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Ken Coons, Seafood Industry Advocate and Long Time Associate Editor of Seafood News, Passes Away

February 6, 2017 — SEAFOOD NEWS — Kenelm W. Coons passed away on Friday, February 3, 2017 after a three-month illness. Ken will be deeply missed for his kindness, compassion, and humor. He was a great listener and gifted story teller with an inquisitive spirit, keen mind and quick wit.

Ken was a well known advocate for US seafood.

After graduating from Harvard College (A.B. ’53), he served for two years of active duty in West Germany.  He then began his professional career, embarking on a series of packaged goods marketing positions, including introducing General Foods’ Cool Whip desserts.

He later moved to the mid-Atlantic and worked marketing Doxsee clam products, which introduced him to the seafood industry  He then worked for a  diversified fish and shellfish company in Rhode Island.  After earning a Master’s in Marine Affairs at the University of Rhode Island in 1978, he was named Executive Director of the recently formed Rhode Island Seafood Council. Two years later, he helped found and was named the Executive Director of the New England Fisheries Development Foundation, later renamed the New England Fisheries Development Association (NEFDA). He held this position in Boston for two decades.

Ken was one of John Sackton’s mentors in the Seafood Industry.  “Ken hired me as program director for the New England Fisheries Development Foundation, which was my second job in the seafood industry after leaving the same Marine Affairs program at URI,” said Sackton.

While at NEFDA Ken partnered with the Canadian Consulate in Boston to found the Boston Seafood Show. That show was eventually sold to Diversified Communications after the Foundation felt professional management was needed.

NEFDA also ran a popular Fish School for a national audience aimed at educating new seafood buyers. Gene Connors, who became the seafood guru for Hallsmith Sysco in New England, was a New Bedford Fisherman who led the quality training at the fish school.

NEFDA was chosen by FDA and USDC for a trial project to introduce the HACCP system of sanitation and, with Saltonstall-Kennedy Funds, focused on promoting under-utilized species, utilization of fish waste, and programs to enhance seafood quality.  The Foundation ran a series of quality improvement projects for ground fish in New England, including an attempt to introduce European style boxes for holding and offloading cod and flatfish in New Bedford.

Other initiatives included developing a domestic market for Rhode Island-caught Loligo squid and establishing the hagfish fishery in Gloucester, MA.

Ken was appointed by the Secretary of Commerce to the National Fish and Seafood Promotion Council and was elected its first chairman.  At this time he was also named Man of the Year by the National Fisheries Institute (NFI).  Ken firmly believed that the seafood industry needed generic marketing programs, and championed such programs in Washington DC.

Ken was a frequent spokesperson for the seafood industry in broadcast and print media.

After he retired, and John Sackton founded SeafoodNews, Ken became an associate Editor.

“I have enjoyed working with Ken immensely over the years”, said Sackton.  “He was unfailingly optimistic and had an extremely broad range of seafood interests.   He also loved to cook seafood, and we would often exchange recipes and compare our various dishes and how we cooked.  Ken brought me back a specialty whole fish poacher from Paris after one trip, for example.”

Ken was friends with both George Berkowitz, the Founder of Legal Seafoods, and Julia Child,  whose hugely popular cooking shows educated a generation of Americans about French cuisine.

“One of the wonderful things Ken did was arrange for Julia Child to come teach a cooking class on fish to the NFI Future Leaders group that was meeting in Boston”, said Sackton.  “Ken arranged the whole thing at the BU Culinary School.  It was a wonderful evening for the 20 NFI Future Leaders who cooked an entire seafood meal in a commercial kitchen with such a famous culinary star.”

Ken always kept an eye on menu trends especially as they related to seafood, and enjoyed writing about chefs and culinary tastes.

After Ken retired, he joined SeafoodNews as an Associate Editor.  Sackton said “it was truly a gift that in the last 13 years Ken was able to contribute to SeafoodNews.  His broad experience, commitment to the industry, and wide range of seafood interests was a perfect fit.   When we first started, it was just Ken and myself doing all the writing and editing,” said Sackton.

Moving to Annapolis in 2004, Ken and his wife Deborah enjoyed a decade of cruising Chesapeake Bay aboard their aptly named Bristol 29.9 Loligo.

