Saving Seafood

The World is Your Sustainable, Traceable Oyster

December 19, 2019 — The following was released by the Marine Stewardship Council:

Prestige Oyster Texas and Louisiana private oyster fishery achieved MSC certification today, marking a first for a wild oyster fishery in the Americas to achieve certification. The certification comes following a rigorous 10-month assessment carried out by independent, third party assessor MRAG Americas, to ensure the fishery meets the MSC fisheries standard, including ensuring sustainable fish stocks; minimizing environmental impact, and ensuring there are responsive management systems in place. MSC certification recognizes and rewards sustainable fishing practices and is helping create a more sustainable seafood market.

“Oysters play an integral part in a healthy ocean environment, so having an oyster fishery committed to the long term health of the wild oyster population by gaining MSC certification is a win for a healthy ocean,” said Brian Perkins, MSC Regional Director, Americas. “This is especially timely given the threats facing the ocean from climate change. Congratulations to Prestige Oysters on this achievement.”

“Prestige is proud to lead the industry in sustainable oyster harvesting. MSC certification is a testament to our fishery, for the past two years we have gone up against the rigorous standards of the MSC and to be the first certified oyster fishery in the Americas is an immensely proud feeling. I want to thank both Texas Parks and Wildlife Department and the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries for their assistance through this process. A special thank you to Laura Picariello at Texas SeaGrant for her guidance and commitment to this project. Certification would not have been possible without the dedicated, hardworking men and women of these institutions. Sustainable harvesting has always been at the core of my company, and now with MSC certification, consumers can trust that Prestige Oysters are harvested in the most sustainable practices. Over the past decade, we have seen initiatives from foodservice to retail customers to source MSC certified seafood, and I excited to offer that demand.”

The American cupped oyster (Crassostrea virginica) are wild oysters native to Texas and Louisiana and are harvested by boat dredges on private leases. Private leases may contain oyster reefs that are either natural or constructed from deposition of cultch (oyster shell, limestone, concrete, etc.) placed on soft bottom in suitable depths for oyster growth. Without additional cultch or natural growth of oysters that provides dead shell, the reefs would disappear over time, leaving little impact on the marine environment.

Oysters play an important role in the marine ecosystem, as both a habitat for a variety of sessile plants and animals and free-swimming fish and shellfish, and as filter feeder because they feed upon phytoplankton (algae)i. The Texas and Louisiana Oyster fishery is certified through 2024 and can enter reassessment after the five year period. During the five-year certification, the fishery must undergo annual surveillance audits in order to ensure their ongoing compliance with the MSC requirements.

The MSC standard was established in 1997 and is the only wild caught seafood standard and ecolabeling program to meet United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (UNFAO) guidelines as well as meet Global Sustainable Seafood Initiative (GSSI) benchmarking criteria. The standards used to evaluate fisheries have been developed in deliberation with scientists, industry, and conservation groups, and reflect the most up-to-date fisheries science and management practices.

The MSC fishery standards are based on three core principles that every fishery must meet:

  1. Sustainable fish stocks: Fishing activity must be at a level which ensures it can continue indefinitely.
  2. Minimizing environmental impact: Fishing operations must be managed to maintain the structure, productivity, function, and diversity of the ecosystem.
  3. Effective Management: The fishery must comply with relevant laws and have a management system that is responsive to changing circumstances.

Regenerating New York Harbor, One Billion Oysters at a Time

December 13, 2019 — When Hurricane Sandy struck New York on October 29, 2012, it deluged every neighborhood it hit. Seven years later, many neighborhoods—including Coney Island, Canarsie in Brooklyn, and points all along the shore of Staten Island—are still recovering. Others, such as Staten Island’s Fox Beach, were destroyed in their entirety, never to have residents again.

With these events in all too recent memory, New Yorkers know how susceptible they are to climate change and are at the forefront of developing new approaches to the climate crisis, with the city’s young people getting especially involved. As the recent youth climate strikes that brought hundreds of thousands to New York’s streets attest, the younger generations—those who will be most affected by climate change—are taking concrete steps to try to turn back the tide, quite literally.

One of the programs that is engaging youth is the Billion Oyster Project. While the project’s founding goal aimed to to make the “waters surrounding New York City cleaner, more abundant, more well-known, more well-loved,” it has a more pressing role in the time of accelerating climate change: creating oyster reefs that can help blunt storm surges that accompany hurricanes by breaking up the waves before they hit land.

