International & Trade

The following was released by NOAA today: WASHINGTON — Sept. 7, 2011 — NOAA Administrator Dr. Jane Lubchenco and Maria Damanaki, European Union commissioner for maritime affairs and fisheries, will sign a historic statement today pledging bilateral cooperation to combat illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing, known as IUU fishing—a first for the longstanding partnership between the U.S. and the E.U. on fisheries management.
 
The European Union and United States rank first and third, respectively, as the world’s top seafood importers (Japan is second). Globally, illegal fishing deprives legal fishermen and coastal communities of up to $23 billion of seafood and seafood products annually. This puts honest fishermen at a disadvantage in the global marketplace. The U.S. and the E.U. recognize their responsibility to protect the oceans’ vital food and biodiversity resources.
 
In today’s statement, the U.S. and the E.U. make it clear that they are committed to cooperating on combating IUU fishing as the only effective way of ending these practices. Among other things, they agree to work together to support the adoption of effective management measures in regional and international organizations to combat IUU fishing; promote tools that prevent IUU operators from benefiting economically from their illegal activities; exchange information on IUU activities; and promote the sustainable use of fisheries resources while preserving marine biodiversity.
 
“Illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing is one of the most serious threats to American fishing jobs and fishing communities, as well as to the health of the world’s oceans,” said Dr. Lubchenco, who is also under secretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere. “International cooperation across oceans will help us maintain a level playing field for our fishermen by strengthening enforcement and preventing illegal fishing.”
 
"IUU fishing is a criminal activity, and we have the duty to do everything possible to stop this practice,” said Damanaki. “Today's agreement will help us to do just that. By joining forces, we make it harder for culprits to get away with their dirty business."
 
Individually, the United States and the E.U. have already put in place a number of legal measures to combat IUU fishing, such as the U.S. High Seas Driftnet Fishing Moratorium Protection Act that identifies countries engaged in IUU fishing and an E.U. regulation that blocks illegal seafood imports without the required certifications. Both participate actively in international fishery management organizations and promote international instruments to address IUU fishing.
 
“We will use all the tools at our disposal to clamp down on IUU fishing and prevent illegal seafood from entering our market. With all the sacrifices U.S. fisherman have made, they deserve no less.” Dr. Lubchenco said. “The U.S. and the E.U. share common challenges in fisheries management, so working together will bring us closer to achieving a shared vision of sustainable fisheries.”
 
The U.S. is turning a corner in ending overfishing and rebuilding stocks. Landings have increased by more than  200 million pounds and all coastal regions of the country saw increases in total value of these landings in 2010, over last year. Meanwhile, the E.U. is in the process of reforming its Common Fisheries policy designed to rebuild its own fisheries and is looking to learn from the United States’ success stories. Beyond domestic boundaries, there is an increasing need for international cooperation, especially among major fishing and seafood-importing nations, to improve global fisheries management of shared marine resources and to preserve the associated employment and other economic benefits of sustainable fisheries.
 
The document signed today by the United States and the European Union is a building block that will help achieve these goals.

PATTAYA, Thailand — Saved from the soup bowl at a Thai restaurant, the baby shark wriggled out of the bag and into the open sea — a rare survivor of a trade that kills millions of the predators each year.

On average an estimated 22,000 tonnes of sharks are caught annually off Thailand for their fins — a delicacy in Chinese cuisine once enjoyed only by the rich, but now increasingly popular with the wealthier middle class.

Thanks to a group of environmental activists calling themselves the Dive Tribe, dozens of sharks were returned to the wild in the Gulf of Thailand recently, bought from animal markets or restaurants.

Among them were several young bamboo and black tip reef sharks which narrowly avoided ending up as shark fin soup — prized in particular by the Chinese who believe it boosts sexual potency.

Gwyn Mills, founder of Dive Tribe, laments the fact that the plight of sharks is largely overlooked compared to animals such as elephants and tigers.

