Saving Seafood

Feds target U.S. companies caught in lucrative shark fin trade

August 3, 2022 — It’s one of the seafood industry’s most gruesome hunts.

Every year, the fins of as many as 73 million sharks are sliced from the backs of the majestic sea predators, their bleeding bodies sometimes dumped back into the ocean where they are left to suffocate or die of blood loss.

But while the barbaric practice is driven by China, where shark fin soup is a symbol of status for the rich and powerful, America’s seafood industry isn’t immune from the trade.

A spate of recent criminal indictments highlights how U.S. companies, taking advantage of a patchwork of federal and state laws, are supplying a market for fins that activists say is as reprehensible as the now-illegal trade in elephant ivory once was.

A complaint quietly filed last month in Miami federal court accused an exporter based in the Florida Keys, Elite Sky International, of falsely labeling some 5,666 pounds of China-bound shark fins as live Florida spiny lobsters. Another company, south Florida-based Aifa Seafood, is also under criminal investigation for similar violations, according to two people on the condition of anonymity to discuss the ongoing probe. The company is managed by a Chinese-American woman who in 2016 pleaded guilty to shipping more than a half-ton of live Florida lobsters to her native China without a license.

The heightened scrutiny from law enforcement comes as Congress debates a federal ban on shark fins – making it illegal to import or export even foreign-caught fins. Every year, American wildlife inspectors seize thousands of shark fins while in transit to Asia for failing to declare the shipments.

An attorney for Elite wouldn’t comment nor did two representatives of Aifa when reached by phone.

Overfishing has led to a 71 percent decline in shark species since the 1970s. The International Union for Conservation of Nature, a Switzerland-based group that tracks wildlife populations, estimates that over a third of the world’s 500-plus shark species are threatened with extinction.

Contrary to industry complaints about excessive regulations, the U.S. is hardly a model of sustainable shark management, said Webber. She pointed to a recent finding by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration that less than 23% of the 66 shark stocks in U.S. waters are safe from overfishing. The status of more than half of shark stocks isn’t even known.

The situation in Europe is even worse: a new report from Greenpeace, called “Hooked on Sharks,” revealed what it said is evidence of the deliberate targeting of juvenile blue sharks by fishing fleets from Spain and Portugal. The report found that the U.S. is the world’s fourth-largest shark exporter behind Spain, China and Portugal, with exports of 3.2 million kilograms of meat – but not fins – worth over $11 million in 2020.

Webber said rather than safeguard a small shark fishing industry, the U.S. should blaze the trail to protect the slow-growing, long-living fish.

“We can’t ask other countries to clean up their act if we’re not doing it well ourselves,” said Webber.

Read the full article at Press Herald

‘Why sharks matter’: Q&A with author and shark biologist David Shiffman

June 2, 2022 — In the introduction to his new book, conservation biologist David Shiffman quotes Senegalese forestry engineer and conservationist Baba Dioum: “In the end we will conserve only what we love; we will love only what we understand; and we will understand only what we are taught,” Dioum says.

If anything is clear from Why Sharks Matter: A Deep Dive with the World’s Most Misunderstood Predator, it’s that Shiffman loves sharks (especially sandbar sharks, the subject of his master’s thesis). Just as clearly, he’s motivated to pass that enthusiastic affection along to his readers, drawing on the latest research to show how diverse, unique, misunderstood and just plain cool sharks are. As a writer, he delights in drilling into the vast variety of quirky behaviors and roles his study subjects play in the world’s oceans.

In doing so, Shiffman, currently a faculty research associate at Arizona State University in the U.S., is eager to spur readers into action aimed at protecting sharks. Still, the book is far from a generic laundry list of the troubles that we’ve brought upon these animals. He doesn’t sugarcoat the reality that many shark species face the threat of extinction as a result of the influence we humans wield over them and their marine environment. But Shiffman also holds a mirror up to how scientists, NGOs and shark aficionados approach conservation, and sometimes the reflection is less than flattering.

To support shark conservation, Shiffman writes, scientists need to ask the right questions, acknowledge their own blind spots and embrace the interdisciplinarity of modern-day conservation biology. Advocacy groups should follow the science that’s pointing the way toward addressing the greatest threat to sharks today, unsustainable fishing, rather than the topics that will attract the most donations. And members of the public can educate themselves about how they can best make a difference.

Read the full story at Mongabay

Everything You Know about Shark Conservation Is Wrong

May 25, 2022 — More people than ever before are aware of the shark conservation crisis and want to help, which is great news. However, many well-intentioned people often don’t know the true causes of—and solutions to—this crisis, resulting in what’s at best wasted effort, and at worst harming what they’re trying to support. This conservation dilemma has inspired the last decade of my research and public science engagement. It also inspired my new book, Why Sharks Matter: A Deep Dive with the World’s Most Misunderstood Predator, which synthesizes hundreds of research papers and reports to inform readers of the true threats to sharks and how we can begin to solve them. Only by following the evidence and seeking data-driven, sustainable solutions to overfishing can we save these fascinating and important creatures.

