Saving Seafood

GSSA Executive Director Greg DiDomenico to Talk Sustainable Fishing at New York Times Food Conference

September 27, 2016 – The following was released by the Garden State Seafood Association:

TRENTON, N.J. (Garden State Seafood Association) — September 27, 2016 – Today, Garden State Seafood Association (GSSA) Executive Director Greg DiDomenico will discuss sustainable fishing issues at the New York Times’“Food for Tomorrow” conference. The conference, which seeks to “uncover and assess the most important issues and trends affecting the nourishment of our nation and the world,” is hosting a panel on marine issues and fisheries management, titled “Tricky Waters,” addressing “the demand for fish without depleting our oceans.” Joining Mr. DiDomenico on the panel will be Sean T. Barrett, Co-Founder of Dock to Dish and Bren Smith, Owner of Thimble Island Ocean Farm and Executive Director of GreenWave.

The GSSA has been at the forefront of promoting sustainable fisheries, while also advocating on behalf of New Jersey fishermen. In 2015, it worked with other fishing groups, environmentalists, and fishery managers at the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council to pass the Deep Sea Coral Amendment. This open, transparent, and inclusive effort resulted in new protections nearly 40,000 square miles of Mid-Atlantic corals, and has been praised by both fishermen and conservationists alike.

“The GSSA has always been a force for conservation in the Mid-Atlantic, and an example of how we can balance the real and serious concerns of the commercial fishing industry, with ensuring the future health of our oceans,” said Mr. DiDomenico.

In his remarks, Mr. DiDomenico plans to address the misconceptions surrounding current fishing practices, and to highlight the sustainable nature of U.S. fisheries management and domestically caught seafood. Mr. DiDomenico will also discuss the value of fish as a low-cost protein alternative that will be instrumental in feeding a hungry world.

GSSA leaders have been awarded for their past work on sustainability issues. In 2015, the New York Aquarium recognized Mr. DiDomenico as a Conservation Leader. Ernie Panacek, the President of the GSSA, was also honored in 2015, receiving the Urban Coast Institute’s Regional Ocean Champion Award.

“Food for Tomorrow” will take place from September 26-28 at the Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture in Pocantico Hills, New York. The event will be streamed live on The New York Times’ website, beginning at 4:35 PM on September 27. Other notable speakers include US Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack on the Obama Administration’s food policy record, television star Martha Stewart on the future of food, and Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney on a recent Philadelphia initiative to tax soda consumption.

‘Supplements and Safety’ Explores What’s in Your Supplements

January 19, 2016 — Americans spend an estimated $1.3 billion on fish oil products every year, making them one of the most commonly consumed dietary supplements in the country.

But do you know what’s in your fish oil?

A new documentary, “Supplements and Safety,” pulls back the curtain on some of America’s most popular supplements, and it suggests that many people who buy them may not be getting what they are paying for. The program, airing on the PBS investigative series “Frontline” on Tuesday night, is a collaboration between “Frontline,” The New York Times and The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

The program examines the widespread use of potent vitamins, herbs, fish oil and fat-burning supplements. Millions of Americans use these products safely every year. But researchers have found that in many cases they can cause unexpected side effects. And because dietary supplements are largely unregulated by the federal government, adulteration and contamination are common, experts say.

The Frontline documentary investigates large outbreaks of disease tied to tainted vitamins and fat-burning supplements, including one case in which a workout supplement was linked to more than 70 cases of liver damage. The company whose products were at the center of that outbreak, USPlabs, is among 117 companies and individuals that the Justice Department filed criminal and civil enforcement actions against last year.

Read the full story at The New York Times

Are You Eating Frankenfish?

December 15, 2015 — This month, Congress may decide whether consumers are smart enough to be trusted with their own food choices. Some lawmakers are trying to insert language into must-pass spending legislation that would block states from giving consumers the right to know whether their food contains genetically modified ingredients.

They must be stopped.

Nine out of 10 Americans want G.M.O. disclosure on food packages, according to a 2013 New York Times poll, just like consumers in 64 other nations. But powerful members of the agriculture and appropriations committees, along with their allies in agribusiness corporations like Monsanto, want to keep consumers in the dark. That’s why opponents of this effort have called it the DARK Act — or the Deny Americans the Right to Know Act.

As a chef, I’m proud of the food I serve. The idea that I would try to hide what’s in my food from my customers offends everything I believe in. It’s also really bad for business.