He fears it may be only five or 10 years before the damage is irreversible.

Read the complete story from The Associated Free Press

 

 

 

 

 

 

There are some new fish in town, and researchers want to know where they came from. The fish are Atlantic salmon (Salmosalar L.), and the town is London—or, more accurately, weirs located in the River Thames at the boundaries of London.

It’s hard to find salmon in the Thames these days, and it’s even harder to find untagged salmon, which likely originate not from restocking efforts but from the wild. If this is the case, it may mean that the animals are finally repopulating the Thames after having been extirpated from the river in the 19thcentury—an impressive feat considering that teams of conservationists have been unable to achieve this goal despite decades of efforts.

The River Thames is one of the most famous polluted habitats in the Western world; urbanization, coupled with the industrial revolution, left the river foul and uninhabitable not just for the Atlantic salmon, but for many animals. Runs of salmon up the Thames were well-known as far back as 1215, when they were mentioned in the Magna Carta; fish numbers were previously so high that there was a fishery on the river until the early 19th century. But once the waters became polluted, the salmon gradually disappeared; the last record of a"natural" Thames salmon was made in 1833.

Over the years there have been various attempts to restore the species to the river, not just because it is an important keystone species and can be used as a bioindicator, but also because it can provide substantial economic benefits thanks to its popularity among avocational and vocational fishermen alike. Ultimately, none of the previous attempts met with much success. During the intense rehabilitation efforts performed in the 1970's and 1990's, the river was stocked predominantly by a mixture of captive-bred fish from Scotland and "supportively-bred" (in other words, with only one generation of captive breeding) fish from two rivers in Ireland. Despite these efforts, the number of adults in the Thames diminished steadily until 2005, when no fish were captured at all.

Read the complete story from Science 2.0

 

 

 

 

 

25 August, 2011 – The quantity and value of the United Kingdom’s seafood landings increased from 2009 to 2010, according to figures released by the UK’s Marine Management Organisation (MMO) on Thursday.

Last year, the country’s seafood landings (by domestic and foreign vessels) reached 606,300 metric tons valued at GBP 719.3 million, up about 4 percent in quantity and 7 percent in value from the previous year.

Pelagic fish represented nearly half of UK seafood landings, totaling 285,500 metric tons in 2010, down just slightly from 2009, while value of the mackerel haul fell 6 percent to GBP 178.6 million.

It was a good year for cod. The cod catch jumped 14 percent to 25,800 metric tons in 2010. The haddock catch, however, dropped about 3,000 metric tons to 33,600 metric tons in 2010.

Overall, the groundfish catch totaled 168,800 metric tons, a 5 percent increase from 2009. Following haddock and cod were plaice at 16,400 metric tons, saithe at 16.1 metric tons and whiting at 9,200 metric tons.

As for shellfish, landings were up 13 percent to 152,000 metric tons in 2010. In fact, the scallop catch, at 43,900 metric tons in 2010, was up 80 percent from 2006. Following scallops were nephrops at 38,700 metric tons, crabs at 28,500 metric tons and whelks at 14,500 metric tons.

 

Read the story from Seafood Source

 

 

 

 

 

Fishermen in Hebei province decided to sue US oil company ConocoPhillips because it is considered guilty of causing the mass death of scallops.

According to the fisheries sector, the company polluted the waters of  Bohai Bay after an oil spill occurred in Penglai 19-3 oil field.

The contamination was reported on 3 August by the State Oceanic Administration, a branch of the North Sea.

Currently, the site is operated jointly by a Chinese subsidiary of ConocoPhillips and its partner, the National Offshore Oil Corporation of China.

The president of the Association of Fisheries from Laoting District, Yang Jizhen, admitted that the fishermen’s economic loss ranges from CNY 150 million (USD 23.5 million) to CNY 170 million (USD 26.6 million), as they have lost more than half of the scallops that were being farmed.

