International & Trade

The following was released by the American Bluefin Tuna Association:

SALEM, New Hampshire — 5 January 2012 — The astounding news of the sale of a 754 pound bluefin tuna for US $740,000 (¥ 56.49 million) auctioned today at Tsukiji Market in Tokyo is guaranteed, as in past years, to make headlines worldwide. This singular event which has taken place in early January for the last few years is the focus of intense interest by bluefin fishermen, environmental groups and fishery management organizations worldwide.

Environmentalists claim that the bluefin tuna is being driven to extinction directly as a result of the outrageously high prices paid for bluefin in Tokyo. It is commonly believed that the price paid for this fish is indicative of the prices paid at other times during the year.

"The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has established recently that ex vessel price levels for Atlantic bluefin tuna are now and in recent years have been about $9 per pound to the fishermen, not $981 per pound for the fish that was auctioned in Tokyo today. To put this price in perspective, $9 per pound is less than is typically paid for sea scallops.", states Rich Ruais, Executive Director for the American Bluefin Tuna Association.

At this time of year and with the current Yen/US Dollar exchange rate a typical price paid in Tokyo for bluefin tuna is about ¥ 2,700 per kilogram. Therefore a fish of this size would normally sell for about ¥ 925,000 or about US $11,900.

In past years, the "bidding-up" of the price of one fish was done as a publicity stunt by two restaurants, one in Hong Kong and the other in Japan, who bid together and shared the fish. In this year, a Japanese restaurateur has undertaken to "bid-up" the price of one bluefin as a gift to the Japanese people for the hardship they have endured in the last year.

Mr. Ruais continues, "The media is largely responsible for the popular misconception that catching bluefin tuna is like winning the lottery. Nothing could be further from the truth. Our Atlantic bluefin tuna fishery is an artisanal fishery of small vessels in which every fish is caught one at a time and by hand. It is the most highly regulated bluefin fishery in the world."

 

 

 

 

 

A bluefin tuna caught off northeastern Japan fetched a record 56.49 million yen, or about $736,000, Thursday in the first auction of the year at Tokyo’s Tsukiji fish market. The price for the 593-pound (269-kilogram) tuna beat last year’s record of 32.49 million yen.

Though the fish is undoubtedly high quality, the price has more to do with the celebratory atmosphere that surrounds the first auction of the year.

The winning bidder, Kiyoshi Kimura, president of Kiyomura Co., which operates the Sushi-Zanmai restaurant chain, said he wanted to give Japan a boost after last year’s devastating tsunami.

“Japan has been through a lot the last year due to the disaster,’’ a beaming Kimura told AP Television News. “Japan needs to hang in there. So I tried hard myself and ended up buying the most expensive one.’’

Read the complete story in The Boston Globe

 

 

 

 

 

NEW WINDSOR, N.Y. — In a move to show his support for a crackdown on fish imported from China, U.S. Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) toured an organic fish farm Wednesday, located in New York's Hudson River Valley.

“It has become abundantly clear that fish and seafood from China can stink, and it’s time the Food and Drug Administration stepped up their efforts to protect the public health,” Schumer said. “Once again, China’s blatant disregard for basic safety standards has put Americans’ health at risk."

The farm, Continental Organics in New Windsor, is run by Mike Finnegan who said health concerns and economic problems are at the root of the imported fish issue.

“I want to applaud Senator Schumer for taking the lead on this important issue,” said Finnegan. “The US imports over 80% of its seafood but less than 1% of it is inspected by the FDA at our borders.

Read the complete story from Eat Drink Explore.

 

 

 

 

 

The Honduran Government estimates that from next year, the fisheries-aquaculture sector will register an increase in exports due to the diversification of resources.

"It's a sector that we support so much that in recent months we have worked in developing a bill related to aquaculture and fisheries that is in the Ministry of the Presidency, in the analysis stage, to be forwarded to the National Congress," said Jacobo Regalado, head of the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock (SAG).

It is expected that this legislation will benefit shipments to U.S. and European markets, which are the main markets for domestic producers.

"These countries pay close attention to what Honduras does to strengthen and ensure the sustainable use of the resource and the proper utilization of the marine resources in the country," added Regalado.

Read the complete story from Fishing Information & Services

 

 

 

 

 

Trade Ministers Tim Groser of New Zealand and Dr Craig Emerson of Australia joined officials from a diverse group of countries at the Eighth Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) to release a statement reaffirming the need for and their commitment to establishing strong trade rules on subsidies that lead to overfishing. The other countries included Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Norway, Peru and the US.

The WTO is the 153-country organisation responsible for negotiating the rules governing international trade and settling related disputes. In 2001, the WTO initiated a dedicated negotiation on fisheries subsidies as part of its Doha trade agenda and continues to work to address the issue today.

According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), 85 per cent of the world’s fisheries are fully exploited, overexploited, depleted, or recovering from depletion– the highest percentage since FAO began keeping records, and a 10 per cent increase from four years ago.

Many governments continue to provide significant subsidies that push their fleets to fish longer, harder and farther away than otherwise would be possible. Destructive fisheries subsidies are estimated to be at least USD 16 billion annually, an amount equivalent to approximately 20 per cent of the value of the world catch.

