Saving Seafood

A closer look at the environmental costs of food

June 13, 2018 — The relationship between food and environment is one of the most important conservation issues in the anthropocene. Currently, agriculture uses 38% of the world’s land and accounts for over 90% of freshwater use. Farming and food production has been, and continues to be, the largest driver of habitat and biodiversity loss on the planet.

But, not all foods have the same environmental cost. Comparing and quantifying environmental impacts of different foods is important to guide agricultural policy and empower consumer choice. A paper published today is the most comprehensive comparison of the environmental impacts of meat and fish production—its findings can better inform personal food choices and, hopefully, will help decision-makers devise better food policies that account for environmental cost. Lead author of the study, Ray Hilborn said, “I think this is one of the most important things I’ve ever done…Policymakers need to be able to say, ‘There are certain food production types we need to encourage, and others we should discourage.’”

The paper used 148 different life-cycle assessment papers (also know as “cradle-to-grave” analysis) to look at environmental impacts associated with every aspect of animal protein as food. Researchers quantified 4 different kinds of major environmental impacts caused by food production: (1) electricity/energy use; (2) greenhouse gas emissions; (3) potential for nutrient runoff—this causes most of the world’s water quality issues; (4) potential to cause air pollution.

By standardizing environmental impacts per 40g/protein produced researchers were able to compare different kinds of animal proteins. Basically, the paper answers the question: what are the environmental costs of producing a hamburger patty’s worth of protein from different animal sources?

Read the full story at Sustainable Fisheries UW

Scallops, oysters, mollusks better for environment than other proteins, study finds

June 11, 2018 — When it comes to the environmental impact of multiple animal protein sources, small wild-caught fish and farmed mollusks, such as scallops, oysters and mussels, are stars, says a study to be published Monday in the journal Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment.

The study, led by Ray Hilborn, a professor at the University of Washington’s School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences, is based on nearly a decade of analysis in which the researchers reportedly reviewed hundreds of published life-cycle assessments for various types of animal protein production and chose 148 to focus on, according to a summary.

The researchers used four metrics to compare the protein sources, including: energy use; greenhouse gas emissions; the potential to contribute excess nutrients to the environment; and the potential to emit substances that contribute to acid rain. They compared environmental impacts across food types by using a standard amount of 40 grams of protein — roughly the size of an average hamburger patty, and the daily recommended protein serving.

“I think this is one of the most important things I’ve ever done,” Hiborn said. “Policymakers need to be able to say, ‘There are certain food production types we need to encourage, and others we should discourage.'”

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

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

Seafood sustainability is focus of industry meeting

June 8, 2018 — Restaurateurs from New England and Aquaculturalists from as far west as California exchanged their stories and theories on how to build sustainability with the seafood industry at the Harborside Campus on Johnson and Wales on Wednesday.

Then Anna Malek Mercer, the executive director of the Commercial Fisheries Research Foundation, stepped to the front of the room with a much simpler solution.

“American seafood is sustainable seafood,” Malek Mercer said. “This is American wild harvest. This is also American grown. Really bringing that message to the forefront I think is something that is really easy to communicate.”

Having earned a doctorate in Fisheries Oceanography from the University of Rhode Island’s Graduate School of Oceanography, Malek Mercer pointed to the fact that the commercial finishing industry faces more government regulations — that promote sustainability — than the pharmaceutical industry. Overall, the fishing industry faces 13,218 regulations, seventh most in the United States, and just behind air traffic, which has 13,307.

Malek Mercer said the regulations have led to 98 percent increase in fish stock sustainability index since 1976 and 39 stocks have been rebuilt from low levels since 2000.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard Times

More Fish From Aquaculture Is Already Consumed In The World Than Caught

June 6, 2018 — “THE AQUACULTURE SECTOR ALREADY PRODUCES MORE THAN 50% OF THE FISH DESTINED FOR FOOD WORLDWIDE”

Las Palmas de Gran Canaria gathers in an international symposium organized by ISFNF and ECOAQUA the world’s leading experts in fish and crustacean nutrition.

As the world’s population continues to rise, threatening to surpass 7.5 billion people by 2020, the need to create high-quality aquatic products rich in omega-3s has soared to cover not only the food needs of people but also reduce the risk of suffering from many diseases in industrialized and non-industrialized countries.

Capture fishing and the collection of mollusks has served humans, in a traditional way, to obtain aquatic products that serve as the basis for their diet. However, marine resources are limited and, in the future, aquaculture will have a fundamental role to guarantee the production of aquatic species.

So says Marisol Izquierdo, director of the ECOAQUA Institute of the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (ULPGC): “Aquaculture is probably the fastest growing food production sector today. The sector already produces more than 50% of the fish destined for food worldwide, adding up to more than 110 million metric tons, “he explains.

Fish, seafood, seaweed, cephalopods and other aquatic products are very important as a source of protein in human nutrition, and also provide phosphorus, calcium and, above all, omega-3. “There are many studies that show that a diet based on fish, and in particular omega-3, reduces the risk of suffering a multitude of diseases such as diabetes, pathologies of cardiovascular origin, various types of cancer, and also diseases of neurological origin such as Alzheimer’s and other types of dementia,” he stresses.

Read the full story at the Maritime Herald

SFP report indicates key to reduction fishery sustainability lies in Southeast Asia

June 4, 2018 — The Sustainable Fisheries Partnership released its Target 75 (T75) Reduction Fisheries Update on 31 May, and it indicates that the key to reaching the organization’s sustainability goals lie in increased engagement in Southeast Asia.

