihood. Fishmongers, lobstermen, and fishermen are featured, in addition to the many tertiary roles that rely on the industry, such as chefs, truck drivers, and manufacturing workers. The goal is to demonstrate the real impact the tariffs are having on American workers.

“To understand the negative impact these tariffs will have on American workers you have to go see them, you have to talk to them, you have to hear their concerns,” said NFI President John Connelly. “We’re bringing those stories to policy makers so they understand; this is not a theoretical, economic chess game. These tariffs have the potential to do a lot of harm to the seafood community and that community’s jobs are right here in the U.S.”

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Trump’s plan for the oceans? More business, less protection

June 26, 2018 — Sea levels are rising, fish are chasing warmer waters north, $300 billion worth of goods are coming into or departing from American ports every year. It’s a dynamic time for coastal communities.

But with the stroke of a pen last week, President Donald Trump put the brakes on a comprehensive plan — years in the making — to balance the environmental, recreational and economic interests competing for the future of the oceans surrounding the U.S.

The Trump Administration is presenting a new executive order as a fundamental adjustment away from unnecessary levels of bureaucracy and toward an ocean policy that puts national security, job creation and corporate aspirations above all else.

The shift has been warmly received by fishermen and other business groups. Conservationists, however, are anxious that attitudes about ocean use will regress.

It’s quite a change of direction from the two terms under President Barack Obama.

Commercial fishermen have been strong critics of the previous policy and were happy to see it sink.

John Connelly, president of the seafood industry’s National Fisheries Institute, said in a statement that the Obama plan “excluded the perspective of the men and women who work the water.”

The National Ocean Policy created “additional levels of bureaucracy and uncertainty that threatened to reduce the overall productivity of our industry by forcing small business owners to divert limited resources away from their operations in order to deal with this unnecessary and ambiguous regulatory maze,” said Jim Donofrio, executive director of the Recreational Fishing Alliance, which is based in Bass River.

Garden State Seafood Association executive director Greg DiDomenico told the Press that “it’s safe to say we are encouraged” by Trump’s attitude toward ocean policy.

Read the full story at the Asbury Park Press

 

US imported more seafood in 2017 than any prior year

June 25, 2018 — The United States imported more seafood last year than at any point in its history, and the nation’s trade deficit in the sector is growing, federal data show.

The U.S. imported more than 6 billion pounds of seafood valued at more than $21.5 billion in 2017, according to data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which oversees American fisheries. The country exported more than 3.6 billion pounds valued at about $6 billion.

The widening gap comes at a time when Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, who heads the federal agency that includes NOAA, has identified reducing the deficit as a priority for the government.

The U.S. is home to major commercial fisheries for species such as Pacific salmon, New England lobster and Alaska pollock, but it imports more than 90 percent of the seafood the public consumes.

Ross and others in U.S. fisheries are looking at new strategies to cut the deficit, including increasing the amount of aquaculture-based farming, said Jennie Lyons, a NOAA spokeswoman.

The U.S. trades in seafood with countries all over the world, and the countries it buys the most from include Canada, China and Chile. Major buyers of U.S. seafood include China, Japan and South Korea.

While U.S. fishermen would love to grow commercial fisheries, it’s important to note that domestic and imported seafood are both important parts of the supply chain and support thousands of American jobs, said Gavin Gibbons, spokesman for the National Fisheries Institute.

Read the full story at the Associated Press

Tariff tango: Chinese seafood markets at risk as trade rhetoric escalates

June 20, 2018 — Last Friday U.S. and Chinese officials announced a bundle of tariffs, each targeting the other nation’s exports in what could become an all-out trade war.

President Donald Trump made an announcement early in the day imposing a 35 percent tariff on all Chinese goods containing “industrially significant technologies,” an estimated $50 billion worth of Chinese goods, calling the move an effort to boost domestic production.

More than 800 products, about $34 billion worth, will be subject to tariffs starting July 6. About 280 other exports will need to undergo a public comment period and will take effect later.

Later in the day of June 15, officials with the Ministry of Finance of the People’s Republic of China responded with the announcement of a retaliatory 25 percent tariff on various U.S. exports, including many seafood products. That 25 percent would be charged on top of existing tariffs.

