Saving Seafood

FAO releases latest State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture report

June 8, 2020 — The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations has released the latest addition of the biannual “State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture” report, a flagship publication in the United Nations’ “State of the World” series.

The 2020 edition of the publication is devoted to “Sustainability in Action” as the organization continues to focus on meeting Sustainable Development Goals established back in 2015. Comprised of 17 separate actionable goals, the current progress, according to the FAO, hasn’t been fast enough.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

New Map Launching Today Helps People Find Local Seafood

May 28, 2020 — The seafood industry relies heavily on restaurants and retail stores for the majority of sales. With restaurant closures and coronavirus shelter-in-place orders, the seafood industry has been hit hard. The sudden drop in demand has forced fishers and fish farmers to get creative in their methods, turning to direct sales to stay afloat. A new tool through the University of Washington Sustainable Fisheries initiative has compiled information about where to find seafood in the form of a map that can be used to easily track down local, sustainable catch for delivery or direct sales.

The goal of the map is to support small seafood businesses by making their transition to direct sales just a little bit easier. Generally a supplier (fishing boat or farm) will deal with processors and distributors to sell their fish, and customers will purchase through a restaurant or grocery store.

Now that direct sales are the only option, the industry is scrambling to keep up and adapt to a new way of business and the map is meant to shoulder some of the burden. “They’re bringing in people from sales to pack boxes, the last thing they should have to worry about is finding new markets,” says Jack Cheney; a senior project manager at seafood sustainability organization FishWise, and contributor for Sustainable Fisheries UW, a grant-funded website dedicated to explaining the science of seafood, “this is the least we can do to try and promote them in some small way.”

Read the full story at Forbes

MONIQUE COOMBS: Why We Should Insist on U.S.-Caught Seafood

May 27, 2020 — You know Dave Marciano from National Geographic’s Wicked Tuna. (And I’ve written about him before): To most of us in New England, he’s just a decent guy who goes tuna fishing and happens to be on TV.

TV is just a thing that happened for him, and he sees it as an opportunity to both help his business and do what he can to promote the importance of commercial fishing, American fishermen, and delicious seafood in the U.S.

Marciano is worried about the future of his business, regardless of the TV show. He depends on people visiting and traveling to Gloucester for his charter boat business. “I was a smoker for 40 years so that probably puts me in the high-risk category,” he says. And, despite being outside, being on a fishing vessel is pretty close quarters.

Many of us who work in the fishing industry are worried about a couple of months from now when the fishing season picks up, the weather warms, and visitors flock to the coast. Are the restaurants going to be able to open? Are people going to want to travel? Will people be spending money? Restaurants and tourism are outlets for products like Maine lobster and other seafood in the U.S. What is going to happen when all of the fishermen need to get back to work but there’s no place for the product to go and no mechanism to get it to where it needs to be?

Read the full opinion piece at Heated

Momentum building for a National Seafood Council resurrection

May 27, 2020 — Just over one year ago, the Marine Fisheries Advisory Committee held a panel discussing the idea of reviving a dormant portion of the U.S. Fish and Seafood Promotion Act that would establish a National Seafood Council.

The act was put in place back in 1986, with the intention of promoting domestically harvested seafood in the U.S. It established the National Seafood Council in 1987, an entity that ran for five years before it dissolved. Hampered by a low budget, the council was, in some senses, doomed from the start.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Consumers crave a “better understanding of the story behind the food,” Cargill survey finds

May 18, 2020 — The power of transparency when it comes to building lasting relationships with consumers is apparent in the results of the latest Feed4Thought survey conducted by international aquafeed company Cargill.

According to Pilar Cruz, president of Cargill’s aqua-nutrition business, transparency in the supply chain is critical when building consumer trust – a notion reiterated in the new survey’s feedback.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Walmart, Major Retailers Call for Governments to Ensure Sustainably Produced Tuna during COVID-19

May 7, 2020 — The following was released by the Sustainable Fisheries Partnership:

The Sustainable Fisheries Partnership and more than 50 retailers, brands, and seafood companies,* including Walmart, Publix, Nestle, Carrefour, and Tesco, today called on the United States, European Union, and approximately 45 governments to implement electronic monitoring in tuna fisheries to protect workers and ensure fishing continues to be sustainable.

“We are key stakeholders in these fisheries and strongly wish to see the environmental impact of these fisheries managed in a manner consistent with our procurement specifications for sustainable sourcing,” the companies wrote.

In a letter issued today, the companies urged the governments to move rapidly and urgently through the Regional Fisheries Management Organizations (RFMOs) to make electronic monitoring an accepted alternative to human observer coverage in tuna fisheries. This technology already exists, but the governments and RFMOs have been slow to adopt its use.

In April, at-sea observer programs in tuna fisheries were suspended by the RFMOs, the international governmental bodies responsible for their management, due to COVID-19. Observers document activities and collect data essential to conservation.

The companies also called for greater transparency to advance the fully effective implementation of electronic monitoring on all fleets and regular review of the COVID-19 situation and risks of restoring human at-sea observers at the earliest safe and practical date.

