Saving Seafood

MASSACHUSETTS: Gloucester looks to up seafood matchmaking

January 28, 2019 — The city continued its outreach to Gloucester seafood businesses on Thursday, hoping to bolster its presence — and the array of fresh Gloucester seafood products — at the upcoming Seafood Expo North America in Boston.

Mayor Sefatia Romeo Theken and other city officials met at City Hall with executives from Mortillaro Lobster Inc., Intershell and Cape Seafoods and its North Atlantic and Pacific Seafood subsidiary to expound on the benefits of attending one of the largest seafood shows in the world.

In a sense, the city was preaching to members of the choir. Intershell and Cape Seafoods already have booked their own booths at the show, which is set to run March 17 to 19 at the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center in South Boston.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

Survey on US seafood consumption contains surprises

January 23, 2019 — While almost half of all Americans eat little to no seafood, many Americans love the stuff – and are willing to spend more time shopping for it and more money to buy it so they can eat it regularly.

The Food Marketing Institute’s first-ever Power of Seafood survey of more than 2,000 U.S. shoppers found numerous reasons as to why more Americans aren’t buying seafood, and discovered hurdles preventing even the most ardent fans of seafood from buying more.

FMI Vice President of Fresh Foods Rick Stein presented the initial results of the survey at the 2019 Global Seafood Market Conference in Coronado, California, U.S.A. on 17 January.  FMI surveyed 2,096 grocery shoppers representative of the general U.S. population in regard to geography, age, and gender. FMI also incorporated data from sources including IRI, Nielson, Technomics, and Datassentials into its results. The full results of the survey will be released at the 2019 Seafood Expo North America in Boston, Massachusetts, in March.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Protecting Alaska’s Fisheries

May 2, 2018 — Combating illegal fishing on the high seas, also known as international waters, which have no sovereignty, has been a thorn in the side of every nation that has a coastline. Relatively recent issues such as fishery sustainability, climate change, and deliberately mislabeling fish and fish products have prompted an effort to mount a worldwide coordinated response to illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing (IUU).

This issue and others were addressed at the annual Seafood Expo North America in Boston in March. The expo attracted 1,341 exhibiting companies from 57 countries—including new attendees from Fiji, Oman, Ukraine, and Venezuela. The exhibitors included not only the fishing industry but companies that support it such as transportation companies, equipment suppliers, and other support organizations. All told the Seafood Expo attracted more than 22,600 attendees from more than 120 countries.

An international panel offered perspective on IUU fishing, which violates national laws and/or internationally agreed upon conservation and management measures in effect worldwide. The panel was titled, “Fighting IUU Fishing and Seafood Fraud: Enhancing Traceability and Transparency through Strengthened Governance Frameworks.”

Participants included Giuliana Torta, counselor for Environment, Climate Action, and Maritime Affairs with the EU delegation to the United States; Somboon Siriraksophon, Fishery Policy and Program coordinator at the Southeast Asian Fisheries Development Center; Rune Dragset, deputy head of unit in the Seafood Section of the Norwegian Ministry of Trade, Industry, and Fisheries; and, Deirdre Warner-Kramer, acting deputy director of the Office of Marine Conservation, US Department of State. All panel members agreed that cooperation across the world and a strict set of controls on how fish get to market are vital to dampening the problem of international fishing and seafood fraud.

Read the full story at Alaska Business Magazine

 

Gloucester Times: Seafood industry still rewards hard work, innovation

March 20, 2018 — There’s no disputing these are difficult times for New England fishermen, with ever-tightening regulations, a diminishing catch and the added uncertainty brought on by climate change.

Among the dour news, however, there are hints of hope and optimism among those who feel the nation’s oldest industry still has something to offer.

Take, for example, the city of Gloucester’s outreach at the Seafood Expo North America in Boston earlier this month. The show, which attracts almost 22,000 seafood buyers and processors from more than 100 countries, is seemingly made for folks willing to hustle. And Gloucester was hustling.

For the last four years, the city has used the expo as a way to market itself to the rest of the country and across the world. And the Gloucester Fresh branding effort has paid off, most notably two years ago, when the Ninety Nine Restaurant chain agreed to feature Gloucester-landed haddock on its menu.

This year, the Gloucester crew was touting monkfish, an ugly creature that is nevertheless delicious when prepared by Cape Ann chefs, with a VIP tasting for about 75 buyers and processors. Meanwhile, Sal Di Stefano, the city’s economic development director, was pitching lobsters to a pair of South Korean visitors.

“They told me that all they do is buy Canadian lobsters, but they keep hearing more and more about American lobster,” Di Stefano told reporter Sean Horgan.