 

Read the complete story from Fish Information & Services

 

 

 

 

 

U.S. seafood importers are bracing for a new fee that, when it goes into effect on 1 October, will significantly increase the cost of examining product suspected of a food-safety violation.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is currently accepting public comment on an 1 August Federal Register notice announcing fiscal 2012 fee rates as part of the Food Safety Modernization Act, which was signed into law by President Obama on 4 January.

Beginning on 1 October, the FDA will begin charging food importers a fee, based on an hourly rate, for any “re-examination” of product, which is required when the FDA discovers a food-safety violation during an inspection. The fee is USD 225 per hour, USD 335 per hour if foreign travel is required.

Read the complete story from Seafood Source.

 

 

 

 

 

 

It is likely that the scallop is the most acceptable bivalve in great demand in the world. At least, that is what statistics show.

The United States must be ahead in terms of sale volumes. In the first five months of 2011, the country imported about 15,800 tonnes of fresh, frozen, preserved scallops (Pecten, Chlamys and Placopecten) for roughly USD 150 million. And it exported 5,000 tonnes for about USD 73.0 million.

The import business grew 15 per cent compared to the same period in 2010 and exports grew by 40 per cent (due to the re-export of imported scallops besides the export of some of the country’s own production).

From ASEAN group Thailand, a small producer exporting 600 tonnes in the first half of 2011 and importing 500 tonnes, has stood out from the rest. It is striking to notice there is little difference between import and export volumes. This is because producing countries only capture and/or farm some of the many scallop species that exist, but also consume others, so they must import them. This also occurs due to the specimen sizes.

Read the complete story from FIS World News.

 

 

 

 

 

VANCOUVER — Top bureaucrats in Ottawa have muzzled a leading fisheries scientist whose discovery could help explain why salmon stocks have been crashing off Canada's West Coast, according to documents obtained by Postmedia News.

The documents show the Privy Council Office, which supports the Prime Minister's Office, stopped Kristi Miller from talking about one of the most significant discoveries to come out of a federal fisheries lab in years.

Science, one of the world's top research journals, published Miller's findings in January. The journal considered the work so significant it notified "over 7,400" journalists worldwide about Miller's "Suffering Salmon" study.

Read the complete story from The Vancouver Sun.

 

 

 

 

Last week’s long awaited European Commission proposal to overhaul the bloc’s policy on fisheries is being criticised by environmentalists and some parliamentarians for failing to do enough to address sustainability issues. The Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) reform proposal – over a year in the making – contains provisions to reduce harvests of the most over-exploited stocks, stop discarding bycatch,  and fix quotas for fish stocks on multi-year basis.

Brussels has acknowledged for years that the current system is unsustainable and had requested input from an array of stakeholders to help shape the new rules.

“The Commission underlines that our current policy does not work anymore,” said Fisheries Commissioner Maria Damanki at a 20 July press conference. “We cannot afford business as usual.”

Read the complete story from ICTSD.

 

 

 

 

BEIJING – As ConocoPhillips and China's ocean watchdog try to control the spread of oil leaks in a gulf of the Yellow Sea, fishers in North China's Hebei province are complaining that the disaster has caused the death of a large number of scallops. BEIJING – As ConocoPhillips and China's ocean watchdog try to control the spread of oil leaks in a gulf of the Yellow Sea, fishers in North China's Hebei province are complaining that the disaster has caused the death of a large number of scallops.

"Because of the leak, about 70 percent of the scallops seedlings in Laoting county (Hebei province) have been found dead since late June, and the total economic loss for the local fishing industry is expected to reach 350 million yuan ($54 million)," Yang Jizhen, chairman of the Laoting fisheries association, told China Daily on Monday.

The recent oil leak in Bohai Bay was first discovered on June 4 and a subsequent one was learned of on 17. Both originated from the bay's Penglai 19-3 oilfield.

Read the complete story from China Daily.