Saving Seafood

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

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

Omega Protein Applauds ASMFC Vote to Not Penalize Virginia for Failure to Adopt Chesapeake Bay Cap

February 8, 2019 — SEAFOOD NEWS — The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission voted to indefinitely postpone a motion that would have found Virginia and its menhaden fishery out of compliance.

The issue of non-compliance stems from the fact that Virginia has not codified a reduced cap on Omega Protein’s menhaden harvest in the Chesapeake Bay, which was slashed by 41 percent in 2017. Omega Protein claims the Bay Cap is not scientifically derived, but rather is a political compromise and a precautionary measure adopted by the Commission. The lack of scientific evidence supporting the cap has been well documented, according to the company.

“Bluntly, we’ve outkicked our coverage with this particular action,” said ASMFC Commissioner Robert Boyles, head of South Carolina’s Marine Resources Division, during the meeting. “The law doesn’t support a non-compliance finding here. That is the hard and fast fact.”

The menhaden fishery is currently being managed sustainably. In its most recent stock assessment in 2017, the Commission found that menhaden is not overfished, nor is it experiencing overfishing. The stock is healthy enough that the Commission raised the coastwide quota each year from 2015 to 2017.

Declaring a healthy fishery non-compliant would have been unprecedented, as noted by NOAA attorney Chip Lynch at the Commission’s August 2018 meeting on menhaden. At that meeting, Mr. Lynch said a non-compliance recommendation would be “the first time ever…that the federal government would receive a non-compliance referral for a fishery that is not overfished and overfishing is not occurring. And there is record evidence from the leadership of the Commission that the measure is not related to conservation.”

“The Commission made the right decision today because the Bay Cap is not ‘necessary for the conservation of the fishery,’ as is required in a non-compliance finding,” said Ben Landry, Director of Public Affairs for Omega Protein. “The Commission’s decision to press pause on this motion signals their acknowledgement that the basis for the reduced Bay Cap was not going to meet federal standards.”

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

SAI Global recommends MSC certify the Atlantic menhaden fishery

December 4, 2018 — SAI Global, one of the leading certification bodies for the Marine Stewardship Council, announced on 4 December that it’s recommending the Atlantic menhaden fishery be certified as sustainable.

The recommendation is a key step in the fishery attaining MSC certification. Now, the certification will go to a 30-day public comment period.

Omega Protein, by far the largest fisher of menhaden, has been the company leading the drive for MSC certification.

The recommendation comes amid some rising controversy over the fishery as competing groups – such as recreational fishermen and whale-watchers – claim that the fishery has been negatively impacting the environment. One nonprofit, Gotham Whale, has developed a petition directly targeting Omega Protein called the “Gotham Whale Action Plan.”

The petition calls for the Omega Protein fleet to be forced to fish 20 miles from New York or New Jersey. Currently, the vessels legally fish outside the three-mile limit.

Gotham Whale’s issue with the fishery largely relates to menhaden’s role as food for humpback whales in the region surrounding New York Harbor near New York City.

“Gotham Whale has been documenting humpback feeding in this area since 2011 and we would like it to continue,” the organization’s petition states. “We are also appealing to the owners of Omega Protein to further persuade them to leave the bunker for the whales.”

The conflict has already gained some attention from media. A New York Times article interviewed several recreational fishing and sightseeing boat captains, many of which claimed that the large Omega Protein boats were causing problems.

“We have a major issue with a fishing fleet coming in and taking all the food from the whales,” Tom Paladino, a whale watching boat captain, told the Times.

Omega Protein has also butted heads with the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission after the management organization put Virginia on notice for not implementing a reduced menhaden catch limit for Chesapeake Bay. While the overall limit for menhaden was raised for the 2018 and 2019 seasons to 216,000 metric tons (MT), the Chesapeake Bay limit – where Omega Protein does a lot of its fishing – was set for just 51,000 MT.

Chesapeake Bay’s quota was previously 87,216 MT. While the state of Virginia’s total quota was 170,000 MT, that represented little to no increase, something that didn’t add up for Omega Protein.

“We feel that it’s targeting one company, which is what this provision applies to Omega,” Ben Landry, Omega Protein’s director of public affairs, told SeafoodSource in May, noting that there are no caps for the bait fishery. “It’s not in accordance with the best available science. It’s not necessary for the conservation of the species because it’s not overfished.”

Read the full story at Seafood Source

MSC grants more time to menhaden fishery audit, but might not be needed

November 20, 2018 — The Marine Stewardship Council has granted auditors an extra three months – until March 6 — to finish their final report on whether to grant certification to the menhaden fishery on the Atlantic coast of the United States.

However, Ben Landry, public affairs specialist for Houston, Texas-based Omega Protein, the US’ largest harvester of menhaden and a division of the Cooke group of seafood companies, said he doesn’t think the extra cushion will be needed as the audit is expected to be wrapped up within weeks.

By certifying both the menhaden fisheries on the Atlantic coast and in the Gulf of Mexico, MSC looks to bolster its presence in the US significantly. Combined, the two fisheries account for nearly 800,000 metric ton of fish — about 11% of all of the wild-caught fish in the US – second only to the already MSC-certified Alaskan pollock fishery, responsible for 1.5 billion metric tons, or 30%, based on data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

According to assessment reports by third-party assessors and NOAA data, roughly 70% of US landings by volume have been certified by MSC, including Alaskan pollock, and another 16% are currently under review, including the two menhaden fisheries, an MSC official told Undercurrent.