The report outlines the various reduction fisheries and separates the global fishery into two distinct categories: Atlantic/Pacific reduction fisheries and Asian reduction fisheries. The Atlantic/Pacific primarily utilizes small pelagic species like anchoveta, sandeel, and sardine, as well as blue whiting, Antartic krill, and crustacean. The Asian reduction fishery includes trawl fisheries of a large variety of species.

“The rationale for splitting the global sector into two sub-sectors is that almost all Atlantic/Pacific reduction fisheries are for small pelagics, and are quite similar in terms of trophic level, gear, ecology and management, as well as engagement in FIPs,” the report said. “In contrast, the levels of FIP engagement in Asia are much lower, and only 50 percent of Asian sourcing comes from small pelagic fisheries, while the remainder comes from multispecies trawl fisheries (sometimes described as ‘Trash Fish’), which face fisheries management and sustainability challenges that are unique among sources of fishmeal and fish oil.”

According to the report, roughly 41 percent of reduction fisheries can meet the T75 goal, i.e. having either certifications or a FIP that indicates the fishery is moving towards sustainability. Of the sustainable fisheries, 99 percent are located in the Atlantic/Pacific fishery sub-sector.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Massachusetts: Sustaining New England’s Wild Seafood

March 27, 2018 — NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — The following was released by the New Bedford Fishing Heritage Center:

The New Bedford Fishing Heritage Center and Eating with the Ecosystem presents Sustaining New England’s Wild Seafood on Thursday, April 12th at 6:30 p.m. as part of AHA night.  This naturalist-style lecture about marine ecosystems, how these contribute to seafood production and why it is important to take a whole-system approach to sustaining seafood.  Recipes will be shared.

This program is part of the Center’s look at the issue of sustainability during the month of April.  Admission is free.  The Center is handicap accessible through the parking lot entrance. Free off-street parking available. The Center is located at 38 Bethel Street in New Bedford’s historic downtown.

Eating with the Ecosystem’s mission is to promote a place-based approach to sustaining New England’s wild seafood, through healthy habitats, flourishing food webs, and short, adaptive supply chains. Learn more at www.eatingwiththeecosystem.org.

The New Bedford Fishing Heritage Center is dedicated to preserving and presenting the story of the commercial fishing industry past, present, and future through archives, exhibits, and programs. For more information, please email programs@fishingheritagecenter.org or call (508) 993-8894.

 

Lund’s Fisheries Offering Fair Trade Certified Scallops

March 12, 2018 — SEAFOOD NEWS — Lund’s Fisheries has announced that they are now offering Fair Trade Certified scallops, a first in the United States for an Atlantic sea scallop fishery.

“Ethically and sustainably harvested seafood is increasingly demanded by consumers. It is the right thing for the environment and the right thing for people,” said Wayne Reichle, President of Lund’s Fisheries. “We are proud to sell a product that’s as good for our fishermen as it is for the consumer.”

Lund’s Fisheries received approval from an independent certification group to be able to sell their scallops using the Fair Trade label. The label was designed to show consumers that the product meets the highest standards for environmental sustainability, social responsibility and fair labor practices.

“We are excited to welcome Lund’s fisheries to the Fair Trade family of certified suppliers as they expand their commitment to sustainability by bringing the benefits of Fair Trade certification to the fishermen and processing workers who are an integral part of their success,” added Julie Kuchepatocv, Seafood Director at Fair Trade USA.

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

 

For sustainable fisheries, try eating ‘underloved’ fish

January 4, 2018 — Eating a wider variety of fish, including species like hake, skate, and cusk, would help keep overall fish stocks strong, according to chef and author Barton Seaver. Diversifying in this way would help ensure that people can keep eating plenty of fish—an important source of nutrients—as well as ensure economic stability for fishermen and coastal communities.

In a December 18, 2017 interview with Terry Gross on NPR’s Fresh Air, Barton, director of the Sustainable Seafood and Health Initiative at the Center for Health and the Global Environment at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, discussed sustainable fishing and other fish-related topics, such as fish farming and tips for buying quality fish.

Seaver said that just three species—tuna, salmon, and shrimp—account for 65% of total fish consumption. But overexploitation can decimate species, he said. For example, a boom in popularity of sea bass that began in the 1990s led to overfishing and depleted stocks.

Read the full story at the Harvard School of Public Health

 

Seafood traceability swims into Silicon Valley

November 10, 2017 — Forget the romantic image of a lonely fisherman chasing his catch on the open water. Fishing supply chains have become sprawling, technology-driven operations rife with overfishing and human rights abuses.

For that reason, fishing companies and the stores that sell their products are increasingly on the hook for the environmental and human effects of their supply chains. The need to know where fish comes from for legal compliance purposes and resource preservation, from sea to shelf, has spawned “seatech.”

Monica Jain, founder of Fish 2.0, an organization that fosters entrepreneurship in sustainable fishing and aquaculture, describes this space as “new monitoring, visibility, production and processing tools for the seafood industry.”

One-third of global fishing stocks are depleted, according to the Greenpeace Sea of Distress report issued in October. And global fish catches have been declining since the 1990s. With seafood production expected to increase 20 percent by 2025, ocean ecosystems are being decimated. Furthermore, the U.S. State Department has found forced labor and human trafficking on fishing vessels or processing facilities in more than 50 countries.

In response, Greenpeace found that major food industry players including Sodexo, Aramark and Compass group are taking strides towards protecting the oceans and the people who make a living from them by selling responsibly-sourced seafood, and increasing transparency and better practices at sea.

Aramark, for example, is the first U.S. foodservice company to procure seafood from vessels that don’t participate in transshipment, policies that allow vessels to fish for years and can breed labor and human rights abuses. Also this year, global tuna giant Thai Union has taken the lead to source sustainably caught tuna and protect worker’s rights.

Read the full story at GreenBiz