International & Trade

Gloucester, Mass. — August New Jersey charter boat Capt. Mike Formichella, fishing about 30 miles offshore earlier this month, landed, tagged and released a baby bluefin tuna that had made the trans-Atlantic trip from the Bay of Biscay between France and Spain, a distance of roughly 2,000 miles, the Asbury Park Press reported.

The growing body of evidence that the giant bluefins cross the ocean frequently and mix is important, Lutcavage explained, because the International Commission for the Conservation of Tunas — or ICCAT — assumes two separate stocks, eastern and western, for the purposes of regulatory conservation. The border line is 45 degrees west longitude, running from the southern tip of Greenland to a bit east of the mouth of the Amazon River in Brazil. Conservation efforts are better in the Western Atlantic, it is commonly accepted.

”U.S. boats fish within their quotas, but in the Mediterranean they are not doing as well,” she said.

While adherence to quotas are the norm in the Western Atlantic, the Mediterranean is another matter. For example, until his ouster last October, the family of the late Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi was heavily involved with bluefin tuna ranching and undoubtedly paid no heed to ICCAT quotas, according to Lutcavage and a number of journalists.

Most complaints about irresponsible human harvesting of bluefin focus in the eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean. In November 2010, when ICCAT met in Paris a team of reporters from the International Consortium of Investigative Journalist released a study that found “widespread illegalities rippling throughout the supply chain of the Mediterranean and East Atlantic bluefin tuna fishery and trade,” according to Sergi Tudela, of the World Wildlife Foundation Mediterranean.

Atlantic bluefin fishing is almost entirely limited to hook and harpoon — much of it based off Gloucester, as chronicled in the National Geographic channel reality show, “Wicked Tuna.”

Virtually everything about bluefin is hotly disputed including the status of the stocks. In May, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration rejected a petition by Center for Biological Diversity to consider bluefin an “endangered species” which would have ended recreational and commercial fishing for bluefin in U.S. waters, without affecting tuna fishing elsewhere. However, NOAA did put bluefin on its watchlist pending a stock assessment to be done later this year.

”ICCAT established these (two) management areas based on two known separate bluefin spawning locations (the Mediterranean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico), and the assumptions that bluefin always return to their native nursery grounds … that fish on each side mature at vastly different ages (3-5 years in the Mediterranean vs. 8-12 years in the Gulf of Mexico), and that the two stocks have very low rates of mixing,” the Large Pelagics Research Center notes on its website.

”Over the decades, tagging studies with simple ID tags have shown that young, immature bluefin leave their native feeding ground and cross the Atlantic to mix with juveniles on the other side, such as between the Bay of Biscay and the waters off Cape Cod or the mid-Atlantic states.

”More recent studies show that in some years, the percentage of young fish crossing the Atlantic from the east may range above 50 percent. Scientists are now using biological markers from fish tissues, including DNA, chemical isotope signatures, and pesticide levels, to discern where in the Atlantic a fish has resided. Despite the significant gains in understanding from new scientific approaches, many questions remain about migration paths, food habits, spawning locations, age at maturity, and population size and structure of Atlantic bluefin tuna. LPRC scientists and collaborators are conducting research focused on these gaps in understanding.”

 

Read the full story in the Gloucester Times

 

 

WASHINGTON — Aug. 20, 2012 — Karen Sack, director of international ocean conservation for the Pew Environment Group, issued the following statement in response to a major decision that sends a strong message to those engaged in large-scale illegal fishing. The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York ordered three defendants to pay $54.9 million in restitution to the South African government for illegally taking lobsters from that country's waters over a five-year period.

"Pew applauds the court for recognizing the severity of this crime and appropriately ordering such a high penalty.

"These defendants stole an environmental asset from South Africa, and it is only fair that they pay the country back for that theft. This unprecedented ruling shows that the U.S. can and will take concerted action to stop illegal fishing and bring those U.S. citizens engaging in it to justice, whether it has occurred within or outside of U.S. waters. Most of the illegal catch was shipped to the United States for sale. This is the largest ever restitution awarded by a U.S. court under the historic Lacey Act, one of the oldest American conservation laws that protects plants and wildlife by establishing civil and criminal penalties for a wide array of violations, and most notably prohibits trade in wildlife, fish, and plants that have been illegally taken, transported, or sold."

 

Read the press release here.

 

 

August 15, 2012 — Funded with EUR 1.51 million (USD 1.86 million), Basque-based researchers AZTI-Tecnalia will oversee two bluefin tuna projects to provide independent estimates of stock numbers and mortality rates.

A key 2012 initiative 80 percent co-funded by the European Union, the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) selected AZTI-Tecnalia to lead the projects formed by international consortia of 23 institutions and research centers including from Algeria, Canada, China, Croatia, Japan, Morocco, Norway, Tunisia, Turkey, the United States and Chinese Taipei.

