Saving Seafood

Study maps where tunas, sharks and fishing ships meet

March 26, 2019 — Overfishing is rapidly pushing many of the world’s sharks and tunas toward extinction. The world’s fastest known shark, the shortfin mako, for example, was recently uplisted to endangered on the IUCN Red List, its decline mostly attributed to overfishing.

But researchers are only beginning to figure out where and when people fish them the most. Now, a new study has some answers.

By analyzing the trails of more than 900 fishing vessels and more than 800 sharks and tunas in the northeast Pacific, researchers have identified regions where the two tend to overlap. This information, researchers say, can be used to manage fisheries, especially in the high seas, the swaths of ocean that lie beyond the jurisdiction of individual countries.

“These fish [sharks and tunas] may travel thousands of miles every year, crossing international boundaries and management jurisdictions,” said Timothy White, lead author of the study and a graduate student in biology at Stanford University, California. “In order to sustainably manage them, we need to know where they migrate and where people fish them, but this info is surprisingly difficult to gather for sharks and tunas of the open ocean.”

Read the full story at Mongabay

Banning Shark Fin Sales Not Effective Conservation Tool, Sustainable Shark Alliance Tells Congress

March 26, 2019 — The following was released by the Sustainable Shark Alliance:

Banning the domestic sale of shark fins will be less effective for global shark conservation than legal, regulated shark fishing, according to testimony from the Sustainable Shark Alliance (SSA), delivered today before a House panel.

Shaun Gehan, testifying on behalf of SSA before the House Subcommittee on Water, Oceans, and Wildlife, voiced SSA’s opposition to H.R. 737, the Shark Fin Sales Elimination Act. Instead, SSA, which represents shark fishermen, dealers, and processors, expressed its support for H.R. 788, the Sustainable Shark Fisheries and Trade Act.

Mr. Gehan was quick to point out in his prepared remarks that opposition to H.R. 737 is not based on a difference of opinion on the troubling practice of shark finning, which he testified is an “abhorrent and unsustainable” practice that “wastes an important source of low-cost protein that can feed growing populations.” Rather, SSA opposes H.R. 737 because, by banning the sale of legally caught shark fins that are not inhumanely harvested, it will not effectively promote global shark conservation.

“Sustainably-sourced fins from our well-managed fishery will be replaced by those from bad actors. Only American fishermen, abiding by the world’s strictest shark conservation laws, and sharks in unmanaged waters will suffer,” he said.

NOAA has expressed similar concerns with the legislation. Last year, Alan Risenhoover, Director of NOAA’s Office of Sustainable Fisheries, told the same subcommittee that “we cannot support the Shark Fin Sale Elimination Act because the bill’s negative impact on U.S. fishermen would outweigh its minimal benefit to shark conservation,” adding, “this would hurt U.S. fishermen who currently harvest and sell sharks and shark fins in a sustainable manner under strict federal management.”

SSA supports H.R. 788, which “leverages the power of the U.S. market to ‘export’ the best management practices of our country.” Rather than banning the sale of all shark fins, H.R. 788 requires all shark products that are imported into the U.S. come from fisheries that meet the same high standards as U.S. fisheries. This means that not only must they come from sharks that are not finned, but that they must also come from shark fisheries that are managed sustainably.

H.R. 788 promotes high standards of shark conservation at a global level, while, just as importantly, preserves increasingly important American shark fisheries.

“Not only do shark harvests provide an important source of income for American fishermen and their communities, but growing shark populations are rapidly increasing natural mortality on such important food and game fish as red snapper and grouper species, not to mention increasing predation on whales and marine mammals,” Mr. Gehan said.

Unfortunately, the subcommittee did not consider H.R. 788 at today’s hearing, instead focusing on a bill that will harm many constituents in coastal communities without providing meaningful shark conservation. SSA urges the subcommittee to reconsider H.R. 788 as a better alternative.

About the Sustainable Shark Alliance

The Sustainable Shark Alliance (SSA) is a coalition of shark fishermen and seafood dealers that advocates for sustainable U.S. shark fisheries and supports well-managed and healthy shark populations. The SSA stands behind U.S. shark fisheries as global leaders in successful shark management and conservation. The SSA is a member of Saving Seafood’s National Coalition for Fishing Communities.