Ken was also thrilled when one of his sons, Chris, became the US Senator from Delaware.  As a professional journalist, Ken joined the National Press Club in Washington DC, and served on one of their scholarship committees.  Ken was always a supporter of younger journalists, and took an especially helpful role with new hires for SeafoodNews.  He maintained an active interest in international affairs and domestic politics as well as the food world.  He introduced all of his grandchildren to his love of seafood and sailing.

Ken was born July 5, 1931, in Cambridge, MA, the son of the late Quentin L. and Persis (Wallace) Coons. In addition to his wife Deborah, Ken leaves three sons, Thomas W. Coons (Jeanne) of Newark, DE, Sen. Christopher A. Coons (Annie) of Wilmington, DE, and Stephen K. Coons of Annapolis, MD; daughter, Lisa Griffith-Fintl (Helmuth) of Oestrich-Winkel, Germany; two stepdaughters, Blair B. Slaughter (David) of Cockeysville, MD, and Barrie B. Jansen (Thomas) of Moncton, N.B., Canada; brother, William W. Coons, of Newburyport, MA, and nephew, Jeffrey (Mary) Coons, of Smyrna, GA, and nine very special grandchildren.

Interment at Mt. Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, MA, will be private.

In lieu of flowers, those wishing to honor Ken’s memory may contribute to the Kenelm W. Coons Marine Affairs Scholarship at the University of Rhode Island. Donations may be mailed to URI Foundation, PO Box 1700, Kingston, RI 02881  (checks payable to URI Foundation, with scholarship name in memo line), or donations may be made online.

Notes to the family may also be left at legacy.com.

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

How a national craze caused lobster prices to boil over

October 26th, 2016 — Your next fresh lobster dinner, drizzled in butter and lemon, might crack your budget.

Restaurants are having to fork over more money this year to get their hands on prized Maine lobsters, and that means your dinner bill could soar to $60 a plate. Blame robust demand.

The coast-to-coast craze of lobster roll food trucks has made lobster more affordable, and abroad the appetite for the crustaceans is growing as well, experts say.

“The demand for this product now is really unprecedented,” said Annie Tselikis, marketing director for Maine Coast Co., a live lobster wholesaler based in York, Maine. She spoke Monday just before boarding a flight for a seafood trade show in South Korea, a major customer of North American lobsters along with China and others.

Live lobster prices on a wholesale basis reached $8.50 for a 1.25-pound hard-shell lobster in August, the highest level in a decade, according to Urner Barry, a leading seafood price tracker and a partner in Seafood News.

You’d have to go back to 2008 for the last time lobsters were even above $5 for this time of year, said John Sackton, editor and publisher of Seafood News. Since that time they’ve fluctuated between $3.90 and $4.85 until this year when they’re up again over $7.

“Lobster demand usually follows the stock market and general economy,” said Bob Bayer, director of the Lobster Institute at the University of Maine. “When the economy is good, lobster demand is good.”

Read the full story at CNBC

JOHN SACKTON: If it is Unethical in Thailand, It is Unethical in Hawaii Also

September 8, 2016 — SEAFOOD NEWS — Charlie Nagle said it best:  We “do not and will never knowingly source from vessels that mistreat their crew.” The Nagle family has been in the fish business on the Boston Fish Pier for 130 years.

The AP report on the imprisonment of foreign fishermen on Hawaiian vessels is a wake-up call.  No seafood buyer will tolerate abusive conditions for fishermen, whether the result of a legal loophole or not.

The US has been highly critical of Thailand, where abusive labor practices and human trafficking in the seafood industry earned worldwide condemnation and resulted in changes in laws and in close audits of the supply chain.

In New Zealand, documentation of abusive labor practices on offshore vessels led to changes in the law and requirements that crews on these boats be free from unfair labor contracts, be paid according to New Zealand laws, and through New Zealand bank accounts out of reach of the labor brokers who hired them.

Can we expect anything less in Hawaii?

The fishermen in question are hired overseas, brought to Hawaii by boat never having set foot in the US, and then kept onboard for months without any possibility of coming ashore while their vessels dock in Hawaii and California.  They are paid as little as $0.70 per hour.

The AP report says that “under the law, U.S. citizens must make up 75 percent of the crew on most American commercial fishing boats. But influential lawmakers, including the late Hawaii Sen. Daniel Inouye, pushed for a loophole to support one of the state’s biggest industries. It exempted Hawaiian commercial fishing boat owners from federal rules enforced almost everywhere else.

