Saving Seafood

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

 

Lund’s Fisheries Offering Fair Trade Certified Scallops

March 12, 2018 — SEAFOOD NEWS — Lund’s Fisheries has announced that they are now offering Fair Trade Certified scallops, a first in the United States for an Atlantic sea scallop fishery.

“Ethically and sustainably harvested seafood is increasingly demanded by consumers. It is the right thing for the environment and the right thing for people,” said Wayne Reichle, President of Lund’s Fisheries. “We are proud to sell a product that’s as good for our fishermen as it is for the consumer.”

Lund’s Fisheries received approval from an independent certification group to be able to sell their scallops using the Fair Trade label. The label was designed to show consumers that the product meets the highest standards for environmental sustainability, social responsibility and fair labor practices.

“We are excited to welcome Lund’s fisheries to the Fair Trade family of certified suppliers as they expand their commitment to sustainability by bringing the benefits of Fair Trade certification to the fishermen and processing workers who are an integral part of their success,” added Julie Kuchepatocv, Seafood Director at Fair Trade USA.

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

 

New Bedford’s seafood passion wows international buyers

March 12, 2018 –Fish buyers from around the world – 11 countries to be exact – congregated early Friday morning at the Wharfinger Building. While most partaking in the 14th annual fish buyer’s tour spoke English, an attribute of New Bedford communicated to all 30 people.

“They’re really passionate about their own businesses and what they sell to the people,” said Peter Lai, who traveled from Hong Kong to represent Sea and Earth Food Sources.

This year’s tour made stops at BASE New England Seafood Auction, Oceans Fleet, Northern Wind and Bergie’s Seafood.

Those on the tour also enjoyed a seafood lunch at the Waterfront Grille, which included a presentation from Kevin Stokesbury, a professor at UMass Dartmouth’s SMAST.

He offered a presentation that featured the latest research on trying to aid the groundfish fishery through the implementation of cameras.

It tied into what the buyers heard at nearly every stop on the trip regarding quotas, fishing seasons and regulations.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

 

New Bedford Auction Owners Sign with Legit Fish – A Traceability Company, To improve Transparancy

March 9, 2018 — SEAFOOD NEWS — Legit Fish, a provider of advanced seafood logistics and traceability technology, today announced a deal with BASE New England who operates the largest seafood auction in New England and is based in New Bedford and Gloucester MA.

Legit Fish Inc. developed and is implementing this first of its kind, end to end logistics and traceability solution with Atlantic Coast Seafood Inc. (Boston MA).

This innovative cloud-based software application provides the domestic seafood industry with operational efficiencies as well as new cutting-edge marketing tools, linking off-loading, government reporting, inventory management, sales, accounting and an industry leading traceability system. The traceability application utilizes a patient pending system which offers the retail trade an unmatched level of traceability based on verification against the official government harvest records.

On March 8th 2018, Legit Fish Inc. signed a contract to further develop this system with BASE New England. In addition to the software application developed in Boston, Legit Fish Inc. will be expanding this system by creating a custom Auction application which will offer a high level of versatility and functionality.

The application runs on the Microsoft Azure cloud computing platform. This technology solution provides auction participants with the ability to use their mobile devices to purchase seafood products on the Auction platform and allow vessels to transmit hail information direct into the software via a multi language voice response app.

These advancements for BASE New England will allow them to clearly monitor “on the water” hail information as well as product sales compared to dealer reported federal records.

These third-party compliance tools have positive implications for BASE New England and the port of New Bedford in their effort to reopen the New England Groundfish Fishery Sector IX.

The owners of BASE have been very vocal in demanding resumption of fishing by Sector IX vessels because much of the catch of these vessels flows through the New Bedford Auction.   During the time when Carlos Rafael was the leading groundfish operator in New Bedford, he was also the biggest supplier of fish through the auction.

Legit Fish Inc. will be attending the 2018 Boston Seafood Show and will be available for both product demos and detailed explanations of this new innovative technology.

