Saving Seafood

US operator to slash Pacific tuna fleet, citing lack of gov’t support

July 3, 2019 — The South Pacific Tuna Corporation (SPTC), a major player in the US-flagged tuna fleet based in the US territory of American Samoa, will sell eight purse seiners and lay off a dozen captains by year-end, the company said.

The company will also make cuts at its corporate office in San Diego, California, as it cuts its fleet to six vessels.

Doug Hines, SPTC’s executive director, cited a lack of US government interest and support as the major drivers behind the decision.

“Our fleet reduction is due in part to the US government’s continued lack of support and the lack of interest in ratifying the 1988 South Pacific Tuna Treaty, renegotiated in 2016,” said Hines said. “Despite our efforts to work with the Trump Administration, the National Marine Fisheries Service has not reciprocated and continues its overly aggressive compliance and enforcement actions.”

SPTC suggested in a press release that the diminishing of the US fleet in the western Pacific will mean a decline in US influence in the region during a time when China, Korea, and Russia take a larger role.

“In the global priorities of the US Government, the Western Pacific has become an afterthought,” said Hines. “But as president Ronald Reagan recognized in 1988, the South Pacific Tuna Treaty is a critical step to ensuring American vessels and commerce continue to lead in the region and the world. The reduction of the U.S. fleet will be a devastating blow for the international policy community as well as the Western Pacific sustainable fishery ecosystem.”

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

Peru anchovy biomass at record high

September 20, 2018 — During the last century Peru’s anchovy biomass reached its highest level in 25,000 years, according to Francois Gerlotto, a researcher with France’s Institute for Development Research (IRD).

The message is that “we are at a high level of productivity and that we must adapt to climate variability”, said the French scientist during his presentation at the Marine Sustainability Conference, organized by Peru’s National Fisheries Society.

“While it is true that we must reduce fishing pressure when biomass is at low levels, we must not believe that this will solve everything, because there are other variables that must be taken into account to ensure the sustainability of the sea,” he said.

Gerlotto also said that “the solution is not to stop fishing to protect the ecosystem, but to produce food more efficiently”, echoing the words of recently re-elected International Coalition of Fishing Associations (ICFA) president Javier Garat.

Gerlotto, who is also a member of the Scientific Committee of the Regional Organization of Fisheries Management of the South Pacific (OROP-PS), reported that this institution has proposed the creation of a working group to monitor the habitat of fishing resources.

In that sense, he considered that the possible return of some species, such as horse mackerel and sardine, that are not present in Peruvian waters currently, will depend on the conditions of their habitat.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

Global Fishing Watch Partners With NOAA to End Illegal Fishing in Indonesia

January 17, 2018 — SEAFOOD NEWS — The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has entered into a partnership with the Global Fishing Watch to “improve understanding of the activity of fishing vessels in Indonesian waters.”

The two organizations looked at Vessel Monitoring System (VMS) data from the Indonesian government and compared it to NOAA’s Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer suite (VIIRS). According to a press release, they hoped to be able to use the data to “identify fishing vessels that are not picked up by other monitoring systems and to test and refine the use of VIIRS for identifying and distinguishing different types of fishing vessels.” What they found was that approximately 80% of VIIRS detections “could not be correlated to a vessel broadcasting VMS.”

The reason a vessel may not be broadcasting VMS is because they are under a 30 gross ton threshold, which was previously established by the Indonesian government. Or, a vessel could not be broadcasting VMS because they are fishing illegally.

“I’m excited for this opportunity to see the dark fleet,” Global Fishing Watch Research Program Director David Kroodsma said in a press release of vessels that don’t show up in VMS. “NOAA’s VIIRS data shows up vessels we can’t see by any other means and helps us to gain a more complete picture of fishing activity.”

The Global Fishing Watch will be using this new data to identify “dark vessels” that may be illegally fishing.

This story originally appeared on Seafoodnews.com, a subscription site. It is reprinted with permission.

 

Coast Guard cites fishing boat for illegal foreign captain

January 1, 2018 — HONOLULU — The U.S. Coast Guard said Friday it found a foreign worker acting as the captain of an American-flagged commercial fishing vessel in federal waters off Hawaii.

