Saving Seafood

ALASKA: Some U.S. seafood importers opposed restrictions on Russian fish, Alaska senator says

December 28, 2023 — A 10-year loophole that allowed Russia to export seafood to the U.S. and undercut Alaska harvesters and processors has finally been closed, but the effort faced opposition within the U.S. from seafood importers who wanted access to cheap Russian fish.

Russia has flooded world markets with crab, cod, pollock and salmon to detriment of Alaskan harvesters and seafood companies, and coastal communities, Sen. Dan Sullivan said in a Dec. 31 briefing for reporters.

A U.S. Treasury Department order banning seafood harvested in Russia or by Russian vessels, even if the product is exported to a third country for processing and then reexported to the U.S. went into effect Dec. 23, Sullivan said.

China and Russia have the worst environmental and sustainability policies in the world with harvesting and processing while Alaska has the best, Sullivan said.

On top of that, China employs forced labor in its processing plants, usually from the repressed Uighur minority, the senator said.

Read the full article at the Frontiersman

Biden expands clampdown on U.S. imports of China-processed Russian seafood

December 26, 2023 — President Joe Biden on Friday signed an executive order enabling the closure of a sanctions loophole that has allowed the U.S. importation of large quantities of Russian-caught pollock, cod, salmon and crab processed in China.

The action has been sought by North Pacific seafood industry officials — and their congressional allies — who say that Chinese-processed Russian seafood has contributed to soft U.S. markets and lower prices paid to Alaska fishermen.

The crackdown on the seafood imports is part of a broader effort by the Biden administration to add bite to the U.S. sanctions rolled out in a March 2022 executive order responding to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The initial seafood sanction banned the imports of Russian seafood exported directly to the United States, but allowed those products to move freely to American consumers if they were first processed in another country.

Biden’s Friday action expands U.S. ability to sanction financial institutions, and also includes language that will enable tougher sanctions on Russian seafood and diamonds even if “substantially transformed” in another country.

Read the full article at the Seattle Times

Biden administration orders crackdown on Russian seafood imports

December 26, 2023 — President Joe Biden Dec. 22 signed an executive order expanding the U.S. ban on Russian seafood to include imports of Russia-originated seafood processed in third countries, including China.

The unnumbered executive order expands U.S. Executive Order 14068 to prohibit the importation of seafood “harvested in Russian waters or by Russia-flagged vessels, even if these products are then transformed in a third country.”

“The United States has been clear: those who are supplying goods or processing transactions that materially support Russia’s military industrial base are complicit in Russia’s brutal violation of Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” Biden said in a statement.

Biden said the executive order resulted in part from the G7 Leaders’ statement, issued Dec. 6. The order called for the group’s seven members – Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, the U.S., and the European Union – to step up its efforts against evasion and circumvention of their sanctions and export controls measures on Russian goods. The statement called for additional actions to further curtail Russia profiting from the export of its commodities, including through the imposition of measures to limit their sale through third countries.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

Alaska fishers, consumers likely to see higher seafood prices due to expanded Russian products ban

December 26, 2023 — Seafood prices may see an increase both for fishers and consumers due to new import restrictions on Russian products imposed in an executive order by President Joe Biden on Friday, but top Alaska political leaders and many industry officials praised the policy as beneficial to regions with fisheries statewide.

The executive order expands sanctions against Russia for its invasion of Ukraine to include products that are caught in Russia and processed in China, closing what advocates for the restriction called a loophole Russia was exploiting after a general ban on seafood from that country was imposed by the U.S. in 2022. Biden’s order also affects alcohol and “non-industrial diamonds.”

In the simplest practical terms, it means there will be fewer seafood products available — thus both likely expanding Alaska’s share of the market, while affecting availability and prices for consumers.

Read the full article at Juneau Empire

ALASKA: Alaska congressional delegation steps up efforts to shut down U.S. imports of Russian seafood processed in China

December 19, 2023 — At the Yantai Sanko Fisheries shore plant in China’s Shandong Province, workers cut pollock into trim fillets. The company website touts “perfect quality” from a plant complex with easy access to international shipping lines.

The vast majority of pollock that moves through China’s seafood processing industry comes from Russia, which is prohibited by the Biden administration’s March 2022 sanctions from exporting seafood directly to the United States. But Russian-caught fish labeled as a product of China has continued to pour into U.S. markets, helping to tank what had been record-high prices for the North Pacific trawl fleet that catches pollock off Alaska.

