Saving Seafood

As season closes, Texas shrimp industry battles hostile trends

May 18, 2016 — The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department’s Coastal Fisheries Division decided May 15 was a good time to close the state’s shrimp season because, according to its sampling, the average size and number of brown shrimp in Texas coastal waters is higher than the 20-year average.

Texas closes its waters to shrimping from the coast to nine nautical miles out for roughly two months each year to give little shrimp time to grow before being harvested. The National Marine Fisheries Service typically imposes a closure out to 200 nautical miles at the same time.

More, bigger shrimp is potentially good news for the state’s struggling shrimp industry, since big shrimp fetch higher prices, according to Andrea Hance, shrimp fleet owner and executive director of the Texas Shrimp Association.

Read the full story at the Valley Morning Star

LOUISIANA: Agents bust four men for illegal shrimping, LDWF says

May 17, 2016 — Four Plaquemines Parish men sought to get a jump on their competition by shrimping in inshore waters Tuesday (May 10), according to the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries. The inshore shrimp season won’t open until May 23 at 6 a.m.

Agents say they saw the vessel Captain Bean actively shrimping with skimmers in the Bayou Grand Liard area near Buras around 9 p.m.

They cited Eulice J. Ordoyne Jr, 67, of Buras, and Trebor Fabiano, 33, of Belle Chasse, for using skimmers during a closed shrimp season. Additionally, Ordoyne was cited for using improper navigation lights.

Read the full story at the New Orleans Times-Picayune

Shrimp season to kick off this month in Louisiana

May 10, 2016 — Starting on 23 May at 6 a.m. local time, inshore shrimpers across the state of Louisiana will be permitted to begin their spring season.

The decision comes from the Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Commission, which voted on 5 May to go ahead with a universal opening that won’t be staggered among shrimp zones for the second year in a row, reported Nola.com.

The move to go ahead with an un-staggered opening opposes Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries data, which found that an earlier opening would benefit certain areas such as with the Barataria, Timbalier, Terrebonne and the Vermilion-Teche basins. Shrimp would reach harvestable size in the Barataria, Timbalier and Terrebonne basins on or before 16 May, according to the data presented by department biologist Jeff Marx.

Read the full story from Seafood Source

Feds continue to discuss potential new regulations for turtle excluder devices

April 22, 2016 — The federal government is considering new requirements and regulations for turtle excluder devices to reduce sea turtle bycatch in shrimp fisheries.

Michael Barnett, a fisheries biologist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Marine Fisheries Service, said it has been documented that there are an abundance of turtles in the Gulf of Mexico in the same areas and at the same times that skimmer trawl fisheries operate.

Through the use of TEDs and protecting nesting sites, turtle populations have had a “dramatic increase,” Barnett said. However, with a number of catches being seen in skimmer trawls, it is necessary for NOAA to look into rules regarding bycatch in skimmers.

Notably from the data already collecting, Barnett said, is that the turtles being seen in the bycatch were small, young turtles that could have passed through the 4-inch bar spacing of standard TEDs.

Read the full story at Houma Today

AP Explore: Seafood from slaves

April 21, 2016 — Over the course of 18 months, Associated Press journalists located men held in cages, tracked ships and stalked refrigerated trucks to expose the abusive practices of the fishing industry in Southeast Asia. The reporters’ dogged effort led to the release of more than 2,000 slaves and traced the seafood they caught to supermarkets and pet food providers across the U.S. For this investigation, AP has won the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service.

Read the articles at the Associated Press

Reducing Bycatch in Shrimp Trawlers: Could Efforts in North Carolina Provide a Solution?

April 5, 2016 — Bycatch is a huge problem for the US shrimp industry, which is under pressure to reduce the unintended entrapment of marine species. Devices that deflect turtles and help fish avoid or escape the nets have been necessary for years, and federal law requires nets to be fitted with devices that reduce bycatch by 30 per cent but despite this, the amount of bycatch is still about three times that of the targeted shrimp (North Carolina Wildlife Federation).

A report released by the North Carolina Wildlife Federation described the amount of bycatch in the state as being unsustainably high and unacceptable at about three times that of the targeted shrimp.

But North Carolina’s shrimp industry is huge — fishermen harvested 14.1 million US dollars worth of shrimp in 2014, and nearly 200 commercial fishermen currently work in the industry.

In light of the bycatch, North Carolina is now taking steps to find a solution. In 2015 the North Carolina Marine Fisheries Commission established a group of fishermen, net makers, researchers, fish dealers and other stakeholders who gather and evaluate information on the effectiveness of various bycatch reduction devices or BRDs.

Among those tested are the composite panel with spooker cones (a cylindrical shaped device used to spook or scare fish to seek escape), additional escape openings called fisheyes and tailbags, also known as codends, the portion of the net that holds the shrimp catch.

Read the full story at The Fish Site

LIVE FROM SENA: Plenty of Fish in the Sea

March 9, 2016 — In the immediate wake of the 2016 Seafood Expo North America, the overwhelming impression is of bounty. As always, there was a plethora of product to sample, with plenty of standout items. Traversing the show floor at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center this week, Progressive Grocer noted even more breaded/crusted offerings than in past years, with shrimp, crab, clams, calamari, oysters, catfish, cod, tilapia, grouper, haddock and rainbow trout all getting the crunchy treatment, some in the form of bite-sized chunks. Also observed: a continuing trend towards zesty spices, sauces and marinades, with Southwestern flavors – as evidenced by the fish tacos served up by Miramar, Fla.-based Regal Springs, which donated 5 pounds of tilapia for every taco sampled to hunger relief nonprofit SeaShare – and sriracha particularly prevalent.

