Saving Seafood

Mexican diplomats petition US to end shrimp embargo

August 17, 2021 — Mexican officials recently met with their U.S. counterparts in Washington D.C. to formally request a lifting of the U.S. embargo on Mexican wild-caught shrimp.

In April 2021, the U.S. State Department withdrew Mexico’s certification under Section 609 of Public Law 101-162, barring Mexico from exporting any of its wild-caught shrimp to the United States. In a statement at the time, the State Department said Mexico’s efforts to protect sea turtles were “no longer comparable to that of the United States.”

Read the full story at Seafood Source

GOV. DUNLEAVY: Secretary Blinken, protect Alaska’s fisheries

March 18, 2021 — Dear Secretary of State Blinken,

In light of your imminent meeting with Chinese officials in Alaska, I write to impress upon you the international challenges faced by our commercial fishing industry.

Perhaps no group of Alaskans has been impacted more severely by the global economic collapse than our fishers and processors. Both coped admirably with the logistical challenges of running businesses that rely on the free movement of labor, but neither escaped the pain of demand shock that rippled outward from shuttered restaurants, reductions in consumer spending, and the partial collapse of many export markets.

However, not all of the industries’ woes can be traced back to the pandemic. Many are preexisting conditions stemming from hostile decisions made by China and Russia during the previous decade.

In July 2018, China’s government imposed retaliatory tariffs on Alaska seafood, decimating our market share in the world’s largest and fastest-growing seafood market. Today, these tariffs have reached an outrageous 30-40% on top of several extreme and unproven COVID-mitigation measures intended to slow the importation of Alaska seafood.

Read the full opinion piece at the Juneau Empire

State Department issues guidance on visa applicants after federal judge issues injunction

October 19, 2020 — The U.S. State Department has issued new guidance for certain individuals applying for H-2B and other temporary worker visas after a federal judge in California issued an injunction against the Trump Administration earlier this month.

For H-2B applicants, individuals must be prepared to show that their employer is a member of one of the following trade associations: the National Association of Manufacturers, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Retail Federation, TechNet, and Intrax, Inc.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

US family fighting to free commercial fishermen held prisoner in British Virgin Islands

September 1, 2020 — A U.S. family from New Jersey is fighting to get the U.S. State Department to intervene in the imprisonment of Mike Foy, a commercial fisherman who has been held in the British Virgin Islands since 8 June.

Foy, according to a Change.org petition nearing 5,000 signatures, was waiting in the waters of Tortola for clearance to enter the island’s port in order to obtain passport stamps for the crew so they could obtain clearance to Puerto Rico – a requirement of U.S. Customs. Instead, Foy was imprisoned and charged with “illegal entry and unlicensed fishing” after being told to dock his boat off the coast.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

No fish left? Let’s build an app for that

May 6, 2016 — Behold a few of the marvelous things the internet has done for us: filed our taxes, found us dates, recommended that we watch the film Repo Man. Is there anything the internet can’t do? No, there’s not, and for proof I offer the fact that I am sitting in a room, watching people try to use the internet to save fish. Fish are in serious trouble, thanks to both overfishing and climate change. Could the tech world, with its legendary affinity for sushi, come to the rescue?

The U.S. State Department thinks so, and has a few ideas about how best to go about keeping the world’s remaining supply of fish alive and reproducing. For the last three years, it’s held a weekend-long coding competition (aka “hackathon”) as a way of getting those ideas implemented. It’s called the Fishackathon.

In cities around the world, coders work around the clock for a weekend to come up with software (and sometimes hardware) to tackle the problem of overfishing. At the end of it, a panel of judges in each city picks a winning team, and then the State Department unveils the winner of all winners on June 8 (World Oceans Day). That victorious team gets a $10,000 prize and a chance to develop their project with a U.S. government contractor.

Read the full story at Grist