Saving Seafood

MAINE: Shellfish direct sales

April 8, 2020 — The Maine Department of Marine Resources’ Bureau of Public Health published guidelines Monday for shellfish harvesters and growers selling directly to consumers. 

Bivalve shellfish are closely managed and monitored, even during a pandemic, because the state agency must continue to make sure the product is safe from biotoxins and other hazardous materials. 

Harvesters may sell directly from their homes — customers must pick up, no delivery — or directly from a standard aquaculture lease site (not a limited purpose lease site). 

Read the full story at the Mount Desert Islander

New report explores the future of alternative aquafeed ingredients

April 6, 2020 — A new report from Lux Research explores the future of alternative aquafeed ingredients, evaluating insect protein, single-cell protein, and algae protein as potential replacement options in fishmeal.

The FAO estimated in 2018 that aquaculture production would reach 201 million metric tons (MT) by 2030, in line with a 10 percent annual increase in demand for fish protein. However, according to IFFO, global annual fishmeal production from marine organisms – including fish, krill, shellfish, and algae – has remained at 5 million MT in recent years, with one third of the world’s fishmeal production coming courtesy of byproducts from wild-capture fisheries and aquaculture.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

RHODE ISLAND: Virus puts freeze on demand for shellfish

April 3, 2020 — Jody King’s hands usually dry out from salt water after a day of work on Narragansett Bay, where he rakes quahogs for a living from the sandy bottom around Prudence Island.

Now, King’s hands dry out from using too much Purell.

His last day of steady quahogging was more than a week ago, when his dealer called to say he couldn’t buy any more clams. These days, King sits at home, waiting for a call to return to work.

With restaurants shuttered and fish markets in Boston, New York and other East Coast cities closed because of the spread of coronavirus, quahoggers like King have been left with no demand for their product.

“The bay is open, and I can’t go to work,” said King. “This is an absolute first.”

Andrade’s Catch in Bristol usually buys 4,000 to 6,000 clams a day from quahoggers, but after the wholesale business collapsed the shop could only move 1,000 pieces a day selling retail to locals.

“We could make it another month, a month and a half like this, but the fishermen are really at risk,” said Davy Andrade, a part-time owner of the shop. “It takes about $200 a day to run a boat and pay the bills and feed their family, and these guys are pulling in $100 a day if they’re lucky.”

Read the full story at the Warwick Beacon

Federal stimulus not too soon for Massachusetts fish, shellfish industry

March 30, 2020 — Stimulus funds made possible by the signing of the phase three coronavirus bill can’t come fast enough for finfish and shellfish harvesters and dealers in the US state of Massachusetts, the Cape Cod Times reports.

The newspaper on Friday, the day the bill was passed by the House of Representatives by voice vote and signed by president Donald Trump, recounted how multiple seafood sectors were being affected by the virus. COVID-19 has now infected over 143,000 and killed over 2,500 in the US and caused the closing or partial closing of foodservice establishments all over the country.

Industry leaders had informed Daniel McKiernan, acting director of the state’s Division of Marine Fisheries (DMF), in a March 20 conference call that 70% of all seafood sold in Massachusetts is consumed in restaurants. Especially hard-hit are “luxury” seafood species, such as lobster, scallops, swordfish and tuna, the newspaper noted.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

The best places to buy fresh seafood online in 2020

March 25, 2020 — With much of the country practicing some form of social distancing and attempting to keeping indoors whenever possible, delivery services have become all that more useful. From booze to groceries, butcher meats and even fully-prepared meals , these services are providing a level of safety the public, especially for those at high risk of becoming sick. The following is our pre-COVID-19 list of the best seafood delivery services in 2020 to keep a steady flow of healthy fish coming, even in these unnerving times. Be sure to check that the services listed are accepting new customers and deliver to your area.

There are lots of reasons to buy more seafood. Generally speaking, fish and seafood (wild caught in particular) are healthier both for our bodies and the planet than beef, chicken, pork and other meats (all now largely factory-farmed, often using growth hormones and other dubious practices). But for every reason to eat more fish and seafood, there seems to be an obstacle in the way — cost and access to name a few.

It might sound counterintuitive to order seafood online but a bevy of new members of the online seafood industry are proving that fish and seafood delivery might just be the best way to get fresh and affordable seafood into your home, especially when living far from fished waters. “Fresh seafood delivery” is not an oxymoron. A reliable seafood market (or seafood restaurant) with a consistently fresh bounty of salmon, halibut, crab and other shellfish is a treasure, to be certain, but not every town or neighborhood has one, and if you live far from the ocean things get even dicier.