“We explained that American lobster is better and that Massachusetts lobsters are the best of the American species. Then we had them talk with (lobsterman) Mark Ring and they were thrilled to actually meet a lobsterman. We wouldn’t have had those interactions if we weren’t here.”

These relationships matter. The connection between Gloucester’s ocean-to-table deal with the Ninety Nine chain continues today, even as the local processors supplying the fish have changed.

“Chef George (Tagarelis) and I have been in our restaurants all week long with general managers and kitchen managers training on our brand-new spring menu, which begins April 2 and features ‘Gloucester Fresh’ simply seasoned fresh haddock,” the chain’s president, Charlie Noyes, said last week. “I’m sure our guests at the Ninety Nine will be as excited as we are that we continue to serve this local favorite.”

Indeed, change is everywhere, even at 170-year-old Gorton’s of Gloucester, one of the nation’s oldest continually operating businesses.

Even as it outlasts the competition, Gorton’s, with 425 employees, has remained an iconic part of the seafood industry, with much of its recent success attributed to trying to “connect with customers in unique ways,” Judson Reis, the company’s president, told members of the Cape Ann Chamber of Commerce earlier this month.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times

 

2018 scallop surprise: Despite larger harvest, currency rates could flatten US supply

March 19, 2018 — You heard it right. Despite massive scallop harvests coming in the US and Japan in 2018, it’s very possible that Americans won’t see any kind of a bump in the availability of what many consider their favorite mollusk, suggests Peter Handy, the president and CEO of Bristol Seafoods.

Handy, a well-known seafood market analyst, laid out his bold theory in a presentation just before Seafood Expo North America 2018, in Boston, and in a subsequent interview with Undercurrent News. His 25-year-old Portland, Maine-based company handles 6 million lbs of seafood annually, including a large number of Atlantic deep-sea scallops (Placopecten magellanicus).

“Just like you hear [the automobile manufacturer] Ford talk about how the price of metal is going to affect their production costs, seafood is the same way for us,” he said.

Handy doesn’t doubt there will be more scallops worldwide in 2018.

Based on strong surveys and thanks to the decision by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to open up previously closed areas and strong surveys off the coast of New England,  US scallop harvesters are looking forward to their largest harvest in 14 years – 27,216 metric tons – when their season starts April 1.

The harvest represents the continuation of a trend that Handy credits US conservation policy for. Scallop landings are up 300% since 1995, he noted.

Simultaneously, Japan is predicted to see a major boost in production of Pacific sea scallops (Patinopecten yessoensis) as beds off the coast of Hokkaido in the Sea of Okhotsk recover from weather disasters. As Undercurrent reported earlier, the area is looking at increasing its harvest from the 205,000t of scallops landed in 2017 to 260,000t in 2018.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

 

Massachusetts: Seafood expo cut short, still a success

March 14, 2018 — The first casualty of Tuesday’s fierce snowstorm actually came late Monday afternoon, when Mayor Sefatia Romeo Theken opted for safety reasons to cut short the city’s presence at the massive Seafood Expo North America at the convention center in South Boston.

“We don’t want any of our people getting hurt trying to come in here to staff our booth or the people coming in to meet with us,” Romeo Theken said even before leaving the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center Monday. “And really, we’ve gotten most of what we wanted to get done.”

Following Monday’s session, the Gloucester contingent, led by Economic Development Director Sal Di Stefano, broke down the city’s booth and hauled everything back to Gloucester.

The third nor’easter of the past fortnight, however, did force the city — again for safety reasons — to cancel its annual Wednesday-after-the-Expo visit to the city by a contingent of largely foreign seafood processors, dealers and fishermen in Boston for the three-day seafood show that features 1,341 exhibitors from 57 countries around the globe. Cumulatively, they occupy 258,360 square feet of exhibition space.

“It’s really for the safety of our guests and out of respect for people who will be involved in snow removal around the city,” Di Stefano said. “The last thing we want to do is put somebody in danger. And you know what? They can always come back.”

The city, he said, made a strong showing in the first two days of the show, capped off Monday by its VIP luncheon tasting that drew 75 into a glassed suite overlooking the sprawling convention floor.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times

 

U.S. fisheries’ leader Oliver asserts ‘business-minded’ stance at Boston 2018

March 13, 2018 — BOSTON — The US’ top regulatory authority on fishing used his first appearance ever at a Seafood Expo North America (SENA) conference on Sunday to describe how he was reshaping the mission at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to create more of a pro-business environment.

Commercial fishermen largely applauded the Donald Trump administration’s selection of Chris Oliver to serve as NOAA’s assistant administrator of fisheries in June 2017. But Oliver, who was confirmed in his new role in July, has maintained a relatively low profile since, his office not responding to requests for interviews.

