International & Trade

February 25, 2013 — Scotland's GBP 30 million scallop-dredging industry will be the subject of a "wide-ranging review" by ministers in the wake of allegations that it is wrecking the seabed and destroying fish stocks.

A high-profile campaign by celebrity chef Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall in his Hugh's Fish Fight television show has sparked widespread public concern, endorsed by environmental groups, but has also upset the industry.

Now tensions are rising over the Scottish Government's plan to re-examine the sustainability of scallop dredging. The comprehensive review, due to start in April, could lead to new controls.

Scallops are Scotland's second most valuable shellfish, with 16,000 metric tons a year harvested, mostly for export. But dredging has attracted growing criticism because of the damage it can inflict on fish nurseries, coral reefs and marine wildlife.

The Scottish Government's review was welcomed by the Fish Fight campaign yesterday, with a spokesman calling for a network of new protected areas.

 

Read the full story at SeafoodSource.com

 

 

 

HONG KONG — February 26, 2013 — Environmental activists and Japanese whaling authorities have reported fresh clashes in Antarctic waters, with each side accusing the other of causing dangerous collisions between ships.

The conflicting claims follow harsh words and threats of legal action exchanged between the two sides last week amid activists' attempts to impede the Japanese vessels' annual hunt for whales in the Southern Ocean.

The Institute of Cetacean Research (ICR) — which conducts whaling activities under the authority of the Japanese Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries — accused ships from the environmental group Sea Shepherd of "sabotage."

During an attempt by the whaling fleet's main ship, the Nisshin Maru, to refuel on Monday, Sea Shepherd vessels "repeatedly forced their way" between the Japanese ship and the fuel tanker, ramming into them in the process, the ICR said. It released short videos showing collisions between vessels.

Competing accounts

But Sea Shepherd's Australian division countered with a different version of events, saying that the Nisshin Maru had caused the collisions.

The group said that a Sea Shepherd ship, the Bob Barker, became "sandwiched" between the Nisshin Maru and the fuel tanker after positioning itself to block the refueling.

"In the turbulence of the combined wake, the Bob Barker was slammed back and forth between the Nisshin Maru and the fuel tanker," Sea Shepherd said.

It also claimed the Nisshin Maru rammed another Sea Shepherd vessel, the Sam Simon, "causing hull damage along most of the port side of the ship and smashing their satellite communications dome."

 

Read the full story at CNN

February 25, 2013 — INTERPOL, the international criminal investigation body, today launched a special unit to tackle illegal fishing.

The new programme, called ‘Project Scale’, aims to suppress the criminal networks and the ships they run, which by some estimates account for one in every five fish caught every year.

David Higgins, head of the environmental crime programme at INTERPOL, says that there are various indicators to suggest that organized crime is involved in illegal fishing. “It’s like an unlawful business that’s operating. Wherever money is to be made there will be criminals looking to exploit that industry.”

Officially launched today in Lyons, France, and falling under the auspices of INTERPOL’s environmental crime programme, Project Scale is backed by funding from the Pew Charitable Trusts, a charity organization, and will work in tandem with a working group on fisheries crime. The main purpose of the programme will be to collect data on what is a very murky area, and provide a forum where those responsible for enforcing maritime laws across the globe can exchange intelligence.

It is unclear at present exactly how much fishing falls into the overlapping categories of illegal, unreported and unregulated — known in the business as IUU. One widely cited 2009 study puts it at between $10 billion and $23.5 billion and between 11 million and 26 million tonnes of fish.

 

Read the full story at Nature

 

 

SCOTLAND — February 14, 2013 — An inaccurate and negative portrayal of scallop fishing that will be aired as part of the ‘Hugh’s Fish Fight’ Channel 4 TV series has come under stinging criticism from the Scottish Fishermen’s Federation (SFF).

The SFF fears the three-programme series, which begins this week, will offer a totally imbalanced and distorted view of the scallop fishing sector, which supports many jobs and provides consumers with a much valued and sustainable food resource.

Bertie Armstrong, chief executive of the Scottish Fishermen’s Federation said: “Scallop fishermen depend upon abundant scallop stocks and a healthy marine environment and are committed to the protection of marine biodiversity.

Scallops prefer to live in less sensitive habitats such as sand and gravel, which are naturally dynamic environments due to the movement of water on the seabed from currents, tides and waves and this is where scallop fishermen concentrate their efforts.

