Saving Seafood

Spanish seafood industry urged to work toward greater sustainability

August 17, 2018 — Spain’s seafood industry is being helped to work towards a more sustainable and responsible supply chain by environmental law group ClientEarth, following the success of the Sustainable Seafood Coalition (SSC) in the United Kingdom, which it initiated.

The SSC aimed to promote and support responsible and sustainable fish and seafood consumption, inform the public debate on seafood, and influence change in policy relevant to seafood sustainability not just in the U.K., but also in the European Union internationally.

The SSC has become a practical and collaborative way of demonstrating good sourcing practice, according to ClientEarth. The U.K. initiative has resulted in 75 percent of seafood in British supermarkets being labeled and sourced responsibly through voluntary codes of conduct on responsible sourcing and labeling developed by SSC members.

ClientEarth’s new sustainable seafood project hopes to achieve similar results with the Spanish seafood industry.

“Our role is to facilitate a new industry coalition and help them develop best practice for seafood sustainability in Spain,” Katie Miller, ClientEarth’s sustainable seafood project lead, told SeafoodSource. “This group can pave the way for collaborative environmental leadership in Spain.”

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Boom in taste for octopus squeezes market

August 14, 2018 — Whether it’s spiced in the Spanish style or sliced as Japanese sashimi, octopus as a dish is becoming a victim of its own popularity.

Prices for the tentacled mollusc have about doubled in the past two years due to a global boom in appetite for these classic dishes. And supplies have tightened, with fisheries not yet able to farm octopus and relying on ocean currents to yield a good harvest.

This year has been hard, with lower catches in major producing countries like Morocco and Spain.

“The price will rise even more,” says Carmen Torres Lorenzo, who has been selling fish for three decades in the market of Bueu in Spain’s northwestern region of Galicia, famed for its octopus dish. “I wish a lot of octopus would appear … and the price will come down, but that won’t happen.”

The price of a regular size, locally caught octopus has risen from about 7 euros to 14 euros per kilogram (from $8 to $16 for 2.2 pounds) in the last two years. The price is typically somewhat higher in other countries, like the U.S., that do not specialize in its fishing.

The Food and Agriculture Organization says prices are expected to continue to grow as demand has risen in all major markets, including Japan, the United States, China and Europe. Meanwhile, catches have been limited, even in the biggest producing countries, Morocco, Mauritania and Mexico.

Some scientists in Japan and Spain are working on techniques to farm octopus, but they are not ready yet for commercial purposes. Octopus eggs are laid on the ocean floor, where they are fertilized and transported by currents, a condition that is hard to reproduce in a controlled environment.

“There is a lot of demand for this product, and what we can offer is little, so the price skyrockets,” said says Jose Manuel Rosas, president of Bueu’s fishermen guild.

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

Bladeless Wind Turbines Could Be the Future of Wind Energy

July 26, 2018 — A new kind of wind turbine captures energy without any blades. It’s half the price, more efficient, silent and doesn’t kill birds.

A Spanish company just took wind turbines to the next level by removing their hallmark feature – the blades.

Vortex claims their bladeless wind turbines significantly reduce the carbon footprint of wind energy as they require fewer raw materials, no oiling and far less land as they can be placed closer together.

Individually they produce about 3o percent less electricity than a traditional wind turbine, but that is more than compensated for by the fact you can safely fit twice as many turbines into the same space.

They also cost around half of what conventional turbines cost to produce.

Read the full story at Return to Now

 

Hundreds of seafood stakeholders heading to Spain to tackle top sustainability issues

June 11, 2018 — Barcelona, Spain will play host to more than 100 speakers and even more attendees from across the sustainable seafood movement for this year’s SeaWeb Seafood Summit, occurring from 18 to 21 June at the Hotel Arts.

Over the course of up to five days, summit speakers and registered attendees – including global representatives from the seafood industry, the conservation community, retail/foodservice, academia, government and the media – will convene to learn, network, and problem solve, said Diversified Communications, which produces the summit in partnership with SeaWeb.

“This year, we’ve expanded interactive formats across more sessions,” said Brenna Hensley, event director for Diversified Communications. “This forum vastly benefits from wide participation and input from diverse stakeholders.”

The educational sessions planned for the summit are formatted as “engagement-driven panels or workshops,” explained Diversified, and aim to unpack and troubleshoot challenging and emerging issues within the seafood sustainability oceanscape.

