Saving Seafood

Tariffs ding commercial fishing industry

June 27, 2018 — Fishermen and seafood harvesters may take a major trade hit with the announcement of new tariffs from China, though the details still aren’t clear.

The country announced new tariffs on a broad cross-section of American seafood products on June 15 in response to a U.S tariff hike on imported Chinese products. If the tariffs are approved, China will apply a 25 percent tax to items like Pacific salmon, cod, Alaska pollock, flatfish, crab, shellfish and other commonly exported seafoods.

China is a major trade partner for the Alaskan seafood industry. Processors regularly ship salmon that have been headed and gutted to China to finish the processing and packaging before being re-exported to the rest of the world. China is also a major consumer of seafood products within its borders, and a 25 percent tariff could push down imports.

It’s possible the tariffs won’t be implemented at all, or there may be exceptions, said Garrett Evridge, an economist with the McDowell Group.

“At this point, there’s a lot of outstanding information that we’re still trying to get our fingers on,” he said. “It’s actually unclear as to whether re-exported seafood is going to be excluded.”

According to an announcement from the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute, multiple contacts in China have indicated that customs officials would exclude products intended for reprocessing and export.

“It is not yet clear how product entering China will be differentiated between export and domestic consumption upon entry or at what point a tariff and/or credit will be applied,” the June 22 announcement states. “This is a developing situation and ASMI will continue to provide updates as information becomes available.”

The Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute has maintained a Chinese office in Hong Kong since 1997. On a recent trade mission to China, Gov. Bill Walker took several representatives of the seafood industry with him specifically to build relationships between Chinese and American companies for seafood trade.

Read the full story at the Peninsula Clarion

ALASKA: Coastal Villages study renews fight over CDQ quota allocations

June 21, 2018 — A new study reaffirms that large and long-standing inequities still exist in a federal program aimed at improving the economic situation in Western Alaska.

Coastal Villages Region Fund commissioned the report conducted by the Seattle-based research firm Community Attributes Inc., which concludes the fisheries allocations in the Community Development Quota Program prevent the groups representing the poorest regions in Western Alaska from fully achieving their mission.

Coastal Villages is the CDQ group for 20 villages on the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, which is one of the most economically depressed regions not only of Alaska, but the country as well.

The Western Alaska CDQ Economic Needs Report notes that Coastal Villages serves 35 percent of the population meant to benefit from the program, yet has access to just 24 percent of the pollock, about 18 percent of the crab and 17 percent of the Pacific cod quota dedicated to the CDQ Program.

Those fisheries quotas are allocated amongst the six CDQ groups that cover residents within 50 miles of the Bering Sea coast in an area starting north of Nome on the Seward Peninsula south and west through Bristol Bay and out the Aleutian chain.

Read the full story at the Alaska Journal of Commerce

China to slap tariffs on Alaska seafood, among other U.S. products

June 18, 2018 — The United States today released a list of Chinese goods worth $50 billion on which it will place 25 percent tariffs. Shortly afterward, China announced reciprocal tariffs on U.S. goods, including Alaska seafood.

Garett Evridge, an economist with the McDowell Group, who specializes in the seafood industry, explained that the tariff on seafood is likely to be far reaching.

“Our initial review of this is indicates that really all salmon species, pollock, ground fish, herring, really across the board for Alaska seafood products, in addition to lobster and other products used throughout the U.S., it looks like the announcement indicates that tariff would be 25 percent on product, including Alaska seafood products,” said Evridge.

Both U.S. and Chinese tariffs will reportedly take effect July 6. Evridge said it is too early to know what this will mean for the seafood market.

“There’s a whole other side of this with diplomacy and strategy on the side of China and the U.S. that we’re not really aware of. But in the event that this actually occurs, it will certainly be a challenge to the industry, and it will impact processors, communities, fishermen just because a 25 percent tariff means an increase in cost.”

One thing is clear, however. China plays a major role Alaska’s seafood industry, so the tariffs would affect a significant portion of the market.

Read the full story at KDLG

McDonald’s Came Out With A Card Game Based On The Filet-O-Fish

June 13, 2018 — Love it or hate it, the Filet-O-Fish is one of McDonald’s most recognizable items. Kanye West raps about it, President Trump eats two of them at a time, and now, there’s a card game devoted to it. McDonald’s released ‘Reel It In’ online this week, and the purpose is way more noble than you might think.

The kids’ game was created to teach kids about sustainable fishing practices, as well as highlight McDonald’s environmental efforts. According to the company, every single Filet-O-Fish sandwich is made with Marine Stewardship Council-certified wild-caught Alaska pollock.

What that means is that during the catch process, the fishery McDonald’s sources from avoids catching fish that aren’t the desired type (this is called bycatch). The fishery also makes use of the entire fish for other purposes so that there is zero waste.

Read the full story at Delish

Restrictions could tighten as data reveals salmon inflation

June 12, 2018 — The number of king salmon returning to an Alaska river has been inflated for decades, according to recent state data.

The state now is recommending that the body governing the Bering Sea pollock fishery adopt this new information about the Kuskokwim River, KYUK-AM reported .

If it does, restrictions on the fleet’s bycatch of king salmon could tighten.

Returns have been below this threshold since at least 2010, according to new data from the Alaska Fish and Game Department. Meanwhile, the Bering Sea pollock fleet has hauled in tens of thousands of king salmon each year, caught incidentally. Less than 3 percent of those kings are estimated to have been bound for western Alaska rivers.

With fewer kings swimming up the Kuskokwim River, fishermen have been told by state, federal, and tribal managers to fish less along the river. But fishermen have pointed downstream and said the problem is further away — in the Bering Sea.

