Economic Impact

SEAFOOD.COM NEWS [seafoodnews.com] Oct 9, 2012 — Legal Seafoods' Roger Berkowitz, never one to miss a promotional opportunity, has jumped into the election with his restaurants offering a 'Blue' Or 'Red' Plate Special.

Berkowtize calls these a Liberal Offering of Mahi-Mahi for Obama versus Pan-Seared Cod in a Lobster Bourbon Sauce for Romney.

He says more willing to serve sides than choose them, Boston-based restaurant Legal Sea Foods has created two 'Presidential' plates that pay tribute to the home and adopted states of this year's candidates.

From October 24 through November 5, all Legal Sea Foods restaurants will let diners vote between a d-electable 'Blue Plate' or 'Red Plate' special. The 'Blue Plate' dish features macadamia-coconut crusted mahi-mahi with roasted brussels sprouts in a lime butter sauce, while the 'Red Plate' entree is a pan-seared cod with steamed spaghetti squash in bourbon lobster cream sauce. Both are priced at $25.95.

'If there is anything that can get people to reach across the aisle – or the table, in this instance – it's one of these deliciously partisan plates,' said Roger Berkowitz, president and CEO of Legal Sea Foods. 'Whether you lean left, stand in the middle or are to the right, both these seafood choices will get your vote.'

President Obama's Hawaiian birth inspired the mahi-mahi choice, while Mitt Romney's tenure as Massachusetts Governor called for the inclusion of a Bay State staple, cod.

Berkowitz explained that these unique dishes are the perfect choice given today's political debates.

'Fish is healthy, so you have healthcare covered. The price is attractive, so the economy will be bolstered. Both menu items are American-made, so it helps with jobs and the trade deficit. And as far as entitlements, we feel everyone is entitled to a delicious meal every day.'

 

Seafood.com is a subscription-based website. The article is reprinted with permission

 

 

October 5, 2012 — The same Community Supported Fishery (CSF) initiative that has revolutionized struggling U.S. small boat fisheries could deliver a desperately needed shot in the arm to the United Kingdom’s beleaguered inshore fishermen, according to writer, explorer and TV presenter Monty Halls.

Speaking at the Marine Conservation Society’s (MCS) Annual General Meeting in London last week, Halls reflected on his eight-month experience creating the hit six-part BBC TV series, "The Fisherman's Apprentice with Monty Halls," which first aired on U.K. screens in February.

For the show, Halls moved to the small, traditional Cornish fishing village of Cadgwith to learn how to live and work as a small-boat fisherman. He revealed that as a marine biologist he went into the experience with the conception that all fishermen were overfishing, greedy and having a detrimental impact on the oceans. But when he left, he felt that maybe the conservationists, himself included, had got it wrong.

“Every fisherman I met was extremely hardworking and every boat I worked on wanted a sustainable way forward,” said Halls. “I felt their story was an important one to tell; they could be the last generation of fishermen — the average age of a U.K. fisherman is 49 and there isn’t another generation coming through.”

Through the show, Halls wanted to learn why the small boats are in the trouble that they are in; in his words “heading to oblivion,” particularly when the quality of the catch from thee vessels is universally agreed to be superior to that of trawled fish.

 

Read the full story here

 

 

EASTPORT, Maine — October 1, 2012 — Maine and its Canadian neighbors have a tightly linked and sometimes confrontational relationship when it comes to the buying and selling of lobsters. One Eastport entrepreneur decided to take what he learned from his Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, counterpart and construct a state-of-the-art onshore lobster pound based on a design concept fully implemented throughout the Canadian Maritimes.

David Pottle is a born businessman who was raised on the water. According to his father, Basil Pottle, "When he was in eighth grade he would go to school all week and then fish with his brother on the weekends, making more money than his teachers."

For the past 25 years, David Pottle has gained a reputation as a highly competent fisherman, skilled owner of a construction company and a responsible lobster dealer. Starting with two small storage tanks at his Perry home, he began buying from his fellow lobstermen. He then sold in volume to his distributor, the Milbridge facility of Inland Seafood, a food corporation based in Atlanta.

