Saving Seafood

ALASKA: Small processors carve out a market in Bristol Bay

August 17, 2018 — The majority of processing seafood companies in Bristol Bay are small Mom and Pop shops who are essentially the roadside farm stands of the Bristol Bay sockeye fishery selling sockeye directly to customers. But these businesses only sell a fraction of the sockeye caught in the region.

Standing in a shipping container that’s been converted into essentially a salmon butchery. Sandy Alvarez is filleting a sockeye. People regularly admire her technique but she said the secret behind it is practice.

“Well you know people who comment they wish they could do that I usually laughingly tell them. ‘Try doing 1,500 fish for 10 years you probably can!’”

Almost a decade ago Alvarez and her husband, a commercial fisherman, set up a little processing plant near their summer home in Naknek. Alvarez’s husband fishes for sockeye and drops off a bit of his catch to his wife who then processes it.  Then he sells the rest of his salmon to a larger seafood company. That is pretty typical for small seafood processors in the region.

Read the full story at KDLG

Will Trade Tariffs Cause The American Fish Industry To Flop?

August 16, 2018 — An estimated $900 million worth of American-caught or -farmed seafood — from fish sticks to cod fillets — may get a lot more expensive thanks to the U.S.’s current trade war with China.

How? Well, last month the Trump administration proposed a 10% duty on a wide range of imports from China, including many varieties of fish. Trade representatives will finalize the tariffs, which could increase to 25%, in September. While these tariffs are designed to punish China for unfair trade practices, when it comes to seafood, it’s the U.S. that may be on the hook.

Here’s a surprising fact: In many cases seafood labeled as “from China” is actually American. That $900 million of seafood I mentioned earlier? It’s seafood that is first caught or raised in the U.S., sent to China for processing, and then subsequently imported back into the U.S. by companies that sell it to American consumers.

Why would pink salmon or squid that’s caught in U.S. waters be labeled a product of China? Well, thanks to our confusing Country of Origin Labeling law (COOL for short), American products that undergo a “substantial transformation” abroad — such as calamari being breaded or pink salmon being filleted and canned — must then be labeled as coming from the country where they were processed. For example, in some cases a package of frozen “Alaskan Cod” fillets may say “product of China” on the back. The fish was caught in Alaska, but it was cleaned, filleted, and frozen in China. (If you’re interested in more, the USDA has a good blog post on the subject.)

Read the full story at Forbes

The mysterious case of Alaska’s strange sockeye salmon returns this year

August 16, 2018 — There’s something unusual going on with the sockeye salmon runs returning to Alaska this year. In some places — like Bristol Bay — the runs are strong. In others, like the Copper River or the Kenai River they’re unexpectedly weak. In some places, there are sockeye that are unusually small. In others, sockeye of a certain age appear to be missing entirely.

It’s a mystery.

In Southeast Alaska, one of the first Fish and Game staffers to notice an unusual trend was Iris Frank, a regional data coordinator and fisheries technician.

Frank’s lab is on the first floor of Fish and Game’s Douglas Island office that looks like it hasn’t changed much in the 32 years since she got there.

Frank has been looking at blown-up images of sockeye salmon scales for decades. She pops one onto the machine and dials it into focus to show that salmon scales have ridges, called circuli. They look a lot like fingerprints.

Circuli carry a lot of information about what a salmon has been doing since it hatched.

“So if you think about a fish being out say, in a lake in the summertime, it’s warmer there. There’s more feed around. So these circuli are probably going to be bigger and more widely spaced apart,” Frank said.

Read the full story at Alaska Public Media

Rainbow trout can now officially be labeled as salmon in China

August 14, 2018 — Rainbow trout can be labeled and sold as salmon, according to new rules issued by a government-run fishery organization and 13 Chinese fishery companies.

The ruling is intended to resolve complaints that China-produced rainbow trout is being mislabled as salmon, amid concerns that eating rainbow trout raw would lead to parasite infection.

The ruling says salmon is the umbrella name of salmonidae fish, and rainbow trout also belongs to this category, the China Aquatic Products Processing and Marketing Alliance (CAPPMA) said on their website.