Read the complete story from Fish Information & Services

 

 

 

 

 

BRUSSELS, Dec 17 (Reuters) – European Union fisheries ministers have watered-down plans to ease the pressure on over-exploited fish stocks next year, drawing an angry reaction from conservationists who accused them of ignoring scientific advice.

After two days of talks which ended in the early hours of Saturday, ministers rejected proposals to ban cod catches in the Irish Sea and the straits between Sweden and Denmark, and agreed a massive increase in North Atlantic haddock catches for 2012.

"We managed to strike the right balance between the needs of the fisheries sector, and the protection of stocks and managing the limited resources in our seas," Poland's deputy agriculture minister, Tadeusz Nalewajk, who led the talks, told a news conference.

But conservation group Oceana said the final deal had fixed catch limits more than 20 percent above the maximum level recommended by the European Commission, which would hamper EU efforts to put an end to decades of overfishing.

Read the complete story from Reuters

 

 

 

 

 

 

VANCOUVER, British Columbia — The fate of wild salmon is a sensitive topic in the Pacific Northwest and arguments often end up in court in the United States, whether over threats to endangered fish by hydroelectric dams or sea lions swallowing them along their migration routes.

But on Thursday, a new and particularly bitter dispute began playing out in a very different kind of judicial venue across the Canadian border: a provincial Supreme Court justice held a hearing into questions of whether a potentially lethal virus had been detected in wild Pacific salmon — and whether the Canadian government was responding adequately.

The virus, infectious salmon anemia, has devastated farmed Atlantic salmon stocks in Chile and elsewhere. Some conservationists and scientists have long worried that the virus would spread from farmed fish to wild ones. Those fears escalated in October, when opponents of British Columbia’s ambitious farmed Atlantic salmon program, which is heavily promoted by the government, presented lab results they said showed an asymptomatic form of the virus in wild Pacific salmon.

Several more reports of the virus have emerged in the past two months, including a draft paper suggesting that the virus was detected as early as 2002 but not revealed by the government, further angering farming opponents.

Read the complete story in The New York Times

 

 

 

 

 

A Chinese fishing captain fatally stabbed a South Korean coast guard officer and wounded another Monday after they stopped his boat for illegally fishing in crab-rich South Korean waters, officials said.

South Korea, which had asked China’s ambassador just last week to try to rein in illegal Chinese fishing its waters, lodged a strong protest with the diplomat over the latest incident — the first deadly clash between the South Korean coast guard and Chinese fishermen in three years.

China’s Foreign Ministry, meanwhile, urged Seoul to safeguard the rights of detained Chinese fishermen. However, an analyst said the incident was unlikely to significantly affect overall ties between the countries.

Officers from two coast guard ships boarded the fishing boat over suspicions it was illegally operating Yellow Sea waters rich blue crabs, anchovies and croaker, when the captain attacked with an unidentified weapon, coast guard spokesman Kim Dong-jin said.

Read the complete story in The Boston Globe

 

 

 

 

 

The Southeast US North Atlantic swordfish pelagic longline and buoy gear fishery has received Marine Stewardship Council certification after a rigorous, independent assessment by MRAG Americas.

The certification covers swordfish landed for Day Boat Seafood LLC, which is now eligible to bear the blue MSC ecolabel. The Unit of Certification combines pelagic longline and buoy gear types working with Day Boat Seafood LLC. All the swordfish landed – approximately 200t per year – is sold fresh in domestic markets.

The fishery operates year round with some seasonal variation in an area off the Florida east coast. It is managed by the US Federal Government under the Magnuson-Stevens Act and in conformance with ICCAT (International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas) management requirements. In addition, other US federal laws and regulations under the US National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) apply to the fishery, including endangered species.

As part of the certification, nine conditions, or improvement actions are required that address issues raised during the process by the certification team, stakeholders, and peer review scientists. Progress in meeting the conditions is required and will be assessed during the annual surveillance audits.

Read the complete story from World Fishing & Aquaculture

 

 

 

 

 

Oceana is urging EU Fisheries Council Ministers to put aside short term interests in tomorrow’s meeting to establish 2012 catch limits for the main species targeted by Europe’s Atlantic fleet.

Oceana says science-based Total Allowable Catches (TACs) are indispensable to stopping the overexploitation of the seas.

“Yet year after year, despite their commitment to manage stocks at Maximum Sustainable Yield (MSY) by 2015, fisheries ministers have ignored much of the scientific advice, setting TACs over the past five years that were on average 40% higher,’ says an Oceana statement.

“Continuing to disregard scientific advice not only jeopardizes the sustainability of the resource, but also compromises the profitability of the fishing industry and the livelihood of the communities that depend on it,” stated Xavier Pastor, Executive Director of Oceana Europe. “This decision will be a clear indicator of Member States’ will to achieve a successful Common Fisheries Policy reform. Pushing sustainability to the back of the political agenda is a mistake that we cannot afford to make.”

Read the complete story from Fish Update.