Saving Seafood

International & Trade

German Court Overturns City’s Ban on Fish Pedicures

July 16, 2015– BERLIN (AP) — A German court says a city can’t refuse a cosmetic salon permission to offer pedicures using fish because of animal welfare concerns.

The pedicures involve using fish to nibble dead skin off people’s feet. City authorities in Cologne had argued that using fish in a spa wasn’t ethically compatible with animal protection.

However, the city’s administrative court ruled Thursday those concerns must be balanced with the plaintiff’s professional freedom.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at The New York Times 

Challenges in Japanese Eel Production

July 16, 2015 — Today the Japanese consume around 100,000 tons, or 70 – 80 per cent of the worldwide eel catch, but in 2013 the Japanese Ministry of the Environment designated the fish as a species at risk of extinction, and in June 2014 it was placed on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)’s Red List of Threatened Species.

In Japan, aquaculture is extremely important to the eel industry’s success, with most eel caught in the wild as juveniles and then raised on fish farms. However, the overfishing of juvenile glass eels has now become a huge problem.

Fed on a diet of fishmeal and kept in fossil-fuel-heated greenhouses, eel are usually collected along the Pacific Coast between December and April and put into tanks where their chances of survival are improved thanks to heating apparatus that helps increase water temperature particularly during the winter, and a circulating filter system in which water is filtered and re-circulated.

Ponds or specialized tanks are then used to grow the eels in temperatures of around 23oC – 28oC, after which regular grading takes place in which the eels are separated according to size and harvested once they are large enough to have reached market value.

Read the full story at The Fish Site 

 

New scallop conservation measures announced in Scotland

Scallop stocks are to be protected through new conservation measures announced by the Scottish government.

The measures, which are being put in place following a consultation, aim to improve the management of the scallop fishery in Scottish waters.

The minimum landing size of scallops will be increased from 100mm to 105mm for most of the Scottish coast.

This is expected to help protect the breeding stock of scallops and lead to greater yield and egg production.

Restrictions will also be placed on the number of dredges that scallop vessels are allowed to tow in inshore waters.

There will be no change to the current restrictions outside 12 nautical miles.

Read the full story at the BBC

 

Oysters could be grown in tanks to avoid weather conditions threatening industry’s future, researchers say

July 15, 2015 — Oyster growers in New South Wales may soon move their oysters into land-based tanks in an attempt to protect them from weather conditions threatening the future of the industry.

A research project is underway at the National Marine Science Centre in Coffs Harbour, looking into the viability of growing oysters in tanks for more than three weeks.

Sydney Rock Oysters in the very last stages of growth are being kept and fed in tanks and monitored for changes in condition.

Under the plan, growers would remove their oysters from rivers and estuaries late in the growing process, to protect them from floods, storms and pollution events.

Oysters are vulnerable to weather events and water pollution, and industry regulations often see large quantities of oysters labelled not fit for sale.

Heavy rain events can close estuaries for months at a time due to poor water quality.

The centre’s aquaculture operations manager, Ken Cowden, said they wanted to find out if it was viable to remove oysters from their natural environment for so long.

Read the full story from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation

Trafficking Boss, Accomplices Arrested in Raid on Thai Shrimp Factory

July 13, 2015 — CHIANG MAI, Thailand — A joint task force of Thai police and anti-human trafficking personnel last week arrested five accomplices and the leader of a human trafficking ring near Bangkok, following the rescue of scores of migrants from Burma who had been confined in a shrimp peeling facility.

Maung Htone, a Burmese national from Mon State, was apprehended along with four employment brokers and the owner of the facility, according to a migrant rights advocate who assisted with the operation that freed 64 captive laborers.

“[We] had to go there about three or four times, and we closely observed and took photos before we could raid the factory,” Khun Naung Oo of the Myanmar Association of Thailand (MAT), which works collaboratively with Thai authorities to identify and rescue trafficking victims, told The Irrawaddy.

“Most people dare not go there, as it is a very notorious place.”

The migrants, mostly women from Mon State and Tenasserim Division, were among some 400 employees at the facility, he said. Those removed from the site by a rescue team last Wednesday had been confined in the facility with no work documents.

Read the full story at The Irrawaddy 

 

Japanese fisherman preparing to reunite with his boat in B.C., four years after tsunami

July 3, 2015 — After the earthquake, a 23-metre-high tsunami ripped through the Japanese port town of Ofunato, destroying houses, tumbling cars like toy blocks and capsizing ships in the harbour. Stacks of freight containers were swept off the docks and sent hurtling through the town. People fled up the steep streets around the harbour, and the air was filled with the terrifying screeches of buildings being torn apart.

