Saving Seafood

GAA to Launch Advocate Website on Oct 1; Will Terminate Print Publication at Year’s End

SEAFOODNEWS.COM — September 16, 2015 — On October 1 the Global Aquaculture Alliance (GAA) will launch a revamped website for its longstanding bimonthly print publication The Advocate. 

The website advocate.gaalliance.org will feature a variety of production, supply and market-related news for the aquaculture industry. The GAA will also terminate the printed version of The Advocate with the November-December 2015 edition serving as the last magazine to be published. 

“The new Advocate website will blend the best of the 17-year-old bimonthly print publication with the timeliness, convenience and interactivity of a digital publication,” the GAA said in a press release.

Content will be updated weekly and accompanied by a weekly e-newsletter and a monthly, summary-style e-newsletter. The website will feature the production-centric content traditionally found in the print publication, in addition to supply- and market-related content. The site will also feature a variety of visuals — infographics, charts and graphs and videos — giving readers a more interactive experience.

Additionally, Advocate content will be categorized by theme, allowing readers to customize content by relevance. The seven categories are: animal health and welfare, environmental and social responsibility, feed sustainability, investment, marketplace, leadership and innovation, and consumer education.

Longtime Advocate Editor Dr. Darryl Jory will continue to regularly contribute to the publication as editor emeritus. James Wright, who was hired by GAA in early July, will oversee the day-to-day operation of the new Advocate website as editorial manager. The site — which is being developed by Visible Logic Inc. of Portland, Maine, USA, the same company that built the new GAA and Best Aquaculture Practices sites — is due to launch on Oct. 1.

The new Advocate website will be free to access, though readers will be limited to five articles per month; GAA membership will be required for unlimited access. Select articles will be translated from English to Spanish, Chinese and other languages. The transition from print to digital is in line with GAA’s mission of advocating, educating and demonstrating responsible aquaculture practices to feed and employ future generations.

The website arrives just in time for the GAA’s GOAL 2015 Conference in Vancouver, Canada. Over 400 aquaculture executives are expected to attend this year’s event, which will be held from October 25 – 30 at the Four Seasons in Vancouver. 

This story originally appeared on SEAFOODNEWS.COM, a subscription site. It is reprinted with permission.

 

JOHN SACKTON: Seafood Harvesters Call for President Obama to Back Magnuson Reauthorization During Alaskan Visit

SEAFOODNEWS.COM by John Sackton — September 2, 2015 — The Seafood Harvesters of America applauded President Barack Obama for meeting with Alaska’s commercial fishing industry this week and asked that President recognize the success of and support the reauthorization of Magnuson.

President Obama’s visit included a stop at the State Department’s GLACIER Conference held in Anchorage on August 30 and 31. He addressed the conference audience of about 400 global leaders with a warning about the critical effects climate change and warming waters poses to both the Alaskan and global environment and economy.

In his letter to the President, the Harvester’s Executive Director Brett Veerhusen asks the President to emphasize the decade of success the US fishing industry has enjoyed under Magnuson. He called for the President to endorse reauthorization of the law with just minor changes.

Veerhusen also asks the President to work with his Harvester group on science-backed initiatives that would limit commercial efforts in key waters.

Following is the full letter from the Harvesters:

August 31, 2015

The Honorable Barack Obama

President

The United States of America

1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW

Washington, DC 20006

Dear Mr. President,

The Seafood Harvesters of America (the Harvesters) represents 17 commercial fishing organizations from Alaska, to the Gulf of Mexico and New England.  As its Executive Director, a life-long Alaskan fisherman, Bristol Bay fisherman, and the son of a man who has fished for 45 years in Alaskan waters, I welcome you to this great state.

The Harvesters applauds you for choosing to sit down with real, everyday Alaskan commercial fishermen who nobly harvest an American public resource.  We urge you to take this opportunity to speak to the issues of importance that are essential to the livelihoods of commercial fishermen in Alaska and the nation.