Thus the workers in Hawaii, who catch $110 million worth of seafood annually, are paid as little as 70 cents an hour. They are detained on boats by captains who are required by law to hold their passports. That potentially goes against federal human trafficking laws saying bosses who hold workers’ identification documents can face up to five years in prison.”

The Hawaiian tuna and mahi fleet has no excuse.  They can either find fishermen and pay them a US wage, or stop selling to most US markets.

It is simply not acceptable for buyers to express huge concern about fishery labor abuses in Thailand, and ignore those that legally take place in Hawaii.

The fact that these workers can’t come ashore due to lack of visas doesn’t excuse the practice of holding these men on vessels who have no opportunity to leave, nor any opportunity to change their work situation or demand higher pay.  All the condemnation of labor agents and traffickers that supply labor to Thai fishing boats applies to these vessels in Hawaii also.

Undoubtedly the AP story will lead to a change in laws.  But the seafood industry, including the Hawaii longline fleet, cannot wait until then.  They must reform this practice immediately, or shut down.  There is no middle ground.

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

Catch Share Programs Under Fire On Both Coasts

March 23, 2016 — This week, catch share management has come under fire on both the East and West Coasts, as articles in the New Bedford Standard-Times and Seafood News criticize key facets of regional catch share programs.

In New England, Massachusetts State Rep. Bill Straus writes about the side-effects of implementing catch shares in the New England groundfish fishery, calling the subsequent fleet consolidation “a government-created near monopoly.”

In Sacramento, Seafood News details how low quotas for critical “choke species” are preventing some boats from fishing for the entirety of 2016.

For nearly a decade, the Environmental Defense Fund’s ocean policy has been “to ensure that the world’s fisheries are restored back to health through the advancement and implementation of a transformational fisheries management approach known as catch shares.” In May 2009, while serving as Administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Dr. Jane Lubchenco, the vice-chair of EDF’s board of trustees, enacted a national policy encouraging the consideration and use of catch shares.  Regarding its trustees, EDF notes on its website that “Fortune magazine called them one the most influential boards in the country.”

Excerpts from the two articles are provided below:

State Rep. Bill Straus: Impact of the Federal Fisheries Arrests in New Bedford

No one who supported the catch shares idea in 2009 can honestly say this concentration and its results are a surprise. The statements challenging this bad idea back then came locally from Dr. Brian Rothschild at UMass Dartmouth and many others; I added a cautionary word as well on the pages of this newspaper on June 24, 2009. It is frankly depressing to re-read this portion of what I said then about the coming catch shares program:

“Amendment 16 will send many fishermen and smaller ports to the sidelines; in other words, they will lose their jobs. There will be winners and losers, and the advocates of Amendment 16 have done little or nothing to point out that the system that is chosen for allocating catch shares will determine who will thrive in the new world of federal regulation and who will be abandoned.

“Amendment 16 will result in a concentration within the fleets of all ports; to think otherwise would be naive.”

In the coming weeks and months, more information on the way the industry runs will no doubt come to light and whether, as I believe, the catch shares system played a role in allowing the port economy to shift as it has. A discussion needs to start and soon for two reasons. First, the federal government at some point will no doubt have to consider whether serious permit holder violations have occurred such that revocation and some new system of permit availability for groundfish participants should be created. That is a major question, and it’s never too soon to get going on whether catch shares’ day (if there ever should have been one) has come and gone.

West Coast Catch Share Program Failure Keeps Vessel Off Fishing Grounds For 2016

Criticism that the West Coast catch shares program is underperforming came to the forefront recently at the Pacific Fishery Management Council meeting in Sacramento.

West Coast trawlers have been operating in fear of a “disaster tow” or “lightning strike” of a choke species since the beginning of the individual quota program in 2011. And for the F/V Seeker, a disaster tow of 47,000 pounds of canary rockfish – a species at the time listed as overfished — in November 2015 will prevent it from fishing for all of 2016.

The Seeker’s misfortune is an extreme example of the program’s failure, particularly for those fishing in the non-whiting sector.

Jeff Lackey, who manages the vessel, testified to the PFMC the vessel is in a bind and already has made plans to fish in Alaska for most of 2016 and return to fishing off the West Coast in 2017. The Seeker fishes in both the non-whiting shoreside sector and in the whiting mothership sector.

The Seeker is a victim of several features of the current regulatory system in the West Coast individual quota program.

First, current vessel limits prohibit the Seeker from acquiring enough quota to solve its deficit.

