Saving Seafood

“A calculated and secret scheme”: US CBP alleges willful Jones Act violations by pollock transporters

September 15, 2021 — The U.S. government accused the operators and clients of a dead-end rail line in New Brunswick, Canada, used in transporting Alaska pollock to the U.S. East Coast, of engaging in “a calculated and secret scheme” to escape the restrictions of the Jones Act, which requires all domestically-caught seafood to be transported via vessels built in the United States with U.S. materials.

The filing in a U.S. District Court in Alaska on 14 September came in response to a lawsuit from American Seafoods subsidiary Alaska Reefer Management (ARM) and the company that operates the New Brunswick facility, Lineage Logistics subsidiary Kloosterboer International Forwarding (KIF), challenging approximately USD 350 million (EUR 294.3 million) in fines issued by U.S. Customs and Border Protection against them and their contracted transportation partners. The suit was filed on 2 September.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

 

US CBP takes action against Fijian tuna longliner, accusing it of using forced labor

August 4, 2021 — A Fijian commercial fishing vessel has received a withhold release order from U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), which claims forced labor may have been employed onboard the longliner.

The order requires all U.S. agencies to detain tuna and other seafood harvested by the Hangton No. 112, which is owned and operated by Suva, Fiji-based Hangton Pacific Co.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Southern Shrimp Alliance critical of US Customs Working Group’s forced labor recommendations

March 26, 2021 — The Southern Shrimp Alliance (SSA) has come out in support of U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s (CPB) new directorate to make forced labor a priority trade issue, while simultaneously opposing the recommendations of the Forced Labor Working Group of the Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee (CCOAP).

The working group is an advisory group consisting of private businesses and non-governmental organizations that aim to offer clarity and aid to CBP in its efforts to regulate U.S. imports.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

US CBP takes action against Taiwanese trawler, accusing it of using forced labor

January 4, 2021 — U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has issued a withhold release order against a Taiwanese tuna trawler, saying it has received credible information that the vessel was involved in the use of forced labor.

The agency, a division of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, on 31 December ordered its personnel at all U.S. ports of entry to detain tuna and other seafood harvested by the Lien Yi Hsing No. 12, a Taiwanese-flagged and -owned distant-water fishing vessel. The agency said its investigation concluded the Lie Yi Hsing 12’s operators had used deceptive hiring practices, withholding of wages, and debt bondage in staffing the vessel. In a press release, the CBP said it will provide the owner of the vessels the opportunity to demonstrate its merchandise was not produced with forced labor, or to export any of their shipments that have been detained to a third country.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

FCF-linked vessels outed by US government as likely using forced labor

August 18, 2020 — The U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s Office of Trade has placed a Withhold Release Order (WRO) on all seafood harvested by the Taiwanese-owned, Vanuatu-flagged fishing vessel Da Wang “due to reasonable suspicion of forced labor on the vessel.”

The WRO will require detention of seafood harvested by the Da Wang at all U.S. ports of entry. Importers of any detained shipments “will have an opportunity to export their shipments or submit proof to CBP that the merchandise was not produced with forced labor,” according to a CBP press release.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

California’s ban on shark fins doesn’t stop the trade from passing through its ports

February 25, 2020 — Three years ago, a cargo container purportedly transporting thousands of pounds of pickles from Panama was placed on a Hong Kong-bound ship that stopped at the Port of Oakland on a chilly February night. Hundreds of rectangular containers were stacked on the giant vessel like Lego blocks, but state and federal wildlife agents knew there was something fishy about this one.

Inside, the agents found nearly 52,000 pounds of frozen shark fins, cut from an estimated 9,500 sharks. A cursory inspection revealed that some of the fins were from protected species that require permits to be legally traded. So officials seized the shipment, valued at just under $1 million, making it one of the largest single shark fin seizures in U.S. history.

California may have banned the shark fin trade years ago, but the container is hardly the only one of its kind passing through the state’s bustling ports: A recent report from the Natural Resources Defense Council estimated that hundreds of thousands of pounds of shark fins from Latin America transit West Coast and other U.S. ports each year, destined to land in a bowl of shark fin soup in Hong Kong and other Asian cities.

“We think we’ve just found the tip of the iceberg, and it’s a little hard to say how big the iceberg is,” said the report’s author, Elizabeth Murdock, the San Francisco-based director of the environmental group’s Pacific Oceans Initiative.

The wildlife agents and scientists waiting for the container in Oakland on Feb. 10, 2017, had been tipped off by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, whose agents had cracked open the container at the Port of Long Beach. An agency spokesperson declined to comment on what led to the container’s initial inspection, but its contents were a far cry from the “cucumbers/gherkins” listed as the shipment’s tariff code.