We are writing to ask that you use your trip to Alaska, and your meeting with commercial fishermen in Bristol Bay, to send a strong message about how the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (MSA) is working for this nation.  Alaskans have demonstrated the audacity to succeed in the presence of all the uncertainties associated with climate change.  We do so as an industry shielded by a strong MSA, which guides a public, science-based decision-making process.

The Harvesters agree with your Administration that the MSA reauthorization needs minimal changes. While we are amenable to some minor changes, we are calling on lawmakers and your Administration to keep the MSA largely intact.  Mr. President, one of our biggest concerns is legislative attempts to allow individual states to takeover species management in federal waters, which would set a dangerous precedent that could unravel the responsible management of America’s fisheries.  Thank you for your tireless support of this time – and climate – tested document.  U.S. fishery management is a beacon of prosperity within global fisheries.

The global economic environment that our products compete in is now protected through the establishment your Task Force to combat illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing.  By importing seafood, the U.S. imports the ethics and ethos of the country of origin’s fishing practices.  As a world leader in sustainable fishery management, American consumers demand our imported seafood to be of the same ethics and ethos that American fishermen harvest.  We commend the Task Force for recognizing sustainable fisheries as an enormous benefit to ocean stakeholders.

Additionally, we ask that the Seafood Harvesters of America have a seat at the table in future discussions regarding marine monuments and protected areas.  It is critically important that these initiatives are locally driven and focus on best available science rather than politics.  We look forward to working with your Administration to ensure that we protect our delicate ocean resources and our American fishing economy into the future.

Millions of people – grocery patrons, restaurant owners, and consumers nationwide – rely on commercial fisheries to help get their dinner from ocean to plate.  In 2012 alone, Americans consumed 4.5 billion pounds of seafood, which added 1.3 million direct and indirect jobs to our nation’s economy.  Seafood Harvesters of America is the voice for our country’s 190-foot trawlers as well as the 30-foot hook and line fishermen and are working hard to ensure the food security of our great nation remains sustainable and thriving.

With the support of your Administration and policy makers in Washington D.C., salmon, crab, pollock and snapper – to name just a few – will remain part of a complete American dinner.

Sincerely,

Brett Veerhusen

Executive Director

Seafood Harvesters of America

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

NMFS Moves to Add Marine Mammal Rules Similar to Turtle Excluder Laws; May Ban Some Seafood Imports

SEAFOODNEWS.COM by John Sackton — August 11, 2015 — NOAA Fisheries has published a notice in the Federal Register today about rules for foreign seafood exporters regarding marine mammals.

Although there is a five year window for implementation, the new rules would require certification for any export fishery that interacts with marine mammals. Unless the foreign country had a program certified as effective by NMFS for reducing marine mammal bycatch mortality, exports from that fishery would be prohibited into the US.

The operation of the program appears similar to the Turtle Excluder Laws, which require tropical shrimp producing countries to certify the use of turtle excluders for wild shrimp, if they intend to export such shrimp to the US.

Over the years, exports have been suspended from some countries for failure to comply, with the most recent being Mexico whose wild shrimp exports were suspended for a year.

Fisheries that interact with marine mammals include yellowfin tuna in the Eastern Tropical Pacific, where dolphins are at risk, many longline fisheries that have marine mammal bycatch; large scale driftnet fisheries, and even potentially pot fisheries like lobster.

In the US, lobster gear has been modified to reduce whale interactions, and entanglement is recognized as the leading cause for marine mammal bycatch globally.

