Saving Seafood

Nations Will Start Talks to Protect Fish of the High Seas

August 2, 2017 — UNITED NATIONS — More than half of the world’s oceans belong to no one, which often makes their riches ripe for plunder.

Now, countries around the world have taken the first step to protect the precious resources of the high seas. In late July, after two years of talks, diplomats at the United Nations recommended starting treaty negotiations to create marine protected areas in waters beyond national jurisdiction — and in turn, begin the high-stakes diplomatic jostling over how much to protect and how to enforce rules.

“The high seas are the biggest reserve of biodiversity on the planet,” Peter Thomson, the ambassador of Fiji and current president of the United Nations General Assembly, said in an interview after the negotiations. “We can’t continue in an ungoverned way if we are concerned about protecting biodiversity and protecting marine life.”

Without a new international system to regulate all human activity on the high seas, those international waters remain “a pirate zone,” Mr. Thomson said.

Lofty ambitions, though, are likely to collide with hard-knuckled diplomatic bargaining. Some countries resist the creation of a new governing body to regulate the high seas, arguing that existing regional organizations and rules are sufficient. The commercial interests are powerful. Russian and Norwegian vessels go to the high seas for krill fishing; Japanese and Chinese vessels go there for tuna. India and China are exploring the seabed in international waters for valuable minerals. Many countries are loath to adopt new rules that would constrain them.

Read the full story at the New York Times

Alaska city residents worry about herring population decline

May 25, 2017 — The value of commercial landings in Alaska was unchanged from 2014 to 2015, according to a federal report, but some popular fisheries such as herring were down.

The Peninsula Clarion says the report released this month by the National Marine Fisheries Service shows the value of all commercially fished species in the North Pacific was $1.7 billion in 2015, virtually unchanged from the previous year.

The salmon market remains troubled because of an ongoing embargo on selling to Russia and was down 24 percent from 2014.

The value of the herring fishery was down 39 percent and also hurt by the Russia embargo. The Clarion reports a cut in the Sitka Sound herring sac roe fishery by about half affected total landing values.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at KTVA

Russia pushes MSC recertification for pollock from Sea of Okhotsk

May 4, 2017 — Russia’s Federal Agency for Fisheries announced at the 2017 Seafood Expo Global that it would seek Marine Stewardship Council recertification for pollock from the Sea of Okhotsk, according to the agency.

The Alaska trawl fishery in the Sea of Okhotsk was first certified by MSC in 2013 and Russia is seeking a recertification that would extend MSC approval of the fishery by the standard five years.

Russian Deputy Minister of Agriculture of Russia and Head of the Federal Agency for Fisheries Ilya Shestakov said the government “supported and encouraged” recertification for the fishery.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Cod Fishing Catches Plummet in Waters off New England

March 24, 2017 — ROCKPORT, Maine — The cod isn’t so sacred in New England anymore.

The fish-and-chips staple was once a critical piece of New England’s fishing industry, but catch is plummeting to all-time lows in the region. The decline of the fishery has made the U.S. reliant on foreign cod, and cod fish fillets and steaks purchased in American supermarkets and restaurants are now typically caught by Norway, Russia or Iceland in the north Atlantic.

In Maine, which is home to the country’s second-largest Atlantic cod fishery, the dwindling catch has many wondering if cod fishing is a thing of the past.

“It’s going to be more and more difficult for people to make this work,” said Maggie Raymond, executive director of the Associated Fisheries of Maine.

State records say 2016 was historically bad for cod fishing in Maine. Fishermen brought less than 170,000 pounds (77,110 kilograms) of the fish to land in the state last year.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at U.S. News & World Report

How Trade and Sanctions Made This Russian Fisherman a Billionaire

January 24, 2017 — Peering into the mid-morning darkness from his sixth-floor office on Russia’s Kola Bay, Vitaly Orlov strains to see the new factory he’s just built across the water, his view obscured by a creeping cloud bank that shrouds the Arctic seascape in impenetrable gray.

The $30 million structure is the crown jewel of Orlov’s Murmansk-based Norebo Holding JSC. Set amid rows of aging tenements and a wooden church, it was built to service Norebo’s fleet of fish trawlers that together hauled in almost 11 percent of the 4.75 million metric tons (5.24 million U.S. tons) the Russian Federal Fisheries Agency says were caught by Russian fisherman last year.

“I’ve only ever been sure of one thing — that my life will always be tied to the north and the fishing industry,” Orlov, 51, polite and deliberate, pocket square tucked into a tailored suit, said in his first foreign media interview.

From that modest goal, Orlov has built a fortune that the Bloomberg Billionaires Index values at $1 billion, benefiting from the colliding forces of global trade and sanctions that today define Vladimir Putin’s Russia. While his business derives as much as 60 percent of its sales from outside the country, it’s also seen a surge in domestic consumption as sanctions limit food imports.

Arctic Calling

In the Nov. 8 interview, Orlov explained how the plant fulfills a lifelong aspiration to create a fully integrated global fishing operation. Imported Icelandic equipment will process 15,000 of the more than 500,000 metric tons of cod, haddock and other bottom-dwelling fish Norebo catches, packages and ships annually across the country’s 11 time zones and beyond.