Second, canary rockfish was listed as overfished for more than a decade but an assessment accepted by the council in 2015 shows canary rockfish has been rebuilt.

And third, the PFMC’s management process operates on a two-year cycle, with no way to change annual catch limits (ACLs) mid-cycle.

“[The F/V Seeker] is not the only one,” Pete Leipzig, director of the Fishermen’s Marketing Association, told the Council. Other trawlers have come up against vessel limits for other species that have prevented them from fishing for some time, but none have been confronted with the extremity of the Seeker’s situation.

The vessel limits were designed to prevent consolidation of the fleet. Bycatch of choke species have prevented many vessels from capturing target fish. Fear of a disaster tow — one so extreme that a quota pound deficit cannot be covered in the existing fishing year — has limited trading of quota as fishermen hoard these species to cover their fishing operations for the year.

The Seeker is a member of the Newport, OR based Midwater Trawlers Cooperative. The organization proposed a solution to the Seeker’s problem: use an alternative compliance option that was eliminated during the development of the catch shares program. It would have been available for overly restrictive events, such as the Seeker’s, but still hold fishermen accountable. The council opted not to move forward with examining that option at this time.

This is the new reality of the West Coast individual quota program: rebuilding species will be encountered more frequently and fishermen could be held to conservative annual catch limits for a year or more if they experience an infrequent disaster tow and have insufficient quota to cover their deficit.

“As the regulations are currently written, any vessel that experiences the same situation would likely have to sit out of the shoreside trawl program for several years … This seems overly punitive and raises equity concerns,” Heather Mann, executive director of the MTC, wrote in a public comment letter to the council.

Maine May Adjust In-Season Fishing Days for Elvers

SEAFOODNEWS.COM (AP) — January 27, 2016 — Maine fishing regulators are considering changes to the rules governing fishing for baby eels.

Maine’s the only state in the country with a significant fishery for baby eels, called elvers. The elvers are sold to Asian aquaculture companies that raise them and use them as food, including sushi. Maine’s elvers were worth about $875 per pound in 2014, when fishermen caught a little less than 10,000 pounds.

The state Legislature’s marine resources committee is considering changes in the designation of the closed period for elver fishing. It is currently illegal to fish for elvers from noon Friday to noon Sunday during fishing season. A bill would change the closed period to a weekly 48-hour timeframe established before the start of the season.

The committee will consider the bill on Wednesday.

This story from the Associated Press appeared on SeafoodNews.com, a subscription site. It has been reprinted with permission.

Vietnam Shrimp Farmers Suffer from Uncontrolled Expansion, Gov’t Vows Enforcement on Antibiotics

SEAFOODNEWS.COM [ Vietnam News Brief Service] January 5, 2016 — Authorities in the Mekong Delta, the biggest aquatic pond in Vietnam, are striving to tighten control over local shrimp farming toward sustainable way amid rising concerns on antibiotics contamination, disease outbreak and polluted environment.

Tran Quoc Tuan, director of the Industry and Trade Department of Tra Vinh province, said he supported efforts to tighten the management of antibiotic use in shrimp farming and boost dissemination of information to farmers and processing companies.

He said state management agencies still have to make farmers aware of the risks, and companies must change their way of doing business by co-operating with farmers to build clean material areas. In doing so, the seed, farming methods, feeding and medicines will be strictly controlled in order to produce quality products, he said.

Profitable shrimp farming produced a rapid transformation in the quality of life for Vietnamese people in the Mekong Delta region, but the unplanned expansion in production has also had negative effects on the environment and domestic shrimp trade.

Due to its favorable natural conditions, farmers in coastal communes of many Vietnamese southern provinces started to switch from rice cultivation to shrimp farming 15 years ago. The rapid success and high income that the industry ushered in pushed many local people to invest in this sector.

Due to attractive profits, farmers in other areas of unfavorable natural conditions also did whatever it took to raise shrimp. Farmers spontaneously drilled wells to bring in salt water and made ponds to raise shrimp.

The rapid growth of shrimp farming and poor infrastructure has led to disease outbreaks, massive shrimp death and huge losses for farmers in many places.

Many farmers in Ben Tre, Bac Lieu, Kien Giang and Tra Vinh have been forced to give up shrimp farming as shrimp disease broke out.

