Saving Seafood

USDA wants to buy more US wild shrimp, pollock

September 14, 2020 — Not long after purchasing hefty amounts of U.S. pollock, salmon, and other seafood, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is now asking for bids on large quantities of wild shrimp and wild Alaska pollock nuggets.

The USDA is asking suppliers to bid on 318,000 containers of frozen peeled and deveined shrimp – required to be in two- or five-pound primary packages further packaged into 20-pound shipping containers – by 18 September. The shrimp will be delivered to several U.S. cities between 1 November, 2020, and 31 January, 2021.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

FDA rejects historically low seafood imports in July

August 25, 2020 — The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) refused only 37 seafood entry lines in July, continuing a trend where federal officials were rejecting a historically low number of products.

According to the Southern Shrimp Alliance, that amount is by far a record low for the month. It’s only 21.3 percent of this historical average the alliance has tracked since 2002. It’s also significantly lower than the previous record low of 91 entry lines, which occurred last year.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

The U.S. government is donating gulf shrimp to food banks

August 18, 2020 — COVID-19 has impacted agriculture around the country, and that extends to U.S. shrimp fisheries, which are largely located along the coastline of the Gulf of Mexico. With restaurants and hotels closed around the country the demand for shrimp is way, way down, leading to fears that the price of shrimp will collapse. To help offset this, the U.S. government has stepped in and announced it will be buying $30 million worth of U.S.-harvested shrimp.

As reported by the Associated Press (with a hat-tip to Modern Farmer for alerting us to the story), the massive shrimp buy is the result of lobbying from both Louisiana and Mississippi, two states that produce shrimp and stand to be impacted by COVID-related factors. In a press release Mississippi’s two U.S. senators and one of its house members stated that they had sent a letter to Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue in May, asking that the USDA purchase shrimp (thus propping up the industry) and distribute that same shrimp to people being impacted by the pandemic.

Read the full story at The Takeout

Feds cancel study of Maine’s imperiled shrimp fishery

August 7, 2020 — The federal government is canceling a research survey about New England’s imperiled shrimp fishery due to challenges caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

The Maine shrimp fishery has been shut down for several years because of concerns such as poor survival of young. Scientists have said environmental conditions in the Gulf of Maine have put the future of the fishery at risk.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration was scheduled to perform a research survey about the fishery this year, but announced its cancellation this week. The agency said it’s also canceling a handful of other research surveys off the East Coast and Gulf Coast because of “uncertainties created by the COVID-19 pandemic and the unique challenges those are creating for NOAA Fisheries.”

The shrimp were once a popular winter seafood item. Fishermen also harvested them in Massachusetts and New Hampshire.

Read the full story at the Bangor Daily News

NORTH CAROLINA: Recreational fishermen sue trawlers, state over coastal shrimping

August 6, 2020 — A group of recreational fishermen and fishing guides sued some of the state’s largest shrimping companies and state regulators this week, taking a long-running fight over coastal fishing rules to federal court.

The lawsuit accuses shrimp trawlers of violating state and federal rules, killing off large populations of fish and churning up sediment as a byproduct of dragging shrimp nets across the sea floor. The group asks a federal judge to enforce the rules in place.

“Each defendant independently and significantly has harmed North Carolina’s coastal waters by using non-selective, destructive trawling equipment to harvest shrimp, or by allowing such shrimp trawling practices to continue despite federal and state laws prohibiting such activities,” the lawsuit states.

Read the full story at WRAL

LOUISIANA: USDA to buy $30 million pounds of domestic shrimp

August 6, 2020 — The federal government will buy $30 million worth of domestic shrimp to distribute as part of its emergency food assistance efforts during the COVID-19 pandemic, officials said.

Lawmakers say the action will also benefit Louisiana’s shrimp industry as fishermen struggle with decreased sales amid restaurant closures states have enacted to slow the coronavirus’s spread.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture approved the purchase this week under a law that allows it to provide food assistance to states and food banks nationwide during emergencies.

“This is great news for the U.S. shrimp industry, including Louisiana shrimpers, who tirelessly work to provide their delicious, world-class product,” said U.S. Rep. Steve Scalise, R-Metairie, whose district includes southern Terrebonne and Lafourche, home to many shrimp fishermen and processors. “This program will support our shrimpers who have been adversely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic while providing U.S. shrimp proudly produced in Louisiana and the entire Gulf Coast to the families who need it most.”

U.S. Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., also praised the action.

Read the full story at Houma Today

NOAA Fisheries Cancels Four Fisheries and Ecosystem Surveys for 2020

August 4, 2020 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

Summer Ecosystem Monitoring, Northern Shrimp, Autumn Bottom-Trawl, and Summer/Fall Plankton surveys cancelled for 2020

Due to the uncertainties created by the COVID-19 pandemic and the unique challenges those are creating for NOAA Fisheries, we are cancelling four research surveys off the East and Gulf Coast of the United States. The cancelled surveys include:

  • Autumn Bottom Trawl Survey (NEFSC)
  • Summer Ecosystem Monitoring Survey (NEFSC)
  • Northern Shrimp Survey (NEFSC)
  • Summer and Fall Plankton Survey (SEFSC)

These are difficult decisions for the agency as we strive to balance our need to maintain core mission responsibilities with the realities and impacts of the current health crisis. Since March, we have been rigorously analyzing various options for conducting surveys this year and are taking a survey-by-survey, risk-based approach. After much deliberation, we determined that we will not be able to move forward with these surveys while effectively minimizing risk and meeting core survey objectives.

