Saving Seafood

NOAA taps new sustainable fisheries director

July 14, 2020 — On Monday the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Fisheries appointed Kelly Denit as its new director of its office of sustainable fisheries.

As the new director, Denit will oversee a national office responsible for the implementation of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, the management of Atlantic highly migratory species, and promoting US seafood safety while supporting seafood-related commerce and trade.

“One of the critical aspects of this new role will be supporting our fishing businesses and communities as they navigate through the challenges of COVID-19,” she said.

Read the full story at IntraFish

MASSACHUSETTS: Kennedy throws support behind moving NOAA from Woods Hole to New Bedford

July 13, 2020 — A proposal to move the region’s NOAA Fisheries headquarters to New Bedford now has the backing of U.S. Senate candidate Joe Kennedy III.

Kennedy, currently a Democratic congressman, made the announcement in the city Friday while visiting Pier 3 alongside Mayor Jon Mitchell. He spoke with local fishermen about his new COVID-19 economic recovery plan, which calls for large-scale public works and federal hiring programs.

“Listening to local communities, recognizing those bottlenecks and then saying, ‘Hey, with you at a seat at the table, let’s actually design a policy to do that,’” Kennedy said. “The risk that we have in the midst of a shock like this is that small guys essentially get eaten up and closed.”

Fisherman Steven Palmer said he appreciated his conversation with Kennedy, during which he expressed frustration about scallop prices during the pandemic.

“Earlier this year it dropped down to $4 a pound in some spots, so it’s been tough,” Palmer said.

Read the full story at WPRI

ALASKA: After “nerve racking” slow start, Bristol Bay catch numbers rebound with 2 million plus catch days

July 13, 2020 — The Fourth of July is typically the high point in the salmon season for Bristol Bay’s commercial fishing fleet, but in a year where COVID-induced uncertainty dominated the preseason, low harvest added to anxiety in the first weeks of the season.

“It was a very, very slow start. I think the slowest in my experience every fishing. It was definitely nerve-racking,” Katherine Carscallen, a drift gillnet fishermen in the Nushagak District said. “The Fourth of July is our typical peak, and that was where I looked at my log book where I keep track of how much we’ve caught and definitely started asking myself like, ‘how is this possible.'”

Through July 4, the cumulative bay wide harvest was just over 6 million fish – 49% below the average since 2012. Then the evening of Independence day the fish arrived in massive numbers.

“By the fifth of July it was just hard hitting for the fifth, sixth and seventh,” Carscallen said. “We definitely increased out poundage by a whole lot in just three days, and since then it’s just kinda been going steady.”

Read the full story at KTUU

Workers leaving Chinese fisheries due to low wages

July 13, 2020 — Fisheries remains a chronically low-wage industry in China, but there are signs of improved efficiency and productivity.

The average wage in the industry stood at CNY 21,108 (USD 2,955, EUR 2,744) in 2019, according to the National Fishery Economy Statistical Review, published recently by the Chinese Agriculture Ministry. That’s up six percent on the 2018 figure, but looks meager given what the ministry classifies as the “farm, fishery, and forestry” average annual wage at CNY 39,340 (USD 5,507, EUR 5,114) is only 43 percent of the average national wage.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

ALEXIA AKBAY: Building A Post-COVID Oceans Economy For Hawaii

July 13, 2020 — The impact of COVID-19 is leading localities around the world to rethink their economies. With a record-high 39.4% of the workforce unemployed, Hawaii is no different.

As a global pandemic dries up tourist dollars and a climate crisis lurks in our future, it is clear that Hawaii’s economy, like our ohia forests and coral reefs, is a fragile ecosystem vulnerable to disruption.

A growing number of calls for a new economic model are gaining traction but they forget Hawaii’s crown jewel: 143,000 acres of mariculture-ready ocean and centuries of indigenous ocean stewardship knowledge.

As we consider Hawaii’s post-COVID economic future, we cannot miss this chance to build a blue economy that restores Hawaii’s self-sufficiency while bringing it forward to a climate-resilient future.

Read the full story at the Honolulu Civil Beat

Bloomberg Corrects Record on China’s Shrimp and COVID-19 Story

July 13, 2020 — The following was released by the National Fisheries Institute:

Bloomberg, the giant media company with reporters in more than 100 countries, has corrected its piece originally titled, “China Signals Shrimp Virus Risk After Salmon Debacle.” Reporting on China’s General Administration of Customs announcement, the article erroneously claimed COVID-19 tests found the virus on “both the inside and outside of… shrimp packaging.”

