International & Trade

Legislation recently signed by President Obama has paved the way for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to move ahead to increase the Georges Bank yellowtail flounder quota for U.S. commercial fishermen in 2011.

The quota will be increased to 2.5 million pounds, an 18 per cent increase over 2010 levels and a 44 per cent increase over the quota that fishermen originally expected to receive for the 2011 fishing year.

“Rebuilding economically valuable fisheries goes hand-in-hand with protecting fishing jobs and supporting coastal communities, so we made reaching this agreement a priority, because it will allow us to increase the catch limits for valuable groundfish stocks and help fishermen,” Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke said.

The legislation that enabled the agreement was signed by President Obama on 4 January and initiated by U.S. Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine, U.S. Rep. Barney Frank of Massachusetts, and members of the New England congressional delegation.

Read the complete story from FIS Worldnews.

 

 

 

 

 

 

A little more than a month after President Obama signed enabling legislation filed by members of New England's congressional delegation, NOAA officials announced Thursday that negotiators obtained Canada's agreement to increase the allocation of yellowtail flounder available to U.S. fishermen along the boundary through Georges Bank.

The announcement by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration confirmed that the legislation enabling the agreement was signed by Obama on Jan. 4 after being initiated by U.S. Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine, Massachusetts Congressman Barney Frank, and members of the New England congressional delegation.

Frank's office noted that the increase in the deal with Canada — which amounts to 2.5 million pounds — "relaxes the grip yellowtail flounder had on the ability of New England fishermen to catch all species of groundfish and scallops."

The new limit is 44 percent higher than what had been proposed for Georges Bank yellowtail in the coming year, according to Frank's office.

Read the complete story from The Gloucester Times.

 

 

 

 

 

 

NEW YORK – Feb 5, 2011 – Aquaculture is overtaking traditional fishing in global production, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (UNFAO) reported this week. But a scientist with the organisation predicted that growth would slow as space for the food farms dwindled and concerns grew about their effects on the environment.

Fish farming is the fastest growing area of animal food production, having increased at a 6.6-per-cent annual rate from 1970 to 2008, the agency said in the report. Over that period, the global per-capita supply of farm-raised fish soared from 0.7kg to to 17.8kg.

In volume, aquaculture now makes up 46 per cent of the world's supply of consumed fish, and the sector appears to have overtaken wild fisheries in commercial value, reaching US$98.4 billion in 2008, compared with US$93.9 billion for fish caught in the wild.

Read the complete story from TODAY Online.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The contribution of fish to global diets has reached a record of about 17 kg per person on average, supplying more than three billion people with at least 15 per cent of their average animal protein intake. This increase is due mainly to the ever-growing production of aquaculture which is set to overtake capture fisheries as a source of food fish, according to the FAO’s State of the World's Fisheries and Aquaculture. The report also stressed that the status of global fish stocks has not improved.

Overall, fisheries and aquaculture support the livelihoods of an estimated 540 million people, or 8 per cent of the world population. People have never eaten as much fish and more people than ever are employed in or depend on the sector.

Fish products continue to be the most-traded of food commodities, worth a record $102 billion in 2008, up 9 per cent from 2007.

The overall percentage of overexploited, depleted or recovering fish stocks in the world’s oceans has not dropped and is estimated to be slightly higher than in 2006. About 32 per cent of world fish stocks are estimated to be overexploited, depleted or recovering and need to be urgently rebuilt, the report says.

Read the complete story from Fish News EU.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The global consumption of fish has hit a record high, reaching an average of 17kg per person, a UN report has shown.

Fisheries and aquaculture supplied the world with about 145m tonnes in 2009, providing about 16% of the population's animal protein intake.

The findings published by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) also stressed that the status of global fish stocks had not improved.

It said that about 32% were overexploited, depleted or recovering.

"That there has been no improvement in the status of stocks is a matter of great concern," said Richard Grainger, one of the report's authors and FAO senior fish expert.

"The percentage of overexploitation needs to go down, although at least we seem to reaching a plateau," he observed.

The authors added that it was estimated that the level of overexploitation had increased slightly since 2006, but 15% of the stocks monitored by the FAO were either "underexploited" or "moderately exploited".

This meant that catches in these regions could increase in order to meet the demand for fish products.

Read the complete story from the BBC News.

 

 

 

 

 

ROME – January 31, 2011 – Fish is becoming a larger part of people's diets thanks to the booming fish farm industry, but ocean stocks continue to dwindle despite increasing international efforts to regulate catches and stop overfishing.

The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization said in a report released Monday that there had been no improvement in the level of global fish stocks and that the overall percentage of overfished, depleted or recovering stocks is expected to be slightly higher than in 2006.

While expressing concern at the trend, FAO suggested that the financial and nutritional plusses of increasing fish production and consumption should not be brushed off.

