Saving Seafood

Women’s History Month: Talking with Jui-Han Chang

March 26, 2020 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

Can you tell us about your science journey, your career in science?

My journey to science was not the shortest, but it was the luckiest. I grew up in Taiwan, a small but beautiful island country about 100 miles off the coast of southeastern China. It’s surrounded by spectacular oceans and full of rugged mountains. My dad is an amateur ecologist and my mom is an environmental advocate. It seemed all the cards were lined up for a career in the natural sciences, but nothing particularly inspired me until later.

When I was young, I was lost. I struggled in schools because I couldn’t find anything interesting enough to make me want to study hard, but I went to college anyway. I was a business major at Aletheia University in Taiwan. It was not my choice, but was the only option based on my scores on the test Taiwanese students take to get selected for colleges and majors. During college I went scuba diving, which was part of a swimming coach training. It was love at first sight, my first glimpse into the mystery of the ocean. At the time, I didn’t know what I was looking at, but I knew I loved this different but beautiful world. That’s when I knew I should change my career path.

After barely finishing with a business degree, I decided to go to graduate school. I wasn’t sure if this was the right thing to do because of my poor grades, but it was the best decision I ever made. I applied to the National Taiwan Ocean University’s Institute of Marine Resource Management and was accepted. I lucked out because they were looking for students with a multidisciplinary background.

Read the full release here

Judge approves FCF’s purchase of Bumble Bee Foods

January 24, 2020 — U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Laurie Silverstein has approved Fong Chun Formosa (FCF) Fishery Company’s stalking-horse bid for Bumble Bee Foods, giving the Kaohsiung, Taiwan-based tuna supplier ownership and control over the iconic American brand.

In November 2019, FCF entered a stalking-horse bid for Bumble Bee, which had filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy in the U.S. state of Delaware. FCF has long been one of Bumble Bee’s top suppliers of albacore, skipjack, yellowfin, and bigeye tuna.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

FCF only bidder for Bumble Bee, with judge to decide if sale moves forward

January 21, 2020 — Taiwan-based Fong Chun Formosa (FCF) Fishery Company is in line to purchase Bumble Bee Foods, after an auction for Bumble Bee scheduled for 21 January was canceled due to a lack of bidders.

FCF will pay between USD 926.6 million and USD 930.6 million (EUR 835.3 million and 838.9 million) for Bumble Bee, according to court documents. It will also take on nearly all Bumble Bee’s liabilities, including USD 17 million (EUR 15.3 million) still due under the DOJ Agreement, and the offer of future employment for their employees.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Deadly conditions for Indonesian migrant crews tied to illegal fishing

January 7, 2020 — D, 28-year-old Indonesian man, was witness to a deadly assault on a fellow boat crew member by the captain when they worked aboard the Taiwanese fishing vessel Da Wang a few years ago. The captain hit his friend in the head, then forced them to continue working.

“In the morning when we woke up for breakfast, we found him dead in his room. The captain wrapped up my dead friend’s body with a blanket and then stored him in the freezer,” D said in an interview in July 2019.

D is one of 34 Indonesian sailors featured in an investigative report by the environmental group Greenpeace and the Indonesian Migrant Workers’ Union (SBMI) published on Dec. 9. The organizations looked into their complaints of forced labor during their employment on 13 fishing vessels registered in China, Taiwan, Fiji and Vanuatu.

The crews’ statements described conditions in which they experienced overwork, withholding of wages, debt bondage, and physical and sexual violence. These conditions eventually forced them to cut short their working contracts, which typically run about two years, and forfeit the deposits they were typically required to pay to get the jobs.

Read the full story at Mongabay

Bumble Bee tuna has filed for bankruptcy

November 27, 2019 — Something fishy is going on.

Bumble Bee Foods, LLC — renowned as for its Bumble Bee canned tuna products — filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Thursday, years following a Department of Justice investigation which found evidence of a massive price-fixing scheme by the San Diego-based company.