For more than a year, Alaska seafood industry officials have called for expanding the sanctions to cover any Russian seafood processed in China or any other country. In recent weeks, Alaska’s congressional delegation has stepped up efforts to try to make that happen.

Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, has repeatedly asked Treasury Department officials for a new ruling that would reinterpret the sanctions imposed in the aftermath of the invasion of Ukraine to cover all Russia-caught seafood, no matter where it was processed. Rep. Mary Peltola took a lead role in putting together a letter, signed by 38 members of Congress, sent Thursday to President Joe Biden. It asks for the closure of the “loophole” that allows Russian seafood processed in China to be imported into the United States “in defiance of U.S. sanctions.”

If the Treasury Department does not act, Sullivan says he’s planning another attempt to pass legislation that would require the Biden administration to end these imports. He would try to move a bill through the Senate through a unanimous consent vote, a tactic he tried unsuccessfully in June.

“I have been having a tough time getting this over the goal line. We’ve been working this nonstop,” Sullivan said. “Stay tuned.”

This campaign to clamp down on Russian-caught imports has gained momentum from an investigation by The Outlaw Ocean Project — a journalism nonprofit — into the Chinese seafood industry. The reporting, published by The New Yorker in October, found evidence that Yantai Sanko and nine other seafood companies have used the forced labor of more than 1,000 Uyghurs and other largely Muslim minorities from the Xinjiang region in northwest China.

Read the full article at Anchorage Daily News

Citing market volatility and Russia’s war in Ukraine, Trident plans to halt salmon buying early

August 9, 2023 — Trident Seafoods, the country’s largest vertically integrated seafood company, announced a number of measures over the weekend that bode poorly for the Alaska salmon market, including an early end to its salmon buying season across much of the state.

In a letter over the weekend to fishermen who sell their catch to Trident, the company outlined the issues prompting low prices and a halt to most salmon purchases at month’s end.

“The current state of the salmon markets is volatile, and future indicators are even more concerning,” reads the letter, signed by Trident CEO Joe Bundrant and senior vice president for Alaska operations Jeff Welbourn. “We know this is not an easy time and we understand and empathize with our fishing community. Given how quickly things are changing we are committed to being as transparent as possible so you can make timely and informed decisions.”

Read the full article at Anchorage Daily News

China reprocessing, selling Russian-origin seafood to US despite import ban

July 5, 2023 — China has experienced a surge in Russian seafood entering the country recently, and is reprocessing and selling much of it to markets that have banned Russian seafood imports, including the U.S.

Bilateral seafood trade between the China and Russia rose 80 percent in the first quarter of 2023, according to Robin Wang, head of seafood marketing agency SMH International in Shanghai. Overall, Sino-Russian trade rose 38.7 percent year-over-year in Q1.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Alaska lawmakers want to expand US ban on Russian seafood imports

June 23, 2023 — Alaska’s congressional delegation has introduced legislation to close loopholes in U.S. rules banning Russian seafood imports.

The U.S. ban on Russian seafood was part of a slew of sanctions and prohibitions announced by U.S. President Joe Biden in a March 2022 executive order designed to impose economic punishments on Russia for its ongoing invasion and occupation of Ukraine.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Facing ongoing suspension, Russia threatens permanent withdrawal from ICES

May 16, 2023 — Russia is threatening to leave the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) if its suspension is not lifted.

ICES temporarily banned Russian delegates from participating in the organization’s activities in April 2022 in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. At the time, the organization said it had instructed its scientists and representatives “to either boycott or avoid engagement in activities where representatives of the Russian Federation are present.”

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

US, Russia eyeing development of Arctic fisheries

April 12, 2023 — The U.S. and Russia are each moving to investigate opening up commercial fisheries in the Arctic, following fish stocks that have shifted northward due to climate change.

Currently, there is a ban on fishing in the Arctic, after nine nations and the European Union signed the Central Arctic Ocean Fisheries Agreement – officially known as Agreement to Prevent Unregulated High Seas Fisheries in the Central Arctic Ocean – in 2018. After ratification, the agreement went into effect on 25 June, 2021 and bans fishing in the Central Arctic until at least 2037. The treaty limits fishing in the high seas area of the Arctic to research trips only and can be extended in five-year increments by unanimous consent.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource