Saving Seafood

News for the Western Pacific Region

China’s dietary advisory body calls for more seafood consumption to improve health

April 14, 2021 — China’s national dietary advisory body has suggested the country needs to eat more seafood in order to reduce chronic diseases like heart disease and diabetes, which are on the rise.

In its annual report on national dietary problems, the China Nutrition Society, a research group attached to the ministry of civil affairs, said the national average daily intake of seafood of 24.3 grams was low by international standards and should rise to 40 grams. It also called for a reduction in sodium and sugar intake, which it blames for a rise in diabetes and coronary artery disease in China.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Japanese seafood industry confronting limits of wild-catch fisheries

April 14, 2021 — The nonprofit financial think tank Planet Tracker has released a study asserting that Japanese companies highly exposed to seafood are beginning to suffer constraints from the country’s overfished resources and that their valuations over the last decade have declined as a result.

Titled “Against the Tide – The Japanese Seafood Industry Confronts Nature’s Limits,” the report is mainly aimed at institutional investors, with the hope that they will recognize that businesses built on a declining resource will eventually face difficulties and that they will use their influence as shareholders to push the companies toward better environmental practices.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Japan to start releasing treated Fukushima water into sea in 2 years

April 14, 2021 — Japan will start releasing more than 1 million metric tons of treated radioactive water from its destroyed Fukushima nuclear plant into the ocean in two years, the government said Tuesday — a plan that faces opposition at home and has raised “grave concern” in neighboring countries.

The decision to release the wastewater comes more than a decade after the nuclear disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi plant in 2011, having been repeatedly delayed due to safety concerns and strong opposition from local fishermen still reeling from the fallout of the crisis.

Work to release the water into the Pacific Ocean will begin in about two years, and the whole process is expected to take decades, according to the Japanese government.

Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said dealing with the treated water is “an unavoidable issue” in order to decommission the nuclear plant.

“We have decided that guaranteeing safety far above the accepted standard, and ensuring the entire government’s best efforts to prevent reputational damage, means releasing it to the ocean is a realistic option,” he said.

In 2011, a powerful earthquake and tsunami cut off power supply and cooling systems for the Fukushima plant. To prevent its three damaged reactor cores from melting, cooling water was pumped in continuously, and was thus contaminated by uranium fuel rods. The water then leaked into damaged basements and tunnels, and mixed with groundwater.

Read the full story at CNN

Swelling demand intensifying challenges facing China’s seafood processors

April 13, 2021 — Chinese processing factories are suffering “a lot” from rising costs related to heightened inspections and delays on seafood being shipped into China, according to a supplier of processing equipment to the industry.

Wang Yunfeng, the CEO and founder of Shanghai AUS Food Technology Co, which imports fish processing machines from Europe to China, said those costs are exacerbating troubles already faced by the industry, which is in the midst of a seismic shift from production for export to feeding domestic demand for seafood.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Second attempt at orange roughy MSC certification denied

April 13, 2021 — A second attempt by Australia’s orange roughy fishery certified to the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) standard has been thrown out by an independent adjudicator.

The decision puts to rest a fight between WWF and the Australian Marine Conservation Society (AMCS) over the certification of the orange roughy fishery, a species considered endangered, threatened, and protected under Australian law.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

China Blue Joins GSSI

April 7, 2021 — The following was released by the Global Sustainable Seafood Initiative:

The Global Sustainable Seafood Initiative is pleased to announce China Blue Sustainability Institute has joined GSSI as an Affiliated Partner.

China Blue is a Chinese NGO that works in close collaboration with Chinese academia, government, and industry for Chinese fishery and aquaculture’s transformation towards sustainability.

“China is an important player that no one would ignore when talking about business sustainability. To tackle the sustainability challenges for China’s seafood industry of high diversity and complexity, we need more creative technology and systematic solutions. We believe working with GSSI is a strategic choice for China Blue to align the local efforts with global initiatives”, said Han Han, Founder and Executive Director, China Blue Sustainability Institute.

Read the full release here

MASSACHUSETTS: FishOn: Flesh-eating bacteria invades coast

April 6, 2021 — We here at FishOn have always fared better when we’ve lived along a coast somewhere. It probably started at birth (San Diego. Go Padres). But to this day, we get more than 50 miles inland and the whole world seems to be closing in like a fallen tent.

Still, every now and then we come across an item that makes us reconsider the attraction. Let’s go to Sorrento, Australia, for the most recent example.

According to a stomach-churning story in the New York Times, a stretch of the southeastern Australian coastline around Sorrento has become ground zero for a species of flesh-eating bacteria called the Buruli ulcer.

“Buruli ulcer has been reported in 33 countries, primarily in Africa, where a lack of access to health care can mean cases go on for months, sometimes resulting in disfigurement and disability,” the piece stated. “In Australia, where cases of the ulcer have been reported since the 1940s, the recent increase in infections has brought new attention to the neglected disease. That, along with a growing global interest in infectious diseases, has raised hopes that scientists might finally have the resources to crack its code.”

Excellent. CSI Buruli is on the case.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

Alaska roe herring season opens with limited interest from Japanese buyers

April 6, 2021 — It’s a big year for Alaska roe herring fisheries – but lackluster interest by both harvesters and processors is an ongoing issue.

The fishery at Sitka Sound opened on 27 March after a stall last year and a limited fishery in 2019, resulting from small fish and a weak market. The seine fleet this year has a harvest of 33,304 metric tons (MT) – nearly 67 million pounds – but managers predict low participation and limited processing capacity.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

GUAM: New fishermen’s co-op facility could be completed by 2022

April 5, 2021 — Necessary design changes, along with delays from the COVID-19 pandemic, have stalled the construction of a new Guam Fishermen’s Cooperative Association facility. The initial groundbreaking ceremony was held in 2017.

Kin Flores, head of the committee overseeing the project, said officials were faced with various challenges. One of the first was compliance with the flood zone regulations. Much of Hagåtña is considered a flood zone. The co-op facility had to be raised 5 feet above ground level from the original design to comply with codes.

“Since then, it has gone through two versions of the design,” Flores said. “We’re at the final stages of completing. We’re reapplying for an Army Corps (of Engineers) permit for the new sea wall and also a (Department of Public Works) permit for the new building design. And that’s potentially scheduled for late this month or early in May when we can start that permitting process.”

Another factor was poor soil conditions nearer the sea wall, which is being built to reinforce the shoreline. This made the facility’s foundation design more expensive and required that it be moved farther away.

Read the full story at The Guam Daily Post

Taiwan responds to NGO reports on forced labor within its fishing fleet

April 2, 2021 — Taiwan’s fisheries regulator has answered NGO claims of forced labor in its fishing fleet through a statement issued to SeafoodSource.

Noting the attention NGOs have brought to the abuse of foreign workers aboard Taiwanese fishing vessels, the Taiwan Fisheries Agency said in its statement it has “endeavored to improve the protection of the rights and benefits of the crew members through institutional guarantees.”

Read the full story at Seafood Source