The Cancelled Surveys

The Summer Ecosystem Monitoring Survey run out of the NOAA’s Northeast Fisheries Science Center captures seasonal changes in the ocean environment, information used for multiple scientific inquiries. Over its 33-year history, some seasons have been missed and the number of annual surveys has varied, and methods have been developed to bridge these data gaps.

The Northern Shrimp Survey is conducted aboard the R/V Gloria Michelle, a 72-foot ship maintained by the Northeast Fisheries Science Center. A major use of survey data is setting shrimp fishery quotas. The shrimp fishery is closed through 2021.

The Autumn Bottom Trawl Survey, also run out of the Northeast Fisheries Science Center, has been conducted since 1963.  It provides crucial resource and ecosystem data, especially for fishery stock assessments. A future bottom longline survey and new work on industry-based sources of data may help mitigate data gaps.

The Summer/Fall Plankton Survey, run out of NOAA’s Southeast Fisheries Science Center covers the entire continental shelf in the Gulf of Mexico region from Brownsville, Texas, to Key West, Florida. It is the only fishery independent survey available to measure the spawning capacity of the adult population of Gulf of Mexico King Mackerel and an important supplemental survey for red snapper and several other reef fish.

The Summer Ecosystem Monitoring Survey run out of the NOAA’s Northeast Fisheries Science Center captures seasonal changes in the ocean environment, information used for multiple scientific inquiries. Over its 33-year history, some seasons have been missed and the number of annual surveys has varied, and methods have been developed to bridge these data gaps.

The Northern Shrimp Survey is conducted aboard the R/V Gloria Michelle, a 72-foot ship maintained by the Northeast Fisheries Science Center. A major use of survey data is setting shrimp fishery quotas. The shrimp fishery is closed through 2021.

The Autumn Bottom Trawl Survey, also run out of the Northeast Fisheries Science Center, has been conducted since 1963.  It provides crucial resource and ecosystem data, especially for fishery stock assessments. A future bottom longline survey and new work on industry-based sources of data may help mitigate data gaps.

The Summer/Fall Plankton Survey, run out of NOAA’s Southeast Fisheries Science Center covers the entire continental shelf in the Gulf of Mexico region from Brownsville, Texas, to Key West, Florida. It is the only fishery independent survey available to measure the spawning capacity of the adult population of Gulf of Mexico King Mackerel and an important supplemental survey for red snapper and several other reef fish.

Next Steps

These cancellations follow similar difficult cancellation decisions of the ship-based work we had planned from April to July. NOAA Fisheries is continuing to assess the status of other surveys in all our regions. We are working through numerous survey scenarios relative to community pandemic safeguards and safe work practices so that we maximize the science available for fisheries management in this challenging year.

US shrimp market still hard to predict amid “COVID-19 chaos”

July 15, 2020 — Several months into the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. shrimp market remains hard to nail down, as ever-shifting market conditions continue to make it difficult to predict where prices and demand will end up.

As early as April, experts were predicting that the shrimp supply chain would see impacts into the summer months as COVID-19 related lockdowns and disruptions hit both supplies and the amount of shrimp demanded in the U.S.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Bloomberg Corrects Record on China’s Shrimp and COVID-19 Story

July 13, 2020 — The following was released by the National Fisheries Institute:

Bloomberg, the giant media company with reporters in more than 100 countries, has corrected its piece originally titled, “China Signals Shrimp Virus Risk After Salmon Debacle.” Reporting on China’s General Administration of Customs announcement, the article erroneously claimed COVID-19 tests found the virus on “both the inside and outside of… shrimp packaging.”

The National Fisheries Institute (NFI) reached out to the reporting team and their editors to point out the positive COVID-19 tests were found inside the shipment container, not inside the product’s packaging.

“There was genuine confusion caused by this inaccurate reporting,” said NFI’s Senior Director of Communications and Advocacy, Brandon Phillips.  “This was not an issue of semantics. It was an issue of specificity.  Reports of a positive test on a shipping container as opposed to inside a product’s packaging are two very different stories.”

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Department of Agriculture (USDA) have been clear that COVID-19 is not a food borne illness. In June, the FDA and USDA released a joint statement that said, “Efforts by some countries to restrict global food exports related to Covid-19 transmission are not consistent with the known science of transmission.” Further, the statement read there’s, “no evidence that people can contract Covid-19 from food or from food packaging.”

“We’re disappointed that Bloomberg didn’t get the facts right the first time but we applaud them for correcting their mistake,” said Phillips. “Seafood continues to be a safe, healthy and available food that consumers should choose.”