This score of online ordering seafood delivery companies offer everything from high-quality salmon, jumbo shrimp, gulf shrimp, clams (and clam chowder), oysters, cape porpoise lobster and crab legs to harder-to-find fish species like monkfish and grouper, all flash-frozen, expertly packaged and delivered right to your door as a one-time order or recurring subscription. The new players are finding innovative ways to ensure maximum freshness and accountability and supporting sustainable seafood, with many now providing detailed records about exactly where the fish and seafood came from, when it was caught, how far it traveled and what sorts of fishing practices have been employed.

Read the full story at CNET

Alaska shellfish farmers and divers object to paying for federally required lab tests

March 18, 2020 — Alaska shellfish farmers and divers fear they won’t be “open for business” much longer if they’re forced to pick up the tab for federally required lab tests as outlined in Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s budget.

The Department of Environmental Conservation has proposed shifting the cost to the harvesters, which last year totaled almost a half million dollars.

Geoduck clam divers in Southeast Alaska, for example, pay about $150,000 each year to collect samples that are sent to the single federally approved laboratory in Anchorage and tested for paralytic shellfish poison and other toxins. Divers also pay $20,000 for water quality samples twice a year, and $8,000 to test for inorganic arsenic.

“And then we pay the Alaska Department of Fish and Game about $25,000 a year for them to do the management and assessment of the geoduck resource,” said Phil Doherty, co-director of the Southeast Alaska Regional Dive Association.

The geoduck divers also tax themselves 7% to cover SARDFA’s $50,000 administrative costs. In all, Doherty said it adds up to $266,00 a year.

Read the full story at the Anchorage Daily News

Washington shellfish suppliers forced to downsize due to coronavirus

March 10, 2020 — Seattle, Washington, U.S.A. and its surrounding areas have emerged as the epicenter of the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak within the United States, with 136 of the country’s 545 reported cases reported there as of the morning of Sunday, 8 March, according to the Washington Department of Health.

The resulting public health crisis has led to a severe decline in seafood exports to China, where the virus originated late last year. Seattle Shellfish, which produces geoduck for export to China, has laid off more than 35 of 60 employees hired just two months ago in January.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Can kelp help protect shellfish from ocean acidification?

February 27, 2020 — Marine scientist Susie Arnold of the Island Institute will discuss research about kelp farming and ocean acidification Monday, March 9 at 5 p.m. at the MDI Biological Laboratory, as part of the laboratory’s Science Café series.

Maine’s scenic coastlines and long-established fisheries contribute to the state’s economy, making Maine vulnerable to the effects of ocean acidification from both an environmental and socio-economic perspective.

To address this vulnerability, Maine was the first East Coast state to convene a legislatively established commission, tasked with understanding increased ocean acidification and the potential impacts on commercially important species.

Arnold has been part of a joint research effort, undertaken by Island Institute, Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences and aquaculture industry collaborators, to better understand the role of growing and harvesting macroalgae in capturing carbon, and to determine potential benefits of co-cultivating kelp or other macrophytes alongside farmed shellfish.

Read the full story at the Mount Desert Islander

Maine Implements Emergency Closures In Scallop Fishery

December 11, 2019 — Maine fishing regulators are implementing emergency closures in the state’s scallop harvesting industry for the first time this season.

Maine scallop fishing takes place every winter, and the state uses emergency closures to protect the valuable shellfish against overfishing.

The Maine Department of Marine Resources says it has closed Moosabec Reach, which is an area off Jonesport in Down East Maine.

Read the full story at Maine Public

MASSACHUSETTS: Scituate commercial shellfish harvesting proposal raises concerns among residents

November 20, 2019 — The idea of launching a commercial shellfish harvesting program in Scituate has generated discussions on the possible benefits the industry could bring. As the town’s boards and committees work to finalize the necessary policies and procedures, however, there is a strong current of opposition to the present plan site.

“It’s not that we are against shellfishing, we’re against the location they’ve chosen,” said Scituate resident Peter Marathas Jr. “We feel there is a better place they could put this.”

Marathas was one of a large group of residents from both Scituate and Cohasset who attended the Oct. 29 Scituate Board of Selectmen meeting, at which members of the Scituate Shellfish Advisory Committee presented an update on the proposed pilot program and on the rules and regulations that would go along with it.

Read the full story at Wicked Local