The first project, valued at EUR 1.08 million (USD 1.33 million), will tag and release 11,750 bluefin with conventional tags. Of those, 40 percent will feature a double tag, at least 50 tuna will feature internal electronic tags and 40 will incorporate external electronic pop-up tags.

This project will focus on important biological and ecological aspects, and provide independent estimates of bluefin abundance and mortality rates in the Bay of Biscay, Straits of Gibraltar, Bay of León and Ionian Sea-Central Mediterranean.

The second project, valued at EUR 430,000 (USD 530,000), will biologically and genetically sample bluefin to provide valuable insights into population structure, migration patterns, mixing rates and growth and reproduction levels.

Both projects aim to facilitate better understanding of the species through basic data collection, improved assessment models, scientific advice on stock status and make publicly available bluefin population structures.

In a meeting with Murcia fishermen, Carlos Domínguez, Spain’s secretary general of fishing, highlighted the value of scientific research in the captive breeding of bluefin as an “example for the whole Mediterranean,” describing fattening and exploitation processes as “so insulted at times, and when carried out rigorously has no risk and contributes to restoring its population.”

 

Read the full story at SeafoodSource.com

 

 

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — August 15, 2012 — A vessel suspected of illegal driftnet fishing on the high seas was transferred to China by the U.S. Coast Guard on Tuesday.

A Honolulu-based Coast Guard cutter assigned to Alaska encountered the 177-foot fishing ship in late July about 850 miles east of Tokyo. Coast Guard personnel boarded the ship and found 30 metric tons — more than 66,000 pounds — of albacore tuna. They also found 6 metric tons of shark bodies and fins on board.

Coast Guard officials said Chinese citizens were operating the vessel, called the Da Cheng. The cutter has since followed the vessel as it moved west, and the vessel was turned over to the China Fishery Law Enforcement Command on Tuesday, officials said.

The Da Cheng crew had been fishing with 10 miles of large-scale driftnets, the Coast Guard said. Such snares have been banned internationally since 1992.

‘‘Our Chinese law enforcement partners take the practice of (high seas driftnet) fishing as seriously as we do,’’ Rear Adm. Thomas Ostebo, commander of the Coast Guard’s 17th District, said in a statement. ‘‘I have full faith that they will utilize the most stringent methods possible to prosecute the vessel and its owners.’’

Chief Petty Officer Kip Wadlow said the U.S. is a member of the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission, a multinational entity whose members include China, Japan, Australia and France. As a member country, the U.S. is authorized to board vessels suspected of illegal fishing on high seas.

Such suspicions led to the Coast Guard’s boarding of the Da Cheng, Wadlow said.

‘‘In this case, it turned out to be true,’’ he said.

The crew initially claimed to be from Indonesia, but authorities determined the Da Cheng was actually a stateless vessel, he said. Violations besides the use of illegal driftnet gear include failure to maintain sufficient records and fishing without permit, license or authorization by a sanctioned authority, the Coast Guard said.

Officials say driftnet fishing indiscriminately kills massive amounts of fish and other marine life, such as whales, turtles and sea birds. Officials with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said this is the only case they know of globally involving high seas driftnet fishing this year.

 

Read the full story by the Associated Press in the Boston Globe

 

 

PORTLAND, Maine — August 12, 2012 — Lobstermen and fishery officials in Maine are hoping that cool heads prevail as the fishing season begins in Canada for lobstermen who blocked truckloads of Maine-caught lobster from New Brunswick processing plants before settling their dispute over the weekend.

Fishermen who pull traps off southeastern New Brunswick are scheduled to start their two-month season Monday. Blaming the flood of Maine lobster for driving down prices, many of those same fishermen staged protests this month outside several New Brunswick processors, which forced plant shutdowns.

Processing operations resumed Friday a day after a judge issued an order restricting the protests, and Maine lobster dealers have resumed shipments to Canada. Over the weekend, the union representing lobstermen, the provincial government and fish processing plants agreed to a deal that calls for processors to pay an additional 25 Canadian cents per lobster, to be matched by the union, according to a union official.

Maine Marine Resources Commissioner Patrick Keliher doesn’t expect trouble when fishing season gets under way Monday morning.

“Those fishermen up there are just like the fishermen down here — when it’s time to fish, they’ll go fishing,” he said.

Lobster dealers and fishermen in Maine are relieved now that processors in Canada are again taking their lobster, which is processed into a variety of frozen and meat products. It’s estimated that 50 percent or more of Maine’s annual harvest, which topped 100 million pounds last year, is shipped to Canada.

 

Read the full story at the Bangor Daily News.

 

 

London, England — August 10, 2012 —  Sainsbury’s new retail report, “Our Future with Fish,” delivered valuable insight into the seafood purchasing trends of UK consumers. It found that not only are Brits starting to eat a more diverse range of species and consuming two percent more fish per capita head than they were in 1975, but that their purchasing decisions are being increasingly influenced by what they watch on TV and view online.

