Saving Seafood

Richard Nelson: Maine’s balking at new greenhouse gas cap threatens seafood industry

A stellar regional program limiting emissions needs support for stronger goals that will save our fisheries.

August 14, 2017 — As a lobsterman for more than 30 years, I have a direct connection to the ocean and its abundance. It’s how I make my living, and I’ve seen it shape my way of life and the people around me. Fishing and seafood are an inextricable part of Maine’s heritage and culture, and it’s thanks to good conservation practices in the lobster fishery that we enjoy the bounty reflected in our record landings of late.

But keeping this way of life requires a continuation of good decision-making now — not only for the health of our ocean, but also for the health of Mainers and our economy. Cutting carbon emissions is an imperative element of that, and we can’t settle for either the status quo or a return to the times and policies that paid little heed to the environment around us.

One program on the state and regional level that has shown great success already, but now faces an imminent decision on its future, is the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative. After a 20-month review, a choice must be made on the amount of carbon reduction required — which directly translates into protecting Maine’s people and resources.

Read the full opinion piece at Central Maine

Chicken of the Sea invests over a million in new canning line, high-speed vision system

August 11, 2017 — As part of its latest campaign to invest in its presence in the United States, Chicken of the Sea will be outfitting its Lyons, Georgia U.S.A.-based processing facility with a cutting-edge technological upgrade totaling USD 1.4 million (EUR 1.1 million).

A new, high-speed vision system and canning line will be installed as part of the upgrade, with a completion date set for December 2017. The 200,000-square-foot Georgia facility, which opened back in 2009, employs hundreds of workers who package and can thousands of cases of quality seafood each day – the new technologies in store for the plant will make those employees’ lives easier, and help boost the local economy as well as facility efficiencies, the company said.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Too Big To Ignore explores challenges to sustainable development of local fisheries

August 10, 2017 — Two years after FAO member states agreed to adopt a human rights-based approach to governing the small-scale fisheries in their countries, researchers invested in the development of small-scale fisheries have released a book outlining progress made in implementing those reforms and the challenges in doing so.

The book, “Small-Scale Fisheries Guidelines: Global Implementation,”  reviews countries’ efforts thus far to implement the human rights-based principles, otherwise known as  Voluntary Guidelines for Securing Sustainable Small-Scale Fisheries, at the local level. Comprising essays and case studies by more than 90 authors from academia, the FAO, and civil society, it also considers the need to contextualize the guidelines to fit local circumstances.

Edited by researchers associated with Too Big To Ignore, a research network and global partnership dedicated to the promotion and support of small-scale fisheries, the book considers case studies in 34 countries, including the Pacific, Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

MASSACHUSETTS: A meeting of the minds on the future of the fisheries

August 3, 2017 — For some, the focus was on collaboration and the need to build sustainable seafood partnerships.

“Much of what we have already learned comes from the farming sector,” said Jack Wiggin, head of the University of Massachusetts Boston’s Urban Harbors Institute. Opening a Wednesday morning conference on the seafood industry at The Gloucester House, he noted cited parallels between harvesting America’s farms and seas.

To Anamarija Frankic, however, the future of the seafood industry is tied to a more basic approach.

“It’s like the chicken and egg,” said Frankic, a UMass-Boston teacher of biomimicry — the science of seeking solutions based on time-tested patterns and models. “How can you have aquaculture? How can you sustain seafood without protecting the ocean (waters), not just in the harbors but in watersheds? Much of what we do is very specific, protecting and rebuilding specific species or specific habitat, but we have to work to sustain the entire coastal habitat.”

Those were just two of the ideas raised over the course of the daylong conference, which was funded by the state’s Seaport Economic Council and drew more than 50 experts representing government agencies, fishermen, seafood processors and community leaders.

“This is a summit — I would call it that,” Mayor Sefatia Romeo Theken said in welcoming the group to Gloucester. “We haven’t truly had something like this in 20 years.”

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times

MASSACHUSETTS: A focus on selling seafood

Local stakeholders hope event generates opportunities

August 2, 2017 — More than 60 key players from the fishing and seafood industries will be in Gloucester on Wednesday exploring new ways to promote locally caught seafood and spotlight seaport economic successes.

Presenters from the U.S. Department  of Agriculture and the University of Massachusetts Boston, along with waterfront representatives from Maine to New Jersey will attend a day-long conference, open to the public, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at The Gloucester House.

“Building the Massachusetts Seafood System,” as the event is titled, will include presentations and discussion groups, said local organizer and harbor activist Valerie Nelson. But she said it will be more than just talk.

“This is designed to produce recommendations to the Seaport Council, to the state, maybe to the UMass system,” Nelson said . “This isn’t an idle conversation, this is to lead to a next step. We want some real momentum to come out of this.”

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times

New Study Reveals High Risk of Illegal Seafood Imports Entering Japanese Market

August 1, 2017 — TOKYO, Japan — A new paper published in the journal of Marine Policy estimates that 24–36% of 2.15 million tonnes of wild-seafood imports to Japan in 2015, valued at $1.6 to $2.4 billion, were of illegal or unreported origin.

The investigation, conducted by a team of leading researchers from the University of British Columbia (UBC), assessed 27 seafood products coming from 9 leading source countries to Japan; some products such as imported Chinese eel were found to be up to 45-75% illegally harvested. Although Japan has taken recent steps to address the illegal seafood problem including the ratification of the Port State Measures Agreement, stronger actions must be taken to prevent illegal products from entering one of the world’s largest markets.