The event will feature several plenary and panel discussions, including the opening session set to take place on Tuesday, 19 June at 11:15 a.m.: “Is Spain Really as Important as the Global Seafood Sustainability Movement Believes?” During this kickoff plenary, “panelists will examine the key factors that explain and drive the success of the global seafood sustainability movement through the lens of global consumer appetite for mature (whitefish, small shrimps, salmon, cold water crabs) and non-mature (octopus and squid) markets,” Diversified said in a press release.

Such discussions will continue to heat up on Wednesday, 20 June, when the plenary “Building Socially Responsible Seafood Supply Chains Through Worker Voice,” is scheduled to take place. The session will involve a “dynamic, multi-stakeholder “ perspective on the concept of worker voice, covering why worker voice is important and how to incorporate it into seafood supply chains.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Breakthrough in omega-3 understanding could revolutionize feed industry

May 31, 2018 — A new study, led by the University of Stirling in Scotland, has led to a major discovery about the way in which omega-3 long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids are produced in the ocean.

According to lead scientist Oscar Monroig from the university’s Institute of Aquaculture, the breakthrough challenges the generally held principle that marine microbes, such as microalgae and bacteria, are responsible for virtually all primary production of omega-3 fatty acids, which are essential for human health, and have been proven to be particularly useful in combating and preventing cardiovascular and inflammatory diseases.

Instead, an international team of scientists from the United Kingdom, Portugal, Spain, Japan, and Australia found that omega-3s can be created by many marine invertebrates.

“Our study provides a paradigm shift in understanding, as it demonstrates that a large variety of invertebrate animals, including corals, rotifers, molluscs, polychaetes and crustaceans, possess enzymes called ‘desaturases’ of a type that enable them to produce omega-3, an ability thought previously to exist almost exclusively in marine microbes,” Monroig said.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

 

ISSF Skipper Workshops Reached Record-High Number of Tuna Fishers in 2017

March 15, 2018 — WASHINGTON — The following was released by the International Seafood Sustainability Foundation:

The International Seafood Sustainability Foundation (ISSF) Skippers’ Workshop programmarked its most successful year on record in 2017, reaching 794 participants, with tuna purse-seine skippers (457) and crew (238) comprising the majority (88 percent) of attendees. Other workshop participants included vessel owners and officials.

Since 2009, ISSF has been conducting workshops worldwide that unite fishers from tropical tuna fleets with scientists and other stakeholders to discuss methods for reducing shark and other bycatch, especially during Fish Aggregating Device (FAD) fishing. ISSF partners with Azti-Tecnalia, a Spanish technological research center for marine and food innovation, to conduct its skippers workshops.

Last year, ISSF added new workshop locations, including Zhoushan, China and Ambon, Makassar, and Manado, Indonesia. Eighteen skippers workshops were conducted across 10 different countries, covering fleets in the Western and Central Pacific Ocean, Atlantic Ocean, Indian Ocean, and Eastern Pacific Ocean. Since their inception, ISSF workshops have attracted more than 3,000 participants — including more than 1,700 skippers, enough to put nearly two ISSF-trained fishers on each large purse seine vessel operating today.

Notable activities in and findings from 2017 workshops include:

  • Rising acceptance of biodegradable FADs to reduce marine debris, with initiatives like the one in the Indian Ocean, Project BIOFAD, with participation from Spanish and French fleets
  • Continued success in advancing the use of lower-entanglement-risk FADs and non-entangling FADs by fleets in three out of the four major tuna fishing regions
  • Wide acceptance of best bycatch release methods, with some fleets applying them daily
  • Fisher support for technology to remotely identify the presence of small bigeye and yellowfin tuna at FADs
  • Discussion of options to reduce FAD impacts, including limiting FAD numbers, FAD closures, or prohibiting supply vessels

Now in its second year, ISSF’s “Train-the-Trainer” program in Indonesia reached small-vessel tuna purse-seine captains in seven workshops. These local trainers will enable the program to reach more skippers in remote locations across the archipelago.

“Our skippers workshops continue to be the best method for ensuring that our research findings on FAD management and bycatch reduction result in positive shifts on the water,” said ISSF President Susan Jackson. “Not only are we able to share best practices as we gain more scientific knowledge, but we are also able to gain valuable insight directly from the fishers who spend their working hours fishing for tuna. It’s education that goes both ways.”

All 2017 successes are outlined in the recently published ISSF Technical Report ISSF Skippers’ Workshops Round 7. The report includes details on each 2017 workshop, photos, and graphs showing fisher participation and acceptance of best practices. It also features a “Novel ideas and improvements for mitigation activities” section.

Skippers’ workshop attendance fulfills the requirement for ISSF conservation measure 3.4.

