Saving Seafood

Gorton’s giving 214K pounds of pollock to food banks in areas hit by Harvey

November 13, 2017 — GLOUCESTER, Mass. — There’s just something about a guy in a Sou’wester that makes you know that you can trust him when things get a tad sticky. Which is the complete opposite of guys in visors. Them, we keep a eye on.

One of the Gloucester companies that helped make the sou’wester an iconic image of the fishing life is Gorton’s Seafood over at the east end of Rogers Street. And the company has done a very good thing.

Last week, the seafood company announced it is donating 214,000 pounds of its pollock tenders — which breaks down into about 858,000 separate servings (curiously, the exact daily amount called for in the Tom Brady diet) — to food banks in areas ravaged by Hurricane Harvey.

Gorton’s donated the fish to SeaShare, a nonprofit that helps distribute seafood all over the country to folks in need of food assistance through the local organizations which help provide it.

SeaShare set a goal of delivering 2 million servings to the distressed areas damaged by the hurricane and Gorton’s single contribution sure gets the ball rolling in the right direction.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times

Houston’s State of Grace Silent Auction Raises Donations for Gulf Fishermen as Chef’s Shuck Oysters

October 31, 2017 — HOUSTON — While the modern world churns there is a place off Houston’s famed Wertheimer Drive where life slows down, even stops. That is of course except for once a year when the highly acclaimed State of Grace Restaurant throws its annual birthday party that benefits their hometown community – this year the Houston Food Bank’s Hurricane Harvey relief effort and the Gulf Seafood Foundation’s hurricane relief effort for fishermen.

Through the efforts of Gulf Seafood Foundation Board Member Raz Halili of Prestige Oysters, who collaborated with State of Grace for the silent auction, and Adity Saini of Houston’s BBVA Compass Bank who donated autographed sports memorabilia, more than $1300 was raised during the Sunday Oct. 29th event. The proceeds will be distributed by the Gulf Seafood Foundation to assist fishermen across the Gulf affected by the two hurricanes.

Read the full story at Gulf Seafood Foundation

Commerce extended red snapper season knowing it would lead to overfishing, memos reveal

October 16, 2017 — WASHINGTON — Internal memos show top Trump administration officials knew extending the recreational fishing season in the Gulf of Mexico from three to 42 days this summer would lead to significant overfishing.

But they did it anyway.

In memos released in response to a lawsuit, Commerce Department officials defended the move by saying that keeping the three-day season would be “devastating” to the recreational marine industry and the communities whose economies are tied to it.

And extending the time would also help solve a long-running dispute with states who have much longer seasons and want to wrest control of red snapper management from federal managers, they argued.

“It would result in overfishing of the stock by six million pounds (40%), which will draw criticism from environmental groups and commercial fishermen,” Earl Comstock, director of Policy and Strategic Planning for Commerce, conceded in a June 1 memo to his boss, Secretary Wilbur Ross. “However NMFS (National Marine Fisheries Service) agrees that this stock could handle this level on a temporary basis.”

Read the full story at USA Today

Lora Snyder: Help Harvey recovery by consuming sustainable Gulf seafood

October 6, 2017 — Many of the men and women who work every day to bring some of the best, sustainable seafood to your dinner plate have plenty to worry about – fishing can be hard business.

Fishers and others in the industry deal with a host of ever-changing variables: fuel prices, market fluctuations, fishery health and abundance, competition with imports, long unpredictable hours and one of the more uncertain wild cards – weather. Changing winds can mean the difference between days’ or even weeks’ worth of income.

And now, weather is becoming even more of a concern. Today, stronger and stronger storms that scientists attribute to warming oceans – a result of human-caused climate change – are becoming more common. These days bad weather is an existential threat to the industry.

According to the Chronicle Hurricane Harvey damaged or destroyed 25 percent of the Texas shrimp fleet. Oystermen predicted shortages of upcoming oyster harvests due to the runoff from Harvey’s historic rains. And then came Irma. Tragically, a Florida shrimper lost his life off the coast of Tampa, when the hurricane bulldozed up the state’s Gulf Coast.

Hurricanes Harvey and Irma have been devastating, but there is a unique way to help your fellow Americans. This is a great time to get better acquainted with our own healthy and sustainable seafood that’s right here in our backyard.