The CAPPMA, a social organization under the Ministry of Agriculture, along with 13 fishery companies, issued the controversial standard.

The sale of salmon has been increasing in China in recent years, but a lack of standards has raised the concern of many Chinese consumers.

In May, some media reports claimed that a lot of what is sold as salmon in China is in fact rainbow trout, produced in Northwest China’s Qinghai Province.

Later many netizens began to claim rainbow trout from the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau is being mislabeled as salmon, and is infested with worms and painted to resemble salmon.

Read the full story at the Global Times

ProntoForms on iPhone and iPad helps Cooke Aquaculture save over $2.1M annually

August 10, 2018 — The following was released by ProntoForms:

ProntoForms Corporation (TSXV:PFM), the global leader in smart mobile forms for enterprise, today announced how Cooke Aquaculture, the largest producer of Atlantic Salmon in North America, deployed ProntoForms to transform its operational processes with a customized iOS solution, resulting in over $2.1M in annual cost savings. The solution also helps Cooke field staff become more efficient, saving about 4,200 hours per month.

Cooke Aquaculture is using ProntoForms on iPhone and iPad in the field to streamline multiple operations and maintenance processes – daily inspections of boats, barges, fish pens, and other sea farming equipment. Data submitted from the boats is transmitted to the office in real time and securely integrated into MS SharePoint to ensure rapid and easy access of up-to-date information, including custom document formats, for management, auditors, and regulatory bodies. Field data is also integrated into the company’s Aquaculture Operations system of record to track site performance, feed consumption, and inventory across multiple sites and regions.

“We’re almost 100% paperless now in our department because of ProntoForms and their iOS solution for iPhone and iPad,” says Mark Fraser, Remote Feed Supervisor at Cooke Aquaculture. “One hour of savings per day for 200 users equals 4,200 hours per month, or about $180K/month in savings. Time to train staff to use ProntoForms on iPhone and iPad has been less than an hour given how intuitive the software and hardware are to use.“

“Our no-code platform enables operations groups and enterprise IT teams to quickly deploy a mobile solution, expand to new processes, develop new workflows, and completely transform their operations,” says Alvaro Pombo, CEO of ProntoForms. “Enabling field technicians to reliably integrate field data into systems of record using a powerful mobile front end is a crucial capability for large corporations. As this deployment shows, our mobile solution for iOS is robust, easy to use and manage, and delivers a significant return on investment for our enterprise customers.”

For more details, watch the Cooke Aquaculture customer success video here.

US buyers paying more for seafood in 2018

August 9, 2018 — The value of U.S. seafood imports increased significantly for the first six months of the year, while volume dropped slightly, according to new data from NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service.

The overall value of seafood purchased by U.S. buyers spiked from around USD 10.4 billion (EUR 8.95 billion) for the first six months of 2017 to around USD 10.9 billion (EUR 9.4 billion) during the same timeframe in 2018, NMFS found. Meanwhile, the overall volume of imported seafood declined from 1.374 kilos last year to 1.371 kilos during the first six months of 2018.

Fresh Atlantic salmon, along with shelf-stable, fresh, and frozen tuna, were among the biggest gainers in dollar value.

The value of fresh farmed Atlantic salmon fillets spiked from around USD 486 million (EUR 418 million) for the first six months of 2017 to around USD 527 million (EUR 454 million) in 2018.

Imports of fresh farmed Atlantic salmon from Chile more than doubled it figures, rising from around USD 15 million (EUR 13 million) in 2017 to USD 32 million (EUR 28 million) this year.

The value of frozen NSPF tuna fillets skyrocketed from around USD 157 million (EUR 135 million) in the first six month of 2017 to USD 180.8 million (EUR 156 million) from January to June this year. The value of fresh yellowfin tuna fillets rose from USD 79.6 million (EUR 68 million) last year to 83.3 million (EUR 72 million) in 2018.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

U.S. Seafood Industry Vulnerable to Tariffs Aimed at China

August 9, 2018 — The next round of U.S. tariffs aimed at Chinese imports could wind up hurting a major product that initially comes from America: fish.

