Economic Impact

NEW BEDFORD — New Bedford once again reeled in the most money of any fishing port in the country last year, despite a decline in volume, thanks to high scallop prices.

The city's port ranked No. 1 in dollar amount in 2010, landing $306 million worth of fish, a 23 percent increase over the year before. New Bedford has taken the top place in value for 11 straight years, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported Wednesday.

"I'm very proud the port maintains the No. 1 ranking," Mayor Scott W. Lang said. "It's a tremendous economic engine for the city and the region. Not only do you have the individuals working directly on the vessels themselves, but you have all the people who support the vessels and the processors who process the fish."

At the same time, the city slipped from eighth to ninth place for the amount of fish landed. Its landings fell from 170 million pounds to 133.4 million, according to the report. It had landed 146.4 million pounds in 2008.

Lang blamed the federal government's catch share rules for the decline in volume and said he would continue to press for relief from the restrictions.

Read the complete story from The Standard-Times

 

 

 

 

 

 

U.S. domestic seafood landings and values increase in 2010

NOAA released the following today: WASHINGTON.– Sept. 7, 2011 — U.S. commercial fishermen landed 8.2 billion pounds of seafood in 2010, valued at $4.5 billion, an increase of 200 million pounds and more than $600 million in value over 2009, according to a new report released today by NOAA. This report shows U.S. fishermen, who meet high environmental and safety standards, continue to be competitive in the dynamic, fast-paced global seafood marketplace.
 
"These increases in fish landings and value are good news for our nation's fishermen and for fishing communities, where jobs depend on healthy fish stocks," said Eric Schwaab, assistant NOAA administrator for NOAA's Fisheries Service. "We know fishermen are making sacrifices now to rebuild fish populations, and these efforts, combined with good science and management, support sustainable jobs for Americans."
 
Commercial and recreational fishing are integral to the nation's social and economic fabric. In NOAA's most recent economic report, commercial and recreational fisheries generated $166 billion in sales impacts, contributed $72 billion to the Gross National Product and supported 1.4 million jobs in the fishing sector and across the broader economy.
 
Today's report, Fisheries of the United States 2010, shows that for the 22nd consecutive year, the Alaska port of Dutch Harbor-Unalaska led the nation with the highest amount of fish landed, primarily pollock. For the 11th consecutive year New Bedford, Mass. had the highest valued catch, due in large part to the sea scallop fishery.
 
Last year, commercial fishermen unloaded 515.2 million pounds of fish and shellfish in Dutch Harbor-Unalaska, an increase of nearly 10 million pounds over 2009 and a rise in the dockside value of $3.4 million to $163 million. Alaska claims three of the top 10 ports for landings volume and six of the top 10 ports for landings value. More than half of the seafood Americans eat from U.S. waters is caught in Alaska.
 
The port of New Bedford took top place for values of landings, bringing in $306 million in 2010, a 22.8-percent increase over 2009, and the highest landing values in 30 years for that port. While there was a substantial increase in value, the total amount of seafood landed in New Bedford decreased by 36.6 million pounds to 133.4 million pounds. The increase in value was driven by a 28 percent increase in the per-pound price of sea scallops. Sea scallops, which account for 22 percent of the volume and 77 percent of the value of landings in New Bedford, were declared overfished in 1998. As a result of the cooperation of fishermen and a rebuilding plan that included temporarily reducing fishing effort, restricting some gear, and closing some areas, the population was fully rebuilt in 2001, and is now the top-valued fishery in the country.
 
Fishermen at the nearby port of Gloucester, Mass., also landed their top value in the last 30 years, with landings valued at $56.6 million, an increase of 11 percent from 2009.
 
All coastal regions of the country saw increases in total value of fisheries landings in 2010. The Gulf of Mexico region, which suffered the nation's worst marine oil spill in 2010 and saw landings drop by 19 percent, achieved a modest two percent increase in total landings value.
 