“Scallop fishermen avoid areas where there are unusual marine features and fully support the need for protecting ecologically important habitats and species. Scallop fishermen have also pioneered the use of state-of-the Vessel Monitoring System (VMS) technology to aid this process.

 

Read the full story here

 

 

February 14, 2013 — Damaging fishing methods and a lack of marine protected zones are being targeted by a renewed campaign to protect the world's dwindling fish stocks, spearheaded by food writer Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall.

Maria Damanaki, the EU fisheries commissioner, has repeatedly praised the work of campaigners in bringing the subject to wider attention, and mobilizing the public in favor of her proposed reforms. More than 800,000 people signed the Fish Fight petition against discards. The fight to end discards is not over yet, however, as further negotiations must take place with ministers and member states.

Sections of the fishing industry have mobilized against the Fish Fight programs. Bertie Armstrong, chief executive of the Scottish Fishermen's Federation, said scallop dredging had been portrayed in a way that was "inaccurate and negative".

He said: "Scallop fishermen depend upon abundant scallop stocks and a healthy marine environment and are committed to the protection of marine biodiversity. Scallops prefer to live in less sensitive habitats such as sand and gravel, which are naturally dynamic environments due to the movement of water on the seabed from currents, tides and waves and this is where scallop fishermen concentrate their efforts. Scallop fishermen avoid areas where there are unusual marine features and fully support the need for protecting ecologically important habitats and species."

He said the scallop industry, which supports 600 jobs in fishing and 750 in processing, had been involved in environmental initiatives including a good practice guide, and experimenting with different styles of dredges. He said: "Scalloping only utilizes a very small part of the seabed with vessels consistently fishing the same areas decade after decade. To imply that the scallop sector causes wide scale damage is both disingenuous and disproportionate."

Seafish, which represents the UK's fishing industry, said in a statement: "Dredging may not necessarily be destructive if used in areas with 'high energy' seabeds – soft or sandy ones that naturally change all the time as a result of normal tide, current and wave action. The key consideration is the resilience of the habitat to scallop dredging. The faster the recovery rate of the animals and plants that live in the affected seabed, the more tolerant it will be to scallop dredging."

On protected areas, Seafish was also cautious: "Marine protected areas need to have clear and measurable objectives, as [those] designed for fisheries management may be quite different to those designed to protect marine biodiversity. There could be some win-wins – for example where a habitat in need of protection also provides an important nursery area for a commercial fish species."

 

Read the full story at the Guardian

 

 

February 12, 2013 — Scallop dredging is set to be a focal point of the upcoming Fish Fight program, with Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall advocating for dive-caught scallops.

Mark Greet, chairman of the UK scallop association, said this is the wrong focus.

“A number of high-profile chefs continue to urge consumers to seek out diver-caught rather than dredge-caught scallops because of the alleged destruction inflicted on the seabed by the latter,” Greet told Undercurrent News, in relation to an article published in the Daily Mail by the chef.

“This is a grave mistake on their part because unlike traditional scallop fishing, scallop diving is unregulated with participants often taking shellfish from areas rich in marine life where no scalloping boat would be allowed to fish,” he said.

The lack of management also means there is very little bio-toxin testing conducted on dive-caught scallops, which brings an element of risk to the sector, said Greet, who is also managing director of processor Falfish.

 

Read the full story on Undercurrent News 

 

 

 

 

February 12, 2013 — The former UK foreign secretary David Milliband will co-chair a new initiative to address over-fishing across the world.

The Global Ocean Commission will start work this week and give advice to the United Nations on fixing the problems.

Milliband’s co-chairs will be former Costa Rican president Jose Maria Figueres and Trevor Manuel, a minister in the South African cabinet in charge of planning.

The commission will include ex-cabinet ministers from fishing nations such as Chile, Australia, Indonesia, Canada and Nigeria, as well as business leaders and Pascal Lamy, head of the World Trade Organisation (WTO). It will produce advice in 2014.

The Global Ocean Commission originated as an initiative of the Pew Environment Group, in partnership with Somerville College at the University of Oxford, Adessium Foundation and Oceans 5. While supported by those organizations, and hosted by Somerville College, it is independent of all.

Over-fishing and environmental mismanagement has cost the world economy $50 billion a year and about three-quarters of world fish stocks are over-fished or fished to the maximum, according to World Bank and UN data.

 

Read the full story here

 

 

February 10, 2013 — A cod bonanza off north Norway and Russia and recovery of some fishstocks off developed nations from the United States to Australia have led many scientists to say the future for over-fished world stocks is a bit less bleak.

