Saving Seafood

Japanese proposal for bluefin catch increase rejected

September 14, 2018 — Japan’s proposal for increasing the catch quota of Pacific bluefin tuna by about 15 percent from 2019 has been rejected.

Japan made its request at the committee meeting of the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC) in Fukuoka, Japan, which took place 3 to 7 September. Japan pushed for the quota increase after scientific data showed a recovery in the stock.

The WCPFC has set a mid-term target of increasing stocks of adult Pacific bluefin tuna (those weighing 30 kilograms or more) from the latest estimate of the current 21,000 metric tons (MT) to 43,000 MT in 2024. The scientific committee of the commission announced in mid-July that the probability of achieving the target would be 74 percent if the total catch, including both fish weighing less than 30 kilograms and those over, were to increase by 15 percent from 2019.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

 

Hawaiian Longline Operators Accept $475,000 MARPOL Fine

September 12, 2018 — The U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Coast Guard have reached a consent decree with Hawaii-based operator Asure Fishery over the discharge of oily waste from a commercial longliner. It is the fourth MARPOL enforcement action that the USCG has brought against a Hawaiian longline fishing firm this year.

In a federal complaint filed last Friday, federal prosecutors alleged that the tuna longliner Jaxon T was not equipped for the treatment or storage of oily bilge waste under way, and she often discharged these wastes at sea. The complaint alleges that company managers Khang Quang Dang and Hanh Thi Nguyen had reason to know that the vessel lacked proper equipment for handling oily waste, but still allowed it to sail.

According to the complaint, the bulkhead separating the Jaxon T’s engine room from the fish hold had penetrations that allowed “free flow of fluids” between the two compartments. Apart from the potential safety implications of this arrangement, “substantial” amounts of water from melted ice would flow into the engine room, where it would raise the level of the water in the bilge. To address this problem, the crew would allegedly pump the bilge water directly over the side using a portable electric water pump, “one or more times per day.”

Read the full story at the Maritime Executive

 

Tuna fishermen report strong year, long runs

September 5, 2018 — For freshness, there’s just no comparison.

That was the conclusion of San Jose resident Russell Taylor, who ambled up to The Barge on Newport’s Dock 7 on Wednesday to scope out the supply.

“You can’t beat the fish,” he said.

It’s busy times and good landings for the Newport tuna fleet. Daily, crowds gather boatside to watch the glint of steel and the deft movements of deckhands rendering whole tuna into loins ready for the grill or canning jar.

John Kosta, co-captain of the Fishing Vessel Pacific Rim, prepared his boat for departure on Wednesday by arranging ice blankets in the hold to keep the ice from melting. He planned to be back in harbor, selling fish in time for Labor Day Weekend.

“We’re gonna soak some gear anyway,” he said. “We’re gonna have tuna for sale — fresh, bled, iced — right off the dock.”

Sales of albacore have been brisk, but captains report they are having to work for them.  The migratory fish draw near to the coast in the summer and fall, following warm ocean currents. The albacore tend to bite when the water temperature climbs above the 60-degree mark, but some years those warmer waters don’t reach as close to the shoreline.

Read the full story at the Newport News Times

Pew: Atlantic bluefin not ready for MSC certification

August 31, 2018 — The Pew Charitable Trusts has come out in opposition to a Japanese company’s attempt to get its Atlantic bluefin tuna longline fishery certified by the Marine Stewardship Council.

Last week, the council announced Usufuku Honten Co. Ltd. began the assessment process for the voluntary certification. It marked the first bluefin fishery to be assessed. Control Union Pesca Ltd. will perform the independent review, focusing on the Dai-ichi Shofuku-maru. The ship, which stays in the Atlantic Ocean all year, catches bluefin in October and November annually.

MSC certification is being sought because its process is designed to acknowledge fisheries that meet sustainable fishing management standards, Usufuku Honten said. The council, founded in 1997, has certified 296 fisheries located in 35 countries through its first 20 years of existence. That represents about one-eighth of the worldwide marine harvest. More than 38,000 groceries, restaurants, hotels, and other sites have also been certified to see the more than 25,000 products that come adorned with MSC’s blue label.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

 

West Coast Fisheries Worried El Nino Likely to Return in 2018-19

August 31, 2018 — SEAFOOD NEWS — As salmon and tuna seasons wind down and Dungeness crabbers start thinking about the winter fishery on the West Coast, some wonder: Will El Niño return?

Recent news articles have reported a 70 percent chance of warm waters in the equatorial Pacific will affect the West Coast.