Many people believe that the largest or only threat to sharks is “shark finning”: the practice of catching sharks, harvesting their fins and discarding the carcasses at sea. But this isn’t the case and hasn’t been for decades. I’ve seen some online petitions calling for bans on shark finning within Florida waters get tens of thousands of signatures. Apparently neither the petition creators nor the many signatories are aware that we already banned shark finning across the United States almost 30 years ago. While supporters of these petitions say that they’re “raising awareness,” it does not help anyone or anything to share incorrect information about what the problems are or how to solve them. Such feel-good solutions do nothing while diverting energy, media coverage and funding away from solutions that might really help.

Sustainable fisheries for sharks absolutely exist and are a vital part of livelihoods and food security in developing nations in the Global South. Sharks have relatively few offspring relatively infrequently, which complicates fisheries management, but the principle is the same as for any sustainable fishery: perform scientific research to learn how many sharks are present, and allow fishermen to take some of them (but not so many that the population collapses). In fact, 90 percent of surveyed shark scientists and 78 percent of surveyed shark conservation advocates prefer sustainable shark fisheries to total bans on fishing for sharks and trade in shark products!

If you’ve never heard about sustainable shark fisheries before but have heard that the best way to save sharks is by banning the U.S. fin trade, it’s probably because, for reasons that aren’t very clear, such bans get much, much more media attention than science-based sustainable fisheries management. Many people are also influenced by provocative and misleading (to put it mildly) “documentaries” like 2021’s Seaspiracy.

Read the full story at Scientific American

Coast Guard Searches for Poachers From Mexico Stealing Fish From U.S.

May 24, 2022 — At Hooked on Seafood, red snapper fetches a premium price. For fishermen, the tasty fruit of the Gulf of Mexico is like striking gold.

“Red snapper is the hottest commodity in the U.S., here in this border,” Hooked on Seafood owner Chris Johnson said.

But its high demand attracts schools of poachers from across the border.

“They’re taking our money out of our waters and selling it right back to us, and we’re paying to do it every day,” Johnson continued.

He’s a fishmonger and fisherman on Texas’ South Padre Island. He bellows a decades-long lament — illegal fishing operations from Mexico zip through the boundary waters poaching red snapper, shark, and shrimp by the thousands.

Read the full story at Seafood News

Southeastern Fisheries Association urges industry to support legal defense fund for Mark Harrison

May 9, 2022 — The following was released by the Southeastern Fisheries Association:

If you are involved in the U.S. shark fishery or if your fishery is impacted by the explosion of shark populations, please read this.  

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) has brought the export and selling of shark fins and most of the shark fishery to a virtual standstill by bringing serious but vague and unsubstantiated criminal charges against Mark L. Harrison, the founder of the Sustainable Shark Alliance and the nation’s primary shark fin exporter.  

If you have not read the first outreach on Mark’s behalf, please do so now at https://www.savingseafood.org/shark-defense-fund

Mark’s story:  

At the time of his arrest Mark was working directly with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission to develop a means to trace shark fins and invoices under a study ordered by Governor Ron DeSantis to protect sharks. Mark also had worked directly with USFWS on a project to develop a methodology to be able to trace most all the nation’s shark fins that were under CITES regulations. Then they arrested him.  He has also worked with the National Marine Fisheries Service’s (NMFS) to help improve shark identification and with NMFS’ Office of Law Enforcement to protect shark species.  

Mark was instrumental in drafting the Sustainable Shark Fisheries and Trade Act, introduced by Senator Marco Rubio and Congressmen Daniel Webster and Ted Lieu. This bill would promote the ending of shark finning abroad and promote shark conservation globally. His organization, the Sustainable Shark Alliance was the main supported of this bill, along with Wildlife Conservation Society, many commercial fishing associations, and the leading shark scientists.  

What you can do to help:  

Bob Jones, the former long-time head of Southeastern Fisheries Association, is requesting an investigation by the Department of the Interior’s Inspector General into USFWS law enforcement division to determine if it has targeted Mark. Bob makes the point in his letter that “Selective Law Enforcement, especially targeting one individual citizen, is anathema in our society. It must never be tolerated.”  

The letter was also sent to Senator Rubio’s office asking for his support in the investigation.  