Stocks off developing nations — from the Pacific to the Caribbean — are still in sharp decline but the recoveries give hope that the problems are not irreversible.

"The outlook is improving relative to what we saw in 2006," said Boris Worm, a professor of biology at Dalhousie University in Canada who was the lead author of the 2006 study in Science.

"It's more than isolated examples – it's a substantial number" of successes, he said.

A lot is at stake. Fisheries, both marine and farmed, provide livelihoods for up to 820 million people, according to the U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), which emphasizes that globally, over-fishing is still on the rise.

Cod, the 11th most caught fish species in an FAO list led by the Peruvian anchovy, skipjack tuna and Atlantic herring, has had a mixed fate.

While a 1990s moratorium off eastern Canada is still in place and European Union quotas are unchanged this year, the quota off northern Norway and Russia is a record 1.02 million metric tonnes, up a third from 2012 and six times as high as in 1990.

Part of the reason is that global warming has expanded the cod's habitat northwards. And strict management of quotas by Oslo and Moscow have played a role, fisheries experts say.

 

Read the full story on Reuters 

 

 

 

 

February 6, 2013 — Fast food giant McDonald’s is not ruling out a return to using Russian pollock raw material, as it embarks on a major fanfare about its use of eco-labeled Alaska pollock.

In late January, McDonald’s announced it is to use the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) logo on its Filet-o-Fish sandwiches and Fish McBites, a new product. At the moment, McDonald’s uses Alaskan deepskin pollock as its primary raw material in the US.

This has caused speculation in the pollock business that McDonald’s, far from being entirely driven by green credentials, is setting up for a return to using Russian pollock, with the Sea of Okhotsk portion of the fishery close to being MSC-certified.

In a statement sent to Undercurrent News, McDonald’s did not rule this out.

“Our future use of Russian pollock depends on the outcome of the MSC certification process and future guidance from Sustainable Fisheries Partnership,” said a spokeswoman for McDonald’s.

She added that the use of the label is not a short-term thing.

McDonald’s is “proud to recognize this work by displaying the blue MSC eco-label on our packaging and in our marketing materials”, she said.

The chain has “no immediate plans to stop featuring the eco-label on our packaging”, she added.

McDonald’s sources its fish based on a standard which Jim Cannon, CEO of Sustainable Fisheries Partnership (SFP), helped it to develop while he was at Conservation International.

“The majority of our partners use SFP’s standard evaluations, but several of our partners have their own standards, which emphasize different issues or risks they are concerned about,” Cannon said.

 

Read the full story at Undercurrent News 

 

 

PARIS — February 6, 2013 — In an outcome hailed by environmentalists, European Union lawmakers voted overwhelmingly Wednesday to overhaul the region’s troubled fisheries policy to end decades of overfishing.

Responding to widespread public dissatisfaction with the current policy, the European Parliament voted 502-to-137 to impose sustainable quotas by 2015 and end the wasteful practice of discarding unwanted fish at sea. The legislation also returns some management responsibility to E.U. member states.

“The fishermen back home were really determined to wrest control away from Brussels, where the micromanagers have been the absolute ruination of the fisheries policy,” and they will be pleased with the outcome, said Struan Stevenson, a Scottish member of Parliament for the European Conservatives and Reformists and the party’s spokesman on the issue.

Markus Knigge, policy and research director for Pew Environment, said the E.U. legislation was comparable to the Magnuson-Stevens Act, the landmark U.S. law that in 1976 established modern American fisheries practices, widely seen as superior to European practices.

Under current policy, 63 percent of the E.U.’s Atlantic stocks and 82 percent of its Mediterranean stocks are overfished, according to the European Commission.

The vote Wednesday in Strasbourg was the first time the Parliament had shared responsibility for setting fisheries policy, formerly the domain of the European Fisheries Council. The council, dominated by national fisheries ministries with close ties to the industry, has been criticized for flouting scientific recommendations on catch limits and providing subsidies to fleets harvesting even the most vulnerable species.

Guy Vernaeve, secretary general of Europêche, which represents European fishing associations, expressed disappointment with the vote. Setting quotas at maximum sustainable yields by 2015 was “unrealistic,” he said, and the discard ban was a “radical obligation” that legislators had adopted without understanding that in many cases it would be impossible to implement.

 

Read the full story in the New York Times