Why, then, have companies like Kellogg and groups like the Grocery Manufacturers Association spent millions in recent years to lobby against transparency? They say, in effect: “Trust us, folks. We looked into it. G.M.O. ingredients are safe.” But what they’re missing is that consumers want to make their own judgments. Consumers are saying: “Trust me. Let me do my own homework and make my own choices.”

Read the full opinion piece at the New York Times

Guinness Is Going Vegan

November 5, 2015 — Guinness, the Irish stout that once famously advertised itself under the slogan “Guinness is good for you,” took a step this week to inject 21st–century food culture into its 256-year-old product. Guinness is going vegan.

The company announced on Monday that starting at the end of 2016, its beer will no longer contain trace amounts of fish bladder, an integral part of its filtration process.

Few customers — except perhaps vegans and vegetarians who enjoy a pint — were probably even aware that the famous inky-black drink contained any fish parts at all. But it is actually quite common for cask beers to be filtered using isinglass, a gelatinlike substance derived from the dried swim bladders of fish that is used to separate out unwanted solids like yeast particles from a brew, the company said.

“Isinglass has been used widely within the brewing industry as a means of filtration for decades,” the company said in a statement on Monday after a report in The Times of London. “However, because of its use we could not label Guinness as suitable for vegetarians and have been looking for an alternative solution for some time.”

The substance is removed from the beer after it has fulfilled its filtration role. Zsoka McDonald, a spokeswoman for the company, said that only “trace amounts” ever make it into the final product. That has been enough, however, to keep most vegan drinkers away.

Read the full story at The New York Times

Captain’s Death Rattles a Marina in New Jersey

BELFORD, N.J. — August 30, 2015 — He was a retired construction worker who turned his fishing hobby into a low-pressure business, taking a delight in almost anything he brought back.

Unshackled from the industry’s harsh economy, he came and went on his own hours, defying some of the mantras of professional trawling. There are no sick days. Never get on the water alone.

Tom Andresen, 59, was on the water alone last week when something went wrong. The stern of his 40-foot boat, known as El Jefe, tipped backward just off the Sandy Hook peninsula. In an instant, the calm waters swallowed it, dragging the vessel to the bottom of a 75-foot-deep channel. Only an ice cooler floated to the surface.

Fishermen at the Belford Seafood Co-Op, where Mr. Andresen docked El Jefe and sold conch, sand sharks and lobsters, said they could not recall a boat’s taking such a sudden plunge on smooth waters. A private diving team recovered his body from inside the boat’s engine room on Friday, his family said. The United States Coast Guard is investigating the cause of the sinking.

Read the full story from the New York Times

Group Petitions to Save a Prehistoric Fish From Modern Construction

TARRYTOWN, N.Y. — July 21, 2015 — The Atlantic sturgeon is among the oldest of fish species, dating from the time of the dinosaurs. It is the longest-living fish in the Hudson (up to 60 years), the largest (up to 14 feet) and the strangest-looking, with bony plates that make it look armored.

But looks can be deceiving, and the sturgeon is also endangered. Now, environmentalists say construction of the $3.9 billion replacement for the Tappan Zee Bridge here is killing scores of the fish. Most of them — both Atlantic sturgeons and the smaller shortnose sturgeons, also endangered but more plentiful — have been found dead along the shore, with injuries like long gashes and severed heads, suggesting impacts from boat propellers.

“They call them living fossils,” said Paul Gallay, president of Riverkeeper, the environmental group devoted to the Hudson, “and we can’t be the generation that does them in.”

This month, the group, which is represented by the Pace Environmental Litigation Clinic, petitioned the National Marine Fisheries Service, a federal agency responsible for offshore living marine animals and habitats, asking it to study the problem and take immediate action.

Read the full story from The New York Times

THE NEW YORK TIMES: ‘No Fishing’ at the North Pole

July 21, 2015 — Fishing at the North Pole may seem ludicrous to a world raised on the notion of the top of the world as a deep-frozen wasteland, but at the rate the Arctic Ocean is melting it may not be long before fishing trawlers can operate in waters that have been inaccessible for more than 800,000 years.

So it was a good idea for the five nations that have territorial claims around the Arctic Ocean — the United States, Canada, Russia, Norway and Denmark — to put a “No Fishing” sign on the high seas portion of the central Arctic until full scientific studies have been conducted.

The declaration to prevent unregulated fishing in the central Arctic acknowledged that fishing beyond the 200-mile exclusive economic zone of the coastal states is not likely to start in the near future.

Read the full story from The New York Times