How to keep conservation policies from backfiring in a globally connected world

March 13, 2019 — For many years environmentalists have urged the public to “think globally, act locally” — consider the health of the planet, then take action in your own community.

But this approach can have unintended consequences. In a recent study, I worked with colleagues from academia, government and the nonprofit world to gather examples of fishery, forestry, agriculture and biofuel policies that appeared successful locally, but on closer inspection actually created environmental problems elsewhere, or in some cases made them worse.

For example, in my field of fisheries ecology and management, one strategy for managing the problem of bycatch — when fishermen accidentally catch non-target species, such as sharks, sea turtles, and dolphins — is to reduce local catch limits. But when the United States curtailed Pacific swordfish catch between April 2001 and March 2004 to protect sea turtles, U.S. wholesalers imported more swordfish from other countries’ fleets operating in the Western and Central Pacific.

Read the full story at GreenBiz

The secret lives of New England sharks

February 28, 2019 — The New Bedford Science Café returns Wednesday March 6 with fisheries biologist Megan Winton, a PhD candidate at the School for Marine Science and Technology (SMAST), UMass-Dartmouth.

His presentation, “You’re gonna need a bigger dataset: How statistics are shedding light on the secret lives of sharks,” is slated for 6 to 8 p.m. at Greasy Luck, 791 Purchase St., New Bedford. Open to everyone. Free, except for beer and food.

Little is known about the great white sharks that swim in these waters. Sharks are notoriously difficult to study in the wild, especially as they migrate vast distances, are elusive and difficult to capture, a press release about the event states. But, as Winton will relate, that’s changing thanks to the rapid development of electronic tags that are capable of recording a tagged shark’s location, movement patterns, and local environment. Scientists now have unprecedented volumes of information to make sense of.

How does the collected data tell scientists what an animal is actually up to? What can be revealed about the broader population? Since 2015, Winton has been working with the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries and the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy to unravel mysteries about great white sharks off the coast of Cape Cod. As a quantitative fisheries biologist, she employs both math and her knowledge of species biology to gain insights into fish populations. The science, in the long run, can lend to better ways of protecting sharks and improving safety for humans.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

FLORIDA: FWC meeting addressed sharks, snapper and nonnative species

February 22, 2019 — It was a busy two days at the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission meeting in Gainesville.

By day’s end Thursday, the commission had approved changes to shark fishing regulations, no-take rules at a popular walk-in West Palm Beach dive site, hunting regulations, fishing regulations for red snapper in the Gulf of Mexico and spotted seatrout in southwest Florida’s most heavily affected red tide zone, and had instructed staff to develop plans on how to better control aquatic plants in Florida’s numerous lakes.

The FWC also took steps to stop illegal trapping of Florida’s native songbirds and took steps to further protect the state from high-risk invasive species.

Read the full story at Treasure Coast Newspapers

Suppliers Challenge Texas Law Targeting Shark Sales

February 20, 2019 — Sharks caught in U.S. waters are dressed in short order, fins are removed and carcasses are packed in trucks bound for Mexico. But an unconstitutional Texas law mandating sharks remain intact has cut off the Mexican market, shark-meat purveyors claim in a federal lawsuit.

Texas-based Ochoa Seafood Enterprises Inc. says in the complaint filed Tuesday in Houston federal court that its business depends on shark meat.

It gets 60 percent of its income from buying the meat from dealers in Louisiana, Florida and North Carolina and shipping all of it in refrigerated trucks through Texas to clients in Mexico City, where it’s filleted and put on grocery store shelves and restaurant menus.

But the company hit a snag last July when a Texas Parks and Wildlife Department agent contacted its owner and said an inspection of its refrigerated truck at the Mexico border had revealed it was shipping shark carcasses with the fins and tails removed in violation of Texas law.