The National Fisheries Institute (NFI) reached out to the reporting team and their editors to point out the positive COVID-19 tests were found inside the shipment container, not inside the product’s packaging.

“There was genuine confusion caused by this inaccurate reporting,” said NFI’s Senior Director of Communications and Advocacy, Brandon Phillips.  “This was not an issue of semantics. It was an issue of specificity.  Reports of a positive test on a shipping container as opposed to inside a product’s packaging are two very different stories.”

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Department of Agriculture (USDA) have been clear that COVID-19 is not a food borne illness. In June, the FDA and USDA released a joint statement that said, “Efforts by some countries to restrict global food exports related to Covid-19 transmission are not consistent with the known science of transmission.” Further, the statement read there’s, “no evidence that people can contract Covid-19 from food or from food packaging.”

“We’re disappointed that Bloomberg didn’t get the facts right the first time but we applaud them for correcting their mistake,” said Phillips. “Seafood continues to be a safe, healthy and available food that consumers should choose.”

As Beach Towns Open, Businesses Are Short Foreign Workers

July 13, 2020 — At this time of the year, The Friendly Fisherman on Cape Cod is usually bustling with foreign students clearing tables and helping prepare orders of clam strips or fish and chips.

But because of a freeze on visas, Janet Demetri won’t be employing the 20 or so workers this summer. So as the crowds rush back, Demetri must work with nine employees for her restaurant and market — forcing her to shutter the business twice a week.

“It’s really disturbing because we are really busy,” said Demetri. “We can’t keep up once the doors are open.”

“The work that people on H-2B visas do or on J-1 summer work travel is not something that is alien to Americans,” said Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, which advocates for restrictions. “Those jobs are already mostly done by Americans whether its landscaping, making beds or scooping ice cream. The employers are just going to have to up their game in recruitment because there are 20 million people who are unemployed whom they could be drawing from.”

Mark Carchidi, whose company Antioch Associates USA II Inc. processes paperwork for H-2B visas on the East Coast, said businesses he works with were counting on an additional 30,000 visas this year beyond the 66,000 already allowed under the program.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at The New York Times

NMFS calls a covid-19 cancellation for Northeast research surveys

July 13, 2020 — On the heels of again delaying Northeast fisheries observer coverage, NMFS cancelled three planned research surveys as the covid-19 pandemic continues.

The cancelled surveys would help assess sea scallops, the Atlantic surf clam and ocean quahog stocks – and use advanced technology to investigate the deep ocean’s mesopelagic layer, the so-called “twilight zone” between 660 feet and 3,300 feet where the influence of sunlight drops off.

“These are difficult decisions for the agency as we strive to balance our need to maintain core mission responsibilities with the realities and impacts of the current health crisis,” officials at the Northeast Fisheries Science Center said in a statement issued Friday afternoon.

“Since March, we have been rigorously analyzing various options for conducting cruises this year and are taking a survey-by-survey, risk-based approach. After much deliberation, we determined that there was no way to move forward with these surveys while effectively minimizing risk and meeting core survey objectives.”

Read the full story at National Fisherman

Seafood Industry Sinking From Virus Fallout Pleads for Bailouts

July 10, 2020 — Seafood processors and fishers struggling with falling prices and disappearing markets during the coronavirus pandemic are pushing for federal bailouts following a government directive to send aid to New England’s lobster industry.

“We’re all scared. We’ve got tons of money wrapped up in these businesses,” said Nick Muto, the Cape Cod Commercial Fishermen’s Alliance chairman and an independent small-boat captain dealing in groundfish and lobster. “We’re definitely hoping for some help here from the federal government,” Muto added. “But I’m leery to bet on it.”

Restaurant closures, mandated by local officials nationwide to slow the rate of infection, decimated seafood vendors’ sales. Now, some states beginning to relax restrictions are seeing a resurgence of Covid-19 cases—just as the industry tries to recoup its losses.

Read the full story at Bloomberg Law

China Customs slowdown frustrating seafood suppliers

July 10, 2020 — An apparent coronavirus-related slowdown in customs processing in China is hampering exporters accessing the country’s seafood markets.

Indian seafood exporters have noticed a slowdown in checks at Chinese customs, which is backing up containers of inbound Indian shrimp, according to The Hindu BusinessLine. The average checking time has gone from three to 10 days, making Chinese buyers hesitant, according to Indian seafood exporters, some of whom suspect deliberate Chinese foot-dragging is related to a Sino-Indian border conflict in the Himalayas.

Read the full story at Seafood Source