With the country’s strong celebrity chef culture, it should come as no surprise that the report, compiled by market research company Future Foundation, found almost half of UK adults said the way they cook and eat fish is swayed by these small screen personalities; and 35 percent said they have been influenced by TV documentaries about fishing.

By comparison, just 24 percent of the people questioned felt supermarkets directly influenced their choices of fish. This shows that either the country’s supermarket chains have some ground to make up or that their efforts are going largely unacknowledged.

Yet supermarkets are the main gateway to seafood in the United Kingdom with an 87 percent share of the retail market in terms of consumer spend. According to Future Foundation, supermarkets have considerable power to influence the shopping choices of a large proportion of their customers. The report also found that retail campaigns are increasingly being “plugged in” to popular culture, often through the backing or involvement of celebrities, including TV chefs.

“These connections help make messages strong and lasting, and can dramatically shape shopping behavior,” the report said, but it advised that campaigns must encompass in-store promotions, social networking sites and traditional TV and print media.

“Messages need to connect with consumers’ everyday feelings, concerns and motivations, and tie-in with cultural trends.”

The report finds interest and awareness about nutrition, sustainability and provenance is growing and Future Foundation said the challenge for retailers is to encourage interest in more varieties of alternative, sustainable fish and to supply information that will help shoppers choose and cook fish with confidence.

“Often the issues are complex. This presents a challenge: how to communicate with customers in a way that leaves them feeling clear about the issues and the action they want to take. If they feel overburdened with detail, the risk is an ‘ignore-and-do-nothing’ approach.”

Nevertheless, the broadening purchasing habits of UK consumers will be welcome news for retailers and a pat on the back for store-wide campaigns such as Sainsbury’s “Switch the Fish,” which was launched in June last year and offered customers asking for one of the so-called “big five” species (cod, haddock, tuna, salmon and prawns) at the fish counter, a sustainable, lesser known alternative for free.

Sainsbury’s saw counter sales of these alternative varieties, such as coley, pouting, rainbow trout, hake and megrim total 524,000 units between July and December 2011, compared with 434,000 units in the same period in 2010 – an increase of 21 percent. What wasn’t divulged in the report was whether sales of the big five dropped as a result.

The report did say that “overcoming our inbuilt reluctance” to try new things is getting easier over time, with UK children and adults more willing to try new foods than in the past.

“Our increasingly cosmopolitan attitude toward eating is a fundamental driver of uptake for alternative fish, guaranteeing lively interest in alternative fish in coming years.

 

Read the full story on Seafood Source 

 

 

FREDERICTON, New Brunswick — August 11, 2012 — The union representing lobster fishermen in New Brunswick said Saturday that it has reached an agreement with the provincial government and fish processing plants after fishermen blockaded several Canadian plants, demanding that they not accept cheaper lobsters from Maine.

Christian Brun of the The Maritime Fishermen’s Union said a tentative deal was reached Friday night and approved by most of the fishermen early Saturday morning.

Tensions over lobster prices bubbled over last week, when fishermen in the province held demonstrations in Cap-Pele and Shediac and trucks were blocked from delivering Maine lobsters to processing plants. Canadian lobstermen say the low price of Maine lobsters is driving down prices in Canada and stealing their livelihood.

By Wednesday, every lobster processing plant in New Brunswick had shut down operations.

Maine each year ships millions of pounds of lobsters to Canada, where they’re turned into a variety of products that are sold on retail markets, mostly in the U.S.

Canada has more than two dozen processing plants, while Maine has only three of any size.

Processors in New Brunswick agreed more than a week ago to pay a minimum of CA$2.50 (US$2.52) per pound for processed lobster and CA$3 (US$3.03) per pound for live market lobster but the union said it wasn’t enough.

Calls for financial compensation were rejected by the New Brunswick government and the protests continued for a week before a provincial judge issued a 10-day injunction Thursday preventing fishermen from blockading the plants.

The dispute tested relations between New Brunswick and the state of Maine, where Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe called on Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton to raise the matter with Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird.

Brun said the deal reached Saturday calls for processors to pay an additional 25 Canadian cents per lobster, to be matched by the union.

That will bring the price up to CA$3 (US$3.03) per pound for processed lobster and CA$3.50 (US$3.53) per pound for live market lobster.

Brun said the union plans to take out a loan to cover the extra expense now that the province has pledged to extend a CA$11-million (US$11.09 million) loan program for another three years as part of the agreement.

‘‘There is no injection of funds, no loan guarantees, nothing,’’ he said.

‘‘We, as a union, have gone to a bank and negotiated a loan… we borrow the money now, pay them during the season and repay it for the next three years as a loan instead of paying the province.’’

