September 10, 2019 — A third of shrimp labeled “local” wild shrimp in North Carolina was actually imported farmed shrimp, a new study found.
A forensics sciences class at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill obtained shrimp samples from 60 grocery stores and seafood markets across the state, and found that 35 percent mislabeled local shrimp at least once. That is consistent with the mislabeling rate on shrimp nationwide, the students wrote in the article published on BioRxiv.
September 3, 2019 — Chinese consumers are increasingly interested in sustainability, according to Song Peng, the CEO of Qingdao Beiyang Jiamei Aquatic Products Co. Established in 2009, the firm distributes seafood to supermarkets and online markets in China under the “Seamix” brand, using the marketing slogan “Food safety, responsibility, sustainability.” The firm’s imports include Arctic shrimp, cod, salmon, Ecuadorian shrimp, and Greenland halibut. SeafoodSource talked to Song about the firm’s marketing strategy for certified sustainable products.
SeafoodSource: When and how did you discover the MSC certification program?
Peng: We started as a processor and then entered the domestic market. In 2010, we started to process MSC-certified cod and haddock for the European and American markets. We are now the leading supplier of MSC products in China market in terms of SKUs [stock keeping units].
August 30, 2019 — Seafood may be labeled as local from North Carolina, but often it actually comes from Asian ponds and arrives infused with harmful supplements, according to a new study.
A third of the shrimp marked as harvested from North Carolina waters likely was farm raised in a foreign country with fewer laws and oversight, according to a new study by the University of North Carolina.
Members of the study group bought 106 shrimp from 60 vendors, including 14 in Dare County and 15 in Hyde County. DNA tests determined the species.
The study highlights a practice where companies falsely label foreign seafood as local to sell at higher prices, double the amount in some cases.
“Consumers deserve to know what they’re getting,” said Glenn Skinner, executive director of the North Carolina Fisheries Association. “We feel strongly this should not be going on.”
August 29, 2019 — SEAFOOD NEWS — Shrimp landings in the Gulf of Mexico have been some of the worst in recent history, according to the Fishery Monitoring Branch of the NMFS Southeast Fisheries Science Center and the Southern Shrimp Alliance.
NMFS reported shrimp landings in the Gulf for July were only 7 million pounds, well below the 7.9 million pounds in July 2018 and the 8 million pounds in July 2017. The July commercial shrimp landings were 37.8 percent below the prior 17-year historic average of 11.3 million pounds for July.
Only 1.6 million pounds of shrimp were reported as landed in Louisiana — the third lowest volume for the state for a July in the last 18 years. All told, Louisiana landings were 62.1 percent below the prior 17-year historic average of 4.2 million pounds in July.
In Mississippi, only 415,000 pounds of shrimp were reported as landed, the second lowest total reported for any July from that state in the last 18 years, according to a Southern Shrimp Alliance press release.
For the year, landings of shrimp in Louisiana and the west coast of Florida are at the lowest levels they have ever been through the first seven months. Outside of 2010, the landings reported in Mississippi for the year are the lowest they have been in the past 18 years.
Shrimp harvests at historical levels in Texas and significantly above historical levels in Alabama have somewhat offset the low numbers from the rest of the Gulf, but landings in the region, at 35.6 million pounds, are the second lowest volume reported in the last 18 years.
Last month, NMFS reported ex-vessel prices for four of six count sizes of shrimp landed in the eastern Gulf (west coast of Florida) and five of six count sizes of shrimp landed in the northern Gulf (Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi). In the northern Gulf and western Gulf, the ex-vessel prices showed a large divergence between prices for large shrimp, U15, and all other shrimp. In the western Gulf, prices for U15 size shrimp were the highest reported for any July (not adjusting for inflation) in the 19-year database maintained by the Southern Shrimp Alliance.
This story was originally published on SeafoodNews.com, a subscription site. It is reprinted with permission.
August 7, 2019 — One of the ways the state plans to rebuild land on the Louisiana coast is by sediment diversions — diverting the silt, sand, and dirty waters of the Mississippi River into the marsh.
For years, many in the commercial fishing industry have claimed that the influx of freshwater funneled through diversions would ruin their industry. Now, some fishers feel they have proof: the damaging impacts of the 2019 Mississippi River Flood.
On a bayou in the St. Bernard Parish town of Yscloskey, George Barisich starts up his shrimp boat.
“Hear that?” he says, as the diesel engine below our feet roars to a start. “That’s the sound we want to hear.”
Barisich says that engine hasn’t gotten much use lately. There is no point in heading into the marsh when there aren’t any shrimp to catch.
“I’m 82 percent off on my brown shrimp,” he says of this season. “Eighty two. And there’s a lot of people just as bad.”
July 26, 2019 — SEAFOOD NEWS — NMFS is reporting that shrimp landings in the Gulf of Mexico last month were slightly higher than in June last year and also in 2017 — but still below the 17-year historic average.
The Fishery Monitoring Branch of the NMFS Southeast Fisheries Science Center released shrimp landings data from the Gulf of Mexico for June 2019 this week. The data showed June landings of 11.1 million pounds were higher than the 10.9 million pounds in June 2018 and June 2017, the Southern Shrimp Alliance said in a press release.
The 17-year historic average for June is 16.7 million pounds.
Although landings volumes appear to have recovered somewhat in June, the commercial shrimp harvest remains substantially below previous years for the year so far. Roughly 28.6 million pounds of shrimp have been landed in the Gulf of Mexico since January, 34 percent below the 17-year historic average of 43.4 million pounds. It is also the second lowest amount reported for a January-to-June time period since 2002.
