International & Trade

April 24, 2013 — Federal prosecutors in San Diego say seven people have been charged in a scheme to sell the bladders of an endangered Mexican fish considered a delicacy for use in Chinese soup.

The U.S. attorney's office said Wednesday the bladders from the totoaba (toe-TWAH-bah) fish can sell for more than $10,000 in some countries and are coveted just like shark fins in a different Asian soup.

The giant fish live exclusively in Mexico's Sea of Cortez, where they are illegally captured with gillnets when they migrate to shallow waters.

Read the full story at Fox News 

 

 

April 23, 2013 — A push to protect marine life from seismic surveys has been backed by Tasmania's scallop industry, which says testing in Bass Strait in 2010 wiped out 24,000 tonnes of shellfish.

At the same time a study is under way at the Institute of Marine and Antarctic Studies at the University of Tasmania to try to understand how seismic surveys may affect marine life, in particular scallops and rock lobsters.

The Commonwealth Fisheries Association has lodged a nomination with the Department of Sustainability, the Environment, Water, Population and Communities for marine seismic survey activities to be listed as a key threatening process under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999.

"There is growing evidence that seismic surveys cause damage to marine life, displacement from habitats and disruption to breeding," the association said.

Seismic surveys probe the seafloor using high-energy, low-frequency noise pulses from air guns.

Most are conducted by the petroleum and minerals industries.

The Fisheries Association nomination lists nine species that could become vulnerable or more highly endangered through continued seismic testing, including the Bass Strait scallop and the southern bluefin tuna.

Read the full story at The Mercury

 

 

April 24, 2013 — When the international seafood community gathers in Brussels for the world’s biggest seafood trade show next year, new names will appear on the banner outside the Brussels Exposition Center: Seafood Expo Global and Seafood Processing Global.

Mary Larkin, group VP for event producer Diversified Business Communications in Portland, Maine, USA, says the branding initiative reflects the event’s positioning as the most important trade show for the global seafood industry. For 21 years, the event was known as the European Seafood Exposition. All of Diversified’s seafood events are part of the re-branding and marketing campaign, including last month’s International Boston Seafood Show.

“The new branding initiative is more than just giving new names to our high-quality seafood events,” said Larkin during a press conference on Wednesday 24 April. “It unifies all Diversified Events serving the global seafood industry under one recognizable, strong brand authority. It truly is a global market, and it truly is a global event.”

Read the full story at SeafoodSource.com

 

 

April 23, 2013 – The 2013 European Seafood Exposition kicked off this morning with a flurry of activity, as exhibitors and attendees took to the floor of the Expo Center in Brussels, Belgium.

Over 20,000 attendees are expected to fill multiple exhibit halls, visiting over 140 exhibitors, which include distributors, processors, non-government organizations and more.

Attendees were treated to costumed mermaids, multi-story exhibitor booths, and samples of all kinds of seafood, and the day’s activities will be capped off this evening with the annual Prix D’Elite awards, arguably one of the most anticipated events at the annual exposition.

Read the full story at SeafoodSource.com

 

 

April 23, 2013 — The bilateral fisheries pact allows Taiwanese trawlers to operate in part of Japan’s exclusive economic zone near the Senkaku Islands, which are claimed as the Tiaoyutai in Taiwan and Diaoyu in China.

Both sides agreed to set up a joint fishing committee to continue negotiations on lingering disagreement, including fishing in other waters surrounding the Senkakus as well as near the Yaeyama Islands in the southernmost part of the Ryukyu Archipelago.

The new pact establishes a platform for handling fisheries issues between Taiwan and Japan and sets a precedent for other talks between the two governments, which share close economic and cultural relations despite the absence of official diplomatic ties.

Read the full story at the Japan Times

 

 

April 19, 2013 — The overall value of fish landed by Scottish vessels in 2012 is down compared to 2011, but better than the values recorded in the previous decade, according to new figures released by the Scottish government.

The total value stands at GBP 464 million (USD 711.3 million, EUR 543.6 million), according to the figures, which is a 7 percent drop from the same figure recorded in 2011, which the volumes remained about the same.

The government blamed the drop in part on changes in prices for some fish, including a 13 percent drop in the price of mackerel compared to 2011.

The statement noted, too, that the 2011 numbers represented a record high in prices, and that the 2012 numbers, while lower, are still higher than recorded values for the 10 years prior to 2011.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

 

 

Cape Town — April 17, 2013 — A parliamentary research paper that finds responsibility for fisheries management is “in the wrong hands” has drawn sharp criticism from the African National Congress.

In a statement on Wednesday, ANC chief whip Mathole Motshekga said the ruling party “distances (itself ) from the malicious political views expressed in the… document”.

