October 29, 2021 — A new study prepared for campaign group Oceana suggests 85 percent of China’s subsidies to its fleet are harming the sustainability of fish stocks.
The report, “China’s Fisheries Subsidies Propel Distant-Water Fleet,” found that while China has reduced its fuel subsidies to the distant-water fleet, it is becoming more secretive about releasing data on direct and indirect subsidies to fishing firms.
Read the full story at SeafoodSource
October 12, 2021 — Protecting the world’s oceans and its resources could be coming closer to reality as countries gather this week in China for the United Nations Conference on Biological Diversity.
Nations are expected to start keeping promises to protect 30% of the world’s oceans, including implementing or pledging support for the implementation of more Marine Protected Areas around the world.
The conference, to be held in Kunming, China starting Monday, follows a collective pledge from more than 100 countries to protect at least 30% of the world’s oceans by 2030. Climate change was a major theme during the 76th Session of the United Nations General Assembly in September, and the goal remains lofty though conservationists remain hopeful.
The global Marine Protected Area Atlas that covers some 18,000 MPAs shows just 2.7% of the ocean is fully or highly protected from fishing impacts. A previous goal of protecting 10% by 2020 was missed.
And though it was expected that some nations would up their MPA coverage, management was still an issue, according to University of Hawaii marine researcher Alan Friedlander.
Friedlander was among a group of marine experts who called for more effective management strategies — a blueprint for future MPA management — as there was a broad range of interpretations and “not all MPAs are created equal.”
Management was of equal importance to designation, he said.
“It’s a big difference between what’s strongly protected and what’s declared protected,” said Friedlander. “We really need to have strong protection if the goal is biodiversity.”
Read the full story at the Honolulu Civil Beat
May 21, 2021 — The number of US fisheries deemed “overfished” declined in 2019, with 22 stocks subject to overfishing versus 2018’s status of 26 stocks — a sign some rebuilding efforts are showing results.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Report to Congress on the Status of US Fisheries, released Thursday, surveys fisheries in US territorial waters annually to determine the status of stocks deemed troubled under NOAA’s management guidelines.
In its report, NOAA designates fisheries under excessive pressure as either “overfished” or subject to “overfishing.”
April 30, 2021 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:
Snappers are economically important species for fisheries worldwide. To determine the health of snapper populations, we must monitor their abundance and record any changes in their biomass. NOAA scientists conducted a study to test new, more efficient and accurate methods to regularly monitor snapper in the Hawaii bottomfish fishing grounds. The results of this study were recently published in the ICES Journal of Marine Science.
Snappers are abundant in nearshore, 100–400-meter deep subtropical and tropical oceans with rocky, uneven bottoms that have steep slopes. They typically occupy areas near the ocean floor but are also found further in the water column and within crevices or under outcrops.
Modern research methods limit accurate and efficient abundance estimations for these species. Trawl sampling is not feasible as the highly uneven, rocky bottom would damage the net and the fragile habitat itself could be disturbed. More recent underwater video observations are limited by light and field-of-view distance. Placing video cameras in the water can also scare away or attract fish, skewing the results.
April 12, 2021 — Ongoing World Trade Organization (WTO) negotiations on a deal to curtail harmful fishing subsidies are stumbling over the issue of carve-outs for the artisanal fisheries of developing nations.
Exemptions for small, coastal fishing operations have been a thorny issue impeding progress on a deal over the last several months.
April 5, 2021 — Overfishing likely did not cause the Atlantic cod, an iconic species, to evolve genetically and mature earlier, according to a study led by Rutgers University and the University of Oslo—the first of its kind—with major implications for ocean conservation.
“Evolution has been used in part as an excuse for why cod and other species have not recovered from overfishing,” said first author Malin L. Pinsky, an associate professor in the Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Natural Resources in the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences at Rutgers University-New Brunswick. “Our findings suggest instead that more attention to reducing fishing and addressing other environmental changes, including climate change, will be important for allowing recovery. We can’t use evolution as a scapegoat for avoiding the hard work that would allow cod to recover.”