The crew of the U.S. Cutter Oliver Berry boarded the unnamed vessel on Dec. 19 and issued a citation after they suspected a foreign national was acting as the captain and operating the boat, the Coast Guard said in a statement .

It’s illegal for a foreign national to operate a U.S.-flagged commercial vessel.

The Coast Guard said the vessel was cited for a violation known as a “paper captain.” The Coast Guard Hearing Office will review the violation and consider further legal action.

Officials boarded a total of six Hawaii-based commercial fishing vessels during a 10-day patrol. They issued eight violations.

A 2016 Associated Press investigation revealed the Hawaii fleet operates under a loophole in federal law that allows owners to use foreign laborers with no U.S. visas to work in the fleet.

While most U.S. fishing fleets are required to have 75 percent U.S. citizens as crews, the Pacific boats that target highly migratory species like tuna are allowed to have only one American, the captain, aboard.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at AM970

 

The rarest porpoise in the world is on the verge of disappearing forever

February 6, 2017 — The vaquita, the world’s smallest porpoise, lives only in Mexico’s Gulf of California and is critically endangered, due to illegal fishing. Now, the Center for Biological Diversity plans legal action against the US government for its failure to sanction Mexico for not stopping the poaching of vaquitas.

The vaquita was first identified by scientists in the 1950s, so it is a relatively “new” species, says Sarah Uhlemann, the International Program Director for the Center for Biological Diversity. Scientists believe that even since its first identification, their numbers have been declining.

“Vaquita are the rarest porpoise in the world,” Uhlemann says. “They are only about five feet long. They’re evasive. They’re very shy. They swim away from boats. They consume a lot of fish. They are an integral part of a very amazing ecosystem. Jacques Cousteau called this habitat, the Gulf of California, ‘the aquarium of the world,’ and this is one of the key species in the aquarium.”

Read the full story at WESA

New deal gives EU fishermen access to Cook Islands’ tuna

December 6th, 2016 — The EU and the Cook Islands have agreed on all the elements of a new Sustainable Fisheries Partnership Agreement (SFPA), which gives the go ahead for EU vessels to conduct certain fishing operations in waters around the South Pacific island country.

On 29 November, the first Joint Committee in the framework of the SFPA between the EU and the Cook Islands came to an end. The parties defined the financial support to be granted by the EU for the development of the Cook Islands’ fisheries sector and discussed fisheries matters to allow for the start of fishing operations.

The new agreement will allow up to four EU vessels to fish for maximum 7,000 metric tons (MT) of tuna per year and other highly migratory species in the Cook Islands’ fishing area.

In return, the EU will pay the Cook Islands EUR 2.87 million (USD 3.1 million), of which EUR 1.47 million (USD 1.6 million) is in exchange for access to the resources. Remaining funds are specifically earmarked for the local fishing sector.

Over the next four years, the Cook Islands will invest EUR 1.4 million (USD 1.5 million) on improving the living standard of small-scale fishermen, reinforcing control and surveillance operations, strengthening the food safety authority and sharpening the sustainability of its fisheries policies.

The Joint Committee also reviewed the procedures for issuing fishing authorizations and catch reporting, as well as the boundaries of the fishing area accessible to EU vessels.

Read the full story at Seafood Source 

US tuna fishing company fined USD 1.6 million for illegal waste dumping

November 3, 2016 — U.S.-based tuna fishing company Pacific Breeze Fisheries, LLC, has been accuised by the U.S. Department of Justice of discharging oily waste into South Pacific waters near American Samoa and of maintaining false records of the events, leaving the company on the hook to pay a USD 1.6 million (EUR 1.44 million) fine, according to a report from Ship and Bunker.

The tuna company admitted that on two separate occasions, one in 2014 and the other in 2015, its engineers released oily bilge water into American Samoan waters, and then failed to properly document the acts. Pacific Breeze also admitted that its senior engineers did not properly document instances of oil waste disposal in the ship’s Oil Record Book from the period between October 2014 and July 2015, according to court documents.