About the International Seafood Sustainability Foundation

The International Seafood Sustainability Foundation (ISSF) is a global coalition of scientists, the tuna industry and World Wildlife Fund (WWF) — the world’s leading conservation organization — promoting science-based initiatives for the long-term conservation and sustainable use of tuna stocks, reducing bycatch and promoting ecosystem health. To learn more, visit iss-foundation.org, and follow ISSF on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram (@issf.official).

 

US suppliers in love with ‘seafood speed dating’

March 8, 2018 — The meeting Steve Costas had with a South Korean buyer at Food Export-Northeast’s 2017 “seafood speed dating” event, in Boston, Massachusetts, lasted just 20 minutes, scarcely more than a brief flirtation.

But less than a year later Marder Trawling, the New Bedford, Massachusetts-based supplier for which Costas is an account executive, wound up selling the Korean company a container filled with a mix of its wild-caught fish products.

Of course at seafood speed dating, there’s also the chance that the object of your affection will be swept away by another suitor.

“It’s always a friendly event and I believe there is a camaraderie amongst the suppliers even though you know in 30 minutes your customer or a potential customer will be meeting with a competitor who in most cases will be offering them the same species,” Costas told Undercurrent News.

Costas is back again in Boston, Massachusetts, this week along with representatives for no less than 17 seafood suppliers from the northeastern US, all hoping to move containers of fish and, fingers crossed, establish long-term relationships with one or more of the 15 buyers from no less than 13 countries also there.

South Korea will be represented again, as will China, Japan, Colombia, Spain and the United Arab Emirate to name a few. Almost all of the buyers are looking to acquire scallops and lobsters, though some also come from countries where dogfish, monkfish and skate are in demand, all products sold by Marder Trawling using its recently acquired dock in Chatham, Massachusetts.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

 

Large-scale commercial fishing covers more than half of the oceans, study finds

February 23, 2018 — WASHINGTON — Scientists tag sharks to see where they roam in the high seas, but until now they couldn’t track the seas’ biggest eater: Humans. By using ships’ own emergency beacons, researchers got the first comprehensive snapshot of industrial fishing’s impacts around the globe. And it’s huge — bigger than scientists thought, according to a new study.

Large-scale commercial fishing covers more than 55 percent of the oceans with the world’s fishing fleet traveling more than 285 million miles a year — three times the distance between Earth and the sun, according to research in Thursday’s journal Science.

Five countries — China, Spain, Taiwan, Japan and South Korea — were responsible for 85 percent of high seas fishing.

“The most mind-blowing thing is just how global an enterprise this is,” said study co-author Boris Worm, a marine biologist at Dalhousie University in Canada. “It’s more like factories that are mass producing product for a global market and less like hunters that are stalking individual prey.”

China dominates global fishing. Of the 40 million hours that large ships fished in 2016, 17 million hours were by boats under a Chinese flag, according to another study co-author, Stanford marine biologist Barbara Block.

The fishing patterns were gleaned from 22 billion automated ship safety signals beamed to satellites. Before this, scientists had to rely on a sampling of ships’ logs and observations, which were spotty.

Ships are obeying no-fishing zones and times, although they hover at the edges of marine-protected areas. Fishing tends to drop on holidays including Christmas, New Year’s and the Lunar New Year, researchers found.

“The maps of global fishing in this report are sobering,” Douglas McCauley, a University of California, Santa Barbara marine biologist who wasn’t part of the study, said in an email.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at CBS News

 

NFI seeks to reach administration on seafood trade in 2018

January 2, 2018 — Pressing the importance of all trade on the Donald Trump administration, including imported seafood, will be one of the top priorities of the National Fisheries Institute (NFI) in 2018.

The US seafood industry’s biggest trade association, representing close to 300 companies, is still smarting from several of the moves made by the White House and its Cabinet in their first year, including its formal withdrawal from a trade deal with Pacific countries, a lack of progress on a trade deal with Europe and implementation of the Seafood Import Monitoring Program (Simp).

But NFI president John Connelly said trade will remain a top focal point for the group in the New Year.

“We just need to spend more time on the Hill and in the administration to help them appreciate that not all trade is negative for the US,” Connelly told Undercurrent News in an December interview at his office in McLean, Virginia. “Seafood is not like steel or autos or something else. We cannot now produce enough seafood in the US, whether it be from wild capture or aquaculture, to feed all Americans.”

The US exports 40% to 60% of the seafood it produces, depending on the value of the dollar and some other factors, and imports about 85% of the seafood it consumes. Seafood is responsible for 1,270,141 jobs in the U.S. and imports account for 525,291 of those, according to Department of Commerce data noted by the association.