For 2019 thus far, the landings in Louisiana,10.5 million pounds, and the west coast of Florida, 2.0 million pounds, are the lowest reported in the historic dataset maintained by the Southern Shrimp Alliance, while landings in Mississippi, 1.1 million pounds, are the second lowest total reported.
Last month, NOAA reported ex-vessel prices for just two count sizes of shrimp landed in the eastern Gulf (west coast of Florida) and just three count sizes of shrimp landed in the northern Gulf (Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi). The ex-vessel prices reported for shrimp landed in the western Gulf (Texas) were roughly in line with the ex-vessel prices reported for the same count sizes in June 2018.
NOAA’s monthly reporting of shrimp landings in the Gulf of Mexico continues to include the disclaimer that the summaries collected or estimated from federal port agents may not reflect individual states’ landings.
As noted, the numbers reported – and the ex-vessel prices that have not been reported – over the last several months by NMFS appear to indicate that port agents may have been unable to collect information in the same manner as they have done historically, the SSA said in the statement.
Ex-vessel prices for 26-30, headless/shell-on shrimp in June show prices roughly the same as the historical averages, but more than $2 a pound less than the high prices reported in June 2014. June ex-vessel prices for U15 shrimp show a general increasing trend for northern Gulf and west coast Florida shrimp but a roller coaster ride for shrimp from the western Gulf. Still, the average ex-vessel price for June for U15 shrimp was $9.52 a pound for both western and northern Gulf shrimp, according to the SSA report.
The full SSA shrimp landings and ex-vessel prices report can be found here:
http://www.shrimpalliance.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/June-2019-Landings.pdf
This story was originally published on SeafoodNews.com, a subscription site. It is reprinted with permission.
July 10, 2019 — The news just got worse for the commercial fishing industry in Louisiana and Mississippi. Already impacted by oyster mortalities and movement of shrimp to other areas after the Bonnet Carre Spillway opening, the Gulf Coast is expecting flooding due to a tropical storm and likely hurricane this weekend.
A weather system in the Gulf could form as a tropical depression or tropical storm this week, and then hit the Gulf Coast as a Category 1 hurricane on Saturday, according to the National Weather Service.
Already, the tropical system caused flash flooding in New Orleans, and the Mississippi River in New Orleans is forecast to crest near 20 feet this Saturday, according to the National Weather Service.
The Mississippi and Louisiana fishing industries are already plagued by Mississippi River flooding. The flooding caused the opening of the Bonnet Carre Spillway more than 100 days ago, causing freshwater to mix with saltwater, producing toxic algae bloom off the coast of Mississippi and in Lake Pontchartrain near New Orleans.
Already, a majority of oysters along the coast of Louisiana and Mississippi are dead, and other seafood species have been impacted.
July 9, 2019 — Midwestern fish farmers grow a variety of species, such as tilapia, salmon, barramundi and shrimp, all of which require a high-protein diet. The region grows copious amounts of soybeans, which have a lot of protein, but these two facts have yet to converge.
Take Eagle’s Catch, a tilapia farm in Ellsworth, Iowa, where a nearly 4-acre greenhouse is filled with tanks that segregate the fish by size. CEO Joe Sweeney said he feeds the fish a soybean-based diet he buys from a processor in the South.
“We’re actually getting it from Louisiana, unfortunately,” Sweeney said, “feeding Louisiana and Arkansas soybeans. But as time goes on I look forward to feeding them that Iowa product.”
Across the 12 states served by the North Central Regional Aquaculture Center, from Ohio to North Dakota to Kansas, hundreds of businesses are trying to raise fish for food. But local demand will have to grow to make them viable. If that happens, aquaculture could provide a new market for Midwestern soybeans and other grains at a time when turmoil in international trade and several years of very high yields have led to oversupply.
July 9, 2019 — U.S. seafood groups are lauding an updated government guidance that encourages pregnant and breastfeeding women and children to eat more seafood.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is updating its 2015-2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, released in 2017, which recommends that Americans eat at least eight ounces of seafood per week, based on a 2,000-calorie diet. While FDA did not increase the amount of seafood adults should eat, it is emphasizing the nutritional benefits – particularly to pregnant and breastfeeding women as well as children – of eating at least eight ounces of seafood weekly.
The agency also aims to help consumers who should limit their exposure to mercury choose from the many types of fish that are lower in mercury – “including ones commonly found in grocery stores, such as salmon, shrimp, pollock, canned light tuna, tilapia, catfish and cod,” the FDA said in a press release.
However, “it is important to note that women who might become pregnant, or who are pregnant or breastfeeding – along with young children – should avoid the few types of commercial fish with the highest levels of mercury listed on the chart,” FDA said.
June 18, 2019 — Louisiana’s governor says floodwaters from the Midwest are severely hurting people who make their living from coastal seafood, so he’s asking the federal government to declare a fisheries disaster for the state.
Floodwaters rushing from the Bonnet Carré Spillway north of New Orleans have killed oysters, hurt fish catches and damaged livelihoods, Gov. John Bel Edwards said in a letter to Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross.
The fresh water has driven crabs, shrimp and fish out of bays and marshes and into saltier water where they can survive. But oysters are stuck — glued to the bottom.
“On a scale of 1 to 10, we are 9-and-a-half destroyed,” said Brad Robin, whose family controls about 10,000 acres (4,000 hectares) of oyster leases in Louisiana waters.
The full impact won’t be known for some time because the spillway, which protects New Orleans’ levees by directing huge amounts of Mississippi River water into usually brackish Lake Pontchartrain, remains open, Edwards said in a letter sent Thursday and released Monday.
If a long-range forecast of little rain holds up, spillway closing might begin in about four weeks, Army Corps of Engineers spokesman Matt Roe said Monday.