Pacific Breeze will pay USD 400,000 (EUR 360,644) to the National Marine Sanctuary of American Samoa, in addition to the USD 1.6 million (EUR 1.44 million) fine. While the company does not currently manage any active fishing vessels, it has vowed to implement “an ‘extensive’ environmental compliance plan should it resume operations,” reported Ship and Bunker.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

FLORIDA: Men sentenced for poaching spiny lobsters in Miami-Dade waters

April 5, 2016 — MIAMI — Two South Florida men have been sentenced for illegally poaching spiny lobsters in Miami-Dade County.

On Tuesday, 54-year-old Donny Caridad Gonzalez and 77-year-old Nemesio Garcia Gonzalez appeared in court to be sentenced for the crime that occurred on May 9, 2015.

According to officials, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation officers observed a suspicious lobster shell inside a crab trap, even though the boat owner claimed no lobsters were on the boat. As officials investigated the boat, an officer found a total of 87 wrung lobster tails, 66 of which were undersized.

The lobsters were illegally collected outside of regular lobster season, which is Aug. 6 through March 31.

Read the full story at WSVN

US expands tougher ‘dolphin-safe’ rules around the world

March 22, 2016 — WASHINGTON(AP) — The United States, facing sanctions for discriminating against Mexican tuna imports, is expanding tougher rules for labeling tuna ‘”dolphin-safe” on the rest of the world instead of easing up on Mexico.

Last fall, the World Trade Organization ruled that the United States was unfairly using stricter tracking and verification standards on tuna fishing in the waters from San Diego to Peru, where Mexican fleets operate, than it was imposing on fleets elsewhere. In retaliation, Mexico has been preparing to slap $472 million in tariffs against imports of high fructose corn syrup from the United States.

The U.S. decided against loosening the rules on Mexico, choosing instead a plan that “elevates requirements for tuna product from every other region of the world,” U.S. Trade Rep. Michael Froman said in a statement.

The dolphin-safe labels are supposed to ensure that canned, dried and frozen tuna has been caught without endangering dolphins. Schools of tuna tend to gather and swim with some species of dolphins.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at Gloucester Daily Times

In Mexico, Fish Poachers Push Endangered Porpoises to Brink

March 1, 2016 — In 2013, Song Shen Zhen, a 75-year-old resident of Calexico, California, was attempting to re-enter the United States from Mexico when border patrol noticed a strange lump beneath the floor mats of his Dodge Attitude. The plastic bags beneath the mats contained not cocaine, but another valuable product: 27 swim bladders from the totoaba, a critically endangered fish whose air bladders, a Chinese delicacy with alleged medicinal value, fetch up to $20,000 apiece. Agents tracked Zhen to his house, where they discovered a makeshift factory containing another 214 bladders. Altogether, Zhen’s contraband was worth an estimated $3.6 million.

The robust black market is grim news for totoaba — but it’s an even greater catastrophe for vaquita, a diminutive porpoise that dwells solely in the northernmost reaches of the Gulf of California, the narrow body of water that extends between the Baja Peninsula and mainland Mexico. Since 1997, around 80 percent of the world’s vaquitas have perished as bycatch, many in gill nets operated by illegal totoaba fishermen.

Today, fewer than 100 vaquitas remain, earning it the dubious title of world’s most endangered marine mammal. Scientists fear the porpoise could vanish by 2018. “The possible extinction of the vaquita is the most important issue facing the marine mammal community right now,” says Barbara Taylor, a conservation biologist with the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Southwest Fisheries Science Center.

The vaquita — “little cow” in Spanish — is a creature of superlatives. Not only is it the most imperiled cetacean, it is also the smallest, at less than five feet long from snout to tail, and the most geographically restricted: Its entire range could fit four times within Los Angeles’ city limits. Prominent black patches ring its eyes and trace its lips, giving Phocoena sinus a charming, panda-like appearance. The porpoise, which typically travels in pairs or small groups and communicates using rapid clicks, is famously cryptic; conservationists recently went two years without documenting a single sighting. Some Mexican fishermen insist the vaquita is already extinct, photographic evidence notwithstanding.

Read the full story at Yale Environment 360