The study, which focuses on Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua) off Newfoundland in Canada and off Norway, appears in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
In the Northwest Atlantic Ocean, cod range from Greenland to Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. In U.S. waters, cod is most common on Georges Bank and in the western Gulf of Maine, but both fish stocks are overfished. Cod can reach 51 inches long, weigh up to 77 pounds and live more than 20 years. Early explorers named Cape Cod in Massachusetts for the species because it was so abundant off New England, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
March 30, 2021 — Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council members took a bold step last week in response to the internationally overfished North Pacific striped marlin stock. The Council supported a catch limit for U.S. vessels of roughly 1 million pounds, or 457 metric tons in 2022.
The new limit would apply to all U.S. vessels fishing north of the equator and west of 150° W. longitude. An in-season accountability measure would also be implemented to track catch relative to the limit. Retention and landing of striped marlin would be prohibited in longline fisheries when the catch limit is projected to be reached, the Council said in a press release.
March 26, 2021 — The following was released by the Marine Stewardship Council:
The Seaspiracy film on Netflix raises a wide range of issues relating to our oceans, including questioning the credibility of the sustainable seafood movement and in particular, our organisation, the Marine Stewardship Council. While we agree more attention needs to be given to the crisis of overfishing, we do want to set the record straight on some of the misleading claims in the film:
There is no such thing as sustainable fishing
This is wrong. One of the amazing things about our oceans is that fish stocks can recover and replenish if they are managed carefully for the long-term. Examples of where this has happened and stocks have come back from the brink include the Patagonian toothfish in the Southern Oceans or the recovery of Namibian hake, after years of overfishing by foreign fleets, or the increase in some of our major tuna stocks globally. And what is even more amazing, is that if we take care of our fish stocks – they take care of us. Research shows that fish stocks that are well-managed and sustainable, are also more productive in the long-term, meaning there is more seafood for our growing global population, which is set to reach 10 billion by 2050.
MSC certification is too easy and not credible
The reform of fishing practices and growth of the sustainable seafood movement is something that the MSC is very proud to have played a part in, along with many other partners and organisations. There are more than 400 MSC certified fisheries around the world. This certification process is not carried out by the MSC – it is independent of us and carried out by expert assessment bodies. It is an entirely transparent process and NGOs and others have multiple opportunities to provide input. All our assessments can be viewed online at Track a Fishery. Only fisheries that meet the rigorous requirements of our Standard get certified. Contrary to what the film-makers say, certification is not an easy process, and some fisheries spend many years improving their practices in order to reach our standard. In fact, our analysis shows that the vast majority of fisheries that carry out pre-assessments against our criteria, do not meet these and need to make significant improvements to gain certification.
MSC is funded by industry and is not independent
The MSC is an independent not-for-profit that was set up by WWF and Unilever more than 20 years ago because of concern about overfishing. We are not a commercial enterprise and we do not receive any income from fisheries or from the third-party certification of fisheries.
Our income is derived from two sources: charitable donations from foundations, and licensing of our blue ecolabel, which is used by companies in the supply chain, such as food producers, supermarkets and restaurants to identify MSC certified seafood. The use of our ecolabel is voluntary, and only a fraction of seafood coming from certified sustainable fisheries bears our ecolabel.
The MSC is entirely transparent about its market-based funding model. We believe consumer demand for sustainable seafood products helps to drive reform of the fishing industry, incentivising the take-up of sustainable fishing practices. All of the income from licensing use goes back into our programme of work. This includes, for example, providing grants through our Ocean Stewardship Fund, to support fisheries in the developing world.
MSC certified fisheries have unacceptable levels of bycatch
In fact, fisheries certified to the MSC Standard must provide evidence that they are actively minimising unwanted catch. Fisheries that need to improve in this area, can be set goals that they have to meet in order to keep their certificates or risk being suspended. We believe the Icelandic fishery mentioned in Seaspiracy falls into this latter category. It was suspended from the programme because of bycatch issues and only allowed back into the programme when they had been resolved. There are numerous positive examples of MSC certified fisheries introducing innovations to protect marine life, such as modifying gear type to decrease turtle bycatch or adding LED lights to increase the selectivity of catch. Among some notable achievements by MSC certified fisheries is a rock lobster fishery in Australia that reduced its bycatch of sea lions and a hake fishery in South Africa that reduced its bycatch of albatross by 99%.