“We are deeply disappointed in these retaliatory tariffs. There is no connection between the products targeted by the U.S. and the tariffs Beijing plans to impose on exported American seafood,” said John Connelly, president of the National Fisheries Institute.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

 

NFI’s Connelly: NOAA’s silence giving rise in US to third-party certifiers

June 11, 2018 — John Connelly, the president of the National Fisheries Institute (NFI), used his opportunity in front of US representative Rob Bishop, chairman of the House’s Natural Resources Committee, to light a fire under the federal government’s top fisheries regulator to better promote its quality work.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) “regulation of seafood sets a global standard for success, but it needs to do a better job of explaining that”, said Connelly, whose group most significantly represents seafood processors, wholesalers and importers, according to a statement.

“…Communicating about its successes raises NOAA’s profile, while a sea of third-party certifiers jockey for recognition in the commercial landscape,” he continued.

“Fisheries managed by NOAA shouldn’t need a third party to come in and certify that they’re doing a good job. We spend more than 800 million taxpayer dollars on fisheries management annually, the least NOAA can do is talk about it.”

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

Muddled communications on mercury causing consumer confusion

June 6, 2018 — It’s a rare occasion when representatives of industry, academia, and government all agree.

The fact that the U.S. seafood industry, an army of health experts, and the U.S. government all want to see the country’s population consume more seafood is a sign of how universal the agreement is surrounding the health benefits of seafood consumption.

But in seeking to achieve that objective, consensus often breaks down over the best way to communicate the benefits to consumers. One of the biggest points of division is the issue of mercury contamination in fish, since scientific studies on the potential harm of mercury in seafood are often conflicting and a source of frustration to consumers.

Jay Shimshack, an asssociate professor of public policy and economics at the University of Virginia and an expert in environmental and health policy, told SeafoodSource the problem lies with the way policymakers frame the message when issuing health advisories.

“Fish consumption advice is often complex and confusing. Message-framing matters a lot, and real-world constraints like affordability are as important as the true risks and benefits,” Shimshack said.

Consumers are told eating a variety of fish can be good for them, Shimshack said.

“But [they are told], ‘Do not consume some species [and be] careful not to consume too much of other species,’” Shimshack said. “Current U.S. commercial fish advisories list more than 60 species, and species names are not always consistent from one time and place to the next.”

Read the full story at Seafood Source

NOAA to end SIMP “informed consent” period in April

February 16, 2018 — The date when the United States will begin enforcing full compliance with a program designed to prevent illegally fished and counterfeit products has been set as 7 April, according to a statement from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The Seafood Import Monitoring Program officially took effect on 1 January, nearly 13 months after officials revealed its regulations that required importers to keep records on selected products. However, officials opted to begin the program with an “informed compliance” phase, choosing to allow shipments with missing or misconfigured data.

“NOAA Fisheries has observed an encouraging and steadily increasing rate of compliance with SIMP filings,” the agency said in a statement.

SIMP requires importers to maintain records for Atlantic cod, blue crab, dolphinfish, grouper, king crab, Pacific cod, red snapper, sea cucumber, sharks, swordfish, and tunas detailing how they were caught or harvested and tracking the products until they reach the U.S.

In January 2017, the National Fisheries Institute and a group of seafood companies sued the government, claiming SIMP violated federal law. However, a federal judge in August ruled against the plaintiffs, saying Congress gave the authority to agencies to issue regulations.

On Tuesday, a spokesman for the NFI said that programs like SIMP experience “growing pains” and that the industry will look for opportunities to help NOAA handle such issues as the April deadline draws closer.

“NFI members will work to ensure they are prepared for full implementation of SIMP,” said Gavin Gibbons, the NFI’s vice president of communications.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

 

More US Senators push for shrimp to be added to SIMP

February 13, 2018 — A bipartisan group of 11 U.S. Senators have signed on to a plan that would require the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to add shrimp to the Seafood Import Monitoring Program.

In a letter addressed to Sens. Thad Cochran (R-Mississippi) and Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont), the chairman and vice chairman, respectively, of the Senate Appropriations Committee, the senators expressed their support for language in the Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, which mandates the inclusion of shrimp in the monitoring program within 30 days of the spending bill’s enactment.

SIMP, which officially took effect last month, requires imported seafood to be traced from the time it was caught or harvested to the time it reaches the United States. The program was created to crack down the sale of counterfeit or illegally caught seafood products to consumers.