In order to export to the US, once the rule is fully in effect, a foreign country would have to meet the following qualifying conditions before a fishery that interacts with marine mammals could export to the US:

1. Marine mammal stock assessments that estimate population abundance for marine mammal stocks in waters under its jurisdiction that are incidentally killed or seriously injured in the export fishery;

2. An export fishery register containing a list of all vessels participating in an export fishery under the jurisdiction of the harvesting nation, including the number of vessels participating, information on gear type, target species, fishing season, and fishing area for each export fishery;

3. Regulatory requirements (e. g., including copies of relevant laws, decrees, and implementing regulations or measures) that include:

(a) A requirement for the owner or operator of vessels participating in the fishery to report all intentional and incidental mortality and injury of marine mammals in the course of commercial fishing operations; and

(b) A requirement to implement measures in export fisheries designed to reduce the total incidental mortality and serious injury of a marine mammal stock below the bycatch limit. Such measures may include: Bycatch reduction devices; incidental mortality and serious injury limits; careful release and safe-handling of marine mammals and gear removal; gear marking; bycatch avoidance gear (e. g., pingers) ; gear modifications or restrictions; or time- area closures.

4. Implementation of monitoring procedures in export fisheries designed to estimate incidental mortality and serious injury of marine mammals in each export fishery under its jurisdiction, as well as estimates of cumulative incidental mortality and serious injury for marine mammal stocks in waters under its jurisdiction that are incidentally killed or seriously injured in the export fishery and other export fisheries with the same marine mammal stock, including an indication of the statistical reliability of those estimates;

5. Calculation of bycatch limits for marine mammal stocks in waters under its jurisdiction that are incidentally killed or seriously injured in an export fishery;

6. Comparison of the incidental mortality and serious injury of each marine mammal stock or stocks that interact with the export fishery in relation to the bycatch limit for each stock; and comparison of the cumulative incidental mortality and serious injury of each marine mammal stock or stocks that interact with the export fishery and any other export fisheries of the harvesting nation showing that these export fisheries: (a) Does not exceed the bycatch limit for that stock or stocks; or

(b) Exceeds the bycatch limit for that stock or stocks, but the portion of incidental marine mammal mortality or serious injury for which the exporting fishery is responsible is at a level that, if the other export fisheries interacting with the same marine mammal stock or stocks were at the same level, would not result in cumulative incidental mortality and serious injury in excess of the bycatch limit for that stock or stocks.

The next step will be a formal comment period, after which NOAA will issue the final rule.

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

KEN COONS: Research Shows Path to a Sustainable Seafood Industry

SEAFOODNEWS.COM [SeafoodNews] (Opinion) By Ken Coons — August 6, 2015 — One of the striking things about fishery management here in the Atlantic Region is how often the academics, the regulators, and the fishing and seafood industry talk past each other.

The folks with scientific expertise often speak a language that’s difficult for the layman to understand. Regulators, for their part, are in a defensive crouch distracted by endless litigation and whipsawed by recreational and commercial fishing groups along with their elected state and Congressional representatives and often the media as well. The fishing and seafood industry, for its part, wants cost effective timely research results. Commercial and recreational groups are united in their call for “better science” to address regulatory restrictions.

Too often these three sectors – academics, regulators and the fishing and seafood industry – are classic examples of stovepipes, not collaboration.

It doesn’t have to be this way. In fact, a bold and expanding model of collaboration is happening right now. It is an industry-led collaborative research program that addresses urgent scientific problems. Specifically, the work is focused on reducing the uncertainties in fisheries assessments. The goal is to achieve both sustainable fisheries and a sustainable fishing and seafood industry.

This new program, the Science Center for Marine Fisheries (SCeMFiS), is one of the Industry/University Cooperative Research Centers (IUCRC) supported by the prestigious National Science Foundation. These partnerships are specifically designed by the NSF to promote cooperative research between the academic community and industry. (SCeMFiS is the only fisheries-oriented IUCRC.)

In addition to providing an important imprimatur of legitimacy onto the cooperative research work SCeMFiS is doing under an initial five-year program, NSF’s funding largely covers administrative costs so that industry investments in research flow directly through to actual work and results.

