Saving Seafood

New Protected Species Handling and Reporting Information for the Shrimp Trawl Fisheries

June 29, 2021 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

Key Message:

In an effort to strengthen sea turtle conservation efforts, NOAA Fisheries has produced new outreach materials for the safe handling, release, and reporting for protected species incidentally captured by shrimp trawlers. The outreach placards for sea turtles, smalltooth sawfish, and giant manta ray are attached to this bulletin, and are also available on our website.

Any captured sea turtle in a comatose or lethargic state must be retained on board, handled, resuscitated, and released according to our established procedures, as deemed practicable and in consideration of best practices for safe vessel and fishing operations. Fishers are legally required to follow these procedures per regulations at 50 CFR 223.206(d)(1). The continued use of turtle excluder devices, in addition to the proper handling, resuscitation, and release of incidentally-captured sea turtles in the shrimp fisheries, are key reasons for the ongoing recovery of threatened and endangered sea turtle species.

Likewise, smalltooth sawfish and giant manta ray must be released in a manner that avoids further injury, to the maximum extent practicable.  Proper handling of any protected species incidentally caught during fishery operations is essential to increase the likelihood of its survival.

This bulletin serves as a Small Entity Compliance Guide, complying with section 212 of the Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act of 1996.

Read the full release here

Commercial shrimp fishing could be coming to Virginia Beach

June 25, 2021 — Virginia could open a small commercial shrimp fishery off Virginia Beach, after a four-year experiment showed it is ecologically sustainable and commercially viable.

The Virginia Marine Resources Commission plans to hold a public hearing July 27 to consider proposed regulations to allow trawling for shrimp. Unlike the shrimpers operating to the south, Virginia fishermen would be allowed to tow only small nets, to reduce the chance of trapping too many other species.

“This will be a small-boat, small-gear fishery,” Pat Geer, VMRC’s Fisheries Management Division chief told the commission in a recent briefing.

While shrimp have been seen in Virginia waters for years, fishermen began reporting large numbers of them in 2017.

Read the full story at The Virginian-Pilot

Gulf Shrimp Landings in 2021 Slightly Up, But SSA Notes Anomalies in Data Collection

June 24, 2021 — The Southern Shrimp Alliance (SSA) reports that 19.1 million pounds of shrimp were landed across the Gulf of Mexico through the first five months of 2021, up from 17.0 million pounds over the same time period in the last two years. However, landings of shrimp in the Gulf this year have been 23 percent below the nineteen-year historical average of 24.9 million pounds, SSA notes.

Landings data are reported monthly from the Fishery Monitoring Branch of NOAA Fisheries’ Southeast Fisheries Science Center. The Alliance provides context and historical perspective on the numbers for their members, the domestic shrimp industry in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Texas.

Read the full story at Seafood News

NOAA Fisheries Announces Changes to the Cellular Electronic Logbook Program for Gulf of Mexico Shrimp Moratorium Permit Holders

June 4, 2021 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

Key Message:

NOAA Fisheries is working to improve the quality of information available for the Gulf of Mexico shrimp fishery.  This bulletin provides federal shrimp permit holders with an overview of the new changes occurring with the Cellular Electronic Logbook Program.

Having appropriate and current data enables the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council and NOAA Fisheries to carry out responsive and timely fisheries management.  Since the implementation of the shrimp permit moratorium in 2007, NOAA Fisheries Southeast Fisheries Science Center continues the required data collections through fishing regulations.

What is New to the Gulf of Mexico Shrimp Permit (SPGM) Cellular Electronic Logbook (cELB) Program:

  • In November 2020, NOAA Fisheries sent a letter to Cellular Electronic Logbook Program participants that 3G cellular technology would no longer be available as of December 31, 2020.  This notification also asked participants to continue to power up the devices onboard the vessel when fishing.  The transmission of those data would no longer be sent via cellular technology; however, the devices would continue to collect data until NOAA Fisheries was able to retrieve the data manually.  Note that participants are still required to power up the devices while fishing.
  • Within the next few weeks, NOAA Fisheries will be providing SD card replacements to each Program participant currently assigned a device onboard the vessel associated with the selected Gulf of Mexico Shrimp Permit.
  • Selected participants will receive a letter with the enclosed step-by-step instructional guide, a new SD card to be swapped on the Cellular Electronic Logbook device, and a pre-paid envelope to return the previously used SD card back to the NOAA Fisheries Southeast Fisheries Science Center for data analysis.

