Saving Seafood

Walton Family Foundation picks new strategy for oceans, fishery conservation work

June 18, 2021 — The Walton Family Foundation – which was created by the family of Walmart founders Sam and Helen Walton and  annually gives away more than USD 500 million (EUR 412.3 million) to charitable causes, including more than USD 90 million (EUR 74.2 million) in 2019 to environment-centered projects – has revamped its approach toward its marine conservation and support of seafood sustainability initiatives.

Heather D’Agnes, senior program officer and oceans initiative lead for the foundation’s environment program, told SeafoodSource in an interview that WFF recently launched a new five-year plan tailored toward maximizing its impact on specific fisheries and seafood-trading nations.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Report claims one-fifth of caviar and meat sold in key markets illegal

June 15, 2021 — A survey by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) has revealed that the trade of caviar and sturgeon-based products in four key European countries continues to be plagued by illegal trading, hindering the recovery of seven of eight species of sturgeon in Eastern Europe that are on the brink of extinction.

WWF conducted a market survey within the European Union-funded LIFE project and published a resulting paper, “Sustainable Protection of Lower Danube Sturgeons by Preventing and Counteracting Poaching and Illegal Wildlife Trade,” laying out its findings. The research covered Bulgaria, Romania, Serbia, and Ukraine – countries where sturgeon breed in the Lower Danube River and the northwestern Black Sea region. The Danube, along with the Rioni River in Georgia’s Caucasus, is one of two remaining rivers where migrating sturgeons reproduce naturally.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Companies back moratorium on deep sea mining

April 5, 2021 — A long-running dispute over plans to start mining the ocean floor has suddenly flared up.

For years it was only environmental groups that objected to the idea of digging up metals from the deep sea.

But now BMW, Volvo, Google and Samsung are lending their weight to calls for a moratorium on the proposals.

The move has been criticised by companies behind the deep sea mining plans, who say the practice is more sustainable in the ocean than on land.

The concept, first envisaged in the 1960s, is to extract billions of potato-sized rocks called nodules from the abyssal plains of the oceans several miles deep.

Rich in valuable minerals, these nodules have long been prized as the source of a new kind of gold rush that could supply the global economy for centuries.

Interest in them has intensified because many contain cobalt and other metals needed for the countless batteries that will power the electric vehicles of a zero-carbon economy.

Read the full story at BBC News

ISSF tuna stock status report shows increase in catch, little change in sustainability

April 5, 2021 — The International Seafood Sustainability Foundation’s (ISSF) “Status of the Stocks” report covering the status of the world’s tuna fisheries has found that most catch continues to be sourced from stocks at “healthy” levels of abundance.

The twice-yearly report by the ISSF – a cooperative program involving scientists, the tuna industry, and the World Wildlife Fund – breaks down the status of the world’s tuna stocks. The latest report represents the second since March 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic first started impacting the work of regional fishery management organizations (RFMOs).

Read the full story at Seafood Source

MARCEL KROUSE: IOTC should approve yellowfin tuna catch cap

March 9, 2021 — Marcel Kroese is WWF’s global tuna lead and has been involved in marine conservation as a researcher and professional since 1992, with working experience in East and West Africa, the Pacific, and Central America.

Picture a tuna. No, not a can. A fish. It is sleek and strong. Its scales flash as it dives like a torpedo to depths of 1,000 meters. If it were a car, James Bond would drive it. If it were a cat, it would be a cheetah. Yet these spectacular, athletic sea creatures are not afforded the same awe and wonder by humans as the big cats. We value tuna as a luxury food or a more humble “shelf-stable protein,” which is handy when stocking up for a pandemic. Either way, they are just food.

Certainly, tuna have fed countless generations throughout human history. From the palm-fringed islands of the Pacific to the diverse nations of the Mediterranean, tuna have been part of the diet and part of the culture. But before they make it to the plate, they played a vital role in the functioning of the ocean ecosystem – because fish don’t just inhabit the ocean. They fuel it.