On land, that could mean a dry winter coming after a summer and fall in which smoke from wildfires filled the skies in the West. On the ocean, it could mean warmer waters that may temporarily disrupt an environment that is accustomed to cooler waters. Some fisheries could benefit months or years after an El Niño. Others — some the most commercially important — may have difficult seasons ahead.

“In summary, there is ~60 percent chance of El Niño in the Northern Hemisphere [of] fall 2018 (September-November), increasing to ~70 percent during winter 2018-19,” the National Weather Service’s Climate Prediction Center wrote in an El Nino/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) Diagnostic Discussion earlier this month.

However, each El Niño and warm water period is different and creates effects to varying degrees. The extreme warm water period in 2015-16, “The Blob,” proved disastrous to Dungeness and rock crab fisheries because harmful algal blooms thrived. It also hampered the ocean survivability of coho salmon. In years past, pink shrimp populations plummeted but then bounced back after El Niño events.

“When El Niño is developing … short-term fluctuations in the near-surface winds [in the Pacific] can have substantial effects,” Emily Becker wrote on a Climate.gov blog in early August. “A period of weaker trade winds can help build El Niño’s warmer surface waters, while a period of stronger trade winds can cool the surface and impede El Niño’s growth. It appears that the trade winds are currently weakening, and may continue to do so through the next week, likely helping push things in the El Niño direction.”

Weather forecasters caution that making any predictions beyond a week to 10 days is uncertain. The Climate Prediction Center will make its next El Niño report and update in mid-September.

This story originally appeared on Seafood News, it is republished here with permission.

 

A controversial comeback for a highly prized tuna

August 29, 2018 — SOUTH PORTLAND, Maine — On a drizzling summer afternoon in South Portland, marine biologist Walt Golet is helping attach a quarter-ton Atlantic bluefin tuna to a heavy crane so it can be weighed as part of New England’s premier tournament for the giant fish. And this year’s derby is different than many in the past — there are far more tuna.

A decade ago, participants in the Sturdivant Island Tuna Tournament went consecutive years in which they didn’t catch a single fish in the Gulf of Maine. This year, fishermen set a record with 30, including the 801-pound (363.33-kilogram) winner.

Their record haul is happening amid a turning point for these giant tuna, an iconic species that scientists say appears to be slowly recovering in the Atlantic Ocean. The reemergence of bluefin, which can weigh more than half a ton, has led to debate among fishermen, conservationists and scientists over just how much the big fish have recovered. It remains at a fraction of its population 60 years ago.

“There’s probably no fish that’s ever been more politicized than Atlantic bluefin tuna,” said Golet, a University of Maine professor. “People get a passion for this fish. And people are making a living off of this fish.”

The fish have long been at the center of a battle among commercial fishermen who can make a huge amount of money on a single fish, environmentalists who see them as marvels of marine migration, and consumers who pay a hefty price for them in restaurants.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at The Washington Post

The Contributions of High-Seas Fisheries to Food Security

August 28, 2018 — The recent research article by Schiller et al. in Science Advances is a novel and useful summary of the key features of fisheries on the high seas – the species captured, the quantities of each targeted species caught, the countries doing most of the fishing, and the destinations of the various products. However, the main conclusion of the article – that high seas fisheries play a negligible role in addressing global food security – needs to be considered with some caution. Context is important – it depends on which countries on the globe we are talking about.

The reason for caution is that one third of the high-seas catch is sold as canned tuna. All skipjack tuna caught from areas beyond national jurisdiction (22.3% of the high-seas catch) is processed in this way, and 70% (9.2% of the catch) of yellowfin tuna caught on the high seas is also likely to be canned (based on the proportion of yellowfin tuna caught by purse-seining in world’s largest tuna fishery). Although much of this low-cost, nutritious food is processed in Asia and destined for Europe and the USA, canned tuna is also commonly found on the shelves of local stores in many developing nations.

Food-insecure Pacific Island countries are a case in point. In these nations, canned tuna provides dietary animal protein when sea conditions are too rough for nearshore fishing or when nearshore fish catches are seasonally low. Canned tuna comprises up to 15% of recommended fish consumption across this region and, even in those Pacific Island countries that process their own tuna, 10-60% of canned tuna is imported. Given that one third of global skipjack and yellowfin tuna catches are taken in areas beyond national jurisdiction, it is reasonable to assume that the canned products derived from these catches help underpin food security in Pacific Island countries with limited access to other sources of animal protein.

As the authors of the study mention, it is also important to consider that present-day patterns of high-seas fish catches are not necessarily a good guide to the future. The latest modelling (see chapter 14) of the expected responses of skipjack and yellowfin tuna in the Pacific Ocean to climate change indicates that greater proportions of the catch are very likely to be made on the high seas in the decades to come. All canned tuna markets are therefore expected to depend more heavily on skipjack and yellowfin tuna caught from the high seas in the years ahead.