The current import control system in Japan—one of the top three seafood markets globally—poses very little deterrent to the entry of illegal seafood. Japan has yet to implement the same anti-IUU and traceability standards as the US and Europe, including a lack of import regulations to verify product legality. Although a limited catch documentation scheme is implemented for Bluefin tuna, Russian crab, and Patagonian Toothfish, as part of Japan’s commitments to Regional Fisheries Management Organizations (RFMO) and other international agreements, such arrangements do not apply to the bulk of its seafood imports.

Read the full story at Ocean Outcomes

Senators add shrimp to seafood import monitoring program implementation plan

July 28, 2017 — Efforts to include shrimp in the Seafood Import Monitoring Program when it takes effect Jan. 1 of next year advanced in Congress on Thursday, the American Shrimp Processors Association (ASPA) said in a release.

Senate appropriations committee chairman Thad Cochran and commerce, justice and science appropriations subcommittee chairman Richard Shelby added language to the FY2018 commerce, justice and science subcommittee bill to ensure that shrimp is fully integrated into the program on the same timeline as other species, the association said.

Previously, shrimp was expected to be phased in at a later date than majority of other priority species, which have a mandatory compliance date of Jan. 1.

David Veal, ASPA executive director, commended the decision. He said Cochran and Shelby showed they care about the survival of the US shrimp industry and continued economic opportunity and job growth of coastal communities.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

MASSACHUSETTS: New Bedford launches seafood branding campaign

July 28, 2017 — NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — For generations New Bedford fishermen withstood the elements to do their jobs. Through rain storms they fished. In choppy waters they fished. Against harsh winds they fished.

So it was fitting that the unveiling of the city’s newly-created seafood brand was delivered in the rain at the Custom House Square in downtown New Bedford Thursday evening.

“We are the biggest, the baddest, the most comprehensive fishing port in America,” Mayor Jon Mitchell said. “We are going to scream from the mountain tops that we are the biggest fishing port in America. We are a real seaport and real fishing port. We want everyone to know that.”

In unabashed self-promotion, the city’s seafood brand initiative aims to make New Bedford synonymous with fresh, sustainable seafood much like Maine is with lobster and Alaska is with salmon. The logo, designed by Moore & Isherwood Communications, features a western rig fishing vessel, a major cog that’s helped make the Port of New Bedford the most lucrative fishing port in the country.

When buyers, whether they’re locally, nationally or internationally-based, purchase seafood from the Port of New Bedford, the products will have the logo on the packaging to serve as a visual reminder of what they are eating.

But more than just self-promotion, the branding will also tell consumers that the product they purchased has also been through rigorous testing in any of the city’s processing centers to ensure quality.

“Outside of our region, not enough people know how important New Bedford and our fishing industry are to providing sustainable, fresh, delicious fish to buyers and consumers everywhere,” Ed Anthes-Washburn, port director, said.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

CHRISTIAN PUTNAM: Local seafood in global competition: Time to fight back

July 28, 2017 — Most of our seafood is imported. “Most” means 92 percent; sometimes a higher number is quoted. That leaves eight percent of the seafood that is consumed in the United States sourced within our boarders. As was discussed last week, a piece of fish that is caught off the coast of Scituate, returned to shore properly handled but not frozen, processed locally and sold within a day or so is far superior to a frozen foreign product. Superior in both health and quality benefits. It would be hard to find someone to argue against this supposition.

Why would a consumer that lives in or near a fishing port every buy the foreign frozen version of something that is much better tasting and for you when caught locally? The answer is two-fold. One issue is that the seafood market is clearly global. Foreign players often have cost leverage over local operations. Second, many consumers do not realize they are buying or ordering a foreign-sourced fish and may not realize it has been frozen. Sometimes products are misrepresented on menus, sometimes the fish case at the grocery store is missing the required sign when a product is foreign and often the consumer just doesn’t think to ask.

While cognitively consumers know local is better, the differentiation between local and product from elsewhere simply enough to change behavior. A piece of fish is a piece of fish to many. Plus, after years of lackluster economic growth, many consumers are still very driven by price.

Read the full column at Wicked Local

CONNECTICUT: Industry expert says consumers have a role in saving local seafood

July 28, 2017 — STONINGTON, Ct. — Finding fresh, locally caught fish isn’t easy, but if educated consumers are persistent, they will not only help local fishermen, they’ll also help rebuild weakened domestic seafood markets that have been deeply gouged by imports and regulations.

Meghan Lapp, fisheries liaison for Seafreeze Ltd., a producer and trader of frozen seafood in North Kingstown, explained these points and more in her presentation, “Sea to Table: Bringing the Bounty of the Sea to You,” before an audience of about 40 people at the La Grua Center Thursday night.

In attendance were state Sen. Heather Somers, R-Groton, First Selectman Rob Simmons and a number of longtime local fishermen. The Stonington Economic Development Commission sponsored Lapp’s presentation.

She was joined by a panel comprised of Tom Williams, a generational fisherman with two sons who are commercial fishermen; Rich Fuka, president of the Rhode Island Fishermen’s Alliance; and Mike Gambardella, owner of Gambardella Wholesale Fish at the Stonington Town Dock.

Lapp said the fishing industry was so over-regulated, “You practically have to be a lawyer to go fishing.”

Read the full story at the Westerly Sun