Today's report also shows that the average American ate 15.8 pounds of fish and shellfish in 2010, a slight decline from the 2009 figure of 16 pounds. The U.S. continues to be third-ranked for consuming fish and shellfish, behind China and Japan. Americans consumed 4.878 billion pounds of seafood, slightly less than the 4.907 billion pounds in 2009.
 
While seafood consumption remained fairly consistent, the amount of imported seafood consumed by Americans continued to increase. About 86 percent of the seafood consumed in the U.S. is imported, measured by edible weight, up four percent from 2009. However, a portion of this imported seafood is caught by American fishermen, exported overseas for processing and then re-imported to the U.S.
 
The U.S. exports 63 percent of its domestically produced seafood, measured by live weight, which represents an increase of four percent over 2009.
 
Almost half of imported seafood comes from aquaculture, or farmed seafood. Aquaculture outside the U.S. has expanded dramatically in the last three decades and now supplies the world with half its seafood demand, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization. America's aquaculture industry, though vibrant and diverse, currently meets less than 5 percent of U.S. seafood demand.
 
"While we are turning a corner on ending overfishing on wild stocks, this report shows the need for U.S. aquaculture to grow and complement wild fisheries," said Schwaab. "Sustainable domestic aquaculture creates jobs in our coastal communities, helps meet the demand for healthy seafood, supports exports to global markets and helps us narrow the trade gap."
 
In July, NOAA announced its National Aquaculture Initiative, to jump-start private sector investments in aquaculture to create job opportunities.

GLOUCESTER, Mass.– Sept. 7, 2011 — The Ciulla family, which started the Gloucester Seafood Display Auction 11 years ago, and got a Cabinet-level apology in May for a decade of government law enforcement harassment, said today they have sold the business. President and CEO Larry Ciulla said the family sold for an undisclosed amount to Kristian Kristensen, the president of Zeus Packing Co., a fish processor that has been a tenant at the Ciullas' facility on Harbor Loop.

The transaction was completed on Friday, and will not interrupt the normal business activities at the auction house, Ciulla said. The auction is the linchpin of the Gloucester waterfront economy and the leading platform for the brokering of seafood taken from the Gulf of Maine.

"We went as far as we could as long as we could," said Ciulla in a telephone interview this morning. "We wanted to make sure the auction remains in the community.

The Ciullas and their business were the flashpoint for a decade of law enforcement excesses against the fishing industry, and it was only when the Ciullas went public in February 2009 after being hit with a 59-count allegation that events were set in motion that came to reveal how ugly the NOAA law enforcement system had become.

This past May, as the revelations reached a climax, the Ciullas and eight other businesses received a public apology by then Commerce Secretary Gary Locke and NOAA administrator Jane Lubchenco and reparations for fines unfairly collected from justice miscarried.

A special judicial master, employed by Locke, concluded that the decade of investigations had found no sign of a black market fish market or any other significant violations of federal law or regulations.

 

  Read the complete story by Richard Gaines in the Gloucester Daily Times

Change is afloat at the seafood counter of A&P. The product mix is being tweaked to include more local product caught on day boats out of Long Island and Chesapeake Bay. It is part of an effort to improve the department’s quality, with the goal of netting more customers in the process.

“Unilaterally our customers are asking for more local product,” says Tom O’Boyle, executive vice president of marketing and merchandising at A&P. The Local Day Boat Program is being rolled out throughout the Montvale, N.J.-based chain’s entire portfolio of stores, including A&P, Waldbaum’s, Super Fresh, The Food Emporium and Pathmark.

While the vast majority of America’s seafood is still imported—83% according to the National Fisheries Institute’s latest estimates—consumer concerns about saving American jobs, the environment, carbon footprint and the quality and safety of imported product is causing the tide to begin to shift to domestically produced seafood. “The feedback that we get from focus groups and store teams who interact with customers on a daily basis; they are always more apt and more interested to ask about and buy those locally grown items,” O’Boyle says.

Read the complete story from Grocery Headquarters.