Taiwanese fish supply chain company FCF Co. plans to put in a $925 million bid for the assets in a deal to be completed within 90 days, CNN reported.

“It’s been a challenging time for our company but today’s actions allow us to move forward with minimal disruption to our day-to-day operations,” Bubble Bee president and CEO Jan Tharp said in a statement.

A staple of American kitchen for over a century, the Bumble Bee brand has been in troubled waters over the past few years.

Read the full story at The Daily News

FCF swoops in for Bumble Bee as it files for bankruptcy

November 22, 2019 — Taiwan-based Fong Chun Formosa (FCF) Fishery Company has entered into an asset purchase agreement with Bumble Bee Foods, which filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy in the U.S. state of Delaware.

The 25-page filing, made on 21 November, includes more detail about FCF’s stalking-horse bid for the company, which was first reported by Bloomberg to be around USD 925 million (EUR 836 million).

Read the full story at Seafood Source

FCF Fishery in talks to purchase Bumble Bee: Bloomberg

November 21, 2019 — In the wake of rumors about Bumble Bee Foods potentially filing for bankruptcy, and that that filing could come this week, the company appears to be in talks with Fong Chun Formosa (FCF) Fishery Company regarding a possible buy-out.

The story, reported by Bloomberg, indicates that FCF would be a “stalking-horse bidder” in the bankruptcy reorganization. Stalking-horse bidders set a low-end bidding bar, which any other companies interested in buying Bumble Bee would then have to either match or exceed.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Taiwan’s IUU yellow card rescinded by EU following reforms

June 28, 2019 — The European Commission (EC) has lifted the yellow card issued to Taiwan in October 2015 for not fully cooperating in the fight against illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing activities, acknowledging the progress made by the country over the past three and a half years.

“I welcome the considerable efforts undertaken by Taiwan to reform its fisheries legal framework, implement new control tools and improve the traceability of marine fisheries products. The European Union’s dialogue with Taiwan has shown again that international cooperation is a key driver towards healthier ocean management,” said Karmenu Vella, EU commissioner for environment, maritime affairs and fisheries.

Measures taken by Taiwan in cooperation with the E.U. include:

  • A comprehensive review of the distant-water fisheries legal framework, in order to align it with the International Law of the Sea, including though the establishment of a deterrent sanctions scheme
  • Strengthening of the distant-water fleet monitoring and control tools, including a reinforced vessel monitoring system (VMS), the obligation to be equipped with electronic logbook, observer coverage in line with RFMOs requirements and the development of an inspection scheme for both domestic and foreign ports
  • Implementation of the FAO Port States Measures Agreement (PSMA) to foreign-flagged vessels calling in Taiwanese ports
  • An enhanced traceability system covering the whole supply chain
  • Enforcement of the revised legislation and of the new sanctions scheme
  • Significant reinforcement of the financial and human resources dedicated to the fight against IUU fishing

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Study maps where tunas, sharks and fishing ships meet

March 26, 2019 — Overfishing is rapidly pushing many of the world’s sharks and tunas toward extinction. The world’s fastest known shark, the shortfin mako, for example, was recently uplisted to endangered on the IUCN Red List, its decline mostly attributed to overfishing.

But researchers are only beginning to figure out where and when people fish them the most. Now, a new study has some answers.

By analyzing the trails of more than 900 fishing vessels and more than 800 sharks and tunas in the northeast Pacific, researchers have identified regions where the two tend to overlap. This information, researchers say, can be used to manage fisheries, especially in the high seas, the swaths of ocean that lie beyond the jurisdiction of individual countries.

“These fish [sharks and tunas] may travel thousands of miles every year, crossing international boundaries and management jurisdictions,” said Timothy White, lead author of the study and a graduate student in biology at Stanford University, California. “In order to sustainably manage them, we need to know where they migrate and where people fish them, but this info is surprisingly difficult to gather for sharks and tunas of the open ocean.”

Read the full story at Mongabay