Meanwhile, a large volume of Vietnamese seafood, including shrimp, has been rejected by importing countries. According to statistics of relevant agencies, in the last two years, 32,000 tons of Vietnamese seafood, mainly shrimp were not allowed to enter foreign markets because of antibiotic contamination.

In the first nine months of 2015, 38 foreign countries returned 582 batches of seafood products to Vietnamese providers for the same reason, stating that they would tighten the inspection of shrimp shipments from Vietnam.

There are various types of antibiotics displayed for sale, but farmers are mostly unaware of their toxicological effects. On the other hand, processing factories keep buying shrimp without proper inspection, so farmers become negligent in utilizing antibiotics.

This opinion piece originally appeared on SeafoodNews.com, a subscription site. It has been reprinted with permission.

Oregon and Washington to Commence Dungeness Fishing January 4; No Word on California Yet

SEAFOODNEWS.COM by Susan Chambers — December 22, 2015 — After a month-long delay, Oregon and Washington fishermen will be able to start harvesting Dungeness crab in January. Crabbers will be able to set their gear on Jan. 1 and start delivering crab to processors on Jan. 4.

Domoic acid testing in early December in southern Oregon showed levels that were safe but trending upward so managers – with industry input – decided to delay the whole Oregon coast and southern Washington coast fishery.

Testing now shows the toxin trend is going down in not only crab but also in other fish and shellfish in both Oregon and Washington.

California crabbers, though, will remain tied to the dock for some time yet. Testing in California tends to be more sporadic and unscheduled. There is no clear date when the central California season or northern California season will open.

Some advisers on Oregon industry call with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife Monday recommended Oregon open before Washington, even if by a few days. But the majority recommended opening at the same time. Earlier in the month, Washington delayed its season in cooperation with Oregon, they said. Others reasoned that if both states opened concurrently, it might provide consumers with added confidence that Dungeness crab are toxin-free.

“Along with the state agencies, the Oregon commercial Dungeness crab industry has taken a very proactive and precautionary approach to the opening of this crab season in the interest of public safety,” ODFW Marine Resources Program Manager Caren Braby said.

Washington’s commercial fishery opening includes the waters from the mouth of the Columbia River north to Destruction Island as well as Grays Harbor and Willapa Bay. Crabbers can set their pots in this area on Jan. 1. The area north of Destruction Island will open later in coordination with tribal co-managers.

As the season gets underway, state agencies will continue to monitor marine biotoxins in shellfish to ensure the concentrations remain below the alert level to ensure the consumer safety.

State-supervised price negotiations between fishermen and processors are set for Dec. 22 and possibly Dec. 23 as well.

Some processors said after the industry conference call that they likely would eviscerate and section most of the crab coming in during the first part of the season and shift to whole-cooked crab later.

A few fishermen were concerned no live buyers were on the Oregon call to add perspective about the live market and what would happen if further testing shows an increase in domoic acid after the season starts.

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

International Study Finds Indian Ocean Warming Reducing Fish Catch

SEAFOODNEWS.COM [First Post] By Dinesh C Sharma — December 22, 2015 — Even as the world tries to make sense of decisions taken at the recent climate change conference in Paris, scientists have come up with fresh evidence of how global warming is beginning to nibble the food chain right in India’s neighbourhood – the Indian Ocean.

Oceans play a critical role in both short and long term weather and climatic patterns. Nearly 90 percent of extra heat generated due to emission of greenhouse gases from the landmass is absorbed by oceans, warming them up. Indian Ocean, considered one of the most productive seas, has seen warming greater than other oceans. The warming in Indian Ocean during the past century has been estimated up to 1.2 degree C, which is very large compared to a global surface warming of up to 0.8 degree C during the same period.

Now an international study led by scientists from Pune-based Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM) has shown that the warming of Indian Ocean is affecting productivity of its marine eco system. Simply put, the food web necessary for fish production in the seas is getting affected due to the warming. This, in turn, is resulting in dwindling fish catch rates in the Indian Ocean.

The decline in phytoplankton- microscopic plants that are part of the aquatic food web – is significant. Phytoplankton contains chlorophyll and provides food for a range of sea creatures including fish. The rapid warming in the Indian Ocean has played an important role in reducing the phytoplankton up to 20 percent during the past six decades, the study has reported.

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

Aramark To Source All Canned Tuna From MSC Certified Sources By April 2016

SEAFOODNEWS.COM [SeafoodNews] — October 16, 2015 — Major foodservice distributor Aramark plans to source all of its canned skipjack and albacore tuna products certified by the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) by April 2016.