Read the full opinion piece at the Houston Chronicle

TEXAS: Gulf Oysterman Displays Heroics During Hurricane Harvey Flooding

September 11, 2017 — Sitting in his Kemah, TX home on Galveston Bay, Raz Halili was sure the small tropical storm named Harvey hovering off the coast of Texas was of little concern. A week later with his family’s oyster damaged, shrimp boats sunk, fishermen’s homes underwater or destroyed he realized his miscalculations on the impact of Hurricane Harvey.

Halili, a Board Member of the Gulf Seafood Foundation, considers himself lucky. Although the family oyster business, Prestige Oysters, suffered damage to both buildings and docks, his family was safe and houses stayed dry.

Worst Flood in U.S. History

“The small tropical storm that everyone thought was going to be no big deal turned into the worse flooding disaster in U.S. history of our country,” said the Galveston oysterman. “It is just devastating when viewed first hand. But there was a silver lining. In this time of need our community came together to help each other without regard to race, religion or political views. This is Texas spirit and the true character of America.”

While Harvey was dumping more than 30 inches of rain on the Houston area, Halili and his cousins, Gezim Halili, an oyster boat captain for the family business and Fatmir Halili, took to jet skis to perform water rescues as floodwaters rose in Dickerson, Friendswood and Port Arthur.

“We would leave the house in the early morning, do water rescues for more than 12 hours and then come back to relocate our refrigerated trucks from different shelter to keep food from spoiling,” he said. “We didn’t really count the number of people we ferried from their flooded homes to dry land, it was helping in any way we could.”

One of the most harrowing experiences for Halili’s was rescuing a man who had managed to flip his canoe in the middle of a rushing creek while trying to get back to his flooded house in Houston. “We managed to scoop him up, but it’s a great possibility if we weren’t there he wouldn’t have survived,” said the Jet Ski hero.

Read the full story at the Gulf Seafood Foundation

Gulf Seafood Foundation Donations to Go to Fishing Community Affected by Hurricane Harvey

September 7, 2017 — In the Gulf of Mexico, hurricane after hurricane and disaster after disaster, Gulf fishermen and their families are often the hardest hit and most forgotten when it comes to piecing their lives back together. Hurricane Harvey is no different. While the world awes at photos of a flooded downtown Houston, the media has failed to cover the grounded or sunk fishing boats, destroyed docks or flooded processing and ice houses.

“Our fishing community is suffering,” said Jim Gossen, president of the Gulf Seafood Foundation. “Livelihoods have been demolished from Corpus Christi, TX to Grand Isle, LA a lot of our brethren are going to need a lot of help to get back on their feet, much less back in business. That is why the board of directors of the Gulf Seafood Foundation has committed all funds raised for the rest of this year by the non-profit to be donated toward helping the Gulf Coastal fishing communities.”

The Gulf Seafood Foundation was formed to support and promote the high standards for the Gulf’s vast commercial and recreational fisheries industry, but its rooted in helping Gulf fishing communities during times of disasters.

Read the full story from the Gulf Seafood Foundation

 

NMFS Relaxes Some Gulf IFQ and Dealer Reporting Rules in Wake of Hurricane Harvey

September 6, 2017 — SEAFOOD NEWS — The National Marine Fisheries Service is relaxing some individual fishing quota (IFQ) program reporting and dealer reporting programs in the Gulf of Mexico due to catastrophic conditions related to Hurricane Harvey.

Between Sept. 1 and Oct. 15, specific to the commercial reef fish and coastal migratory pelagic fisheries in the Gulf of Mexico, the NMFS Southeast Regional Administrator determined that Hurricane Harvey caused catastrophic conditions in coastal and adjacent counties in the state of Texas, and Cameron and Vermilion parishes in Louisiana. Consistent with those regulations, the administrator has authorized any dealer in the affected area who does not have access to electronic reporting to delay reporting of trip tickets to NMFS, according to the Federal Register notice. The administrator authorized IFQ participants within the affected area to use paper-based forms, if necessary, for basic required administrative functions, e.g., landing transactions, during the same timeframe.

“This temporary rule announcing the determination of catastrophic conditions and allowance of alternative methods for completing required IFQ and other dealer reporting administrative functions is intended to facilitate continuation of IFQ and dealer reporting operations during the period of catastrophic conditions,” the FR notice said. NMFS will continue to monitor the situation and publish additional notices, if needed.