We are asking that you please take the time to write a letter to the Department of the Interior Inspector General to echo Bob Jones’ request for an investigation. Please also send a copy to your Senators and Representative in Congress. Here is a link to help you contact your representatives:

https://www.usa.gov/elected-officials/

Also ask them to oppose a national fin sales ban and support the Rubio/Webster/Lieu bill.  

Every letter helps!  

If you know Mark, you know that has always scrupulously adhered to the law and has worked with government agencies to better enforce our shark conservation laws. If you personally know Mark, please include any thoughts on his character.  Finally, if you are all able, please donate to Mark’s defense fund on the Saving Seafood link:

https://www.savingseafood.org/shark-defense-fund

For those who have already donated and helped Mark thank you very much! You helped him to retain a solid defense attorney. However, he still has legal bills stemming from this unjust and vindictive prosecution.  Mark can use your help to ensure his legal team can address the constitutional issues raised by his prosecution and ensure there is not only a future for the sustainability U.S. shark fishery but other fisheries as well.  

If we don’t stop this abuse here, you, in the fishing industry, are likely the next target. This is America. By helping Mark, you will help other Americans and yourself.

 

New Rule Focuses on Improving Survival of Hooked Oceanic Whitetip Sharks

April 29, 2022 — NOAA Fisheries, working with Hawaiʻi longline fishermen and the Western Pacific Fishery Management Council, has taken a big step in protecting threatened oceanic whitetip sharks.

A new regulation, effective May 31, 2022, prohibits the use of wire leaders in the Hawaiʻi deep-set longline fishery in favor of monofilament nylon leaders. This is a change that longline fishermen started on their own in November 2020.

Oceanic whitetip sharks were once one of the most abundant sharks in the ocean. Today, they are listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. Oceanic whitetips are top predators and play a critical role in the ecosystem by maintaining the populations of species below them in the food chain. In the hunt for a meal, oceanic whitetips are sometimes caught unintentionally (or hooked) in longline fisheries as bycatch—one of the greatest threats to their survival. The switch to nylon leaders is estimated to increase the survival rates of hooked whitetips by more than 30 percent!

“The Hawaiʻi fishing fleet sets the standard for longline tuna fishing, with high levels of observer coverage and strong regulations to limit the effects of the fishery on protected species,” said Michael Tosatto, Regional Administrator, NOAA Fisheries Pacific Islands Regional Office. “These new regulations to protect oceanic whitetip sharks continue this long legacy of responsible fishing in the Pacific Islands region. We hope fishing fleets around the world will adopt these practices.”

Read the full story from NOAA Fisheries

U.S. blocks Mexican fishermen from ports, cites years of illegal fishing in U.S. waters

February 9, 2022 — Along the U.S.-Mexico maritime border, the incursions occur almost daily. The boats are outfitted with small outboard motors, powerful enough to flee pursuing Border Patrol and Coast Guard vessels.

The Mexican skiffs are loaded not with drugs or migrants, but with red snapper, sea turtles and sharks.

U.S. officials say the threat posed by Mexican fishermen casting their nets illegally in U.S. waters has grown so acute that for the first time in years, they’ve banned Mexican fishing vessels from entering U.S. ports.

“These vessels … will be denied port access and services,” said Lauren Gaches, a spokesperson for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. She said the sanction was being applied in response to Mexico’s “continued failure to combat unauthorized fishing activities by small hulled vessels in U.S. waters.” It took effect Monday.

Read the full story at the Washington Post

New ASU study identifies research priorities for threatened sharks

February 1, 2022 — Sharks are some of the most threatened animals on Earth, and while many scientists want to dedicate their research to helping to save sharks, many report that they don’t know how to do this effectively.

A new paper in the journal Conservation Science and Practice, led by Arizona State University Faculty Research Associate David Shiffman, has identified 35 research priorities that scientists can use to shape their research on threatened shark species in the United States.

“Lists of research priorities help scientists, especially early career scientists, to choose a research project that can have a real impact,” Shiffman said. “Instead of having to figure out the complexities of policymaking and management on your own to learn what information managers need, lists of research priorities give scientists a one-stop shop to easily find everything. These scientists know that a question they’re hoping to answer with their work is a research priority because it’s already been identified as one.”

To generate this list of research priorities, the team from ASU’s New College of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences surveyed 86 experts from the fields of scientific research, environmental advocacy, natural resource and fisheries management, endangered species conservation and industry from throughout the United States. These experts were asked to reflect on what information we don’t currently know about threatened sharks that we need to know, and to propose research priorities as well as policy priorities.