It said the views expressed in the paper, drawn up by Parliament's research unit ahead of a portfolio committee meeting with Fisheries Minister Tina Joemat-Pettersson, scheduled for Thursday, “do not represent the views of the ANC members in the committee”.

The document – extracts from which were quoted in Business Day on Wednesday – states that the responsibility for fisheries management “is in the wrong hands”.

It further lists mismanaged ships, a lack of research planning, and targets and a strategic plan out of step with the National Development Plan, as problems that must be addressed.

Read the full story here

 

 

April 14, 2013 — Scotland's leading chef has called for a ban on dredging for scallops in shallow inshore waters in a move which has angered trawler fishermen.

Andrew Fairlie, the only Scottish chef with two Michelin stars, has warned that the £30 million-a-year scallop fishing industry is a “free for all” and threatens the seabed environment and the livelihoods of coastal communities.

His call follows clashes between Scottish fishermen and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall after the latest series of the celebrity chef’s TV Fish Fight campaign alleged that dredging was destroying the seabed and shellfish stocks. Around 98 per cent of Scotland’s scallops are harvested by dredging, which involves dragging large metal rakes behind boats, and around 20,000 tonnes are landed annually

Fairlie, who runs his eponymous restaurant at Gleneagles, said: “I don’t think you can ban dredging [altogether], ­although they have banned it in Norway where they have one of the healthiest fishing industries in the world.

“But I think inshore shallow dredging should be banned. It has to be managed properly and at the moment it’s a free for all.

“Some of the scallop divers I talk to have terrible problems with some of the [dredging] boats. They understand that the guys who work on trawlers are part of the community too but they [the dredgers] can’t continue to fish as they are because they are ruining the community.”

Fairlie said he had tweeted about dredged scallops and “got quite a lot of abuse [online] from fishermen… I was accused of being elitist and trying to make scallops a rich man’s food”.

He added that he was now prepared to meet industry representatives to talk about the fishing methods used.

Read the full story at The Scotsman

 

 

April 11, 2013 — As negotiations on the reform of the European Union's Common Fisheries Policy, or CFP, enter the final and decisive stage, more than 217 civil society groups are calling on EU fisheries ministers to support an end to overfishing and the speedy restoration of fish stocks.

"Two-hundred and seventeen civil society groups have reminded ministers that ending overfishing is a legal obligation for the EU and that it makes economic, social, and environmental sense," said Uta Bellion of The Pew Charitable Trusts. "We are calling on EU fisheries ministers to follow the example of Australia, New Zealand, and the United States and agree to a policy that will allow fish stocks to recover to sustainable levels," Bellion said.

On February 6, the European Parliament voted overwhelmingly in support of ending EU overfishing by 2015 and the restoration of fish stocks by 2020. But the 27 fisheries ministers on the Fisheries Council have so far rejected these targets. They agreed only to end overfishing by 2020 and have not set a target for restoring fish stocks.

Read the full release from the Pew Charitable Trusts

 

 

April 9, 2013 — A slowdown in luxury spending as well as imports facilitated by a free trade pact with southeast Asia have squeezed China’s grouper farmers. Production has outstripped demand with daily sales down 300,000 kilograms nationwide according to data published by Shuichan Pindao, a seafood consumption research agency based in Beijing.

Grouper prices in 2012, even in the Spring Festival, sank to the lowest on record, a slump blamed on a frugality campaign pursued by China’s new leadership as proof of its anti-corruption credentials. Demand for blue grouper, a favorite of official banquet tables in China, has fallen hardest: a 500 gram to 650 gram sized blue grouper costs CNY 30 (USD 4.8, EUR 3.70) per 500 gram at wholesale, and 1000 gram to 1500 gram sized costs only CNY 30 per 500 grams.

“The sales price is even lower than its cost price,” claimed Shuichan Pindao. Citing a survey of fish markets nationwide, Shuichan Pindao noted that 500 gram to 650 gram tiger groupers cost CNY 45 (USD 7, EUR 6) to CNY 46 (USD 7.4, EUR 5.7) per 500 grams in late March, whereas 1 kilogram-plus sized spotted grouper sold for CNY 100 (USD 16, EUR 12) per 500 grams.

Those prices correspond with fish markets in Beijing, which sell farmed grouper for prices equivalent to farmed species like seabass and yellow croaker. Tax-free imports of grouper from Taiwan and Southeast Asian countries are imported in China, reported Shuichan Pindao, pointed to the ASEAN–China Free Trade Area (ACFTA), a free trade area with the ten member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in force since 2010.

Read the full story from Seafood Source