During the past seven years, he watched his home-based business grow to nine tanks with a capacity to hold 9,000 pounds of lobster.

"People hear by word of mouth [about your reputation] and then want to sell to you," he says.

Now Pottle is preparing to open a new lobster pound in Eastport this winter that increases his capacity by more than tenfold. Unlike most lobster pounds in the area, Pottle's new operation is a land-based design that integrates refrigeration to keep a lobster fresh and healthy for up to three months from the time it is caught.

Pottle first became interested in land-based lobster pounds when he visited one owned and operated by Wade Nickerson at SeaKist Lobster in Nova Scotia. The idea stuck with him, and as his business grew, he thought a land-based operation was the best opportunity to expand.

Modeled after the Nickerson plant, Pottle's 6,000-square-foot Lighthouse Lobster and Bait facility is located on the south end of Moose Island in Eastport. The three-acre property was acquired from the city in May 2010 with a bid of $43,000.

"It is not often that a property so ideally situated becomes available. I had an idea and I went at it," he says. Pottle used his own money to purchase the property first, then sought loans to combine with his own funds to secure the $1.2 million he needed to set up the business.

 

Read the full article at Mainebiz

 

 

September 19, 2012 — The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration just issued its fisheries report card for 2011, and Alaska is on the honor roll. Last year, 2.3 billion pounds of seafood worth $1.3 billion crossed the state’s docks.

About a third of that fish came through Unalaska. The city has long been proud of its reputation as America’s number #1 fishing port. But as KUCB’s Alexandra Gutierrez reports, Unalaska got a bit of bad news in an otherwise rosy assessment of Alaska’s fisheries.

TRANSCRIPT

For more than two decades, Dutch Harbor has held the title of America’s busiest fishing port. At least a half billion pounds of pollock, crab, and other seafood have crossed its docks every year since 1989. But Wednesday, Dutch Harbor got a bit of a surprise. Its streak had actually been interrupted. Here’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration spokesperson Julie Speegle.

SPEEGLE: This is the 15th year that Dutch Harbor was the top port for volume, and I guess last year we were 22nd.

This isn’t a mathematical error. NOAA’s annual fisheries report card was released Wednesday, and analysis of previously confidential data shows that in 1996, Reedville, Virginia, actually beat out Dutch Harbor by 5 million pounds. It’s like if ten years from today, Michael Phelps had to trade an Olympic gold medal for a silver because of a change in how freestyle races were monitored.

Unalaska Resource Analyst Frank Kelty was among the industry watchers who noticed the change. He says that Reedville isn’t like your usual Alaska fishing port. He says that they don’t deal with seafood and that instead they process: KELTY: Very small menhaden or smelt type of fish that is ground up into fish meal or fertilizer.

For farming, not eating. Kelty is a little perplexed by the change in historical rankings, but he’s taking it in stride. The city is going to have to fix up some of its marketing materials, though.

 

Listen to the story at KUCB

 

 

September 26, 2012 — The following was released by the Northeast Seafood Coalition.

Plymouth, Mass. — Today, NOAA Fisheries Northeast Regional Administrator announced a modified harbor porpoise consequence closure for the gillnet fleet. In early August, the Northeast Seafood Coalition submitted a request to NOAA Fisheries for a one-year adjustment to the closure, which was set to begin October 1 through November 30. The closure will now be in February and March, a time when there are less harbor porpoise interactions and less economic impact on fishing communities.

The NSC expresses its deep appreciation to Mr. John Bullard and his staff for conducting such an in-depth analysis and working with us to find a win-win solution that will advance the protection of harbor porpoise and help enable our fishery to survive during this very difficult time of a fishery disaster. We look forward to working with the agency and the Harbor Porpoise Take Reduction Team, with whom we share a full commitment to harbor porpoise conservation.