In November, he told Alaska fishermen at a public meeting that he supported regulatory flexibility. The month before he had demanded the retraction of an article suggesting US seafood exported to Japan includes a high number of illegal unreported and unregulated (IUU) fish.

On Sunday, in Boston, he made it clear that he was using his leadership role to both follow the administration’s charge to combat excessive regulation and also looking out for harvesters.

“I’m a firm believer in a science-based approach to fisheries,” Oliver said. “… For 40 years, the North Pacific [Management] Council has been using annual catch limits, and I firmly believe those are the cornerstone to sustainable management. But I also believe that there is room for flexibility and a greater role for common sense frankly in our approach to fisheries management. And I want to bring a more business-minded approach to that process.”

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

 

NOAA is pro-aquaculture, but won’t weigh in on salmon farm ban

March 13, 2018 — BOSTON — Don’t look for the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to challenge the recent decision by Washington state to end salmon farming off its coast. The federal government’s hands are tied, said a senior NOAA official at the Seafood Expo North America, in Boston, Massachusetts, on Sunday afternoon.

“We do have separation of powers in the United States between the federal government and the state government,” said Michael Rubino, NOAA’s director of aquaculture, when asked. “And this was largely a state government matter.”

Washington state governor Jay Inslee is expected to soon sign House Bill 2957, a bill passed by the state’s Senate, 31-16, on March 2 that would allow the leases for offshore aquaculture facilities there to expire by 2025. The state’s House voted roughly two weeks earlier to support the bill.

Washington state’s dramatic action followed the much-publicized escape, in August, of more than 250,000 Atlantic salmon from a Cooke Aquaculture facility near Cypress Island.

When asked if NOAA might weigh in, Rubino simply responded that NOAA doesn’t have a say in the matter.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

 

A monkfish proves seafood show is about building relationships

March 13, 2018 — BOSTON — Hours before the doors opened for the massive Seafood Expo North America, even before city Fisheries Executive Director Al Cottone ventured onto the ever-scenic stretch of Route 1 southbound, potential calamity emerged.

For the fourth consecutive year, the city of Gloucester was announcing its presence with authority at the international show in the hope of building its brand as a seafood supplier to the world. And much of the day depended on the elegant allure of the colossally ugly monkfish.

Monkfish stew being doled out at the city’s booth. The VIP, invite-only lunchtime tasting in the glassed-in suite overlooking the expansive exhibition floor featuring monkfish arancini, bang-bang monkfish and monkfish tacos from Todd Snopkowski’s crew at SnapChef.

Only one problem:

The city planned to use a freshly caught monkfish as a centerpiece display at the swanky tasting. Cottone was to bring it with him. But, because the foul weather of the last fortnight had kept almost all of the city’s boats from fishing, there wasn’t fresh monkfish to be found.

“I went everywhere and asked everybody,” Cottone said. “Nobody’s been able to go out, so nobody’s got them.”

The abbey was fresh out of monks.

Fisheries Commission Chairman Mark Ring had an idea for a possible solution.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times

 

MASSACHUSETTS: Cape fishermen push dogfish, skate at expo

March 23, 2017 — Chatham fishermen Charlie Dodge, Jamie Eldredge, and Greg Connors walked the crowded aisles of the Seafood Expo North America Monday, one of the largest seafood shows in the world, drawing more than 21,000 attendees and exhibitors over three days.

The men were there to meet wholesale fish buyers and distributors looking to market their catch: skates — a kite-shaped fish related to sharks — and dogfish, a small coastal shark.

Dogfish and skates may not be ready to join heavyweights like salmon and shrimp, but with help from the Cape Cod Commercial Fishermen’s Alliance, as well as federal and state grants to assist with marketing, they are slowly gaining a foothold in domestic markets.

“It would be way better if it stays within the country,” Dodge said of dogfish, which, like skates is largely exported to Europe and Asia, and fetch relatively low prices, with skates at 23 cents per pound on average in 2015 and dogfish fluctuating between 11 cents and 22 cents per pound. In 2015, cod, by comparison, averaged $1.90 per pound.

Not long ago Chatham was one of the top cod ports in the country, but that stock is considered to be at historically low levels and landings state-wide collapsed from 27.5 million pounds in 2001 to 2.9 million pounds in 2015. Both skates and dogfish are plentiful and considered sustainably managed by organizations like the Gulf of Maine Research Institute, the Marine Stewardship Council and Seafood Watch. That message — a local, sustainable and affordable fish — has helped convince institutional clients like the University of Massachusetts in Amherst.

Read the full story at Cape Cod