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

US suppliers in love with ‘seafood speed dating’

March 8, 2018 — The meeting Steve Costas had with a South Korean buyer at Food Export-Northeast’s 2017 “seafood speed dating” event, in Boston, Massachusetts, lasted just 20 minutes, scarcely more than a brief flirtation.

But less than a year later Marder Trawling, the New Bedford, Massachusetts-based supplier for which Costas is an account executive, wound up selling the Korean company a container filled with a mix of its wild-caught fish products.

Of course at seafood speed dating, there’s also the chance that the object of your affection will be swept away by another suitor.

“It’s always a friendly event and I believe there is a camaraderie amongst the suppliers even though you know in 30 minutes your customer or a potential customer will be meeting with a competitor who in most cases will be offering them the same species,” Costas told Undercurrent News.

Costas is back again in Boston, Massachusetts, this week along with representatives for no less than 17 seafood suppliers from the northeastern US, all hoping to move containers of fish and, fingers crossed, establish long-term relationships with one or more of the 15 buyers from no less than 13 countries also there.

South Korea will be represented again, as will China, Japan, Colombia, Spain and the United Arab Emirate to name a few. Almost all of the buyers are looking to acquire scallops and lobsters, though some also come from countries where dogfish, monkfish and skate are in demand, all products sold by Marder Trawling using its recently acquired dock in Chatham, Massachusetts.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

 

Gorton’s CEO bullish on seafood business

Long-term plan includes possibility of more jobs

March 2, 2018 — Gorton’s is navigating a gale of changing consumer trends and increasing global competition, pushing the venerable Gloucester seafood retailer to continually embrace innovation and change to retain its historic market presence, the company’s president said Thursday.

Judson Reis, speaking at the Cape Ann Chamber of Commerce’s annual economic outlook breakfast, also said the 170-year-old company — one of the nation’s oldest continually operating businesses — is committed to staying in Gloucester.

“It’s part of who we are, it’s part of our DNA,” Reis told breakfasters at The Gloucester House restaurant. “We’ve been here, next year it will be 170 years, so it’s very important part of who we are as a business. We are very committed to staying here.”

The only element that could alter that strategy is if Gorton’s, which operates in what Reis referred to as a “high-cost environment,” lost its ability to operate competitively in the frenzied international frozen seafood retail market.

“And I don’t think that is in the cards any time soon,” Reis said.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times

 

New study sheds light on the the dark side of Hong Kong’s most lucrative seafood trade

February 6, 2018 — Hong Kong is the global hub for the more than USD $1 billion Live Reef Food Fish Trade (LRFFT), much of it unreported and unregulated with serious consequences for vulnerable species, food security and livelihoods in Southeast Asia, according to a report released on February 1.

Published jointly by the Swire Institute of Marine Sciences at the University of Hong Kong (HKU), ADM Capital Foundation and the WWF Coral Triangle Program, the report, Going, Going Gone: The Trade in Live Reef Food Fish, says popular wild-caught reef fish species could be gone from diners’ tables within our lifetime if we do not act now to stem this burgeoning and often illegal trade.

“The rate at which we are taking reef fish from our oceans, including juveniles, is simply not sustainable,” said Dr Yvonne Sadovy, a professor of biological sciences at HKU and lead author of the report. “The LRFFT is symptomatic of the pressure being put on these fish resources and the potentially devastating effects on livelihoods. As the epicentre of the LRFFT, it is critical Hong Kong takes steps to regulate before it is too late.”

Live seafood is part of the culinary tradition of southern China, with most species coming largely from the seas of Southeast Asia. Demand for these attractive and increasingly rare fish species, eaten mostly at banquets and as displays of wealth, has grown with expanding affluence in Mainland China.

Although the trade is not large by global fisheries standards, it is disproportionately valuable, estimated between 20,000 and 30,000 metric tonnes (mt) annually in the trade hub of Hong Kong, and valued in excess of USD 1 billion, according to the report. This does not count illegal trade. The trade supplies a luxury seafood market with high retail value fishes, with some species, such as Napoleon fish, fetching in excess of USD 600 per kg.