Research institutions that participate in SCeMFiS projects are restricted to a 10 percent indirect cost allowance factor which is way below common practice. The result is a very cost-effective research program for industry sponsors.

The industry sponsors provide critical financial support. All decisions about which research projects to pursue are guided by an Industry Advisory Board (IAB) comprised of industry partners with voting rights. The IAB functions like a Board of Directors. Membership is open to any company or group that is interested in improving science for fisheries management.

Full Partners have two votes on the Industry Advisory Board at an annual cost of $50,000; Associate Partners, at $25,000, have one IAB vote.

To date, the full industry partners on the IAB are the NFI Clam Committee along with the NFI Scientific Monitoring Committee and the NOAA Fisheries Northeast Fisheries Science Center.

Associate Partners are: Atlantic Capes Fisheries, Inc.; Garden State Seafood Association; LaMonica Fine Foods; Lunds Fisheries Inc.; Surfside Seafood Products.

The Advisory Board is fortunate to have the guidance of Russ Brown of the NOAA Fisheries Northeast Science Center in Woods Hole and John Boreman, SSC Chair of the Mid- Atlantic Fishery Management Council, to ensure, insofar as possible, that data developed by a given project will be used in future assessments (otherwise the project does not go forward).

The University of Southern Mississippi (USM) and the College of William and Mary Virginia Institute of Maine Science (VIMS) collaborated to form the Science Center with USM as the lead institution.

Eric Powell, PhD, is the Principal Investigator at USM and Roger Mann, PhD, is the Principal Investigator at VIMS. Dr. Powell was previously at
Rutgers and he and Dr. Mann had worked together with the surf clam/ocean quahog industry on urgent issues. It’s not surprising, therefore, that a good deal of the early research work of the Science Center for Marine Fisheries has focused on research important to the continued viability and employment capacity of the surf clam/ocean quahog industry.

For example, federal clam assessment has now moved to an industry vessel rather than a NOAA vessel. The clam dredges in commercial use are designed to allow juvenile clams to escape, so to conduct a proper resource assessment, a research dredge with a liner was developed to capture juvenile clams. A subsequent project developed an innovative research dredge with adjustable bars in order to capture juvenile clams. (The industry paid the $75K required to develop, fabricate and test this research dredge.)

To allow for accurate assessment despite broken shells a related VIMS project determined how the overall dimensions of an intact clam shell could be reliably inferred from a portion of the broken shell – this was possible since most shells break along the same lateral line.

The ocean quahog is believed to be the oldest living animal on earth. The resource is not classified as “overfished,” but an important project is underway to estimate age and frequency of recruitment. This project is also being used as a teaching tool to demonstrate effects of climate change.

Dr.Powell has also established an advisory team for marine mammal assessment which includes the University of Washington and two other
groups. Marine mammal interactions are a serious concern of fishery management in most coastal regions. There are currently uncertainties in marine mammal stock abundance and bycatch estimates that urgently need to be addressed.

The SCeMFiS is also working with a distinguished team of independent scientists who aren’t affiliated with either USM or VIMS to bring their expertise to bear on important assessment issues. They include Steven Cadrin, PhD, a former stock assessment scientist for 20 years with the Northeast Fisheries Science Center and currently at SMAST and Jean-Jacques Maguire, with a lifetime career in international fisheries management issues with DFO, ICES, ICCAT, and the SSC of the NEFMC. He is currently a consultant to a wide range of international clients.

At USM, and also part of the team, is Robert Leaf, PhD, with a background in modeling to achieve effective conservation and management of fisheries. His current work is on stock assessment of Gulf menhaden blue crab and Mississippi red drum.

From all of the above it is clear that this is a new day in fisheries management research. The research capabilities of the Science Center are already lined up and demonstrating results. Future work will be set by those who have invested in partnerships with the assurance that only work which is likely to be influential in regulatory decisions will be funded and go forward.

Now is the time for companies, associations and other entities to step up and fill out the industry leadership role.