To that end, NSC will be working closely with the gillnet fishermen, Northeast Fishery Sectors and the Gloucester Fishing Community Preservation Fund to follow-through on the industry's good-faith offer to double pinger deployment beginning October 1 and begin deploying the latest LED-pinger technology in November, which should eliminate any further concerns about compliance and problems with pinger functionality and testing.

We are grateful for the congressional support of U.S. Senators Kerry, Brown, Shaheen, Ayote, Snowe, and Collins; Congressmen Frank, Tierney, Keating, Guinta, Michaud; Congresswoman Pingree, state Senator Tarr and the Gloucester Fisheries Commission. Furthermore NSC is grateful for the statement released Friday by the Environmental Defense Fund, which expresses their support of the NSC proposal and its attempt to find a win-win solution for fishermen and harbor porpoise.

Background Information:

The NMFS completed analyses of observed harbor porpoise bycatch from September 2010 through May 2011 and determined the bycatch rate for the Coastal Gulf of Maine Consequence Closure Area exceeded the target rate of 0.031 harbor porpoises per metric tons (equivalent to 1 harbor porpoise per 71,117 lbs.). As a result, waters from northern Massachusetts to Portland, Maine were scheduled to be closed to gillnetting in October and November beginning in fishing year 2012 to protect harbor porpoise. NSC submitted a congressionally supported proposal to modify the closure timing and area on August 9, 2012. On September 21, the NSC along with affected gillnet fishermen, Northeast Sector Service Network (NESSN), Northeast Fishery Sector Managers and representatives from various elected officials offices met with the NMFS Northeast Regional Administrator John Bullard and his staff regarding NSC’s request. Following the meeting, Mr. Bullard committed to reconsider his decision based on all the new information presented to him in the meeting.

 

CAPE MAY, N.J. — September 25, 2012 — Cape May remained the East Coast's second-most valuable fishing port last year, aided by rising scallop prices that offset a declining catch, according to a report.

The report from the National Marine Fisheries Service shows the port, which includes docks in Lower Township and Wildwood but none actually in Cape May, took in $103 million last year. That's up from $81 million in 2010.

Cape May trails New Bedford, Mass., among East Coast ports and ranks fifth nationwide.

The Press of Atlantic City reports that scallops are its primary catch. They rose last year from $7.92 per pound to nearly $10 a pound. That is the price paid to the fishing vessels, but the value of the catch rises at least sixfold before the seafood reaches consumers.

The amount of fish brought to the docks in Cape May port declined from 43 million pounds to 40 million pounds.

 

Read the full story from the AP at the Ventura County Star

 

 

GLOUCESTER, Mass. — September 23, 2012 — Gloucester fisherman Paul Vitale’s job is on the line. New England legislators are lobbying for $100 million to save next year’s groundfish fishery season in the wake of a disaster declaration, but that isn’t easing Vitale’s uncertainty about his industry’s future.

“There’s three households earning money off of my shoulders,” said Vitale, 40, captain of the 50-foot “Angela + Rose” and a father of three. “We never know day to day what’s happening.”

Despite local fishermen adhering to catch limits, groundfish stocks such as Georges Bank cod and yellowtail flounder and Gulf of Maine cod remain depleted. This could lead to the annual catch limit being cut by as much as 72 percent in May, officials said.

Gloucester, a one-time fishing mecca, is now gasping for air, as its landings in value last year — $61 million for 77 million pounds — fell by six times compared to New Bedford’s, putting the North Shore coastal community as the 19th-ranked U.S. port based on volume.

Gloucester Mayor Carolyn A. Kirk said only about 75 boats remain in the fleet, and that her city’s needs alone could total upward of $25 million.

“Fishermen are doing their part so they put a business plan together, take out a financial obligation to run their business, and 10 months later literally the rug gets pulled out from under them,” she said. “They are doing everything the government’s told them to do in terms of complying with regulations.”