Sustainable fishing helps protect our oceans and us
While we disagree with much of what the Seaspiracy documentary-makers say, one thing we do agree with is that there is a crisis of overfishing in our oceans. However, millions around the world rely on seafood for their protein needs. With the global population set to reach 10 billion by 2050, the need to harness our natural resources more responsibly is more urgent than ever. Sustainable fishing has a vital role to play in securing those resources.
March 19, 2021 — HONOLULU — The following was released by the Western Pacific Fishery Management Council:
The SSC suggested several actions to end overfishing of North Pacific striped marlin in order to satisfy the Magnuson-Stevens Act (Section 304(i)) obligation both internationally via the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC) and domestically. The Scientific and Statistical Committee (SSC) of the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council made these and other recommendations during its three-day virtual meeting this week.
International recommendations included improving standardized reporting of billfish catch and discards for all WCPFC fisheries; using circle hooks in all WCPFC longline fisheries; limiting WCPFC member catches to approximately 1 million pounds (500 metric tons) per year; and supporting a consultative rebuilding plan.
A new stock assessment may be provided in 2022 and the SSC proposed that discard mortality (fish that don’t survive capture and release) be included within future rebuilding scenario analyses. The SSC also recommended that future rebuilding efforts utilize a phased-in approach over several years based on a target catch rate rather than a rebuilding timeline.
To support U.S. Pacific Territory data collection efforts, the SSC recommended the integration of creel survey, commercial receipt book, biosampling and app-based data collection systems, such as the Council’s Catchit Logit app, to generate the necessary data from different segments of the fisheries. The Council, territorial fishery management agencies and NMFS are working closely to meet the requirements for stock assessments and address deficiencies in data-limited or data-poor fisheries.
The SSC also recommended supporting an experimental study to evaluate the effectiveness of various mitigation combinations to reduce seabird interactions in the Hawaiʻi shallow-set longline fishery. Currently, if setting off the stern of the boat, conservation measures require the vessel to start setting its gear one hour after sunset (night-setting), use blue-dyed bait and strategic discharge of fish parts and spent bait.
Night-setting, while considered to be a “gold standard” for seabird mitigation, prevents shallow-set longline fishermen from adjusting their setting time according to the moon phase to optimize swordfish catch. Fishermen have expressed interest in testing out a new combination of mitigation measures, including tori (bird scaring) lines, to improve operational efficiency while ensuring impacts to seabirds remain low in the fishery.
Recommendations made by the SSC on these and other matters will be considered by the Council when it meets March 23-25, 2021, virtually with host sites at Tedi of Samoa Building, Suite 208B, Fagatogo Village, American Samoa; BRI Building, Suite 205, Kopa Di Oru St., Garapan, Saipan, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI); and Cliff Pointe, 304 W. O’Brien Drive, Hagatña, Guam. On the first day, NMFS will give a briefing on President Biden’s Executive Order 14008 on Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad.
Instructions on connecting to the web conference, agendas and briefing documents are posted at www.wpcouncil.org/meetings-calendars. Host sites are subject to local and federal safety and health guidelines regarding COVID-19; check the Council website for updates.
March 2, 2021 — The new head of the World Trade Organization called Monday for a “technology transfer” when it comes to COVID-19 vaccines and urged member nations to reach a deal to reduce overfishing after years of fruitless talks as she laid out her top priorities after taking office.
Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, a Nigerian economist and former government minister, donned a mask and doled out welcoming elbow bumps as she took up her job at WTO headquarters on the banks of Lake Geneva. Still, she immediately set about trying to change the organization’s culture.
“It cannot be business as usual. We have to change our approach from debate and rounds of questions to delivering results,” she told ambassadors and other top government envoys that make up the 164-member body’s General Council.
“The world is leaving the WTO behind. Leaders and decision-makers are impatient for change,” she said, noting several trade ministers had told her that “if things don’t change,” they would not attend the WTO’s biggest event — a ministerial meeting — “because it is a waste of their time.”
Okonjo-Iweala, 66, is both the first woman and the first African to serve as the WTO’s director-general. Her brisk comments were a departure from the more cautious approach of her predecessor, Roberto Azevedo, who resigned on Aug. 31 — a year before the end of his term.
Read the full story from the Associated Press at The Boston Globe