Read the full story at Civil Eats

Gulf Oysters Are Dying, Putting a Southern Tradition at Risk

November 14, 2019 — For the people who harvest, sell, shuck and serve the bivalves, that’s a worrisome prospect: Oysters, traditionally cheap and plentiful, are more central to the restaurant and cooking culture of the Gulf Coast than to that of any other region.

“Oysters are part of who we are,” said Mr. Sunseri, whose ancestors founded P & J in 1876. His family is hoping to rent part of its production house here to a restaurant in an effort to stay afloat. If not for his good health and lack of debt, Mr. Sunseri said, “We’d be closed.”

In September, the United States Department of Commerce determined that Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi were suffering “a catastrophic regional fishery disaster,” making businesses in those states eligible for federal assistance.

Louisiana normally accounts for a third of the nation’s annual oyster harvest. The current season isn’t over, but losses reported so far are so severe “that we’re likely to not remain the largest oyster producer in the United States,” said Patrick Banks, an assistant secretary in the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries.

Heavy rain and snow in the Midwest caused the Army Corps of Engineers to open the Bonnet Carré Spillway, about 33 miles northwest of New Orleans, for a record 118 days last winter and spring. The spillway protects communities near the Mississippi’s mouth from flooding by releasing water from the river and reducing pressure on the flood-control system.

But it also reduces the salinity of surrounding waters, endangering oysters, which can tolerate brackish water but can die if the salt content is too low.

The river was so high that even areas unaffected by the openings were flushed with freshwater.

Read the full story at The New York Times

Microplastics in vast majority of Oregon shellfish, study finds

November 13, 2019 — A Portland State University study found tiny pieces of plastic in the vast majority of razor clams and oysters sampled along the Oregon coast and noted that the primary source of contamination was from fibers used in synthetic textiles.

Those microscopic fibers can be shed by yoga pants, fleeces and other active wear made of synthetic textiles during a wash — up to 700,000 per load of laundry, according to the study, which was reported on Tuesday in The Oregonian/OregonLive. These fibers are in the wastewater from laundry machines that eventually winds up in the ocean, although some of the tiny plastic fibers could also come from derelict fishing gear, the newspaper said.

The shellfish in question were plucked from 15 sites, from Clatsop in the north to Gold Beach near the California border, in both the spring and summer of 2017. Of the roughly 300 shellfish analyzed, all but two contained at least some microplastics, Elise Granek, a PSU professor of environmental science and management, said.

The study was published in the journal Limnology and Oceanography Letters.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at KOMO

MISSISSIPPI: Another $53M headed to Coast for marina, waterpark and other economic projects

November 13, 2019 — More than $53 million from the BP oil catastrophe will go toward 15 projects designed to improve the ecosystem, boost tourism, improve the economy and enhance natural resources on the Mississippi Coast, Gov. Phil Bryant said Tuesday.

Bryant announced the latest projects during the Mississippi Restoration Summit at the Coast Coliseum. Some of the 15 projects funded are new, while money is being added for other ongoing projects. The state has already received $511 million, bringing the total received to $564 million.

The projects are funded through the RESTORE Act and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation Gulf Environmental Benefit Fund. RESTORE is an acronym for Resources and Ecosystems Sustainability, Tourist Opportunities and Revived Economies of the Gulf Coast States.

▪ $8 million, Water Quality Improvement Program: Wastewater system upgrades for pollution control. Total funding now $68 million.

▪ $7 million, Marsh Creation and Restoration: Dredged material in three coast counties used for marsh restoration and creation.

▪ $5 million, Beach Resilience: Native plants, sea oats and sand fencing to create dunes, slow erosion; concrete boardwalk extension to keep sand on the beach and off U.S. 90.

▪ $4 million, Oyster Hatchery and Research Center: Production of oyster larvae and further development of aquaculture at the University of Southern Mississippi’s Cedar Point center in Ocean Springs. Total funding now $11.7 million.

Read the full story at The Sun Herald

Most US oyster shipments meet standards, but supply chain improvements could reduce risk

November 13, 2019 — A box of raw oysters in the United States is typically handled by two to seven companies while it moves through the supply chain – a long and circuitous path that, if not managed properly, can make the shellfish ripe for foodborne illnesses.