 

Read the full article at the Boston Herald

 

 

September 24, 2012 — In August, the New England Fisheries Management Council and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration indicated that "Several important fish stocks are in poor condition and some catch limits for 2013 will be reduced markedly from 2012.” The anticipated severe cuts could be approximately 70% for cod, Gulf of Maine haddock and American plaice. Yellowtail flounder stock cuts are predicted to be approximately 50%.  At the time these announcements were made, Samuel Rauch, head of NOAA Fisheries, and C.M. “Rip” Cunningham Jr., chair of the New England Fishery Management Council, stated "While there is unlikely to be any solution to fully mitigate the challenges in 2013, we plan to continue to work closely with the industry to explore every possible option."

One perennial problem in U.S. northeastern fisheries management has been a patchwork of regulations that prevent U.S. fishermen from harvesting healthy stocks to their full sustainable levels as determined by best available science. This problem exists in several fisheries, including pollock, redfish, and haddock. This issue brief examines options that could allow U.S. fishermen to fish Georges Bank haddock up to the scientifically determined total allowable catch.

United States Georges Bank haddock, especially when compared to Canadian haddock from the same stock, is underfished. By “underfished,” we refer to the fact that US fishermen routinely fish significantly less than the scientifically determined total allowable catch.

Several regulatory barriers are preventing the successful exploitation of haddock, ultimately resulting in fishermen leaving hundred of millions of dollars in the ocean and the continuation of pressure on unhealthy stocks. There are a variety of precipitant factors influencing underfishing in the US:

•    In the United States, fishermen may only keep haddock that are over 18 inches in length. In Canada, which shares the haddock resource with the US, no such minimum fish size is set. The US is the only country in the world to require a minimum fish size. Thus, Canadians are able to catch 15 and 16-inch haddock, and export them after processing to US markets as fillets.  Our fishermen cannot do this because they have to meet the US minimum length size for the whole fish.  There is no minimum size for processed fillets, nor is there any way to determine from examining a processed fillet the length of the fish from which it came.
•    While the US requires a minimum size for haddock landings, fishermen often catch smaller fish in their nets. These fish, most of which are already dead, need to be discarded.
•    In 2003, the year class of haddock was the largest recorded at the time. Because of size limits, these fish could first be caught by the US fishery starting in 2007.  Since 2007, the US catch of haddock has averaged around 18 percent of the assigned haddock quota. During the same time period, and exploiting the same resource, Canadian fishermen caught an average of 94 percent of their quota.
•    If the United States caught the same percentage of its haddock quota as the Canadians, industry observers estimate that it could have translated to an extra $485 million in landings for the period between 2007-2011.

There are several reasons that Canadian fishermen are able to catch so much of their quota, while the US has been much less successful with its own.

•    The fishery is currently managed by a combination of input controls (that attempt to restrict fishing by limiting fishing effort) and output controls (regulations that control the total allowable catch). Doing both at the same time is impractical, as two different tools are being used to manage the fishery simultaneously. If strong output controls are enacted, such as a hard TAC, input controls can be relinquished and a more efficient catch can result.
•    NMFS studies demonstrate that the wrong minimum mesh size on haddock nets is being used in the United States. Currently, the United States has a minimum mesh size of six and one half inches, while the Canadian minimum mesh size is 5-1/4 inches. This allows Canadian fishermen to fish more efficiently. With the current mesh size, about 50 percent of the legal-size fish that are caught by US fishermen escape from the net.
•    The closed areas for haddock in the United States were implemented to protect haddock. The haddock stock no longer needs this protection, and is experiencing record highs for the population.
•    One US closed area goes up to the Hague line, allowing Canadians to fish on its edge, giving Canadian fishermen the ability to gain from a US closed area, but depriving Americans of the that benefit.

Suggestions and Implications

•    The 2010 year class of haddock is the largest ever recorded. These fish are now becoming large enough to harvest.  Canadian fishermen are already taking advantage of this. Because of the size of the year class, the US quota next year will be very large, estimated to be about 50,000 tons.
•     The United States needs to become better at catching and landing these fish in order to lessen pressure on unhealthy stocks. 

