Saving Seafood

News for the Western Pacific Region

NOAA Fisheries Closes Office in U.S. Embassy Tokyo After 33 years

August 4, 2020 — NOAA Fisheries closed the representative office in the U.S. Embassy Tokyo on July 31 after 33 years due to a sharp budget cut of Silver Spring, according to the leaving official’s announcement in Tokyo.

NOAA Fisheries opened its office in 1987 in the Commercial Service of the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo after establishing the U.S. EEZ and phasing out of international fleets. The mission of NOAA Tokyo was to develop the Japanese market for U.S. fishery products, such as Alaskan salmon and bottom fish. At that time Japan was the largest market for U.S. seafood, and the NOAA Tokyo office assisted many American small exporters of American lobster and sea urchin, the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute’s triumphant entry into the market. It supported the Tokyo offices of American Seafood Company, Ocean Beauty Seafoods, and Trident Seafoods. It assisted seafood trade missions to Japan from U.S. states and native Americans. It negotiated with the Japanese government to permit the import of live oysters from Washington, Oregon, New York, and Connecticut.

Read the full story at Seafood News

2020 China International Fisheries Expo canceled

July 28, 2020 — The China International Fisheries and Seafood Expo, scheduled for 28 to 30 October, 2020, in Qingdao, has been canceled for this year.

Blaming “the global epidemic situation and the impact of force majeure factors in epidemic management and control,” the organizers said the event is being moved to 27 to 29 October, 2021.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

HAWAII: DLNR opposes regional fishery council’s request to allow commercial fishing in Papahanaumokuakea

July 27, 2020 — The state Department of Land and Natural Resources has sent a letter to President Donald Trump opposing a request by a regional fishery council to allow commercial fishing in the Papahanaumokuakea and Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monuments.

The Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council (Wespac) sent a letter to Trump on May 8 in response to Trump’s executive order promoting American seafood competitiveness and economic growth.

In the letter signed by council chairman Archie Taotasi Soliai and Wespac executive director Kitty Simonds, the council asked the president to “please consider lifting the fishing restrictions in the Pacific marine national monuments and allowing America’s fishermen to fish again in the US EEZ (exclusive economic zone)….”

Read the full story at the Honolulu Star Advertiser

US signs agreement to help Vietnam strengthen fisheries law enforcement

July 24, 2020 — The U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL), and the Vietnamese Agriculture Ministry’s Directorate of Fisheries (DFISH), have entered into a memorandum of understanding in order to strengthen Vietnam’s fisheries management and law enforcement capabilities.

Vietnam Agriculture Ministry Director General Tran Dinh Luan and U.S. Ambassador to Vietnam Daniel J. Kritenbrink signed the MoU in Hanoi on 22 July, according to the Directorate of Fisheries.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Satellites uncover widespread illegal fishing in Pacific Ocean

July 23, 2020 — Orbital observations have revealed extensive illegal fishing of Pacific flying squid (Todarodes pacificus) in the Pacific Ocean around Russia, Japan and North and South Korea in 2017 and 2018, a new study reports.

In fact, “extensive” may not be a strong enough word. More than 900 vessels of Chinese origin probably violated United Nations sanctions by fishing in North Korean waters in 2017, and another 700 did the same in 2018, the study found.

These scofflaw ships likely hauled in more than 176,000 tons (160,000 metric tons) of Pacific flying squid over those two years, a catch worth about US $440 million, study team members said. That’s nearly equivalent to the combined T. pacificus catch of Japan and South Korea over the same span.

“The scale of the fleet involved in this illegal fishing is about one-third the size of China’s entire distant-water fishing fleet,” said study co-lead author Jaeyoon Park, a senior data scientist at Global Fishing Watch, an international nonprofit organization dedicated to increasing ocean sustainability via greater transparency.

Read the full story at MSN

Study: Chinese ‘dark fleets’ illegally defying sanctions by fishing in North Korean waters

July 23, 2020 — Chinese “dark fleets” illegally fished a $440 million haul of the squid species Todarodes pacificus in North Korean waters during 2017 and 2018, according to a study published today in the journal Science Advances.

The study used a novel set of satellite images to track fishing vessels operating off the northeast coast of the Korean peninsula, including satellite synthetic aperture radar (SAR), visible infrared imaging radiometer suite sensors (VIIRS), high-resolution optical imagery, and identification beacon data from some of the vessels themselves. Its authors say that this is one of the first times those technologies have been combined to map illicit fishing at such a large scale over a years-long period.

“We believe that this study marks the beginning of a new era in fisheries management, transparency, and monitoring,” said Jaeyoon Park, senior data scientist at Global Fishing Watch and a co-lead author of the paper.

Park and his colleagues used data collected from Planet Labs, an Earth-imaging company that has also been instrumental in tracking deforestation caused by hard-to-track illegal gold mining, to map the movement of fishing boats in contested waters around the Korean peninsula. They found that in 2017, more than 900 Chinese fishing boats traveled to an area in North Korea’s exclusive economic zone, followed by another 700 in 2018.

Read the full story at Mongabay

China’s demand for special status a sticking point in WTO fishing subsidies negotiations

July 23, 2020 — World Trade Organization (WTO) talks on ending harmful fishing subsidies resumed this week, and a return to intensive negotiations has been set for September. The timeline, however, creates a tight squeeze to reach the 31 December deadline for a deal.

Santiago Wills, the chairman of the talks, brought the heads of delegations together on 21 July for a plenary session, the first such in-person session in a month. But while there had been hopes recently of a pathway to a deal, there appears to be new friction between Beijing and Washington over China’s claims to developing nation status.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Huge Chinese illegal fishing operation in North Korean waters uncovered

July 22, 2020 — A new study has uncovered a massive illegal fishing operation conducted by Chinese fishing vessels in North Korean waters.

The study, Illuminating Dark Fishing Fleets in North Korea, found at least 700 vessels of Chinese origin had fished illegally in North Korean waters in 2018, and that more than 900 had done so in 2017 – in violation of United Nations sanctions. It estimated the illegal take of Pacific flying squid from the participating vessels is more than 160,000 metric tons, worth over USD 440 million (EUR 380.2 million) in 2017-2018. The total take is greater than the entire catch of the fishing fleets of Japan and South Korea combined. The study found that such large, unregulated catches are depleting squid stocks in the region, with squid populations plummeting by 80 percent and 82 percent in South Korean and Japanese waters, respectively, since 2003.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Report indicates Pacific tuna fisheries weathering COVID-19 well

July 20, 2020 — The fishing effort in the tuna-rich waters of the Parties to the Nauru Agreement (PNA) does not appear to have been significantly impeded by the COVID-19 crisis, according to a report prepared by Brisbane, Australia-based resources consultancy MRAG Asia Pacific.

The report, which was completed in April, stated that travel restrictions as a result of the pandemic “has not resulted in a widespread decline in fishing effort.”

Read the full story at Seafood Source