This was how the great earthquake and tsunami of March 11, 2011, arrived in Ofunato, a town of 41,000 that, through the miraculous journey of one small boat, has become linked to the tiny fishing village of Klemtu, population 450, on British Columbia’s Central Coast.

When the wave of water that rose along coastal Japan that day swept back out to sea, it left more than 15,000 people dead and took almost five million tonnes of debris with it. Lost were about 1,000 vessels, including many of the boats in Ofunato harbour. Most of the debris soon sank, but an estimated 1.4 million tonnes drifted offshore.

Four years later, fragments of the communities shattered in Japan continue to reach North America’s West Coast, raising pollution concerns but also serving as touching reminders of what was lost. Everything from small plastic toy soldiers that washed up on beaches to a 50-metre fishing boat that eventually sank in the Gulf of Alaska has made the crossing. Most of the debris can’t be traced, but occasionally serial numbers allow a connection to be made.

Read the full story at The Globe and Mail 

North Sea cod make a comeback and Canada’s are on their tail

July 8, 2015 — FISH and chips for all! The International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) in Copenhagen, Denmark, has recommended the first major catch increase for North Sea cod since 2000, as it says the stock has climbed back above danger levels.

Also, figures to be released later this year by Canada’s fisheries ministry show cod stocks on the Grand Banks are up for the third year in a row – although they aren’t out of danger yet.

There’s no mystery to it, say fisheries experts on both sides of the Atlantic: fishers stopped killing so many cod, and the population recovered, although it took its time.

Read the full story at New Scientist 

Iceland Ratifies Treaty to Deny Port Access to Illegal Fishing Vessels

July 6, 2015 — Another big player has taken an important step in the fight against illegal fishing:  Iceland has ratified the Port State Measures Agreement (PSMA), an international treaty to stop illegally caught fish from entering the market. Under the agreement, ports will deny landing and services to vessels involved in illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing.

The PSMA, adopted by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in 2009, is a critical tool in the worldwide fight against illegal fishing, which accounts for up to $23.5 billion worth of seafood every year. Illegal fishing undermines social, environmental, and economic security around the world, especially for developing countries whose economies rely heavily on seafood.

Read the full story at The PEW Charitable Trusts

 

Thailand arrests 2 alleged brokers who sent slaves to boats

BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) — July 1, 2015 — Two Thai men described as key figures in a human trafficking ring that provides slave crews for fishing boats were arrested, officials said Wednesday, as new regulations aimed at cracking down on illegal fishing took effect.

The two suspects were the latest to be arrested following an Associated Press investigation into slavery in Southeast Asia’s fishing industry.

In April, the EU gave Thailand six months to drastically combat illegal and unregulated fishing or face a seafood import ban. Thailand is a major exporter of seafood, with yearly revenues of almost 5 billion euros ($5.4 billion), and an EU ban would seriously affect the industry.

Officials from Thailand’s Department of Special Investigation told a news conference the two men were “big figures” in a human trafficking syndicate in Samut Sakorn province, the country’s biggest fishing hub, and had lured about 60 victims a year since 2008.

Chayuthphong Charoenporn, 50, and Samruay Chatkrod, 53, hired middlemen to find workers at train stations, bus terminals and other public places, said Lt. Col. Komvich Padhanarath.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the New Jersey Herald

 

Palau Burns Illegal Fishing Boats From Vietnam

June 15, 2015 — VIETNAM — On June 12, authorities in Palau burned four Vietnamese “Blue Boat” vessels caught engaged in illegal fishing off the Pacific island nation’s Kayangel Island. Among their 17,000-pound haul were protected sea turtle, sea cucumber, and reef fish species.

The strong response comes amid a wave of increased illegal fishing activity from Asia in Palau’s waters. The 77 men aboard the vessels were loaded onto two unburned boats with enough fuel and provisions to return to Vietnam.

Pew is working with Palau to create a marine sanctuary in its waters that will be one of the largest fully protected areas of ocean in the world when the legislation is approved. In April, Pew co-hosted a three-day workshop with Palau’s president, Tommy E. Remengesau, Jr., and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography to develop a comprehensive enforcement plan for the proposed sanctuary.

Read the full story from The Pew Charitable Trusts