Saving Seafood

US seafood landings in 2020 hit hard by COVID-19, NOAA Fisheries reports

May 12, 2022 — A pair of fishery status updates released by NOAA Fisheries on Thursday, 12 May, 2022, have revealed the profound impact the COVID-19 pandemic had on the U.S. fishing industry, which experienced double-digit percentage decreases in landings and value.

According to an update made to NOAA Fisheries’ “Fisheries of the United States 2020” report, U.S. fishermen reported 8.4 billion pounds of landings for 2020, down 10.4 percent from 2019. The value of those products was reported at USD 4.8 billion (EUR 4.63 billion), down 14.6 percent from the year before.

Read the full story at SeafoodSource

 

US Senator Marco Rubio files bill to ban Russian seafood from entering US

May 9, 2022 — Another U.S. senator has come forward with a bill that would prohibit Russian seafood imports from entering the country.

On 4 May, 2022, U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Florida) filed S.4143 in the chamber. Dubbed the Protecting American Food Producers from Russia’s Market Distortions Act, the bill would keep fish and other products out of American ports until Russia meets certain conditions.

Read the full story at SeafoodSource

 

NOAA Announces Projects Recommended for Saltonstall-Kennedy 2022 Funding

May 3, 2022 — NOAA Fisheries has recommended more than $11.8 million for 44 projects under the 2022 Saltonstall-Kennedy Competitive Grants Program. The projects fall into two categories:

  • Promotion, development, and marketing and science
  • Technology that promotes sustainable U.S seafood production and harvesting

For more than 40 years, NOAA has awarded grant funding for projects under the Saltonstall-Kennedy program to individuals, institutions, organizations, tribes and businesses across the country. These funds help address the needs of fishing communities, support economic opportunities, and build and maintain resilient and sustainable fisheries.

The goal of the Saltonstall-Kennedy program is to fund projects that:

  • Address the needs of fishing communities at all scales (local, regional, national)
  • Optimize economic benefits by building and maintaining sustainable fisheries
  • Increase other opportunities to keep working waterfronts viable

These 44 proposals represent the top projects best positioned to meet this goal.

Demand for funding was high again this year. Initially, NOAA received 270 pre-proposals. Out of that number, at least three subject matter experts reviewed 137 full proposals requesting more than $38 million during the technical merit review phase. The top proposals in each NOAA Fisheries’ region were recommended for 2022 funding.

At this point in the selection process, the application approval and recommended funding is not final. Divisions of NOAA and the Department of Commerce, NOAA’s parent agency, must still give final approval before successful applicants receive funding.

Read the full story from NOAA

 

UK seafood sales drop on record inflation

April 28, 2022 — Seafood sales in grocery stores in the United Kingdom dropped 8.3 percent for the quarter ending 20 March, primarily due to the impacts of price increases caused by inflation, according to research firm Kantar.

However, retail seafood sales are holding strong versus meat and poultry, and were up 5.6 percent versus the same quarter in 2021.

Read the full story at SeafoodSource

 

Aquaculture proponents fly in to Washington DC to push for AQUAA Act

April 27, 2022 — Proponents of expanding America’s aquaculture industry began a three-day meeting with lawmakers and their aides in Washington D.C. on Tuesday, 26 April, in hopes of drumming up more support for a bill to create more opportunities for offshore fish farms.

The fly-in sponsored by industry coalition group Stronger America Through Seafood is the first since the COVID-19 pandemic began more than two years ago. The event is drawing representatives from a wide array of companies, including restaurant chain Red Lobster and animal feed producer Cargill.

Read the full story at SeafoodSource

 

COVID, inflation triggering upheaval in European seafood marketplace

April 27, 2022 — New seafood trends are emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic and rapidly rising inflation in Europe, according to a panel of industry leaders and policymakers at the 2022 Seafood Expo Global in Barcelona, Spain on Tuesday, 26 April.

The pandemic has upended Europe’s seafood marketplace, and rising inflation has been exacerbated by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, according to Auden Lem, the deputy director of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization’s Fisheries Division.

Read the full story at SeafoodSource

 

Seafood industry investors buying into the blue economy

April 26, 2022 — Public appreciation that oceans provide essential protection to both the planet and humanity is growing, according to Chris Gorell Barnes, co-founder of private equity firm Ocean 14 Capital.

The entrepreneur, marine conservationist, and co-founder of the Blue Marine Foundation said “tremendous trigger-points,” which include documentaries like Blue Planet II and Seaspiracy, as well as reports from the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), have brought unprecedented public interest to the oceans. Additionally, luminaries such as U.S. Presidential Special Envoy John Kerry have been highlighting the role that the ocean plays in mitigating the climate crisis, and the new U.N. Decade of the Oceans platform is drawing attention to the need to reverse the decline of ocean health, Gorell Barnes said.