 

Read the full story by the Associated Press in the Boston Globe

 

 

CAP-PELE, New Brunswick — August 11, 2012 — Jean-Pierre Cormier stood on the dock at Aboiteau Wharf last week in this southeastern New Brunswick fishing town. A dozen or so fellow lobstermen stood with him and chatted about the weather and where to go for lunch.

Behind them were neat rows of lobster traps stacked six high. Their boats were tied up to the dock in a perfect line along the water's edge.

In a normal year, the lobstermen and their boats would be motoring around Northumberland Strait, setting traps for the start of a short late-summer season.

But this is no normal year.

"We can't fish for $2.50 a pound," said Cormier, the spokesman for a group of lobstermen who call Aboiteau Wharf home. "How do you make a living on that?"

Last week, $2.50 a pound is what Cormier and others were being offered for their catch by processors. It was the lowest price they had seen in decades, but the processors — nearly 20 in New Brunswick alone — said that's the price they were paying for lobsters brought in from Maine, so that's the price the market would bear.

"They are selling their lobsters for nothing," Cormier said of the Maine lobstermen. "They are flooding the market with cheap lobster before we even have a chance to get started."

But then, late Friday night, the New Brunswick processors and the Maritime Fishermen's Union struck a compromise.

Canadian lobstermen will get $3 per pound for cannery lobster and $3.50 for market lobster. It's unclear what effect, if any, the deal will have on Maine trade.

The agreement likely ends the threat of further protests at New Brunswick processors, which were at the center of the crisis last week. The demonstrations sent ripples down the coast because Maine trucks were prevented from reaching the facilities.

Cormier and some of his friends were there. Their message was simple: Reject these cheap Maine lobsters and pay us at least $3.50 to $4 a pound for Canadian lobsters.

"I don't know why they are willing to accept so little," he said of Maine's lobstermen.

Maine lobstermen don't like the low price, either. They haven't since earlier this summer, when the early glut of soft-shell lobsters made for a supply that exceeded demand.

But $2.50 a pound is better than nothing. They need Canadian processors to take those lobsters because there is not enough demand for live lobsters and because there are far fewer processors in Maine.

 

Read the full story in the Portland Press Herald

 

 

PORTLAND, Maine — August 10, 2012 — Tensions between lobstermen in Maine and Canada are boiling over in a dispute caused not by too few lobsters, but by too many.

A huge and potentially record-breaking haul of crustaceans in Maine and Canada this year has caused a market glut and a crash in wholesale prices. Fearing for their livelihood, Canadian fishermen in the past few days have angrily blocked truckloads of Maine lobsters from being delivered to processing plants in Canada that turn out lobster products for U.S. supermarkets and restaurants.

Unless something is done to prop up the price of lobster, "we'll go down the hole," warned Eugene Robichaud, a fisherman in Richibucto, New Brunswick.

The blockades have brought Canada's lobster-processing industry to a near-standstill, put thousands of employees out of work, sent shockwaves through Maine's lobster industry and led to calls for Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton to intervene.

Portland lobsterman Greg Griffin said he has been getting a paltry $2.35 a pound for his catch, a dollar less than a year ago, and he fears the blockade could drag prices down even more.

"At what point is going out and bringing in lobster no longer viable?" he asked.

 

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times.

 

 

FREDERICTON, New Brunswick — August 8, 2012 — New Brunswick fishermen protested outside the federal fisheries minister’s office Wednesday in an ongoing dispute over lobsters from Maine, while a U.S. senator from Maine called for beefed-up enforcement in the province to ensure the smooth flow of goods across the border.

The fishermen rallied outside the Fredericton office of Keith Ashfield, saying they are upset that low-priced lobsters from Maine are being processed in the province, thereby driving down prices for their own products.

‘‘They can’t take it anymore,’’ said Christian Brun, a spokesman for the Maritime Fishermen’s Union. ‘‘They’re going to go bankrupt and everybody’s on the edge.’’

Lobster processors in New Brunswick agreed Friday to pay a minimum of $2.50 per pound for processed lobster and $3 per pound for live market lobster. But Brun said New Brunswick fishermen need $4 per pound for both fresh and processed lobster just to break even.

The union had hoped compensation from the New Brunswick government would make up for the difference. But provincial Fisheries Minister Michael Olscamp flatly refused that request.

‘‘We’re not in the game of bridging gaps in salaries where people are paid for product,’’ he said. ‘‘It would set a very dangerous precedent.’’

Brun said that decision has thrown a ‘‘monkey wrench’’ into negotiations between the government and the union.

Instead, the province has offered to grant fishermen who have taken part in an $11 million loan program an extra year to pay back the money. The union has refused, Brun said.

‘‘Ideas have been thrown around, but nothing has yet appeared that would be of interest for our members,’’ he said.

 

Read the full story from the AP at the Boston Globe.