Saving Seafood

First US Live Lobster Traceability Program Launches at Whole Foods Market’s Portland, Maine Location and Adds Three New Members

March 5, 2016 — The following was released by Market Wired:

Trace My Lobster (http://tracemylobster.com), the first and only U.S. company to build a technology platform to trace a live lobster from its origins in the ocean to its destination on your plate, has added three new members to its growing list of participants: Maine Coast, Maine Fresh, and Calendar Islands. Over 60 lobstermen, three lobster wharves, three lobster dealers, and one national grocery chain now participate in the program that utilizes internet and smartphone technology to improve seafood traceability in the lobster fishery.

Since the program was launched at the Portland, Maine Whole Foods Market location two years ago, Trace My Lobster has been using uniquely coded tags, attached to every lobster caught by a participating lobsterman, to record when and where the lobster was caught, as well as the lobsterman who caught it. By entering the tag’s code online or using a smartphone app, consumers can follow the timeline of an individual lobster’s journey through the supply chain, verifying its source, freshness and story behind the lobsterman who caught it.

“As a leader in seafood sustainability and traceability initiatives, Whole Foods Market is pleased that our Portland, Maine location is the first grocery store in the U.S. to offer live lobster traceability from the lobster trap to the table using Trace My Lobster,” said Matt Mello, the North Atlantic Seafood Coordinator for Whole Foods Market. “Trace My Lobster is a meaningful way to showcase some of Maine’s hardest working lobstermen while providing full transparency to our customers.”

Trace My Lobster presents a new way for the lobster industry to meet the growing demand for seafood that is sustainably sourced, responsibly harvested, and reliably traced. In connecting lobstermen with retailers, the program provides participating grocery stores and restaurants the opportunity to distinguish themselves from their competitors by offering consumers complete transparency and fully traceable seafood. “The technology still relies on the traditional, and very important, supply chain between harvesters, wharfs dealers and distributors to bring the tagged lobster to market” stated Craig Rief, Founder of Trace My Lobster.

“Trace My Lobster is a unique and innovative program that allows us to convey the story behind the important connection we have with lobstermen and the high quality lobster our company is able to provide to our domestic and international customers,” said Tom Adams, CEO of Maine Coast, one of the newest participants in Trace My Lobster.

Trace My Lobster was developed in 2014 as a collaboration between Craig Rief and Jonathan Caron. Craig has over 10 years of experience in the lobster industry and currently serves as the President of the Maine Certified Sustainable Lobster Association, which represents some of the largest lobster companies in the U.S. and Canada. Jonathan has over 20 years of experience in technology and intellectual property through his previous employment at Vivendi Universal.

Joining Trace My Lobster is fast and easy for retailers. Grocery stores and restaurants can use their existing suppliers or Trace My Lobster can provide access to a list of participating suppliers. The same holds true for harvesters, wharfs and dealers that want to join.

“As an industry we have such a powerful story to tell, and believe that the Trace My Lobster program is a valuable and exciting innovation to help connect consumers with our narrative.” said Matt Jacobson, Executive Director of the Maine Lobster Marketing Collaborative. “Our mission is to encourage both chefs and consumers to make it Maine when choosing what product to consume, and with this program we can deliver the rich stories of our lobstermen who are committed to sustainably harvesting the best lobster on earth.”

About Trace My Lobster (http://tracemylobster.com)

Trace My Lobster enables consumers to follow the journey of their live lobster from trap to table. Trace My Lobster visualizes a lobster’s true supply chain, connecting harvesters and consumers to a deeper understanding of the impact of lobster life-cycle from the ocean to the retailer. Trace My Lobster provides a comprehensive approach to supply chain transparency – a leading approach to traceable lobster and seafood traceability.

About Maine Coast (http://mainecoastcompany.com)

Maine Coast is a worldwide distributor of the finest North Atlantic seafood, specializing in shipping Maine and Canadian lobsters to both domestic and overseas locations. Maine Coast has more than 30 years of experience in the global seafood industry.

About Maine Fresh (http://maine-fresh.com)

Maine Fresh operates a lobster wharf in Harpswell, Maine and employs an innovative business model that uses natural foods from Maine and responsibly harvested seafood to produce value-added, healthy, good tasting foods in an effort to distribute a portion of its sale proceeds back to the community. Maine Fresh donates 10 percent of its online sales back to the community to support educational initiatives creating social change through transformative educational opportunities at the local and global levels.

About Calendar Islands (http://calendarislandsmainelobster.com)

Founded in 2009 Calendar Islands Maine Lobster Company is owned by 38 hard-working Maine lobstermen creating a true marriage of culinary distinction to the Maine Lobster fishery. With a goal making lobster available year-round, Calendar Islands is an industry leader in quality, value and new culinary concepts. No longer just a seasonal product, Calendar Islands value added Maine Lobster provides consumers an exciting variety of fresh and frozen products to energize and motivate the customer base. Calendar Islands supports the local community’s maritime heritage, respects the environment and its inherent link to the natural world.