By collaborating with others, partners gain access to work that would be cost prohibitive on an individual basis. Accurate resource assessments are vital to protecting access to fisheries while promoting sustainability. This cost effective industry-led collaborative research program, endorsed and supported by the National Science Foundation, is a unique opportunity for industry participation.

For more information go to: scemfis.org [2]

To join the Science Center for Marine Fisheries (SCeMFiS) contact:

Jeff Kaelin, SCeMFiS Chair at jkaelin@lundsfish.com

Guy Simmons, SCeMFiS Vice-Chair at guy@seaclam.com|

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

Public Comment Sought on EIS for New Gulf of Alaska Groundfish Bycatch Management Program

SEAFOODNEWS.COM By Peggy Parker — July 15, 2015 — In yesterday’s Federal Register, the National Marine Fisheries Service, in consultation with the North Pacific Fishery Management Council, announced their intent to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) on a new bycatch management program for trawl groundfish fisheries in the Gulf of Alaska.

The proposed action would create a new management program that would allocate allowable harvest to individuals, cooperatives, and other entities that participate in GOA trawl groundfish fisheries.

The program is intended to improve stock conservation by imposing accountability measures for taking target, incidental, and prohibited species catch, creating incentives to eliminate wasteful fishing practices, providing mechanisms for participants to control and reduce bycatch in the trawl groundfish fisheries, and to improve safety of life at sea and operational efficiencies.

The EIS will analyze the impacts to the human environment resulting from the proposed trawl bycatch management program.

NOAA Fisheries and the Council say an EIS may be required for this bycatch management program because some important aspects of the proposed action on species and their users may be uncertain or unknown. Thus, the agency and the Council are initiating scoping for an EIS in the event one is needed.

NOAA Fisheries and the Council want public comments to identify the issues of concern and help determine the appropriate range of management alternatives for the EIS. Comments should also focus on the environmental, social, and economic issues to be considered in the analysis.

NMFS will accept written comments through August 28, 2015.

You may submit comments electronically at www.regulations.gov/#!docketDetail;D=NOAA-NMFS-2014-0150 [2].

Or send written comments to Glenn Merrill, Assistant Regional Administrator, Sustainable Fisheries Division, Alaska Region NMFS, Attn: Ellen Sebastian. Mail comments to P.O. Box 21668, Juneau, AK 99802–1668.

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

Pew Wants Global Trade Ban on Pacific Bluefin After IATTC Fails to Agree on Conservation

SEAFOODNEWS.COM — July 6, 2015 — The Pew Charitable Trusts wants global fishery authorities to explore the possibility of banning the international trade for Pacific bluefin tuna after no additional conservation measures for the fishery were agreed to during the 89th meeting of the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission (IATTC) that took place between June 22 and July 3 in Guayaquil, Ecuador.

According to Pew the Pacific bluefin tuna population remains in a severely depleted state: It is overfished, and overfishing continues on a stock that is at 4 percent of its unfished levels. The Group has repeatedly called for IATTC to develop and mandate the use of a cost-effective tool to combat IUU fishing among member the countries. However, no progress was made on gaining consensus during the meeting.

“The failure the IATTC to agree to reduce catch limits or adopt a long-term rebuilding plan for Pacific bluefin tuna leaves the species at risk of population collapse,” said Amanda Nickson, director of global tuna conservation for The Pew Charitable Trusts. “It is high time to look at the prohibition of international trade through the Convention on International Trades in Endangered Species [CITES] as a means to protect this highly depleted species.”

There were a few regulatory measures agreed to during the meeting that Pew did support.

Mexico announced it will reduce its catch of Pacific bluefin by 250 metric tons next year, which would bring the overall harvest closer to scientifically recommended levels according to Pew. Other countries could also choose to act outside of the Commission process and implement additional conservation measures.