The $15 billion global supplier of food, facilities management, and uniforms, developed the plan in consultations with the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch program and the MSC. When the transition is complete in April 2016, Aramark will have converted an estimated 2.5 million pounds of tuna to sustainably sourced product.

“The Marine Stewardship Council congratulates Aramark on its commitment to source from MSC certified tuna fisheries. In making certified sustainable seafood available to its customers, Aramark is helping to raise consumer awareness about the importance of ensuring wild fish supplies for generations to come,” said Brian Perkins, MSC Regional Director, Americas.

All contracted canned tuna products Aramark purchases in the U.S. will meet green “Best Choice” or yellow “Good Alternative” by Seafood Watch recommendations: all skipjack canned tuna products will come from Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certified fisheries; and all albacore canned tuna products will be pole-and-line caught or from MSC certified fisheries, whenever available.

“Aramark is committed to providing our consumers with safe, high-quality, nutritious food that is sourced responsibly,” said Scott Barnhart, Senior Vice President, Global Supply Chain and Procurement, Aramark. “By transitioning to 100% sustainable canned tuna, we are strengthening our responsible sourcing practices, while delivering on our mission to enrich and nourish lives.”

This transition is the next significant step in Aramark’s sustainable seafood commitment. The company has already transitioned half of its total seafood purchases to sustainable sources. As of October 2014, 99% of frozen fin fish purchases met the Seafood Watch® “Best Choice” and “Good Alternative” recommendations.

“Aramark’s commitment is helping to transform the marketplace,” said Jennifer Dianto Kemmerly, Director of Seafood Watch®. “By creating more demand for seafood from ocean-friendly sources that protect sea life and habitats.”

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

JOHN SACKTON: WWF Attacks GSSI, Declares FAO Not an Acceptable Guide to Sustainability

SEAFOODNEWS.COM [The Editor’s View] by John Sackton — October 15, 2015 — In a stunning display of arrogance and hubris, WWF which served on the Board of GSSI, (Global Seafood Sustainability Initiative) has come out with guns blazing against the GSSI benchmarking tool. WWF claims that certification schemes that meet the GSSI benchmark ‘do not indicate sustainability certification.’ (link)

This stance of WWF, designed entirely to protect their investment in their own model programs, namely the Marine Stewardship Council and the Aquaculture Stewardship Council, spits in the face of the FAO Seafood Sustainability documents, which were recently called the most significant multilateral agreements to advance sustainability undertaken by the entire FAO organization.

The FAO Code of Conduct and Ecolabel Guidelines are best practice documents ratified by more than 170 governments, which constitute a legal basis for these governments to set laws and policy that results in long term fisheries sustainability.

At the recent 20th anniversary celebrations of this achievement in Vigo, Spain, FAO personnel showed how this set of documents and practices has essentially stopped the downward slide of fisheries that reached a crisis point in the 1990’s.

Indeed, when compared to other global problems from deforestation, falling biodiversity and extinction, and global warming, the FAO Responsible Fishing documents stand out as having had a profound impact on national laws and legislation that put science first, end overfishing in some areas, and above all begin to reverse the fisheries crisis that became acute in the 1990’s.

Now the WWF seeks to undermine that progress, by frightening retailers and seeking to perpetuate the global consumer confusion over what constitutes a sustainable fishery.

The WWF says “These ‘essential components’ designated by GSSI, can be used to evaluate whether certification schemes are consistent with the FAO CCRF and Guidelines, but not whether they certify sustainable fisheries or farms .”

Instead, the WWF wants the global retail community to adopt the WWF version of sustainability, which they themselves have said can only apply to the top 20% of a given sector.

The reason is that the WWF is not interested in a measure of sustainability, but rather in instituting a system of continuous improvement where the WWF and its allies determine what improvements are needed.

This is the exact opposite of the continuous improvement process of the Codex Alimentarius (Latin for “Book of Food”), which is the collection of internationally recognized standards, codes of practice, guidelines and other recommendations relating to foods, food production and food safety. When people’s lives, health, and economic well being are at stake, continuous improvement is done through a rigorous process of scientific review and consensus adoption.  This is the same process used to improve and extend the FAO code of conduct.  But the WWF rejects this approach and instead claims only the WWF and its allies can design a continuously improving sustainability process.

