January 15, 2021 — A report issued by NOAA Fisheries on Friday, 15 January, 2021, shows that COVID-19 had a devastating impact on the country’s commercial fishing and recreational charter operations during the first seven months of 2020.
No U.S. region was spared, as the data shows regional landings revenue since last March fell across the board. Hawaii experienced the worst decline at 42 percent, with the Southeast reporting a 29 percent drop.
January 14, 2021 — When COVID-19 initially struck Asia, many fisheries in Oregon lost their export markets in late January 2020 because of canceled Chinese Lunar New Year celebrations. Prices for Dungeness crab stagnated at a time when they normally would be rising.
When the virus spread to the West Coast, Oregon’s seafood industry felt shock waves immediately. Most Americans eat seafood in restaurants, and Oregon’s “Stay at Home, Save Lives,” orders shuttered in-person dining in March. Some vessels cut their seasons short.
January 14, 2021 — Extra Table and shrimpers from Mississippi’s coast delivered 36,000 meals for families in need in Hattiesburg, Jackson, Biloxi and Gulfport on Wednesday.
Extra Table will aid in the distribution of 13,000 pounds of shrimp to its partnered food banks in the coming days; many of which reported a 30-50% increase in need due to the economic hardship created by COVID-19.
The shrimp were caught by members of Mississippi Commercial Fisheries United, which promotes fresh, wild caught fish from the Gulf. The shrimp were purchased with support from a grant by Catch Together, a nonprofit which raises funds to strengthen sustainable fishermen and fishing communities across the country.
January 14, 2021 — Redmond, Washington, U.S.A.-based UniSea has partially locked down its seafood processing facility in Unalaska, Alaska, after seven of its employees tested positive for COVID-19.
The company, which is owned by Nippon Suisan Kaisha (Nissui), is in the process of testing most of the staff at the facility and conducting contract tracing to determine the full scale of the outbreak, according to KUCB.
January 14, 2021 — Even as the COVID-19 pandemic upended markets, forced restaurant closures, and changed the way society functioned, the seafood industry managed to see significant gains in the category.
IRI data, combined with NPD data, shared during a panel that is part of the National Fisheries Institute’s Global Seafood Marketing Conference webinar series, indicates that the seafood industry saw net growth of 7 percent in 2020, equaling USD 800 million (EUR 657 million) in gains for the industry. SeafoodSource is providing exclusive coverage of the GSMC Webinar series, which will be providing comprehensive market content throughout 2021.
January 14, 2021 — While many seafood processors are struggling to survive during the COVID-19 pandemic, Lund’s Fisheries is expanding its storage and processing space, and hiring a slate of executives to fuel growth of value-added lines – primarily to foodservice.
The Cape May, New Jersey, U.S.A.-based company, which owns 19 fishing vessels and has production facilities in New Jersey, Massachusetts, and California, will break ground on a 90,000-square-foot cold and dry storage facility to its Shoreline Freezers facility this summer. It also plans on adding processing capabilities at the plant, Mark Fratiello, the company’s new director of sales and marketing, told SeafoodSource.
January 13, 2021 — As 2020 drew to a close, one-third of the $300 million in aid set aside for the fishing industry through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act remained for delivery as states laboured to complete distributions.
Lagging farthest behind were Alaska and Washington state, the nation’s top volume seafood producers, and at $50 million each the largest designated shares of the aid package. The states finally released their final draft spending plans on Dec. 7 and Dec. 8, for approval by NMFS.
This week the Jan. 15 deadline is approaching for fishermen to apply for the U.S. Department of Agriculture Seafood Trade Relief Program, a $530 million package to help compensate for an estimated $250 million in losses in trade wars with China and the European Union.
After the Department of Commerce announced its system for distributing direct aid, coming up with state-by-state plans lagged well into the fall. In Alaska there was protracted public debate over how to allocate equitably the aid among the state’s vibrant and varied fisheries. There was wide disagreement over who should qualify — including Alaska residents and its large fishing workforce with homes in other states, and how to split the money between commercial fishing, processing and the recreational charter and guide sectors. One chafing point was state officials’ intent to give the charter sector a bigger share than the 5.5 percent recommended by NMFS.
January 12, 2021 — Three-and-a-half weeks into Oregon’s commercial Dungeness crab season, crab boats are finally heading out to sea.
Haggling over the opening price was the sticking point between processors and fishermen. An agreement on $2.75 per pound was announced Friday night.
Taunette Dixon of the Newport Fishermen’s Wives group said she can’t recall the last time negotiations went on this long. But she’s hopeful the season goes well.
“For the fisherman who are risking their lives, that are out there sacrificing their time, their energy, their health, their safety…to bring seafood to the world,” Dixon said.
Lori Steele, executive director of the West Coast Seafood Processors Association, said the COVID-19 pandemic really hit the industry starting in March 2020.
January 11, 2021 — Fishing seasons are never the same. Variables make yearly swings the norm, and unpredictability means processing plants must be well-staffed and ready for any eventual harvest. But even for an industry used to volatility, 2020 has been a year like no other.
Seafood processors saw the costs of doing business skyrocket early this year as the covid-19 pandemic created widespread health and safety concerns. The disruption came just as the industry was preparing to hire for the summer salmon season.
Thousands of workers come to Alaska each year to process the catch, and most arrive in the spring and summer. The summer salmon harvest is the state’s highest-value and most labor-intensive. The first surge comes in June as processing employment doubles from about 6,000 jobs in recent years to 12,000 or 13,000. The job numbers peak in July between 20,000 and 21,000.
Because processing takes place as close to the harvest as possible, remote worksites with no local workforce are common. Some processors hire workers from around Alaska, but most of their employees are from out of state or are foreign workers under the H-2 visa program. For every Alaskan working in the plants, processing companies import three from outside the state.
January 11, 2021 — The latest round of federal Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans became available on Monday, 11 January, 2021, according to the U.S. Small Business Administration’s website.
The funding became available through the passage of the USD 900 billion (EUR 739.6 billion) COVID-19 relief bill Congress approved last month. Up to USD 284 billion (EUR 233.4 billion) be available to small businesses and other eligible entities through the federal program.