The United States can mitigate and minimize the harm of the oncoming cuts to New England groundfish by eliminating the barriers that have been preventing fishermen from fulfilling quotas of the healthiest stocks.

Recommendations:
1. Re-open the closed areas where possible, as the haddock stock is healthy.
2. Change to the appropriate mesh size.
3. Lower the minimum possession size. (Under consideration in Framework 48)
4. Change to a full retention fishery. (Under consideration in Framework 48)

 

Read the issue brief here

 

 

GLOUCESTER, Mass. — September 21, 2012 — In only two years, according to the government’s annual report of domestic and global fisheries, released Wednesday, landings have declined by 63 percent, from 122.3 million pounds landed in 2009 to 77 million landed in 2011.

The precipitous decline was at odds with national trends, whose indicators, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, are mostly pointing upward, and shoved Gloucester from 10th place in landings volume to 19th place.

A longer view creates a more dreary picture. Figures in Pringle’s “History of Gloucester” show that in 1891, a fleet of 374 boats landed 118 million pounds of fresh fish — not including landings of haddock and other stocks that supported the port’s 44 businesses outfitting boats over the winter.

Pringle did not clarify the strange statistical anomaly.

On a single day in 1917, roughly in the middle of the port’s apex period, more than 5 million pounds were landed, notes the website GoodMorningGloucester.com, quoting the historical site, downtothesea.com.

Gloucester was top o’ the world back then. Its tercentenary in 1923 was a time of unrivaled prosperity with Gorton’s feeding the world frozen, processed wild caught seafood for the first time. The industry kept its perch through the 1950s but as the post-war reconstruction produced factory trawlers that dramatized the outdated technology of Gloucester boats, the long decline began.

Elsewhere across the region, the figures are better, with landings in 2011 up 8 percent from 2010 to 2011; it took the Commerce Department more than 10 months since Gov. Deval Patrick’s filing of a brace of socio-economic studies last November to decide that the groundfishery on which Gloucester depends has legally failed.

The Sept. 13 formal disaster declaration has made at least feasible an effort, led by Sen. John Kerry, to leverage $100 million in disaster aid in the final days of the 112th Congress.

Landings in New Bedford declined a bit more than in Gloucester, 2009 to 2011, but the southern co-capital of New England fishing is diversified and depends much more on scallops than groundfish, and remains the No. 1 port in landings value, at $369 million last year, six times Gloucester’s $61 million in landings last year.

New England’s third port, Point Judith, R.I., which benefits from access to Georges Bank for scallops and groundfish and the Southern New England waters for squid, flatfish and species that remain in the warmer waters, actually edged forward with slightly higher landings in 2011 over 2009, the report, “Fisheries of the United States 2011,” shows.

 

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times

 

 

BOSTON — September 20, 2012 — In this land of the (disappearing) cod, new federal statistics underscore just how great a seafood transformation the U.S. has undergone in the last three decades: A whopping 91 percent of the seafood U.S. consumers eat is now imported.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration statistics, up five percent from a year ago, probably do not have a lot to do with the plummeting number of cod and flounder off New England's coast – populations so low the federal government declared a disaster for fishermen on Sept. 13. But it does highlight the continued lack of federal and state oversight to ensure the seafood consumers are eating is the species they think it is and from the country they think it was processed in.

Last year, my colleague, Jenn Abelson, and I wrote a series about widespread mislabeling going on in the seafood industry, a problem amplified by the long, confusing journey fish take from sea to plate. Many times consumers order one fish and get a less expensive another instead – a case of economic fraud that can also have major implications for human health.

The top three imports are shrimp, canned tuna, and tilapia fillets. Most imports are farmed safood and some were U.S. caught products sent overseas for processing. The report notes that the average America now eats about 15 pounds of fish and shellfish in 2011, slightly less than in 2010. Yet the U.S. is second only to China in seafood consumption – making oversight a critically important area.

 

Read the full story at the Boston Globe