Read the full story at SeafoodSource

 

More diversity begets better innovation, seafood leaders say

April 25, 2022 — Atlantic Sea Farms CEO Briana Warner is a believer in the direct, cyclical relationship between diversity and innovation.

“I think some of the people who are innovating and doing innovative stuff, you’re going to see new people come into [the industry] because it goes back to a circular thing – if we get more diversity in the industry, they’re going to be coming up with more-diverse ideas that break out of the mold, and then we’ll attract more diversity,” Warner said.

Read the full story at SeafoodSource

 

MSC: Sustainable fishing and ocean conservation receives close to $1 million funding boost from sustainable seafood ecolabel

April 20, 2022 — The following was released by the Marine Stewardship Council:

Satellite tagging stingrays, translocating sea urchins and developing deep-sea cameras are among the 22 projects and fisheries to have been awarded funding by the internationally recognised sustainable seafood certification and ecolabelling program, the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) announced today. 

 Now in its third year, the MSC’s Ocean Stewardship Fund (OSF) redirects 5% of its annual royalties from the sales of MSC certified sustainable seafood to accelerate the sustainability of fisheries globally.

 The fund is also expanding in scope and reach this year, as it opens up to third-party donations from funders.   

Amid global concerns about the depletion of ocean biodiversity, this year’s grants focus in part, on driving improvements that better protect endangered, threatened, or protected species or vulnerable marine ecosystems – with projects in Argentina, Greenland, Australia, the United Kingdom, and France. 

A total of US$936,000 in the form of 22 grants ranging from $6,500 to $68,000 each, are awarded to fisheries, scientists, NGOs and students from 12 countries to aid international efforts in marine conservation and sustainable fishing.

 At least half of the grants ($459,000) are supporting fisheries in developing economies that are transitioning to sustainable practices, including Indonesia, Mexico and India.   

Harnessing satellite tagging technology in the Mediterranean, the MSC certified SATHOAN artisanal bluefin tuna fishery will use the funding to understand better how stingray populations may be affected by fishing activity. The fishery releases any stingrays accidentally caught on longlines back into the ocean but needs more data to understand how the population is impacted long-term.  

Automated, illuminated, and underwater camera monitoring systems are being designed with funding received by the Western Australian government. The cameras will be used to map overlaps between the MSC certified West Coast crab fishery and remote deep-sea habitats. The unique system will be designed to withstand high pressure down to 1,000 metres deployment to collect habitat data which will be used to apply relevant management measures. 

Another grant will also support an investigation into whether translocating red sea urchins to areas with higher densities of kelp will help stocks to recover. Local marine heatwaves, resulting in a decline in kelp forests which the urchins rely on for food, alongside overfishing have led to a localised decline in sea urchin populations.

The research, led by Autonomous University of Baja California (UABC) in Mexico hopes to understand whether translocations are improving sea urchin condition or in fact, doing more damage than good to the wider ecosystem. Fishers hope that by moving the urchins to an area with an abundance of algae to eat, the population may improve. 

Rupert Howes, Chief Executive of the Marine Stewardship Council said:

“Congratulations to all of the Ocean Stewardship Fund awardees this year. Our focus on marine biodiversity will help push forward scientific understanding of how improvements can be made in fishing practices to minimise ecosystem impacts. Without doubt, our collective efforts can help to ensure our oceans remain productive and resilient in the face of the growing pressures and demands placed on them but much more needs to be done and urgently if we are to deliver the UN Strategic Development Goals by 2030.” 

Dr Keith Sainsbury, Fisheries Assessment Scientist and member of the Technical Advisory Board to the Marine Stewardship Council said:

“I’m delighted to have been part of the panel reviewing these fascinating Ocean Stewardship Fund projects. All promote cross-sector collaboration between scientists and fishers to solve ocean challenges, with many using the traditional knowledge of fishers to encourage successful outcomes. Our ocean faces a multitude of threats from overfishing to climate change and biodiversity decline but we’re still in the window of opportunity to safeguard our oceans. Sustainable fisheries management can lead to incredible turnarounds, especially when fishers are viewed as being part of the solution.”   

Since the establishment of the Ocean Stewardship Fund in 2019, the fund has issued 64 grants to a total sum of USD$2.8 million. 

 

On The Hook launches external review of Marine Stewardship Council

April 19, 2022 — On The Hook announced it is launching an external review of the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) to offer recommendations on measures the MSC should implement to creating lasting sustainability in the fisheries it certifies.

Launched in August 2017, On The Hook was originally focused on MSC certification of the world’s largest tuna fishery, controlled by the Parties to the Nauru Agreement. Initially, On The Hook criticized the PNA’s MSC recertification despite recorded incidents of shark fishing, and the fishery being “compartmentalized” into certified and non-certified fishing methods, including using the same vessels to catch tuna caught with and without the use of fish-aggregating devices.

Read the full story at SeafoodSource