IATTC members reached consensus on a proposal to protect mobulid rays, which are vulnerable to overfishing. The measure prohibits the retention of rays caught incidentally – with exemptions for some artisanal vessels – and outlines a range of techniques that help fishers with live release.

“This is a good week for mobulid rays in the eastern Pacific,” Nickson said. “Overfishing is a major threat to the survival of these important populations and the measure that is now in place will increase the opportunity for rays to survive getting caught up in fishing gear.”

Meanwhile, IATTC members had been discussing proposals on a regional standard for port State measures since 2010 but have not reached an agreement. Port State measures are a highly efficient and cost-effective tool to ensure transparency in the sector and dis-incentivize illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing.

“Right now the government agency responsible at any given port has no international obligation to inspect a vessel known to have engaged in nefarious activities. This is a major loophole and it has been left wide open for too long. While individual nations can take action, only regional cooperation will bring about measurable change,” Nickson said.

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

Bristol Bay Sockeye Run Either Late or Over-estimated: Stay Tuned

SEAFOODNEWS.COM By Peggy Parker — July 6, 2015 — All eyes are on Bristol Bay today as fishermen and processors look for a surge in sockeye landings marking the peak of the run today or at the latest, tomorrow. That peak did not come on the traditional day of July 4.

Cumulative landings as of yesterday totaled 8.5 million fish, short by more than half for this time in a six-week season with a forecast of 37.6 million reds.

That means the run is either late, will come in this week in a compressed fashion, or was significantly over estimated. Over the weekend some processors said the travel time from Port Moller, which is still showing a strong return, is longer than anticipated and the bulk of the run may be as much as 4-5 days late.

If so, today and tomorrow’s landings will be critical indicators.

The implications of a drastically reduced run will have impacts throughout the world’s salmon markets, as Bristol Bay is the largest supplier of wild salmon in the world.

Dr. Scott Raborn of the Bristol Bay Science and Research Institute studies the Port Moller test fishery, used as a precursor to Bristol Bay return sizes and timing.

“The migration this year has been very odd,” Raborn reports. “By now, the run will have to be (1) several days late to come in at the pre-season forecast and/or (2) be very compressed.

“The first possibility would mean our estimates of travel times [from Port Moller to each Bristol Bay river system] are 3-4 days longer than we thought, and/or there is considerable strength left at Port Moller. The second could occur if fish are milling outside the districts causing a pooling effect. The rate of compression would be determined by how long it takes to “drain the pool”, which would be anyone’s guess,” Raborn says.

“However, at this point we must consider the possibility of a smaller run,” he adds.

Alaska’s Department of Fish and Game ordered openings in the three largest districts for this morning and afternoon.

The first began at 2 a.m. for Egigik setnetters, an eight-hour opening followed by a second eight-hour opening from 3:15 – 11:15 p.m. Gillnetters began fishing at 6 a.m. today, closing at 10 a.m. and opening again from 3:30 p.m. until 10:30 p.m. today.

Total harvest in Egigik has been 2.8 million fish with escapement at 834,000 sockeye, just above the lower forecasted range. Forecasted total harvest for that river system is 10.64 million sockeyes with 1.4 million escapement.

The second district to fish today is Ugashik, a 10-hour period from 12:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. Cumulative harvest is 930,000 fish in the Ugashik District with escapement at 250,000, just over 25% of expected escapement of 940,000. Forecasted harvest for Ugashik this year was 2.61 million sockeyes.

Finally, The Naknek-Kvichak District will open for a 4-hour period from 4 p.m. until 8 p.m.

Pre-season forecasts for the Naknek/Kvichak district was 18.03 million sockeyes with an escapement of 9.71 million. Cumulative totals as of July 4 are 1.94 million sockeye harvest and 1.28 million reds escapement.

ADF&G will make another announcement at noon Alaska time today regarding the Egegik and Ugashik districts, and a 3 p.m. announcement on the Naknek/Kvichak fishery.

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