The fin trade is driven by the high demand for shark fin soup, a Chinese delicacy that has caused the value of fins to skyrocket to as much as $500 a pound.

Read the full story at The Mercury News

US Customs and Border Protection seizes 3,400 pounds of invasive mitten crabs

January 27, 2020 — U.S. Customs and Border Protection has seized 3,700 live mitten crabs – sent under false manifests – shipped from China and Hong Kong to individuals and businesses in the United States over the past four months.

The crabs were sent in 51 separate shipments through the port of Cincinnati, Ohio, U.S.A., and weighed in at around 3,400 pounds, according to a CBP press release. Mitten crab is considered to be an invasive species that can have a “disastrous impact on native habitats,” according to CBP.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

RODA Submits Comments on Proposed Changes to Interpretation on the Jones Act

November 18, 2019 — The following was released by the Responsible Offshore Development Alliance:

On Friday, the Responsible Offshore Development Alliance (RODA) submitted a letter to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection expressing serious concern with proposed modifications to ruling letters that would allow non-Jones Act compliant vessels to be utilized for a wide range of offshore activities, including offshore wind energy facility construction.

For nearly a century, fishermen have complied with the Jones Act. RODA is concerned that the proposed modifications and revocation of ruling letters to CBP’s application of the Jones Act would not hold offshore wind energy developers to the same standards. The proposed definition is too broad and violates the purpose of the Jones Act. Carving out a broad exemption for an entire new industry does nothing to aid the development of U.S. marine commerce.

As the number of proposed offshore wind energy projects continues to grow throughout the U.S., their widely promised economic benefits must accrue to the citizens who are displaced, and to U.S. coastal communities at large. For offshore wind energy-related operations that can be executed with existing American vessels and crew, this means delivering on promises to fully utilize those resources. For larger construction tasks for which there may not currently be qualified vessels, foreign-owned wind energy companies should contract with U.S. shipyards to build the necessary Jones Act-qualified boats.

The actions proposed in the notice also have significant bearing on national security and environmental protection. Monitoring and enforcement of U.S. environmental and security laws on foreign vessels poses extraordinary challenges due the additional permissions needed by the Coast Guard to board non-U.S. flag vessels.

Finally, RODA noted that CBP may only issue Jones Act interpretations relevant to these activities through a public rulemaking process and after conducting thorough interagency evaluations. Due to the highly case-specific nature of ruling letters, any CBP action that affects the maritime community or the public more broadly must follow the Administrative Procedure Act. The notice overreaches a ruling letter’s authority by proposing to adopt a new and unprecedented definition for “vessel equipment.” The inclusion of specific, previously uncontemplated activities—and the materials for use in those activities—in the definition of “vessel equipment” is a new statutory interpretation, and unfit for adoption through modification of existing ruling letters.

The proposed changes are described at page 12 here: https://www.cbp.gov/sites/default/files/assets/documents/2019-Oct/Vol_53_No_38_Title.pdf. Comments are due by November 22nd and must be submitted by postal mail.

Read RODA’s submitted comments here

US Customs claims Vanuatu tuna vessel used forced labor

February 7, 2019 — U.S. Customs and Border Protection announced on Wednesday, 6 February it had issued an order against a vessel from Vanuatu claiming the tuna it was carrying was caught using forced labor.

“The order will require detention at all U.S. ports of entry of tuna and any such merchandise manufactured wholly or in part by the Tunago No. 61,” the CBP statement said. “Importers of detained shipments are provided an opportunity to export their shipments or demonstrate that the merchandise was not produced with forced labor.”

According to a search of the CBP website, the action taken against Tunago No. 61 was the first withhold order it issued this year and the first ever issued against a fishing vessel.

The order took effect on Monday, 4 February. CBP spokesperson Kelly Cahalan told SeafoodSource that the Tariff Act of 1930 bans imports of merchandise or food produced at least in part by forced or indentured child labor, including forced child labor.

“Such products are subject to exclusion and/or seizure, and may lead to criminal investigation of the importer,” she said. “When information reasonably but not conclusively indicates that products of forced labor are being imported, the commissioner of Customs and Border Protection may issue withhold release orders.”

Read the full story at Seafood Source

US refuses entry of invasive Chinese crab

November 2, 2018 — The United States government refused entry of hundreds of pounds of invasive Chinese mitten crabs in Cincinnati, Ohio, U.S.A., earlier this month.

While conducting a routine inspection of incoming Chinese freight at a local express consignment facility, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agricultural specialists noted x-ray anomalies in 16 shipments, which were labeled as clothing.

They discovered thousands of live Chinese mitten crabs, destined for residences in New York.

Read the full article at Seafood Source