“To me, I think more should be done out in the ocean,” said Darren Deacon, Tribal Chief of the Native Village of Kalskag, during a recent teleconference hosted by the Kuskokwim River Intertribal Fish Commission. “If we’re going to suffer in these rivers — every person, every village, every tribe is suffering — the trawling fleets should feel the same pain.”

Read the full story at the Associated Press

ALASKA: Pollock ‘B’ Season Opens With 1% Quota Increase

June 12, 2018 — Bering Sea fishermen are now trawling for one of Alaska’s most profitable catches.

Pollock “B” season opened Sunday with a total quota of 731,804 metric tons.

That’s about one percent higher than last year, according to Krista Milani, a groundfish manager for the National Marine Fisheries Service.

“It’s a very small difference, so I don’t know that it necessarily means there’s a big upward trend,” she said. “But at least, it indicates that there’s a healthy stock.”

Milani said pollock biomass has been up in recent years, helping the species to maintain its status as the cornerstone commercial fishery in the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands.

“Pollock’s been one of our most sustainable fisheries in Alaska, for sure,” she said. “Probably one of the most sustainable fisheries in the country.”

Read the full story at KUCB

One fish, two fish: Are we counting too few fish?

June 3, 2018 — When fish are in short supply, every fish counts. To make every fish count, it’s important to accurately and comprehensively count the fish.

Three miles offshore, in the Gulf of Alaska’s industrial groundfish fisheries, counting fish is the job of fishery observers. These trained scientists gather data about what the vessels catch and keep, and what they discard as bycatch. The data collected is essential for monitoring and managing the fisheries.

Trawler boats that fish for pollock, cod, rockfish and flatfish are required to carry independent fishery observers for some of their trips. This is a requirement that makes sense; it is well-known to fishery managers that trawlers can easily end up taking more than their fair share of fish from the ocean. Large trawl nets, dragged through the water or along the seafloor, catch thousands to tens of thousands of fish in a single pass. Not all that fish is kept. Some species, such as salmon, halibut and crab, are required by law to be discarded. Those species are valuable as their own fisheries, so long-standing management measures have been put in place to prevent trawlers from targeting and selling them. Other species that are undesired or can’t be sold, like skates, sharks, snailfish and sculpins, are thrown back, dead or dying. The same goes for the corals, sponges and sea stars that make up the living structure of the Alaskan seafloor.

Read the full story at the Anchorage Daily News

New England groundfishery gains MSC certification

May 17, 2018 — The haddock, pollock, and Acadian redfish trawl in the U.S. Gulf of Maine and Georges Banks officially received MSC certification on 10 May.

Two companies, Fisherman’s Wharf based in Gloucester, Mass.; and Atlantic Trawlers based in Portland, Maine; worked to receive the certification. After roughly a year and extensive assessments the fishery was approved as sustainable.

“With the MSC certification, the fishery can guarantee that the fish stocks are healthy, the fishery has minimal impact on the marine ecosystem, and there is effective, responsive, and responsible management in place,” MSC spokesperson Jackie Marks said.

Certification allows the two companies to use the MSC blue ecolabel on their products, something that the owners of both Atlantic Trawlers and Fishermen’s Wharf saw as a good way to expand their market reach.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

 

Massachusetts: Gloucester fish seller, supplier earn sustainability certification

May 8, 2018 — Haddock, pollock and redfish — “The Big Three” — are getting a big new marketing edge from a little blue label.

“There’s a lot of them out there,” says Jimmy Odlin from the headquarters of his Portland, Maine-based AtlanticTrawlers Fishing. “We just needed to sell more of it. We knew we needed to expand our market and after researching, we decided that MSC (Marine Stewardship Council) certification was the best fit.”

The other half of Odlin’s “we” is Gloucester’s Nick Giacalone, who, along with brothers Chris and Vito Jr. have since 2008 shared the helm of Fishermen’s Wharf Gloucester on Rogers Street. And what the two men were after, the MSC certification label — the international gold standard for dealing in sustainably caught and processed seafood — does not come easily.

But after one solid year, “a lot of money and meetings,” a third-party assessment, internal research and finally, 350-odd pages of copious scientific and peer reporting, the pair announced this week that the much coveted little blue MSC “ecolabel” will now go on all haddock, pollock and redfish trawled from the Gulf of Maine and Georges Bank by Atlantic Trawlers Fishing and landed at Fishermen’s Wharf.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times

New England Haddock, Pollock and Redfish Trawl Fishery Achieves MSC Certification

May 8, 2018 — SEAFOOD NEWS —  The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) has certified the New England haddock, pollock and redfish trawl fishery as sustainable.

Portland, Maine-based Atlantic Trawlers Fishing, who spearheaded the MSC certification efforts, confirmed the news on Monday.

“The MSC label is the gold star standard of certification and will assure our customers that these fish stocks are healthy and well managed,” Jim Odlin of Atlantic Trawlers said in a statement. “Our vessels – the Nobska, Morue, Harmony, Teresa Marie III and Teresa Marie IV – also use modified fishing gear to minimize the catch of other stocks, like cod, so we can maximize the catch of haddock, pollock and redfish.”

The MSC assessment concluded that the New England fishery management system is “robust and contains requirements that lead to the fulfillment of MSC principles.” The assessment also found that the fishery has extensive catch accountability and traceability systems, as well as strong science supporting the foundation for “rebuilding and maintaining abundant stocks of haddock and redfish, which were previously overfished.”

This story was originally published by Seafood News, it is republished here with permission.