While NOAA Fisheries explores options for the replacement of the current 3G units, we will continue to send, and ask you to install replacement SD cards.  The swap of SD cards allows the permit holder the ability to comply with the SPGM reporting requirement associated with this program.  The information collected from the SD card returned to NOAA Fisheries will allow us to determine whether your unit is working properly or if you may need a new antenna or unit.

Thank you for your past and future cooperation with these data collection efforts.  The information is critical for more responsive and timely management of the fishery.  All individual information provided is confidential.  These data collections are mandated by the final rule to implement actions in Amendment 13 to the Fishery Management Plan for the Shrimp Fishery of the Gulf of Mexico

USTR announces, then suspends, 25 percent tariffs on goods including seafood from multiple countries

June 3, 2021 — U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai announced, and then immediately suspended, new Section 301 tariffs on goods from multiple countries as part of its one-year investigation of digital service taxes (DSTs).

The new tariffs, which will be set at 25 percent if reinstated, are in response to taxes levied by Austria, India, Italy, Spain, Turkey, and the United Kingdom on revenue generated by “non-resident” companies offering digital services – including the sales of software-as-a-service products. The USTR investigation began in June 2020 and found the practices of the countries discriminatory in January.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

South Carolina shrimp season opens for 2021 with a brighter outlook than last year

May 28, 2021 — South Carolina’s shrimping season opened May 27 with some trawlers already stationed over their favorite spots overnight so they could drop their nets right when restrictions lifted at 8 a.m.

Shrimpers have been able to trawl in a narrow “provisional area” between state and federal waters since April, but the real season begins when the S.C. Department of Natural Resources opens all of state waters, which extend about 3 miles offshore.

Mel Bell, director of the Office of Fisheries Management at DNR, said that a mild winter and promising results from the state’s sampling of the shrimp population made it an ideal time to open the season. State regulators want to make sure that female white shrimp have spawned at least once before allowing the catch to start, and late May is a typical time for them to make that call.

Read the full story at The Post and Courier

NORTH CAROLINA: ‘It’s fraud’: DNA tests reveal seafood mislabeled in Triangle markets

May 27, 2021 — Fresh and local are huge selling points for seafood, but when you buy fish or shellfish from local grocery stores and markets, are you getting what you’re paying for?

“People want Carolina shrimp. It’s that simple,” said Doug Cross, co-owner of Pamlico Packing, which gets locally caught seafood to North Carolina plates.

“Our shrimp, most of them, are caught in a more brackish environment in the Pamlico Sound, which is one of the best places in the world to grow a shrimp,” Cross said.

But Cross’ competition is not just coming from other coastal fishermen. With demand for fresh and local, many sellers are cutting corners by getting their seafood from other countries. And in some cases, high-demand fish is being mislabeled.

In the past two years, two North Carolina-based crab meat companies admitted in federal court they were labeling crab as a U.S. product when a lot of the meat was foreign.

Read the full story at WRAL

NFI releases new list detailing the top 10 seafood species Americans consume most

May 26, 2021 — American consumers ate 19.2 pounds of seafood per capita in 2019, an increase of 0.2 pounds over 2018’s figures, according to National Fisheries Institute (NFI) calculations based off of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) latest “Fisheries of the United States” report.

For its report released this year, which recounts 2019 figures, NOAA revised its per capita consumption model, “updating weight conversion factors to more accurately reflect efficiencies in processing,” NFI said.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

NFI’s Top 10 List Suggests Consumers Diversifying Seafood Consumption

May 26, 2021 — The following was released by the National Fisheries Institute:

In 2019, Americans ate 19.2 pounds of seafood per capita, an increase of .2 pounds from 2018’s revised figure. In previous years, the Top 10 list has made up an outsized portion of US seafood consumption, nearly 90%. This time the familiar names on the Top 10 make up only 74%.

The 2019 Fisheries of the United States report, released by the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), revised its Per Capita Consumption model to update edible weight conversion factors to more accurately reflect efficiencies in processing. The revised model resulted in higher consumption levels than previously reported.

Shrimp maintained the top spot, while Salmon, Canned Tuna and Alaska Pollock all saw gains.

It is important to highlight that the featured numbers on this list are all exclusively from 2019 and do not represent any pandemic-impacted market forces.