Hurricane Harvey made landfall between Port Aransas and Port O’Connor, Texas, as a Category 4 hurricane on Aug. 25. Strong winds and flooding affected communities throughout coastal and eastern Texas and southwest Louisiana, resulting in power outages and damage to homes, businesses, and infrastructure. As a result, the administrator determined catastrophic conditions exist in all coastal and adjacent counties of Texas and in Cameron and Vermilion Parishes, Louisiana.

The notice said that even though NMFS is allowing dealers to delay landing reports, they should report all landings as soon as possible. Assistance for Federal dealers in effected areas is available at the Fisheries Monitoring Branch, 1-305-361-4581.

Many IFQ dealers likely already have paper forms for use when NMFS declares the existence of catastrophic conditions. Paper forms are also available from the region upon request. The electronic systems for submitting information to NMFS will continue to be available to all participants, and participants in the affected areas are encouraged to continue using these systems, if accessible.

The administrative program functions available to fishermen and dealers in Texas and part of Louisiana will be limited under the paper-based system; IFQ shares or allocation transfers will be unavailable during that time. Assistance in complying with the requirements of the paper-based system will be available via the Catch Share Support line, 1-866-425-7627 Monday through Friday, between 8 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. Eastern time.

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

Hurricane Harvey’s impact on regional seafood sector still being determined

August 30, 2017 — Hurricane Harvey has caused significant damage in Southeast Texas, but experts in the shrimp industry don’t believe there will be a long-term impact on the United States’ Gulf of Mexico shrimp industry.

However, some Houston-area seafood companies suffered damage from the storm and overall losses in Texas could total USD 100 billion (EUR 83.6 billion).

Rockport, Texas-based Global Blue Technologies, a shrimp farm and hatchery, was still assessing the damage to its facilities on Tuesday and SeafoodSource will provide an update soon.

AkerBiomarine’s krill oil plant in Houston suffered minor leaks due to heavy rain, but did not sustain damage, according to a statement the company provided to SeafoodSource.

“Due to severe weather conditions, we did a controlled shutdown of our Houston manufacturing plant on Friday, securing all assets and the site. The top priority in this situation is always the safety of our employees and their families,” AkerBioMarine said.

On Tuesday, the plant was still shut down.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Robert Jones: Red snapper anglers need real and lasting change

August 22, 2017 — The way recreational anglers’ share of Gulf red snapper is converted into fixed seasons clearly isn’t working and I believe we can do better! However, I think we can all agree that setting science-based catch limits have helped bring red snapper back from the brink, and now is not the time to abandon them.

The recovery of red snapper over the last decade has been amazing to see. I can remember fishing with my dad as a kid off the coast of Texas and we could barely find red snapper. Today you can go to just about any marina and see sizeable red snapper being unloaded with big smiles all around.

The fact is, as the population is rebounding, catch limits for recreational fishermen have more than doubled. The total for the fishery is 14 million pounds this year, split roughly in half between recreational and commercial fishing, with sub-quotas between charter operators and individual anglers. Better management regimes in the commercial and charter industries are keeping both groups within their sustainable limits.

So if the quota has more than doubled in the last decade and other fishing industries aren’t exceeding their limits, why are we facing frustratingly short federal seasons?

Read the full opinion piece at Houma Today

Fishermen react to extended red snapper season

June 15, 2017 — Wesley Heimen has been fishing for over 20 years.

The El Campo native woke up to good news Thursday morning that will make his fishing trips in the summer more pleasant.

The agreement between Texas, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana and the U.S. Department of Commerce will allow recreational anglers to fish for red snapper in federal and state waters for 39 weekend days beginning Friday and running through Labor Day, according to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.

“I found out in the morning from a friend, and I was really excited,” said the 40-year-old. “It’s great that we get the opportunity to fish more in the summer now.”

Fishermen are allowed to fish Friday, Saturday and Sunday with additional open days on July 3, July 4 and Sept. 4.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s old regulation allowed fishing for red snapper for three days from June 1 to June 3.

“We only got three days in the summer session, and now we have 39 weekend days,” Heimen said. “I’m excited for the kids because the red snapper fight hard and they can get some experience catching that type of fish.”

Texas Parks and Wildlife allows fishermen four red snappers in state waters. In federal waters, the NOAA allows two red snappers.

Read the full story at the Victoria Advocate