Overall, fisheries and acquaculture support the livelihoods of some 540 million people — eight percent of the world's population, FAO said in its State of the World's Fisheries and Acquaculture report. In addition, in 2007 fish accounted for 15.7 percent of the world's intake of animal protein.

Much of that is due to fish farms, or acquaculture, which is set to overtake capture fisheries as the main source of fish as food, FAO said. In the early 1950s, acquaculture production was less than 1 million tons per year; in 2008 it was 52.5 million tons worth $98.4 billion.

But in the open seas, fish stocks are dwindling due to overfishing and unregulated, illegal hauls which bring in an estimated $10 billion to $23.5 billion annually, FAO said.

Read the complete story by the Associated Press at The Boston Globe.

 

 

 

 

 

NOAA has submitted a report to Congress identifying six nations – Colombia, Ecuador, Italy, Panama, Portugal, and Venezuela – whose fishing vessels engaged in illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing in 2009 and/or 2010.

This opens the way for continued consultations between the U.S. government and each of the nations to encourage them to take action to stop IUU fishing by their vessels.

In this report, NOAA also announces that the six previously identified nations (China, France, Italy, Libya, Panama, and Tunisia) have addressed the instances of illegal fishing described by the United States in the 2009 report to Congress. These nations applied penalties to the vessels in question or adopted laws to strengthen control of their fishing fleets or both. Each has received a positive certification as a result of their actions.

The nations identified in the report had fishing vessels that did not comply with measures agreed to under various international fishery management organizations, such as closed fishing seasons, vessel registry lists, and a ban on the use of driftnets. Other violations included illegal gear modifications, fishing without authorization, and possession of undersized bluefin tuna.

Read the complete story from Sport Fishing.

 

 

 

 

 

Nassau, Bahamas – If you are wondering why so much attention is being directed at shark conservation in recent times Matt Rand, Director of Global Shark Conservation of the PEW Environment Group says it is all becomes of an Asian obsession with shark fin soup.

"Unfortunately, because of their value in a bowl of soup, up to 73 million sharks are killed annually, just so their fins can end up in soup. It is a luxury item, it is not a food item. And what this is causing very rapidly is a global depletion of sharks. Right now 38% of shark species that are in the world's oceans are threatened, or are near threatened with extinction; and those are just the ones that we know. We also know that that statistic is actually short," said Rand.

This global decimation of the shark population is now having a negative impact on the ecosystems of many oceans, but Rand says but for a country that has tourism as its number one industry, potentially there can be a more devastating outcome.

Read the story and see the video at The Bahamas Weekly.

 

 

 

 

 

The No Rigs Coalition issued the following release:

As President Obama reviews the report of the government commission on the Deep Water Horizon explosion and blowout in the Gulf of Mexico upon its release tomorrow, the NoRigs 3 Coalition wants to express its appreciation to Premier Dexter and his government for passing legislation on December 10th to extend the Georges Bank Moratorium until at least 2022.
 
It is expected that the US government report will focus on mistakes made by the oil company and its sub-contractors, as well as a lack of effective oversight by the government regulator. Human error, human malfeasance and unexpected forces of nature can overwhelm the very best technology when it comes to offshore drilling and development, according to NoRigs 3 chairperson, Denny Morrow. The NoRigs 3 Coalition of fishermen, processors, aboriginal fishing communities and environmental groups are pleased that the Nova Scotia government has taken a precautionary approach in regard to protecting the richest spawning and nursery area in the Canadian North Atlantic.
 
It is expected that the final tally on clean-up costs and payment for damages to the tourism and fishing industries in the Gulf region will top $30 billion. Georges Bank yields close to a billion dollars in seafood harvested annually when both the Canadian and American fishing harvests are combined. A blowout or large spill on Georges Bank would not only affect the seafood industries of both countries, but the tourism industries as well.
 
The legislation passed in the Nova Scotia legislature in December not only extends the Georges Bank moratorium for another 10 years, but any initiative by a future government to lift the moratorium in 2022 would require a public review. The Act passed on December 10th was passed with all-party support. Denny Morrow, speaking for the NoRigs 3 Coalition, says that the moratorium extension provides the south west Nova Scotia fishing and seafood processing industries with a more secure future.
 

 

 

 

 

We've covered the plight of critically endangered Atlantic bluefin tuna in some detail and for some time, nearly always including a contextual statement on how Japan is far and away the largest market for bluefin. Here's why there's opposition to banning trade: A single bluefin tuna just sold at auction for a new record price of 32.49 million yen in Tokyo. That's nearly $400,000 for a single fish.

The particular fish was caught off Hokkaido, so it wasn't one from the critically endangered Atlantic sub-species, but it goes to show the huge amount of money at stake.

Read the complete story from Tree Hugger.