Read the full story at Phys.org

 

For sustainable fisheries, try eating ‘underloved’ fish

January 4, 2018 — Eating a wider variety of fish, including species like hake, skate, and cusk, would help keep overall fish stocks strong, according to chef and author Barton Seaver. Diversifying in this way would help ensure that people can keep eating plenty of fish—an important source of nutrients—as well as ensure economic stability for fishermen and coastal communities.

In a December 18, 2017 interview with Terry Gross on NPR’s Fresh Air, Barton, director of the Sustainable Seafood and Health Initiative at the Center for Health and the Global Environment at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, discussed sustainable fishing and other fish-related topics, such as fish farming and tips for buying quality fish.

Seaver said that just three species—tuna, salmon, and shrimp—account for 65% of total fish consumption. But overexploitation can decimate species, he said. For example, a boom in popularity of sea bass that began in the 1990s led to overfishing and depleted stocks.

Read the full story at the Harvard School of Public Health

 

Pollock and salmon projected for big year in 2018

December 28, 2017 — Next year is looking like another big one for pollock in the Bering Sea and sockeye salmon in Bristol Bay. But times are tough for cod fishermen, especially in the Gulf of Alaska.

At its December meeting in Anchorage, the North Pacific Fishery Management Council increased the already huge Bering Sea pollock quota to 1.345 million metric tons for 2018, up from 1.34 million mt in 2017. That’s good news for the pollock-dependent community of Unalaska for local revenues and jobs.

Pollock is the fish that annually makes the Aleutian Islands community the nation’s No. 1 port in volume. For the 20th year in a row, Unalaska/Dutch Harbor was the nation’s top fish port with 770 million pounds of seafood landings in 2016, primarily pollock, which accounted for nearly 90 percent of that total, according to a Nov. 1 report from the National Marine Fisheries Service.

In the Gulf of Alaska, the cod quota declined by 85 percent, from 64,442 metric tons in 2017 to 13,096 mt for 2018. That greatly impacts Kodiak, and King Cove and Sand Point in the Aleutians East Borough.

The Gulf pollock quota is also down significantly, from 208,595 metric tons, or mt, in 2017, to 166,228 mt in 2018.

Read the full story at the Alaska Journal of Commerce

 

Seafood traceability swims into Silicon Valley

November 10, 2017 — Forget the romantic image of a lonely fisherman chasing his catch on the open water. Fishing supply chains have become sprawling, technology-driven operations rife with overfishing and human rights abuses.

For that reason, fishing companies and the stores that sell their products are increasingly on the hook for the environmental and human effects of their supply chains. The need to know where fish comes from for legal compliance purposes and resource preservation, from sea to shelf, has spawned “seatech.”

Monica Jain, founder of Fish 2.0, an organization that fosters entrepreneurship in sustainable fishing and aquaculture, describes this space as “new monitoring, visibility, production and processing tools for the seafood industry.”

One-third of global fishing stocks are depleted, according to the Greenpeace Sea of Distress report issued in October. And global fish catches have been declining since the 1990s. With seafood production expected to increase 20 percent by 2025, ocean ecosystems are being decimated. Furthermore, the U.S. State Department has found forced labor and human trafficking on fishing vessels or processing facilities in more than 50 countries.

In response, Greenpeace found that major food industry players including Sodexo, Aramark and Compass group are taking strides towards protecting the oceans and the people who make a living from them by selling responsibly-sourced seafood, and increasing transparency and better practices at sea.

Aramark, for example, is the first U.S. foodservice company to procure seafood from vessels that don’t participate in transshipment, policies that allow vessels to fish for years and can breed labor and human rights abuses. Also this year, global tuna giant Thai Union has taken the lead to source sustainably caught tuna and protect worker’s rights.

Read the full story at GreenBiz