Joined by its shark-meat supplier, Louisiana-based Venice Seafood LLC, and the trade group Sustainable Shark Alliance, Ochoa Seafood sued Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and Texas Parks and Wildlife Department Executive Director Carter Smith.

Read the full story at the Courthouse News Service

A proposal to ban killing sharks in Hawaii waters is gaining steam

February 12, 2019 — Capturing, taking, abusing or killing a shark in Hawaii waters would be illegal, under a Senate bill quickly gaining support.

The measure also expands a ban on killing manta rays to all rays in state waters.

Senate Bill 489 has the support of the state Department of Land and Natural Resources, the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, the Humane Society, and a number of environmental groups.

Violators of the proposal would face fines of $500 for a first offense and $10,000 for a third offense.

The islands are already at the forefront of enacting protections for sharks, but some say more work is needed to safeguard the animals at a time when the health of the world’s oceans is in decline.

Sharks and rays “are long-living and slow-growing, start reproducing at an advanced age, and produce relatively few offspring per year,” the measure before lawmakers says.

“Protection for sharks and rays ultimately means healthier, more resilient oceans and reefs that are better able to withstand other pressures on the ocean ecosystem from climate change and pollution.”

Read the full story at Hawaii News Now

Illegal trade in shark products dismissed by UK fish and chip industry

February 7, 2019 — University of Exeter researchers, studying the DNA of shark products sold in fishmongers, fish and chip shops, and Asian wholesalers in England, believe they have uncovered serious cases of mislabeling and a potential trade in critically endangered species.

However, their findings have been largely dismissed by the National Federation of Fish Friers (NFFF), which said in a statement that the fish sold in fish and chip outlets is all legally sourced.

The scientists found that 90 percent of products sold at fish and chip shops under umbrella terms such as huss, rock salmon, and rock eel, were actually spiny dogfish (Squalus acanthias). Landings of this fish into the European Union by E.U. and third-country vessels have been prohibited from the Northeast Atlantic since 2011 because it is classified as critically endangered on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) red list of threatened species.

Other species identified include blue sharks, Pacific spiny dogfish, nursehounds, and starry smoothounds, most of which are not in threatened categories, but they only made up a small minority of the samples.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Rep. Dan Webster Brings Back Sustainable Shark and Fisheries Trade Act

February 7, 2019 — U.S. Rep. Dan Webster, R-Fla., has brought back his proposal for the U.S. Commerce Department to increase regulation on the international shark trade.

Towards the end of last month, Webster brought back his “Sustainable Shark and Fisheries Trade Act” proposal which is being backed by cosponsors from both sides of the aisle including fellow Florida Republican U.S. Reps. Gus Bilirakis, Matt Gaetz and Ted Yoho.

“As a Floridian and member of the House Natural Resources Committee, responsible oversight of our nation’s wildlife, environment, and fishing industry is one of my priorities,” Webster said when he unveiled the proposal. “American fishermen have made sacrifices to rebuild and sustain our shark populations. In the United States, we hold high standards for conservation and fishery management. ”

The bill “would require any country that seeks to export shark, ray, and skate to the US to first demonstrate it has a system of science-based management to prevent overfishing and a prohibition on the practice of shark finning” and ensure other nations “must also receive certification from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration that its fisheries management policies are on par with US practices” and  modifies the High Seas Driftnet Fishing Moratorium Protection Act.

“By holding imports to the same standards that domestic fisheries already meet, this bipartisan legislation levels the playing field for our fishermen and helps maintain vibrant and economically-viable fishing communities, both on U.S. shores and around the world,” Webster’s office insisted.

Read the full story at the Sunshine State News

Reintroduced Shark Trade Bill Promotes Successful U.S. Conservation Policies at Global Level

Bill incentivizes nations to follow U.S. example of successful management

January 31, 2019 — WASHINGTON — The following was released by the Sustainable Shark Alliance:

A bipartisan bill introduced in the U.S. House advances global shark conservation by ensuring that all shark and ray products imported into the United States meet the same high ethical and sustainability standards required of American fishermen. The bill has broad support from conservation groups, zoos, aquariums and the fishing industry.  A companion bill is expected soon in the Senate; Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) introduced a similar bill in the last Congress.