 

 

 

 

 

Omega Reedville Plant without Power, but No Material Damages from Hurricane Irene

August 29, 2011 – Omega Protein Corporation (NYSE symbol: OME), a nutritional ingredient company and the nation’s leading producer of omega-3 fish oil and specialty fish meal products, announced today that its Reedville, Virginia facility has suffered no material property damages from Hurricane Irene.  All of the Company’s fishing vessels, its fish processing plant and its Health and Science Center were unharmed except for minor problems caused by the storm.

The Reedville facility currently is without power, which will restrict normal operations until power is restored.  The Company cannot predict when power will be restored although it is hopeful this could occur this week.

 

 

 

 

 

 

NEW BEDFORD — Too much, too late. That is the verdict from many city scallopers returning from trips to some portions of the recently opened Closed Area 1.

Fishermen are finding much of their dredges filled with larger and older scallops, many of which they simply toss right back into the sea.

Older scallops fetch low prices at the dock, since they assume a gray color and the meat becomes stringy with age, fishermen say.

Some portions of the closed area have been off limits to fishermen since 1994, and that is way too long, the scallopers say.

Capt. Justin Tonnessen returned from a five-day trip to the area Monday aboard the Ambassador. "It's obvious when you cut them. They have a grayish brown look to them that stands out. The price at the dock dropped because of that. I'd heard all the horror stories so I was careful about what I kept."

Read the complete story from The Standard-Times.

 

 

 

 

 

The U.S. seafood industry and members of Congress are fighting a federal order that will boost the wages of tens of thousands of migrant workers as much as 30 percent.

The H-2B program connects up to 66,000 foreign workers with seafood dealers, landscapers and other businesses to fill seasonal, low-skilled jobs that many Americans avoid.

The workers, many who come from Mexico, are typically paid the federal minimum wage, $7.25 an hour. That could change Oct. 1 when new Department of Labor rules kick in raising the hourly rate as much as $2.50 depending on the prevailing wage of where the business is located.

Some seafood dealers, such as Graham & Rollins in Hampton, worry the pay hike will put them out of business.

Read the complete story from The Daily Press.

 

 

 

 

 

NEW YORK (TheStreet) — Shares of Omega Protein Corporation (NYSE:OME) have taken a tremendous swing upward. The stock is trading at $12.34 as of 3:52 p.m. ET, 20.3% above Monday's closing price of $10.26. Volume is at 375,771, 1.6 times the daily average of 232,900.

Omega Protein has a market cap of $216.6 million and is part of the consumer goods sector and food & beverage industry. Shares are up 26.7% year to date as of the close of trading on Monday.

Omega Protein Corporation processes, markets, and distributes fish meal and fish oil products in the United States. It produces and sells various protein and oil products derived from menhaden, a species of wild herring-like fish found along the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic coasts.

Read the complete story from The Street.

 

 

 

 

 

 

NEW BEDFORD — The city may have slumbered in the pre-dawn hours Friday, but down on the docks it was all rattle and hum.

Lights blazed and diesels growled the length of New Bedford's South Terminal as scallop boats returning from closed-area trips jockeyed for space at the long wharf behind the fish houses.

The Miss Maude, the Apollo, the Ocean Queen and the Nordic Pride were among the first boats home from the closed areas on Georges Bank that opened to scallop fishing at midnight last Sunday.

The decision by fishery regulators to allow entry on Aug. 1 sparked a mass exodus from the waterfront last weekend, with practically the entire fleet leaving port. Friday's intense activity on the waterfront will continue as the remainder of the boats are expected to land their catch over the next several days.

Read the complete story from The Standard-Times.

 

 

 

 

 

A state-sponsored review panel has challenged the federal science used to justify the shutdown of a high-value Aleutian Island fishery to protect endangered Steller sea lions.

The harvest closure, which took effect in January, is estimated to cost some $44 million to $61 million in lost revenue this year to the largely Seattle-based fleets that fish for Atka mackerel and Pacific cod in the western Aleutians, according to a lawsuit filed by seafood companies that seeks to reopen the fishing ground.

The shutdown was prompted by a 2010 federal biological opinion that found the harvest could harm the recovery of a portion of the sea-lion population.

Read the complete story from The Seattle Times.