Proposed 10% duties by the Trump administration last month on $200 billion worth of imports from China included dozens of varieties of fish, from tilapia to tuna. The proposed tariffs, which could increase to 25%, are set to be decided in September by trade representatives.

An estimated $900 million worth of fish and seafood on that list is first caught in the U.S., sent to China for processing into items like fish sticks and fillets, and then imported by U.S. companies to sell to American consumers.

“The value added is in another country, but essentially it’s an American-raised product,” Joseph Glauber, former chief economist at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, said of goods like fish sourced in the U.S. that are processed overseas and re-imported. He said the proposed tariffs could cut profits or boost prices throughout seafood supply chains, from fishermen to consumers.

The practice of sending fish to China to be breaded, seasoned, portioned or packaged has grown in the past two decades, according to U.S. fishing groups. Domestic seafood-processing plants have faced high costs and labor shortages, while cheaper facilities have sprung up in China to support its extensive domestic fish-farming industry.

That has helped make China the top source of seafood to the U.S., with the 1.3 billion pounds sent to the U.S. last year double that of second-ranked India, according to market-research firm Urner Barry.

The exposure of U.S. seafood to tariffs aimed at another country highlights how intertwined global supply chains have become. Many pink salmon, for example, are caught by commercial fishermen in southeast Alaska. The fish are transported to processing plants to be headed, gutted and frozen, before being loaded into shipping containers bound for China. Once there, they are thawed, deboned, smoked, filleted or turned into salmon burgers for sale world-wide, including to the U.S.

More than half of Alaskan seafood sent to China is processed and then re-exported, said Garrett Evridge, an economist with McDowell Group, an Alaskan research and consulting firm. The percentage can be as high as 95% for fish like sole, he said. The fishing industry, one of the largest private-sector employers in Alaska, provides about 60,000 jobs, he said, and Alaskan seafood makes up 60% of the nation’s catch.

Some Gulf Coast seafood producers had lobbied for the latest round of tariffs to include fish. In a letter to the Trump administration in May, the Southern Shrimp Alliance trade group said that Chinese-farmed fish tend to be raised with antibiotics, and imports unfairly compete with the group’s members.

Read the full story at The Wall Street Journal

ALASKA: Supreme Court approves Stand for Salmon ballot initiative

August 9, 2018 — The Alaska Supreme Court on Wednesday approved the Stand for Salmon ballot initiative for November’s statewide election, but not before deleting some provisions that violate the Alaska Constitution.

The decision marks only the second time in state history that the Supreme Court has used its power to delete portions of a ballot initiative in order to certify the rest.

“We conclude that the initiative would encroach on the discretion over allocation decisions delegated to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game by the legislature, and that the initiative as written therefore effects an unconstitutional appropriation,” the judges wrote in their ruling, “But we conclude that the problematic sections may be severed from the remainder of the initiative.”

Supreme Court judge Daniel Winfree offered a partial dissent, disagreeing with how much should have been deleted by the court.

The ruling is the latest success for ballot measure proponents, who have been consistently opposed by the State of Alaska and a multimillion-dollar ‘vote no’ effort. Since the measure was suggested in May 2017, state attorneys have raised objections to its scope, which they view as overly broad and a violation of the Alaska Constitution. The Constitution allows ballot measures, but it prohibits those measures from making appropriations of money or resources. After an abortive first attempt, backers withdrew their measure and rewrote it. Despite that, the Alaska Department of Law said it was unconstitutional, and Lt. Gov. Byron Mallott refused to certify it for the ballot.

The state argued that the initiative’s eight pages of dense text create legislation that effectively allocates state waters for fisheries, excluding other development that might affect rivers, streams and lakes. Proponents challenged that ruling in Alaska Superior Court, and in October 2017, Judge Mark Rindner ruled against the state, saying the measure did not amount to an appropriation.