The Sustainable Shark Fisheries and Trade Act of 2019 (SSFTA), H.R. 788, introduced by Rep. Daniel Webster (R-FL), and co-sponsored by Reps. Ted Lieu (D-CA), Bill Posey (R-FL), José Serrano (D-NY), among others, creates a transparent certification program for countries seeking to import shark products into the United States, modeled on similar laws that protect sea turtles and marine mammals across the globe. Similar legislation is expected to be introduced in the Senate.

Nations wishing to take advantage of the U.S. market for shark and ray products must prove they have an effective prohibition on the reprehensible and wasteful practice of shark finning, and have shark and ray management policies comparable to those under the Magnuson-Stevens Act.

Unlike legislation (H.R. 737) from Rep. Gregorio Kilili Camacho Sablan (D-NMI), which bans all trade of shark fins in the United States, the Sustainable Shark Fisheries and Trade Act creates incentives for improving shark conservation globally. The SSFTA punishes bad actors in other parts of the world while allowing responsible fishermen in the U.S. and elsewhere to realize the maximum value of their carefully managed and scientifically limited annual catch.

“Fishing is a long-standing profession and treasured American pastime, and particularly important in Florida,” said Rep. Webster. “Our responsibility is to balance the needs of the industry with conservation. This bill recognizes the sacrifices American fishermen have made to rebuild and sustain our shark populations and calls on others to meet these same high standards.”

“We thank the Congressmen for introducing the Sustainable Shark Fisheries and Trade Act,” said Tad Mask, regional director of the Southeastern Fisheries Association in Tallahassee, Florida. “The bill promotes shark conservation and the successful model of American shark management, without threatening law-abiding U.S. fishermen.”

“The idea of a fin ban comes as a first step in environmental groups ultimate goal of ending all shark fishing,” said Greg DiDomenico, director of the Garden State Seafood Association. “The same groups pushing Rep. Sablan’s bill are also calling for an end to shark fishing tournaments.  Supporting sensible shark conservation measures, like Rep. Webster’s, should be a common goal of the commercial and recreational fishing communities.”

U.S. shark fisheries are among the best managed in the world. In a paper published last year, Dr. David Shiffman, a Liber Ero Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Simon Fraser University, and Dr. Robert Hueter, Director of the Center for Shark Research at Mote Marine Laboratory, wrote that the U.S. “has some of the most sustainable shark fisheries on Earth” and called the U.S. “a model of successful management.”

Shark finning, the cruel practice of removing a shark’s fins at sea and discarding the rest of the shark, has been banned in the United States with industry support since the 1990s. Currently, when a shark is landed, the fins are left naturally attached.

The Sustainable Shark Alliance has long argued for the importance of obtaining the maximum value by fully utilizing the limited catches U.S. fishermen are allowed. A U.S. ban on the sale of fins deprives coastal communities of much needed income, while mandating waste of a valuable and culturally important resource.

“The answer to the problem of shark finning is not ‘reverse shark finning,’ by destroying the shark fins that are legally harvested,” said the Alliance’s counsel, Shaun Gehan. “It is to stop shark overfishing and waste of much needed shark protein in all the world’s shark fisheries. The SSFTA moves us in that direction.”

Prior versions of the Sustainable Shark Fisheries and Trade Act have been supported by commercial fishing industry groups, including but not limited to the Garden State Seafood Association, Southeastern Fisheries Association, North Carolina Fisheries Association, Directed Sustainable Fisheries, and Louisiana Shrimp Association; environmental groups, such as the Wildlife Conservation Society; and zoo and aquarium facilities, such as Mote Marine Laboratory, Palm Beach Zoo, SeaWorld, Zoo Miami Foundation and the Florida Aquarium. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission has also written in support of approach.

About the Sustainable Shark Alliance
The Sustainable Shark Alliance (SSA) is a coalition of shark fishermen and seafood dealers that advocates for sustainable U.S. shark fisheries and supports well-managed and healthy shark populations. The SSA stands behind U.S. shark fisheries as global leaders in successful shark management and conservation.