Read the full story at Arizona State University News

MASSACHUSETTS: Fear on Cape Cod as Sharks Hunt Again

October 25, 2021 — Over the past decade the waters around Cape Cod have become host to one of the densest seasonal concentrations of adult white sharks in the world. Acoustic tagging data suggest the animals trickle into the region during lengthening days in May, increase in abundance throughout summer, peak in October and mostly depart by the dimming light and plunging temperatures of Thanksgiving. To conservationists, the annual returns are a success story, a welcome sign of ecosystem recovery at a time when many wildlife species are depleted. But the phenomenon carries unusual public-safety implications. Unlike many places where adult white sharks congregate, which tend to be remote islands with large colonies of sea lions or seals, the sharks’ summer residency in New England overlaps with tourist season at one of the Northeast’s most coveted recreational areas. Moreover, the animals are hunting in remarkably shallow water, at times within feet of the beach. This puts large numbers of people in close contact with a fast and efficient megapredator, historically the oceans’ most feared fish.

Among critics of the white-shark status quo, disillusionment runs deep. Other members of the Cape Cod Ocean Community, including Drew Taylor, reject the reliance on nonlethal approaches. Taylor proposes challenging policy and amending federal law to allow communities to set preferred population levels for white sharks and gray seals and permit hunting or fishing to reduce their numbers. Conservation laws, he said, were understandable in intent but lack tools to deal adequately with rebounds of this scale. “How can you write a law that protects something in perpetuity?” he said. His views, like those heard in human-wildlife conflicts elsewhere, can be summarized like this: It’s perfectly reasonable to find lions or cobras or white sharks captivating but not want hundreds of them feeding in your neighborhood park. He blames federal policies for fostering biological and social dynamics that force people to yield without question or recourse to dangerous or nuisance animals. Marine mammals, he noted, enjoy protection that terrestrial mammals do not; a sole black bear that roamed Cape Cod in 2012, for example, was promptly tranquilized and removed.

Greg Connors, captain of the 40-foot gillnet vessel Constance Sea, which fishes from Chatham, said environmentalists and bureaucrats have not fully considered the gray seal recovery’s effect on people who live on the water. Seal advocates and scientists, he said, have not shown convincing evidence that the historic seal population in New England was as large as it is now and operate on assumptions that all increases are good. At some point, he said, other voices and interests should be balanced against those in control. “They never set a bar on how high they want it to get,” he said of the seal population. “It’s always just more. That’s a terrible plan.” Seals, he said, have done more than attract white sharks; they have driven fish farther to sea and steal catches from nets. Nick Muto, the lobster captain, said marine-mammal protections, as designed, defy common sense. Why, he asked, do protections apply equally to North Atlantic right whales, of which perhaps 400 animals remain, and gray seals, which in the western Atlantic number roughly half a million? He was surprised that Medici’s death didn’t change the official stance. “I thought once somebody died here,” he said, “it would be lights out for the seals.” Connors and Muto acknowledge there is little chance for an amendment, an assessment shared by their industry group. “We’re under no illusion that there is going to be a cull,” said John Pappalardo, who heads the Cape Cod Commercial Fishermen’s Alliance. “Blood on the beach? People would not tolerate that.” But frustrations capture the degree to which one side feels overtalked and alienated by the other, including many people whose lives center on the water.

Read the full story at the New York Tims Magazine

 

Some sharks are more likely to die after ‘catch and release,’ study finds. Here’s why

September 24, 2021 — Longlining, a commercial fishing technique that drags a main line with baited hooks through the water, is convenient when catching massive amounts of swordfish and tuna, but it also traps what experts call “bycatch” — unintended victims that may face dark fates after release back into the ocean.

Sharks are often attracted to and caught on these baited longlines; it’s one of the many culprits behind declining shark populations. Certain rules called “no-take regulations” require fishermen to release some species when accidentally hooked, but a new study of over 300 sharks found that some are much more likely to die after “catch and release” than others. The study was published Sept. 15 in the journal PLOS One.

“The assumption behind no-take regulations is that the shark will swim away and live out its normal life after it’s released, but we know that for some sharks, that’s not true,” study lead author Dr. Nick Whitney, senior scientist at the New England Aquarium’s Anderson Cabot Center for Ocean Life in Massachusetts, said in a news release.

After five years of longline fishing that targeted five of the seven most commonly caught species in the Gulf of Mexico and Florida Keys, the researchers learned as many as 42% to 71% of blacktip and spinner sharks will die after being caught and released alive. Others, such as sandbar and tiger sharks, were more resilient; only 3% or fewer died after release. Bull sharks were also one of the more hardy species. The animals were caught near Madeira Beach, Key West and Naples, Florida.

The team learned 90% of the post-release deaths occurred within five hours of returning to the water, and 59% occurred within just two hours. Blood samples and tracking data revealed the stress of the capture process, or injuries acquired during it, leads to the unnecessary and disproportionate demise of some sharks.

Read the full story at the Miami Herald