“Gladys, down in Brownsville, Texas, is cutting imported tilapia right now, and that job is extraordinarily important to her family. Why is that job any less important than a job involving domestic codfish?” Connelly said.

High points and low points in 2017

But in looking back at 2017, Connelly can point to at least one major trade-related victory: The removal of the prospective border adjustment tax from the legislative tax overhaul passed by Congress and signed by the president before leaving on its winter break. The provision, which was supported by several Republican leaders, would have forced some seafood dealers to raise their prices 30% to 40%, said Connelly, quoting a Wall Street Journal article.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

 

Spanish Tuna Fishers Embrace Best Practices to Mitigate Bycatch, Report Reveals

The International Seafood Sustainability Foundation (ISSF) has conducted 10 Skippers Workshops in Spain since 2009, and will hold the 11th October 16-20 in Sukarrieta

664 Spanish fleet professionals have been reached by ISSF Skippers Workshops, representing 25% of the2,736 tuna fleet professionals trained worldwide

October 16, 2017 — MADRID — The following was released by the International Seafood Sustainability Foundation and the Organization of Associated Producers of Large Tuna Freezers (OPAGAC):

The Spanish tuna fishing fleet remains one of the most receptive and active worldwide in adopting International Seafood Sustainability Foundation (ISSF) best practices for mitigating bycatch — a commitment reflected in the fleet’s high attendance at ISSF Skippers Workshops each year and as revealed in ISSF Technical Report 2017-03: ISSF Skippers’ Workshops Round 6.

ISSF’s recommended best practices include using non-entangling Fish Aggregating Devices (FADs) and following handling-and-release techniques for non-target species (e.g., turtles and sharks) to maximize their survival. The Spanish fleet has consequently increased the number of its vessels with specific tools for bycatch mitigation, such as stretchers or loading nets.

Since 2011, the Spanish fleet also has been instrumental, together with the French, in contributing to ISSF’s non-entangling FADs research and development — an example followed by additional fleets more recently in the development and testing of biodegradable FADs.

From training to practice

The Spanish fleet’s acceptance and application of key ISSF best practices is directly related to ISSF vessel outreach, specifically via its Skippers Workshops. According to ISSF Technical Report 2017-03 — co-authored by ISSF staff and consulting scientists, including those from AZTI, which has facilitated these workshops since 2009 — nearly 25% of all persons who have participated in ISSF workshops since they began are affiliated with the Spanish fleet.

At an August 2016 workshop in Spain, at the headquarters of the Port of Vigo Shipowners Cooperative (ARVI), more than 90 professionals participated. That year, ISSF conducted 14 workshops in seven countries, including Spain, with the participation of 343 skippers from 12 purse-seine fleets and another 216 people, including crew members and other professionals from the fishing sector.

Of the 2,736 tuna fleet professionals in the world trained at ISSF workshops to date, 664 — 63% are skippers and 19% are crew members — have participated in one of the 10 workshops that ISSF has given in Spain. The rest of the professionals affiliated with Spanish vessels participated in workshops held in countries where the fleet has a presence, such as Ecuador and Panama.

The next Skippers Workshops will be held on October 16-20 in Sukarrieta (Vizcaya), the site of the one of the earliest ISSF workshops. More than 50 participants are expected, and one of the event’s key topics will be biodegradable FADs — on which ISSF works in collaboration with the tuna fishing industry and other strategic partners.

According to Julio Morón, Managing Director of OPAGAC, “ISSF engagement is essential so that our crew members and, specifically, skippers of vessels are familiar with and can carry out activities ranging from the use of non-entangling FADs to the release of bycatch, which are part of the foundation of fishing that respects the marine environment and resources.

Further, all Spanish tuna purse-seine vessels are on the ISSF’s ProActive Vessel Register (PVR), which audits vessels to show how they are meeting specific measures for sustainable fishing.”

According to Víctor Restrepo, ISSF Vice President, Science and Chair, ISSF Scientific Advisory Committee, “Close collaboration between scientists and skippers has made it possible to conduct significant research projects, such as those on the Albatún 3 and Mar de Sergio purse-seine vessels in the Western Pacific and the Atlantic, respectively, and which will be key to the BIOFAD project in testing new biodegradable FADs in the Indian Ocean.”

Read more about ISSF Skippers Workshop outcomes in the ISSF report, “ISSF 2017-03: ISSF Skippers’ Workshops Round 6,” co-authored by ISSF staff and consulting scientists.