Read the full opinion piece at Seafood Source

Sysco tightens seafood sustainability policy to require more MSC- and ASC-certified seafood

January 14, 2021 — Foodservice distributor Sysco will significantly increase its purchases of certified responsible seafood by 2025, as part of an enhanced commitment with its partner, World Wildlife Fund (WWF).

The Houston, Texas, U.S.A.-based distributor will also expand its current responsible sourcing program for its U.S. broadline business to include sourcing for its specialty and Canadian broadline business, Sysco said in a press release. It is adding new commitments to prohibit the sale of endangered species, advance its traceability work, and help address deforestation.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Russian fishery authorities and WWF sign cooperation agreement

January 7, 2021 — The Russian Federal Agency for Fisheries and World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Russia have signed an agreement outlining safeguards for Russia’s marine biological resources and the environment.

Signed by Russian Federal Agency for Fisheries Head Ilya Shestakov and WWF-Russia Director Dmitry Gorshkov, the document also calls for closer efforts between WWF and the Russian government to study marine life and find more efficient ways to utilize it.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

ISSF Statement: IATTC Emergency Commission Meeting

December 22, 2020 — The following was released by the International Seafood Sustainability Foundation:

The action by IATTC at its emergency Commission meeting held on December 22 — a meeting and decision that ISSF and its stakeholders called for earlier this month — keeps crucial “status quo” fishing effort and catch limit provisions and active FAD limits in place for 2021. This decision ensures that the valuable tuna resources and the marine ecosystems of the Eastern Pacific Ocean (EPO) will not be unmanaged for 2021. And it gives the Commission an opportune period to develop and adopt new comprehensive tuna management measures for 2022, including science-based limits on FADs and floating objects (e.g., active numbers, sets, deployments, etc.), that fully implement scientific advice.

ISSF calls on IATTC parties to work collaboratively throughout next year to hold detailed, inclusive discussions that will lead to decisive and science-based action for the protection of EPO tuna stocks and their marine ecosystems. Regardless of meeting format in 2021, ISSF will pursue all opportunities to help guide IATTC and all tuna RFMOs, member governments, industry, vessels, FIPs and NGOs on the complex issues they must navigate for sustainable global tuna stocks and their ecosystems.

About the International Seafood Sustainability Foundation

The International Seafood Sustainability Foundation (ISSF) is a global coalition of scientists, the tuna industry and World Wildlife Fund (WWF) — the world’s leading conservation organization — promoting science-based initiatives for the long-term conservation and sustainable use of tuna stocks, reducing bycatch and promoting ecosystem health. Helping global tuna fisheries meet sustainability criteria to achieve the Marine Stewardship Council certification standard — without conditions — is ISSF’s ultimate objective. To learn more, visit iss-foundation.org  and follow ISSF on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and LinkedIn.

Seafood sustainability foundation reports most world tuna stocks in good shape

December 14, 2020 — About 87 percent of the worldwide commercial catch of tuna is coming from stocks seen at healthy levels of abundance, although some regional stocks including Pacific bluefin are overfished, the International Seafood Sustainability Foundation says in a new status report.

Based on findings by regional fishery management organizations though October 2020, the summary by the foundation – a cooperative program involving scientists, the tuna industry, and the World Wildlife Fund – breaks down 10 percent of the world catch coming from overfished stocks and 3 percent from stocks “at an intermediate level of abundance.”

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Assessors must reconsider parts of potential bluefin MSC certification

June 29, 2020 — An independent adjudicator, analyzing formal objections to the potential Marine Stewardship Council certification of the Usufuku Honten East Atlantic bluefin tuna fishery, has upheld one of the four objections presented.

The objections were presented by the World Wildlife Fund and The Pew Charitable Trusts in January, after the assessment body, Control Union Pesca Ltd., recommended that the fishery be certified in December 2019. Of the four objections, the independent adjudicator upheld objections to the evidence used to conclude how long bluefin tuna take to grow and reproduce, according to a release from MSC.

Read the full story at Seafood Source