Read the full story at the Juneau Empire

ALASKA: Salmon ‘seized’ by Troopers sold to processors, state holds harvest ticket

August 8, 2018 — The 16 tons of salmon alleged to have been illegally harvested in Lower Cook Inlet were sold to a processor so they wouldn’t be wasted, with the state of Alaska now holding the harvest ticket. Wildlife Troopers say while illegally driving salmon from closed areas to open ones isn’t unheard of, this case is particularly egregious.

Four fishermen were charged for the incident on July 20, in which Troopers say five vessels were used in varying roles to drive the chum and pink salmon from an area closed to fishing toward an open fishing area. The fishermen then delivered 33,328 lbs of the illegally-caught chum and pink salmon to a processor. It was then processed as any legal catch would be, so it wouldn’t go to waste.

State Troopers charged the four men, who live in Homer and Anchor Point, and confiscated the harvest ticket, which tracks the weight and date of a delivery. Processors use the ticket number to pay fishermen from the season, and Fish and Game uses the ticket number to track how many fish were harvested, where, and by whom.

The outcome of the court cases will determine whether the money goes back to the fishermen, or is forfeit to the state.

Eric Winslow, Paul Roth, Robert Roth and Mark Roth were charged with crimes including driving salmon, commercial fishing in closed waters, failure to provide information to a fish transporter, failure to obtain a fish transporter permit, failure to complete fish tickets, unlawful possession of commercial fish, and failure to display vessel license numbers.

Read the full story at KTUU

NMFS Notifies Regional Councils of Nine Species Listed as Overfished or Subject to Overfishing

August 8, 2018 — SEAFOOD NEWS — The National Marine Fisheries Service notified regional Councils recently than nine stocks around the country are overfished or subject to overfishing. Of those, five are salmon stocks on the West Coast.

The Klamath River fall Chinook, Queets coho, Juan de Fuca coho, Snohomish coho and Sacramento River fall Chinook have been listed as overfished. Upper Columbia River summer Chinook is listed as being subject to overfishing. In other regions, thorny skate and the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico stock of sandbar shark remain overfished. The Gulf of Maine/Cape Hatteras Atlantic mackerel stock is listed is overfished and also subject to overfishing.

The listing of the salmon stocks is no surprise. Unusually warm ocean waters in recent years — thank The Blob — had detrimental effects on many salmon stocks, particularly coho runs. In-river environmental changes and ongoing draught also affected stocks, especially the commercially valuable Sacramento and Klamath rivers fall Chinook runs.

The Pacific Fishery Management Council has already directed its Salmon Technical Team to develop rebuilding plans for each of the overfished stocks for the Council’s consideration. However, only two, the Klamath and Sacramento Chinook stocks, are completely under the Council’s purview. The other four are also managed via international agreements, so there is Council has limited ability to control ocean fisheries in waters outside its jurisdiction, NMFS said in a notice.

The thorny skate determination was made based on a 2017 stock assessment that used data through 2016. NMFS continues to work with the New England Fishery Management Council to implement conservation and management measures to rebuild thorny skate. Thorny skate is the only one of seven managed in the Northeast skate complex that is still overfished. The New England Council, NMFS and industry have successfully rebuilt three other species in the complex during the last 15 years.

The sandbar shark listing is based on a 2018 stock assessment that used data through 2015. It is managed under the 2006 Consolidated Atlantic Highly Migratory Species Fishery Management Plan.

NMFS said the data on which the Gulf of Maine/Cape Hatteras Atlantic mackerel overfished/subject to overfishing status was made using a 2018 benchmark assessment that included data through 2016. The Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council must now adopt measures to end overfishing and approve a rebuilding plan, the NMFS notice said. The MAFMC has already been working on the issue and intends to address rebuilding the stock through a framework action to the Atlantic Mackerel, Squid and Butterfish Fishery Management Plan, including modifications to the 2019-21 harvest specifications. The Council in June received an update on proposals to rebuilding Atlantic mackerel in 3, 5, or 7 years and is scheduled to take final action on a rebuilding plan when it meets in Virginia Beach, Virginia, next week.

This story originally appeared on SeafoodNews.com, a subscription site. It is reprinted with permission.