The menhaden fisheries are also North America’s largest source of fish for meal and oil, providing Blacks Harbour, New Brunswick, Canada-based Cooke with a large source of omega-3-enriched feed for its considerable salmon aquaculture operations. Cooke completed its acquisition of Omega Protein almost exactly one year ago.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

 

Menhaden Fisheries Coalition: Menhaden Fishing in New York, New Jersey is Sustainable, Infrequent

October 25, 2018 — The following was released by the Menhaden Fisheries Coalition:

The past few months have seen an unnecessary controversy over legal and routine menhaden fishing in the federal waters off the coasts of New York and New Jersey. With the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) having met this week for its annual meeting, the Menhaden Fisheries Coalition (MFC) would, once again, like to unequivocally state that our members’ fishing operations in both the reduction and the bait fisheries are sustainable, and in compliance with all menhaden regulations.

The recent misleading attacks on menhaden fishermen have claimed that the fishery threatens the food supply of marine mammals and other predator species, despite there being no evidence to support this allegation. Instead, the best available science points to a thriving menhaden population that is successfully meeting its ecological roles.

Over the last three years, the ASMFC, which manages Atlantic menhaden, has repeatedly delivered good news for the stock, confirming in a stock assessment last year that the species is neither overfished nor experiencing overfishing. As a direct result of this news, the Commission voted to once again raise the quota, which they determined could be implemented withno risk of overfishing the resource.

Looking at the Commission’s stock assessment data, there is no evidence suggesting that menhaden fisheries are negatively impacting predator species. A MFC analysis of that data published last year found that 92 percent of Atlantic menhaden are left in the water to serve as food for predators and to meet other environmental functions.

As part of the coastwide menhaden fishery, New York’s and New Jersey’s menhaden quotas are conservatively set by the ASMFC to ensure sustainability. Most of the recent criticism of the fishery has focused on two individual days of fishing: one in late August and another in early September. Since then, activist groups have continued to push a misleading narrative to the public, ignoring the ample evidence that points to there being more than enough menhaden to support whales, fish, fishermen and fishing communities.

Members of the MFC who support a healthy menhaden fishery off New York and New Jersey include Lund’s Fisheries in Cape May, New Jersey; the Garden State Seafood Association in Trenton, New Jersey; the Long Island Commercial Fishing Association in Montauk, New York; and Omega Protein in Reedville, Virginia.

About the MFC
The Menhaden Fisheries Coalition (MFC) is a collective of menhaden fishermen, related businesses, and supporting industries. Comprised of businesses along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts, the Menhaden Fisheries Coalition conducts media and public outreach on behalf of the menhaden industry to ensure that members of the public, media, and government are informed of important issues, events, and facts about the fishery.

Omega Protein disputes article ‘attacking’ menhaden fishing

October 22, 2018 — US menhaden harvester Omega Protein has disputed the accuracy of recent statements made by a conservation group that wants to end commercial fishing of the species.

Paul Eidman of the group Menhaden Defenders recently wrote an essay, “Trouble comes to town”,  describing a fishing trip that an Omega vessel recently took to New Jersey and New York waters. That trip, Eidman asserted, harvested menhaden that otherwise would have been consumed by whales.

“This event sparked an outpouring of renewed interest in menhaden, and now local folks want to stop the harvest completely since Omega Protein is removing all of the whales’ food from the area,” Eidman wrote.

The company wrote in a Oct. 18 press release that all of its fishing, including the recent trip up north from its usual more southerly fishing grounds, complies with state and federal regulations and that Eidman’s piece got “key facts wrong”.

A limit on menhaden fishing was established by the Atlantic States Fisheries Management Council and Omega is in compliance with this limit, the company, which is owned by Canada’s Cooke Aquaculture, said.

“This limit ensures that the menhaden fishery is not taking a harmful amount of fish from whales’ diets. Last year, an analysis  using data from the 2017 Atlantic menhaden stock assessment found that current management leaves 92% of menhaden in the water to fulfill their role in the ecosystem,” the company said.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

Omega Protein close to netting MSC for menhaden

October 18, 2018 — The menhaden fisheries on both the Atlantic coast of the United States and in the Gulf of Mexico — North America’s largest source of fish for meal and oil – are within months of gaining Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certification, and Cooke Aquaculture is in a prime position to take advantage.

The Blacks Harbour, New Brunswick, Canada-based seafood giant recently acquired Omega Protein, the largest harvester of menhaden in both fisheries, and could, if it wanted, begin promoting at least some of its farmed salmon products as being fed a diet made from MSC-certified ingredients.

But it doesn’t, and it won’t.

“At this time, this is not our intention as we use other marine ingredients that come from various sustainably managed fisheries,” Joel Richardson, a Cooke spokesperson, told Undercurrent News in an email.

The Atlantic menhaden (Brevoortia tyrannus) fishery — which landed 164,880 metric tons of fish in 2016, according to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) data — has received the required set of scores from independent MSC auditor SAI Global and all of the necessary signatures by state authorities and others, Ben Landry, Omega Protein’s public affairs specialist, told Undercurrent News this week.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News