The middlemen in this process are crucial to keeping molluscs safe from contamination, and must ferry them from farm to consumer along temperature-controlled supply chains that are constantly refrigerated from harvest to plate. Gaps in the “cold chain” that lead to temperature spikes can lead to spoilage or growth of pathogens, whether during harvesting, processing, distribution, or even at the point of sale.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Farming Seaweed And Shellfish Can Help Water Quality And Wild Fish Stocks, Report Finds

October 23, 2019 — Aquaculture is currently the third-most lucrative fishery in New England, after lobster and scallops. Oysters, and increasingly, kelp, are two of the most commonly grown foods.

Now, a new study says aquaculture could also be an important way to address issues like nutrient pollution and habitat loss. The study found that New England’s waters are among the top 20 locations in the world with the greatest opportunities for restorative aquaculture.

Aquaculture hasn’t been associated with environmental benefits, historically — in fact, it’s much more commonly known for pollution, when too many fish are crowded into coastal waters.

But it turns out that shellfish and seaweed, farmed properly, can dramatically improve water quality.

“Shellfish and seaweeds are at the bottom of the food web and they’re able to actually take up nutrients from the water column,” said Seth Theuerkauf, aquaculture scientist with The Nature Conservancy and lead author of that global assessment.

Read the full story at WGBH

Oyster growers agree to abandon quest to use controversial insecticide in Southwest Washington tidelands

October 22, 2019 — A Southwest Washington oyster growers association has abandoned a quest to use a controversial insecticide that combats burrowing shrimp, a creature that can make tidelands unfit for shellfish farming.

In a settlement reached last week, the Willapa Grays Harbor Growers Association agreed to accept a 2018 state Ecology Department denial of the proposed use of imidacloprid and drop an appeal to the state Pollution Control Hearings Board.

The growers wanted to use the insecticide to spray up to 500 annually of the more than 12,000 acres of tidelands used for shellfish cultivation in Willapa Bay and Grays Harbor. Without the spray, the growers say they lose productive tidelands to the shrimp, which churn up sediment and can cause oysters, as well as clams, to suffocate in the muck.

The proposed imidacloprid spraying was opposed by National Marine Fisheries Service because of risks to other marine life, and it triggered a public backlash led by some high-profile Seattle chefs.

Read the full story at The Seattle Times

East Coast project to boost oyster breeding

October 16, 2019 — A dozen East Coast universities and federal science groups have been awarded a five-year, $4.4 million contract by NOAA to advance selective breeding of oysters for aquaculture.

The Eastern Oyster Breeding Consortium is led by longtime colleagues and collaborators Stan Allen of the Virginia Institute of Marine Sciences and Ximing Guo of Rutgers University, who in 1994 made a first breakthrough with breeding tetraploid oysters, a building block for today’s aquaculture industry.

Research at the Rutgers Haskins Shellfish Laboratory and the VIMS Aquaculture Breeding and Technology Center used traditional breeding techniques to develop strains of  Eastern oysters that are now quite resistant to MSX, a parasitic disease that for decades depressed oysters harvests.

In pockets where old oyster beds survived, MSX tended to weaken and kill new shellfish within a couple of years. The development of resistant strains enabled a modest revival that today has grown to a $90 million aquaculture industry, with a growing economic impact from the Carolinas to Maine.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

URI researchers awarded multiple grants to study aspects of aquaculture industry

October 10, 2019 — Several scientists at the University of Rhode Island have been awarded grants to study oyster genetics, breeding and diseases as part of a region-wide effort to support the growing oyster aquaculture industry in the Northeast and assist efforts to restore wild oyster populations.

“Wild and farmed oysters are facing major threats from water quality and disease,” said Marta Gomez-Chiarri, a URI professor of animal science who has studied oyster diseases in Narragansett Bay for more than 20 years. “Even though local water quality has improved in Rhode Island, oysters across the United States face localized threats from pollution and eutrophication while at the same time dealing with multiple factors of global ocean change, like ocean acidification, as well as changes in salinity and dissolved oxygen. We are only beginning to understand the effects of these multiple stressors.”

Gomez-Chiarri — along with URI Assistant Professor Jonathan Puritz and U.S. Department of Agriculture scientist Dina Proestou — have teamed with shellfish geneticists and breeders from 10 other East Coast universities to form the Eastern Oyster Genome Consortium to develop genetic tools to accelerate selective breeding efforts. The consortium, in a proposal led by Rutgers University, has been awarded a $4.4 million grant from the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission to accelerate the pace of identifying the genes responsible for desirable traits like disease resistance.

Read the full story at The Westerly Sun