About Whole Foods Market ® (http://wholefoodsmarket.com)

Founded in 1980 in Austin, Texas, Whole Foods Market (wholefoodsmarket.com) (NASDAQ: WFM), is the leading natural and organic food retailer. As America’s first national certified organic grocer, Whole Foods Market was named “America’s Healthiest Grocery Store” byHealth magazine. The company’s motto, “Whole Foods, Whole People, Whole Planet”™ captures its mission to ensure customer satisfaction and health, Team Member excellence and happiness, enhanced shareholder value, community support and environmental improvement. Thanks to the company’s more than 88,000 team members, Whole Foods Market has been ranked as one of the “100 Best Companies to Work For” in America byFORTUNE magazine for 18 consecutive years. In fiscal year 2014, the company had sales of more than $14 billion and currently has more than 430 stores in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. For more company news and information, please visit media.wfm.com.

About the Maine Lobster Marketing Collaborative (http://www.lobsterfrommaine.com/)

The Maine Lobster Marketing Collaborative (MLMC), founded in 2013, is funded by Maine Lobster harvesters, dealers and processors to grow demand, both for whole live lobster and a variety of value-added products. The MLMC supports that objective by promoting the core values of the Maine Lobster industry, which are sustainability and traceability that’s deeply rooted in tradition. Maine Lobster achieved the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certification in 2013, allowing Maine Lobster to certify its long-standing sustainable practices. The industry has been self-regulating for more than 150 years.

Trace Seafood, LLC, the parent company of Trace My Lobster (http://tracemylobster.com), will be at this year’s Seafood Expo North America, at Booth 178.

Read the release here

UN Agency Puts Fast-growing Fish Trade on the ‘Sustainability’ Menu

February 22, 2016 — Top fishery officials are gathering in Morocco this week to discuss sustainable trade practices in a $144 billion industry that provides developing countries with more export revenue than meat, tobacco, rice and sugar combined.

Lower-income nations’ exports of fish and fishery products reached $78 billion in 2014, more than triple the value of global rice exports, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

“Sustainably serving those lucrative markets is of critical importance to developing countries, where most fish are produced, whether caught in the wild or grown in cages or farm ponds,” the agency’s news release says.

The biennial high-level meeting of FAO’s Sub-Committee on Fish Trade, being held in Agadir through Friday, 26 February, has drawn delegations of fisheries ministries from more than 50 countries to discuss emerging governance needs of the fisheries sector.

“Trade in fish is much more important than people think, both in absolute and relative terms,” said Audun Lem, Deputy-Director in FAO’s Fisheries and Aquaculture Policy and Resources Division, who serves as Secretary of the meeting.

Dialogues will help FAO, its member countries and industry representatives understand new trends, opportunities and challenges in the fishing sector, fostering the development of strategies that can “best position developing countries to develop their fisheries sectors in a sustainable manner and to maximize their economic benefit from the growth we expect to witness,” Mr. Lem said. Traceability

Read the full story at Bloomberg Business

Imported Fish Must Bring Their Papers

February 15, 2016 — The Obama administration has proposed new rules that would require seafood importers to better record the who, what, when, where and how of the fish they bring into the country.

“Traceability is a key tool for combating illicit activities that threaten valuable natural resources, increase global food security risk and disadvantage law-abiding fishermen and seafood producers,” said Kathryn D. Sullivan, administrator for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The proposed rules would apply only to seafood at “high risk” for poaching and fraud, such as blue crab, red snapper and shrimp, but officials want eventually to expand them to all imported seafood.

The rules would mandate catch data along a chain of custody, from the point of harvest to entry into the United States. The idea is to eliminate the import of seafood poached from ocean reserves, and the substitution of different species for more expensive fish.

President Barack Obama directed his administration in June 2014 to develop solutions to fight illegal fishing and seafood fraud — challenges that exacerbate the problem of dwindling fish populations. A federal task force issued draft rules that December.

The final proposed rules fall short of “bait to plate” — tracing seafood all the way to the point of sale to the U.S. consumer — the approach favored by many local officials, conservationists and members of the industry to cut down on domestic repackaging fraud.

Read the full story at The Baltimore Sun

Proposed Rule – 1st Phase of a U.S. Seafood Traceability Program to Combat IUU Fishing Products & Seafood Fraud

February 9, 2016 — The following was released by NOAA

Today, NOAA Fisheries is publishing the proposed rule to establish the first phase of a seafood traceability program through the collection or retention of data regarding the harvest, landing, and chain of custody of certain fish and fish products imported into the United States that have been identified as particularly vulnerable to IUU fishing and seafood fraud. It is important to note that there will be no new reporting requirements for domestic landings of wild-caught seafood. Similar information for domestically harvested seafood is already reported under numerous state and federal regulatory requirements.

Establishing a traceability program is a key tool for ensuring these illicit activities are prevented from entering U.S. Commerce and helping combat them in the complex system of international seafood trade.

This proposed rule is designed to build on existing resources and processes—maximizing effectiveness and efficiency, while minimizing impacts on the fishing and seafood trade community. To achieve these objectives, NOAA Fisheries is encouraging detailed comments from the fishing and seafood industry, conservation community, and other interested stakeholders engaged with sustainable seafood. Additionally, we have scheduled two webinar conference calls in February and an in-person public meeting on March 7, at the Seafood Expo N. America in Boston to provide opportunities for anyone to ask questions.