At the National Fish & Seafood booth, Nancy Peterson, VP of marketing at the Gloucester, Mass.-based company, was particularly excited about the company’s newest product introduction under its Matlaw’s brand: the seven-SKU Big Bag Value line, which Peterson noted offers on-trend flavor, variety and affordable price in clear, super-sized bilingual (English and Spanish) packaging enabling customers to see just what they’re purchasing. Among the products in the convenient frozen line are Shrimp Jalapeño Mac & Cheese Bites, leveraging consumer interest in breaded, bite-sized, spicy items. National Fish & Seafood is considering adding a lobster option to the line, according to Peterson, who adds that the company gets many of its ideas for retail products from items developed for foodservice. “That’s worked very well for us,” she asserted.

Read the full story at Progressive Grocer

Announcing 2016 Fishing Opportunities in the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization (NAFO) Regulatory Area

March 1, 2016 — We are announcing 2016 fishing opportunities in the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization (NAFO) Regulatory Area for U.S. fishing vessels.

Read the announcement as filed in the Federal Register.

Background

The United States is a Contracting Party to the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization or NAFO. NAFO is an intergovernmental fisheries science and management body whose convention on Northwest Atlantic Fisheries applies to most fishery resources in international waters of the Northwest Atlantic. 

NAFO’s Fisheries Commission is responsible for the management and conservation of the fishery resources in its Regulatory Area.

What NAFO fishing opportunities are available to U.S. fishing vessels?

NAFO manages Atlantic cod, yellowtail and witch flounders, Acadian redfish, American plaice, Greenland halibut, white hake, capelin, shrimp, skates, and Illex squid. NAFO maintains conservation measures for these species (in its Regulatory Area), including catch limits that are allocated among NAFO Contracting Parties. 

Who can apply for these fishing opportunities?

Any U.S. fishing interests (e.g., vessel owners, processors, agents, others). 

How do I apply?

Send an expression of interest in writing to:

John K. Bullard

U.S. Commissioner to NAFO

NMFS Greater Atlantic Regional Fisheries Office 

55 Great Republic Drive

Gloucester, MA 01930 

phone: 978-281-9315

John.Bullard@noaa.gov

For more information, read the Federal Register announcement, visit the NAFO website, or contact:

Michael Ruccio

NMFS Greater Atlantic Regional Fisheries Office

55 Great Republic Drive

Gloucester, MA 01930 

phone: 978-281-9104

fax: 978-281-9135

Michael.Ruccio@noaa.gov

The deadline is March 15.

Slave Labor on the High Seas

February 20, 2016 — Shocking revelations about the international fishing industry’s reliance on slave labor have caused many people to question the origin of the shrimp or tuna they eat. The disclosures have also led the United States to take some important new steps to clamp down on the use of indentured workers and discourage other unlawful activities on the high seas.

President Obama is expected to sign legislation that effectively bans American imports of fish caught by forced labor in Southeast Asia. The bill, passed by Congress this month, would close a loophole in the Tariff Act of 1930 that prohibits imports made by convicts or forced labor but exempts such goods if American domestic production could not meet demand. Now that is expected to end. The president recently signed an agreement allowing officials to deny port services to foreign vessels suspected of illegal fishing.

In another useful move, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration this month said it would improve how seafood is tracked from catch to market by imposing new reporting requirements on American importers, who purchase from overseas sources 90 percent of the seafood that humans and pets consume in the United States. These new requirements would affect 16 species, including cod, snapper and some tuna, and are intended to protect species that are overfished or at risk of being overfished by cracking down on illegally caught or mislabeled fish.

Read the full editorial at The New York Times

To Combat Illegal Fishing, Feds Propose Seafood Traceability Program

February 15, 2016 — The National Marine Fisheries Service is proposing a new program meant to improve record keeping about seafood imported to the United States.

In early February, the agency announced a new traceability plan that’s meant to help combat illegal fishing and seafood fraud. NMFS Director of Office of International Affairs and Seafood Inspections John Henderschedt said the federal government wants a better record of who is catching seafood and where it’s landed before it shows up in U.S. stores.

The proposed program would apply to about 13 types of fish, including Pacific cod, red king crab, shrimp, sea cucumber and others. Importers would be required to track where it was caught, who caught it, the type of gear that was used and where it was landed.

“In instances where the data is absent, or instances where there are other issues with the quality or the completeness of the data, we would then move to an investigation stage,” Henderschedt said. “As this international trade data system develops and once we’ve been able to identify what the key chain of custody data elements are, we anticipate establishing additional reporting elements associated with the chain of custody, but I’ll reiterate that for now, those are a record-keeping requirement.”

Henderschedt said that NMFS already has that information for domestic seafood, so fishermen and processors here won’t be asked to do anything differently. But it would add information that isn’t tracked right now for international imports.

“We do not have laws that allow us to gather the data to ensure that we can carefully examine the legality of catch and the chain of custody of that product as it makes its way to the U.S.,” he said.

Read the full story at Alaska Daily News