*Afritex Ventures Limited, Aldi North, Aldi South, Asda, Beaver Street Fisheries, BirdLife International, Carrefour France, Congalsa, Culinary Collaborations LLC, D&E Import LLC, Direct Ocean, Earthworm, Euclid Fish Company, Fish Is Life, Fishwise, Fortune Fish Co., Frinsa, Giant Eagle, IncredibleFish, Inland Seafoods, Ipswich Shellfish Group, Jealsa/We Sea, Maguro Foods, Mercadona, Metro France, Morrisons, Nestle, New England Seafood International, North Atlantic Inc., Profand, Publix, Rema Foods, Sainsburys, Santa Monica Seafood, Sea Delight, Seacore Seafood Inc., Seafood Imports, Sea Pact, Seattle Fish Co., Stavis Seafoods, Sysco France, Tesco, The Fishin Co., True Worlds Food, True Worlds Group, TUPA, Walmart

ISSF Adds New Board Member; Two Fisheries Experts Appointed to ISSF Environmental Stakeholder Committee

May 6, 2020 — The following was released by the International Seafood Sustainability Foundation:

The International Seafood Sustainability Foundation (ISSF) announced today recent appointments to its Board of Directors and Environmental Stakeholder Committee.

ISSF’s Environmental Stakeholder Committee (ESC) elected Bill Holden of the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) its Chair. In that role, he also joins the ISSF Board of Directors, replacing long-time Board member Dr. Bill Fox, formerly of WWF-US, who recently retired.

“The leadership and expertise displayed by Dr. Bill Fox, both as a member of the ISSF Board and the Environmental Stakeholder Committee, as well as a partner at WWF, has been invaluable,” said ISSF President Susan Jackson. “We are thankful for Bill’s guidance and commitment to ISSF and our collaborative work toward sustainable tuna fisheries and ocean health.”

In addition, Sara Lewis of FishWise and Dr. Tom Pickerell of the Global Tuna Alliance have joined the ESC.

“It’s always a pleasure to have new experts and advocates join our committees. These additions are serious assets to our conservation initiatives,” Jackson said. “Bill Holden joining the ISSF Board of Directors as Chair of our ESC is notable. It is the result of an enhancement in ISSF governance: the ESC elects its chair and that chairperson is then elevated to an additional leadership role as a member of the ISSF Board. Bill is well suited for this newly expanded role.”

Jackson added, “Sara Lewis’ devotion to transparency and traceability at FishWise makes her an ideal candidate for the ESC. And we welcome Dr. Tom Pickerell’s scientific guidance and collaboration once again as he returns to the ESC in his new role leading the Global Tuna Alliance.”

Dr. Bruce Collette, from the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), retired from the ESC in January. He had been with the committee since its inception.

“Dr. Collette worked with ISSF on the ESC since the beginning,” Jackson added. “His fisheries expertise made him an invaluable asset to the committee, where his passion for tuna conservation is dearly missed.”

Read the full release here

ISSF Annual Report Shows 99.1% Participating Company Conformance Rate with Science-based Conservation Measures, Highlights 2019 Efforts for Sustainable Tuna

April 22, 2020 — The following was released by the International Seafood Sustainability Foundation:

The International Seafood Sustainability Foundation (ISSF) released its 2019 annual report today, titled Commitment and Collaboration, which presents tuna-fishery sustainability achievements in the organization’s 10th anniversary year.

“From the beginning, ISSF’s tuna conservation work has required a one-world, one-planet perspective — and a consensus-building approach, as challenging as that is for any complex issue,” explains ISSF President Susan Jackson in the report. “The ISSF team has long appreciated that solving environmental problems means reaching across continents in the spirit of goodwill to share scientific information and resources, learn from each other’s insights and experiences, and make steady progress for the common good.”

Commitment and Collaboration focuses on ISSF’s collaborations to identify and promote “best practices” in tuna and ocean conservation with fishers, tuna companies, retailers, and Regional Fisheries Management Organizations (RFMOs). The report also covers ISSF’s activities with environmental nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), scientific agencies and more.

The interactive annual report, which includes video content and downloadable graphics, offers special features on:

Read the full release here

New company offers social responsibility benchmarking for seafood industry

April 15, 2020 — Seafood companies looking to demonstrate their commitment to environmentally sustainable fishing can choose from an array of assessments, audits, and certifications. But when they decide to show their dedication to treating workers well, they’re left with few options.

Poor working conditions at sea are rampant, and numerous reports have emerged in recent years of labor abuse and human rights violations, spurring a reckoning within the industry.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Seafood MAP project aims to make sustainability certification more attainable

March 31, 2020 — For many seafood producers around the world, especially small-scale fishermen and fish farmers in the developing world, a sustainability certification is out of reach.

Despite actively improving the sustainability of their operations, they struggle to meet the thresholds required for certification or a fishery improvement project, or they have trouble filing the needed documentation. And for buyers seeking to actively demonstrate their sustainability commitments, the lack of knowledge about these fisheries leaves them in the dark.

Read the full story at Seafood Source