Saving Seafood

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.

US, Japan, Spain focus of new Walton Family Foundation markets strategy

June 6, 2017 — The Walton Family Foundation will focus its efforts to improve seafood sustainability on the demand side of the global market, concentrating its efforts on the United States, Japan and Spain, the organization announced at the SeaWeb Seafood Summit in Seattle, Washington on 4 June.

The U.S., Japan and Spain together import more than two-thirds of the world’s globally traded seafood products, and are all major destinations for seafood from the five countries the foundation has targeted in its supply-side sustainability efforts.

“This strategy is about following the flow of fish and dollars from Indonesia, the United States, Mexico, Chile and Peru to those markets where those fish are bought and sold,” said Teresa Ish, the foundation’s Ocean Initiative program officer.

The foundation, created by Walmart founders Sam and Helen Walton, announced in September 2016 that it would commit USD 250 million (EUR 224 million) to marine conservation efforts in those five countries. The focus of the WFF efforts will be to “ensure that the important policies of these major seafood markets helps level the playing field for lagging actors across the industry who haven’t seen that the future of fishing needs to be sustainable, as well as the major producing countries who are putting short-term resource use ahead of the long-term sustainability of their industry,” Ish said.

In 2016, the United States imported around USD 2.2 billion (EUR 2 billion) in seafood products from Chile, Indonesia, Mexico and Peru, while Japan imported USD 1.1 billion (EUR 976 million) and Spain brought in USD 290 million (EUR 258 million) in seafood from those four countries combined.

“Our markets approach aims to encourage industry to make investments – of money, time, staffing and brainpower – that raise incomes and improve the quality of life for individual fishermen and fishing communities in these countries,” the foundation said in its report, distributed at SeaWeb.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Mediterranean countries looking elsewhere for seafood

May 26, 2017 — European Mediterranean countries now import almost twice as much seafood as they produce, according to a report just released by WWF.

Decades of rising demand, coupled with falling fish stocks due to increasing use of industrial techniques, poor catch monitoring, the spread of illegal, unregulated and unreported (IUU) fishing and numerous environmental factors have all contributed to less seafood productivity from the once-abundant Mediterranean Sea.

For local inhabitants and tourists who flock to the region, fresh local fish is as much a part of the Mediterranean experience as its golden beaches and sunny climate. Artisanal fishing communities, fish markets, seafood restaurants and maritime heritage are all central to the area’s unique economic, social and cultural identity.

The report, “WWF Seafood and the Mediterranean 2017,” finds that the idealized image no longer matches the reality of the situation in the Mediterranean, where more than 93 percent of assessed fish stocks are threatened by overfishing.

The largest catches in the region are made up of sardines and anchovies (42 percent), demersal species (21 percent), cephalopods (8 percent), crustaceans (7 percent), molluscs and bivalves (6 percent), and tuna and swordfish (5 percent).

European Mediterranean nations such as Spain, France, Greece, Italy, Slovenia, and Croatia now harvest three times as much of their catch from Atlantic waters as they do from the Mediterranean. For every kilo of seafood caught by these nations, another two kilos are imported, the majority from developing countries including Morocco, Turkey, Mauritania, Tunisia, Egypt, Algeria, and Libya. Product is also exported to these countries, particularly low-value processed and canned products, fishmeal and baitfish.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Squid may become favourite UK meal as seas become warmer

December 13th, 2016 — Squid and fish that thrive in warmer waters, such as sardines and anchovies, are flourishing around the North Sea, according to fisheries data.

Squid are now being caught at 60% of survey stations in the North Sea, compared with 20% in the 1980s.

But the likes of cod are heading north, away from British waters.

Dr John Pinnegar, of the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (Cefas), which has been monitoring North Sea fish populations for more than 100 years, said models for 2025 and beyond suggested that seawater temperatures off the UK may continue to rise.

Fishing boats are now catching species that have not been caught in the area before.

Mediterranean alternatives

“Twenty or 30 years ago we hardly saw squid in our surveys,” he told BBC News.

Dr Pinnegar, programme director for marine climate change at Cefas, said summer squid fisheries had expanded around the Moray Firth in north-east Scotland, as part of efforts to reduce over-fishing of more traditional species such as haddock and cod.

“A lot of the things we see increasing in abundance around the UK are marine animals that would probably originally [be] thought of as being Mediterranean or characteristic of the Bay of Biscay, or around Portugal or Spain,” he added.

Read the full story at BBC News 

Maine Coast Co. delivers lobsters around the world

May 31, 2016 — YORK, Maine – Every day is a “crazy juggling game” for Tom Adams, owner of the wildly successful lobster wholesaler Maine Coast Company. His product is live and perishable. His customers are in Seoul, South Korea, Madrid, Spain, or San Francisco. He has to worry about Homeland Security regulations, endless paperwork for China exports, planes that don’t take off on time.

“There’s a lot of risk when your product is controlled by Mother Nature,” said Adams. “We have to get it where it’s going in 48 to 60 hours. Any delay means it doesn’t get there alive. My strong point, I think, is that I have the gut instinct to most of the time play the market correctly. It’s no different than oil futures or some other commodity. It’s just that I’m dealing in lobsters.”

Located in a nondescript warehouse on Hannaford Drive in York, Maine Coast Company has had the kind of meteoric success other businesses would envy. Founded by Adams in 2011 with a $1.5 million loan, sales in 2015 were $43 million – a growth rate of 20 to 30 percent a year.

The company has expanded its space to accommodate tanks that can hold 155,000 pounds of lobster. At the end of June, it will open a $500,000, 5,000-square-foot facility on the Boston Fish Pier that will hold another 25,000 pounds — all the quicker for getting those lobsters on airplanes.

This growth is to accommodate an exploding global demand for Maine’s premier crustacean. According to the U.S. Census foreign trade division, lobster is the No. 1 commodity exported from Maine, and its growth has increased substantially from $231 million in 2012 to $331 million in 2015.

Read the full story at Seacoast Online