Read the full story at Sustainable Fisheries

Japan to Propose Bluefin Tuna Catch Quota Increase At WCPFC Meeting

August 2, 2018 — SEAFOOD NEWS — The government plans to propose raising catch quotas for Pacific bluefin tuna — a popular component of high-grade sushi — in September, following an international body’s recent estimate that it is feasible to increase catches by up to about 15 percent from 2019, thanks to a recovery in the stock.

Overfishing has drastically declined bluefin stock to about 10 percent of its peak level of 168,125 tons in 1961. Since 2015, the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission has set caps on catches to strengthen the management of the resource. The commission has 26 member countries and regions, including Japan and the United States.

The WCPFC has set a mid-term target of increasing stocks of adult Pacific bluefin tuna weighing 30 kilograms or more, from the latest estimate of about 21,000 tons to 43,000 tons in 2024. At the same time, the commission has adopted a policy of allowing higher catch quotas once the probability of achieving the target reaches 70 percent or more.

An international organization comprising experts in such fields as fishery survey announced in mid-July that the probability of achieving the target would be 74 percent if total catches — which combine small-sized fish weighing less than 30 kilograms and large ones of 30 kilograms or larger — increase by 15 percent from 2019.

This has led Tokyo to plan to propose increasing catch quotas at a September committee meeting of the WCPFC in Fukuoka Prefecture, in the hope of obtaining understanding from respective countries and regions. The government is working out details of the proposal, such as a specific increase in catch quotas for both small and adult fish.

Bluefin tuna caught in the Pacific Ocean accounts for 60 percent of the Japan market. The nation’s catch quota is set at 4,007 tons for small fish — about half of the average in previous years — and 4,882 tons for adult fish, which is equivalent to this category’s average.

Atlantic bluefin tuna stocks have also plunged due to overfishing, but strict regulations — such as prohibiting fishing small ones in principle — have subsequently been successful, resulting in a decision to raise catch quotas.

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

ICCAT committee finds bigeye tuna overfished

July 31, 2018 — Members of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas met in Bilbao, Spain last week, and the bigeye tuna assessment was a key topic of discussion.

Dr. David Die, chairman of the commission’s Standing Committee Research and Statistics, presented a report to officials from the 18 member nations who attended the intersessional meeting from 23 to 25 July. The report indicated that the total allowable catch for bigeye was exceeded by 23 percent in 2016, and projections estimated 76,982 tons were caught in 2017.

If that holds true, and the committee looks to finalize the report in October, then the stock was overfished by 18 percent last year.

Die told members that the assessment shows the bigeye stock is overfished and subject to overfishing. According to an ICCAT meeting summary, the committee has great confidence in the modeling used to make the assessment because it had more data available than previous assessments and was able to account the size selectivity of member fleets.

The assessment also noted that while longline and baitboat fisheries saw reductions in their bigeye catches, fisheries using other gears saw increases.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

 

After slow-paced 2017 season, albacore trollers hope landings pick up

July 13, 2018 — West Coast albacore trollers saw a slower paced fishery in 2017. Landings at the end of the year stood at 7,470.7 metric tons, according to data from PacFIN. Ex-vessel prices of $2.12 per pound brought fleet revenues to $34.87 million. In 2016, landings for the South and North Pacific regions tallied up to 10,266.23 metric tons at ex-vessel prices of $2.10 per pound for revenues of $3.73 million.

Last year’s harvest came in significantly lower than the 20-year average.

“West Coast fishing was pretty slow,” said Wayne Heikkila, executive director of Western Fishboat Owners Association, in Redding, Calif. “The harvest was about 40 percent down.”

Fishing for albacore in the South Pacific proved equally slow. It wasn’t that the fish weren’t there, according to Heikkila. They were just spread out and hard to find.

“They got fish pretty much everywhere,” said Heikkila. “Some boats went all the way west to the dateline, but it was like 2005, when it was hard to catch 40 to 50 fish a day.”

The scattered schools in both the South Pacific and nearshore waters of the West Coast dashed hopes of a large harvest.

“A lot of the catch was late,” said Heikkila. “But it ended up a little better than we thought it would.”

As the fleet readied for this year’s season, questions remained whether last year’s sparse concentrations of albacore would go down as an anomaly or part of a trend — and whether ocean conditions making the swing from El Niño toward La Niña would play an optimistic hand in returning the catch closer to its 20-year average.

Read the full story at National Fisherman