Most of the seafood Americans consume is imported and shrimp makes up nearly two-thirds of those imports. Shrimp was one of the species included in the program. However, federal officials have waived it from compliance at this point until similar recordkeeping requirements are also in effect for domestic producers. That, however, has not stopped U.S. commercial fishing groups from pushing NOAA add shrimp to the program.

“The domestic, wild-caught shrimp industry has been in a state of decline for decades due to the flood of cheap, imported shrimp from countries such as India, Indonesia, Thailand, and Vietnam,” said Ryan Bradley, Director of the Mississippi Commercial Fisheries United. “This bill is a beacon of hope for our coastal communities that greatly rely on domestic shrimp production – the largest commercial fishing industry in the southeastern United States.”

In their letter, the senators expressed concerns over the use of unapproved antibiotics in foreign farmed shrimp and cited reports of human rights abuses by processors in Thailand, one of the world’s largest shrimp providers.

“We believe that SIMP is a key step to restoring a level playing field for the U.S. shrimp industry,” the senators wrote.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

 

NFI seeks to reach administration on seafood trade in 2018

January 2, 2018 — Pressing the importance of all trade on the Donald Trump administration, including imported seafood, will be one of the top priorities of the National Fisheries Institute (NFI) in 2018.

The US seafood industry’s biggest trade association, representing close to 300 companies, is still smarting from several of the moves made by the White House and its Cabinet in their first year, including its formal withdrawal from a trade deal with Pacific countries, a lack of progress on a trade deal with Europe and implementation of the Seafood Import Monitoring Program (Simp).

But NFI president John Connelly said trade will remain a top focal point for the group in the New Year.

“We just need to spend more time on the Hill and in the administration to help them appreciate that not all trade is negative for the US,” Connelly told Undercurrent News in an December interview at his office in McLean, Virginia. “Seafood is not like steel or autos or something else. We cannot now produce enough seafood in the US, whether it be from wild capture or aquaculture, to feed all Americans.”

The US exports 40% to 60% of the seafood it produces, depending on the value of the dollar and some other factors, and imports about 85% of the seafood it consumes. Seafood is responsible for 1,270,141 jobs in the U.S. and imports account for 525,291 of those, according to Department of Commerce data noted by the association.

“Gladys, down in Brownsville, Texas, is cutting imported tilapia right now, and that job is extraordinarily important to her family. Why is that job any less important than a job involving domestic codfish?” Connelly said.

High points and low points in 2017

But in looking back at 2017, Connelly can point to at least one major trade-related victory: The removal of the prospective border adjustment tax from the legislative tax overhaul passed by Congress and signed by the president before leaving on its winter break. The provision, which was supported by several Republican leaders, would have forced some seafood dealers to raise their prices 30% to 40%, said Connelly, quoting a Wall Street Journal article.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

 

Magnuson Stevens fight to resume early in 2018

December 22, 2017 — There won’t likely be a long wait in 2018 for the battle to reignite over efforts to change the Magnuson Stevens Act (MSA), the key statute that oversees fishing regulations in the US.

Possibly as soon as January, just after Congress returns from its winter break, Alaska Republican senator Dan Sullivan will introduce his own version of an MSA reauthorization bill, sources tell Undercurrent News. Additionally, the MSA-related legislation just approved by the House of Representative’s Committee on Natural Resources could advance to the House floor.

“The House Floor schedule hasn’t been set for 2018 yet but we are optimistic that we will move forward with the bill early next year,” said Murphy McCullough, the press secretary for Alaska representative Don Young, about HR 200, the bill he introduced to change MSA. It’s one of Natural Resource Committee chairman Rob Bishop’s “top priorities”.

“As far as finding a Senate champion, we are working closely with senator Sullivan and his staff on this reauthorization,” she confirmed.

Young’s bill, formerly named the Strengthening Fishing Communities and Increasing Flexibility in Fisheries Management Act, dashed through a one-hour markup last week, during which 13 amendments were discussed, six of which were adopted, before it was passed by a 23-17 vote along party lines.

HR 200 closely resembles HR 1335, legislation sponsored by Young that sailed through the House in 2015 but stalled out, in part, because President Barack Obama threatened to veto it over concerns that it would reduce the influence scientists have over the preservation of fish species. It’s the same concern that has ocean conservation groups rallying against Young’s latest bill now.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News