Read the full story at Bloomberg News

Survey names top five best-managed fisheries

January 23, 2017 — A survey of 28 countries, including the 20 countries that catch the most fish globally, found New Zealand, the United States, Iceland, Norway and Russia had the five best-managed fisheries.

The study was completed by Michael Melnychuck, a research scientist at the School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences at the University of Washington, and three co-authors, and was published by Washington’s National Academy of Sciences.

The study found the three most important characteristics of a thriving fishery were the scientific assessment of the stock, limiting fishing pressure, and enforcing regulations.

Seafood New Zealand Chief Executive Tim Pankhurst said the study confirms his belief that New Zealand’s fisheries are properly managed.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

This Deep-Sea Fisherman Has Caught A Treasure Trove Of Underwater Oddities

December 22, 2016 — As the saying goes, there are plenty of fish in the sea — including some you may want to toss back.

A deep-sea fisherman in Russia has shared a captivating collection of creepy crawlies he has found in the depths of the Arctic Circle.

Roman Fedortsov, who fishes off northwest Russia’s coast, started tweeting out photos of his most unusual catches earlier this year, according to the Moscow Times.

Some of them appear straight out of a sci-fi movie, but we found marine biologists who insist they’re not.

Read the full story at the Huffington Post

Major seafood companies come together to crackdown on illegal fishing, improve industry transparency

December 20th, 2016 — Eight big fishing companies, which combined catch more than 40 times Australia’s total seafood production, have signed a joint agreement to crack down on illegal fishing, improve traceability and cut down on greenhouse gas emissions.

The companies also said they would address antibiotic use in aquaculture and plastic pollution.

Meeting in Sweden recently, the companies agreed to use more cutting edge technology, including DNA barcoding and satellite surveillance to monitor the volume and types of fish species they catch.

The companies account for 15 per cent of the total global catch.

Australian company Austral Fisheries, which is 50 per cent owned by signatory Maruha Nichiro Corporation, believes the agreement marks a major milestone for the global industry.

General manager of environment and policy, Martin Exel said consumers around the world have pushed the companies to act.

“Secondly, there is a genuine desire to be part of the solution and not part of the problem. There’s a real awakening in the seafood industry akin to the canary in the coal mine, where we see climate change impacts on a daily basis.”

The conversation among the companies was led by the Stockholm Resilience Centre, which researched the most influential companies to bring to the table.

A lack of financial disclosure from Russian and Chinese companies meant they were not a part of the initial agreement, according to Mr. Exel.

Read the full story at the Australian Broadcasting Company

JIM MEEK: Sure, let’s protect the oceans, but we still need to fish

November 7, 2016 — Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) are getting as common as hipster sightings along the south end of Agricola Street.

Just last week, the world’s largest MPA (600,000 square miles) was announced for Antarctica’s Ross Sea.

The new MPA was the result of a multilateral negotiating marathon involving nations that don’t get along — like Russia and the U.S. — so let’s hope it all works out for the environment.

Speaking of the Americans, their outgoing president has burnished his legacy by using executive orders to announce two massive “national marine monuments” off Hawaii and New England.

By massive, I mean 5,000 square miles of MPA territory. We’re not talking the Sailors’ Monument in Point Pleasant Park here, or the Little Mermaid in Copenhagen.

Normally, Americans declare marine sanctuaries instead of marine monuments, but the former would involve pre-consultation with a bunch of noisy people including disgruntled fishermen — who can raise an awful ruckus once they’re riled up.

So Barack Obama got around all that “let’s-listen-to-the-people-first” nonsense by declaring marine monuments under a century-plus old piece of legislation called the Antiquities Act.

So, you’re asking yourself, who can blame a president for using an executive order or two during his last months in office?

New England fishermen, that’s who.

David Borden, who represents offshore lobstermen, goes straight and smart to the heart of the matter.

Environmental groups keep saying the neglected waters are pristine, but ignore the inconvenient truth that they remain blue, serene, and contented after decades of continuous fishing.

Borden’s argument: If the water’s pure, why kick the lobster and crab fishermen out while oil tankers still crisscross the North Atlantic without swearing allegiance to Greenpeace?

Read the full story at The Chronicle Herald

Climate Change Projections Can Be Used To List A Species As Threatened, US Court Rules

October 25th, 2016 — In a landmark ruling Monday, a U.S. appeals court said that the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) — a federal agency — had acted reasonably when it proposed to list certain populations of bearded seals in Alaska as “threatened” under the Endangered Species Act. The decision, which reverses a 2014 ruling by a lower court, could pave the way for other species being accorded protections based on their vulnerability to projected changes in climate.

“This is a huge victory for bearded seals and shows the vital importance of the Endangered Species Act in protecting species threatened by climate change,” Kristen Monsell, attorney for the Center for Biological Diversity — which had, in 2008, filed a petition to list the species as threatened, said in a statement. “This decision will give bearded seals a fighting chance while we work to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions melting their sea-ice habitat and keep dirty fossil fuels in the ground.”

The Pacific bearded seal is one of the two subspecies of bearded seals. Although it is currently listed as “Least Concern” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, the Center for Biological Diversity and the NMFS estimate — based on data from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change — that the seals’ winter sea-ice habitat in the Bering and Okhotsk seas off Alaska and Russia would decline by at least 40 percent by 2050, and that the subspecies would be endangered by 2095.

Read the full story at the IBT Times