For example, in their statement today they say “the GSSI essential components are not a sustainability benchmark and, as such, do not reflect best practice.”  Companies wanting to source sustainable seafood will need to consider additional criteria, including but not limited to the GSSI “supplementary” criteria. ”

WWF then goes on to suggest that “The GSSI tool does not consider social issues impacting the sustainability of fishing operations. ”

The reason the GSSI does not reflect social issues is because the tool began with an environmental and marine conservation mandate. The best practices to achieve sustainability under that mandate were negotiated and accepted as a legal document by more than 170 governments.

As social issues have become more prominent in the seafood sector, the agricultural sector, and the migrant labor sector, new norms of responsible social behavior are emerging within many appropriate UN international bodies, including the International Labor Organization. As these practices become codified, it may be possible for even the GSSI to adopt a Social Chapter, but for the WWF to criticize them for not having this is simply to try and undermine their strengths so as to maintain WWF’s position as arbiter of global marine and aquaculture sustainability.

At the heart of the dispute within the GSSI board has been the issue of whether the GSSI benchmark is a “pass/fail” benchmark, that provides a minimum credible standard meeting all the scientific and operational requirements for seafood and aquaculture sustainability, or whether GSSI simply becomes a ranking scheme where some participants, like MSC, are awarded A+, while other participants, like Viet Gap, are awarded a D-.

The NGO’s wanted the ranking scheme because they were unalterably opposed to a fundamental aspect of the FAO Mission: not allowing certification schemes to be used as trade barriers to prevent the international marketing of seafood from less developed countries.

A year ago, FAO informed the GSSI board that such ranking schemes were not compatible with the FAO documents on which seafood certifications were based. They said that if the NGOs on the GSSI Board insisted on such a ranking scheme, FAO would withdraw its support from GSSI.

Since every certification scheme on the planet, including the MSC and the ASC, claim they are founded based on the FAO fishing and ecolabeling principles, such a withdrawal would have exposed the NGO scheme for what it was: a power grab to prevent competition, especially to prevent government sanctioned schemes from becoming acceptable in the marketplace.

The GSSI board sided firmly with the FAO, and agreed that the every certification scheme that met the GSSI essential components would be certified as credibly meeting the FAO guidelines.

They retained the optional elements to allow various schemes to demonstrate particular skills or interests in different areas – but not to claim that only those areas represented the true measure of sustainability.

WWF is a major partner with a number of retailers and foodservice companies who are 100% committed to GSSI. In this case, their partners will have to tell them that the long term project of global seafood sustainability is more important than protecting the WWF’s own certification schemes.

Every major buyer has their own specifications.  In some cases it might be that suppliers adhere to a carbon budget, in others it might be a minimum wage, or contract transparancy.  Not every purchase specification has to be bound into a definition of “sustainability.”  When WWF argues that this is the only option, they are simply trying to assert a monopoly claim that only WWF sanctioned schemes are ‘sustainable.’

“WWF is concerned that the GSSI tool will lead to further confusion in the marketplace and sustainable sourcing claims that aren’t credible, ” said Richard Holland, Director, WWF Market Transformation Initiative. “We hope that GSSI will continue to strive to provide clarity to its supporters by ensuring that claims of meeting GSSI components reflect meeting the CCRF and FAO Guidelines, not certification of sustainable seafood, that the assessment guidance is clear and applied consistently, and that assessments are completed accurately by independent experts. ”

What Holland failed to understand is that the GSSI tool as released is incredibly strict and robust, and that it represents a real accomplishment for a certification scheme to meet its requirements.

But more importantly, WWF and Holland failed to see how valuable the GSSI is as a roadmap.

If a country like Vietnam or Indonesia wants to design laws, practices and enforcement mechanisms that can be certified by a third party as meeting the GSSI criteria, they need a road map. They need to know where to improve, where to put their resources, where to invest.

The WWF wants to overthrow all of that, and replace it with the slogan “Ask the WWF.” This is simply not a valid option for the 170+ countries that have committed to the FAO code.

The fact that WWF would fail to grasp how significant the GSSI is in advancing global seafood sustainability, and would in fact publicly try to undermine it by pissing on it to their retail and foodservice partners, is the ultimate act of selfish corruption.

In this case, WWF is stating its own institutional pride and power is more important than one of the greatest advances in global seafood sustainability in a generation.

This opinion piece originally appeared on SeafoodNews.com, a subscription site. It has been reprinted with permission.

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