Saving Seafood

A Quarantine Surprise: Americans Are Cooking More Seafood

May 5, 2020 — In 1963, on their way home from the hospital after he was born, Louis Rozzo’s parents stopped by a building on Ninth Avenue in Chelsea, where the family ran a wholesale seafood business, to weigh him in a scallop scale. This March, when virtually every restaurant, club and hotel that bought seafood from him closed and his firm’s income dried up in a matter of days, Mr. Rozzo went back to where it all began.

The F. Rozzo & Sons building was still in the family. Mr. Rozzo converted the ground floor into a makeshift store where he sells clams, scallops, sea bass and American red snapper to people who are suddenly cooking at home a lot more than they used to.

“I’m seeing people taking home fish, then coming in the next day and showing me pictures of how they prepared it,” he said. Some of them undertake recipes that require the better part of a day. Mr. Rozzo enjoys their enthusiastic feedback, although he also suggested that some of the energy New Yorkers are devoting to their kitchen projects is, like his overnight fish store itself, born of desperation.

“There’s not much else to do,” he said. “It’s either that or go home and drink all day.”

Read the full story at The New York Times

NEW JERSEY: Commercial fishermen scale back production as market demand plummets

April 2, 2020 — With restaurants only permitted to offer takeout and delivery, and many specialty seafood markets offering limited products or temporarily closing amid the COVID-19 outbreak, commercial fishermen are scaling back operations, too, and they’re feeling the impact.

“It’s scary what’s out there, it really is,” said Ernie Panacek, 69, general manager of Viking Village, a commercial seafood producer in the borough.

“The money that we get comes from those people going out to dinner and going to retail,” he said. “It’s going to be a hardship for a while. No one is going to flip a switch and have it go away immediately. We’re going to feel this for a long time.”

Read the full story at The Press of Atlantic City

Commercial Fishermen Question Obama’s Ocean ‘Monument’ Preserve

September 29, 2016 — Commercial fishing boat owners and groups are reacting to the executive action taken by President Obama that created a marine national preserve in the North Atlantic on Sept. 15. They say that banning commercial fishing there is unnecessary, since the fishing industry has already been working with government agencies on conservation measures. Plus, they fear the preserve will be expanded in the future, like the recent quadrupling of the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument off the Hawaiian islands.

The new 4,193-square-mile Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument is located about 130 miles southeast of Cape Cod.

Environmentalists praise the fact that the preserve will also protect marine life from all drilling. However, the fishing angle is another matter, according to industry organizations such as the Garden State Seafood Association.

“All commercial fishing is excluded from the area, but fisheries in the top 10 to 20 feet, no way in the world they’re going to impact the bottom,” pointed out Nils Stolpe, communications director of the association.

Such is the case for a lot of the Barnegat Light-based boats, he said, for example, longliners and some hook-and-line tuna boats. “They’re fishing 3 miles up above all of this on the ocean floor.”

“Longliners are probably affected more than any of our other fisheries up there” by the declaration, said Ernie Panacek, general manager at Viking Village Commercial Seafood Producers in Barnegat Light. “Our bottom longlining boats and surface longlining for sword and tuna boats are going to be affected up there.”

Read the full story at The Sand Paper

Fishermen, Conservationists, and Regulators Honored for Landmark Coral Preservation Efforts

October 29, 2015 – The following was released by the Garden State Seafood Association (GSSA):

TRENTON, N.J. — Representatives from the Garden State Seafood Association (GSSA) are among those being honored for their efforts to preserve 38,000 square miles of Mid-Atlantic ocean habitat, and extend valuable protections to vulnerable coral reefs. Ernie Panacek, President of the GSSA, Richard Robins, Chairman of the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council (MAFMC), and Jay Odell, Director of the Mid-Atlantic Marine Program at the Nature Conservancy, were presented with this year’s Regional Ocean Champions Award, given by the Urban Coast Institute at Monmouth University, at the Institute’s 11th Annual Future of the Ocean Symposium.

Dr. Sylvia Earle, Explorer in Residence at the National Geographic Society, and Terry Garcia, the Chief Science and Exploration Officer at the National Geographic Society, were presented with the National Champions of the Ocean Award.

Earlier this year, the MAFMC approved the Deep Sea Corals Amendment, which created a series of “deep sea coral zones,” totaling over 38,000 square miles, to be closed off to fishing gear that comes into contact with the seafloor. These zones protect the fragile coral ecosystems and other notable habitats from potentially harmful disturbances.

“The Deep Sea Corals Amendment presented the Council with an opportunity of a lifetime to conserve sensitive deep sea corals and their associated marine ecosystems in the Mid-Atlantic,” said Mr. Robins. “What was so unique about this action was that we used a participatory approach to defining the protected areas, which allowed a broad range of stakeholders to reach consensus on what those boundaries should be.”

This participatory process brought together Council members, fishermen and industry representatives, scientists, and other stakeholders in a collaborative and cooperative effort.

“The fishing industry has a lot to offer intellectually,” said Mr. Panacek. “When there is mutual respect, meaningful results can be achieved.”

The resulting protections have been widely praised, by environmentalists and fishermen alike. Peter Baker, of the The Pew Charitable Trusts, wrote in a post featured on the Conservation Law Foundation’s Talking Fish blog that the Amendment would “cement a conservation legacy for the Mid-Atlantic.”

Industry representatives, such as GSSA Executive Director Greg DiDomenico, see the open and inclusive process that lead to the Amendment as an example for fisheries managers nationwide, one that demonstrates the value of stakeholder engagement and proves that the fisheries management system established by the Magnuson-Stevens Act works.

“The process in the Mid-Atlantic should be the model for developing targeted habitat protection in New England,” said Mr. DiDomenico. “An open, collaborative process is the best way to build on these efforts.”  

The Champion of the Ocean Awards honor those who have “demonstrated sustained leadership in advancing a future in which coasts and oceans are clean, safe, sustainably managed and preserved for the benefit and enjoyment of future generations.”

This is the second time this year that GSSA has been honored for its conservation work. Mr. DiDomenico, along with MAFMC Chairman Robins, were recognized as Conservation Leaders by the New York Aquarium in a September ceremony held at the Central Park Zoo.

About the Garden State Seafood Association

The Garden State Seafood Association (GSSA) advocates on behalf of New Jersey’s fishermen and fishing communities. Through closely monitoring regulatory developments, actively participating in the management process, and sharing the latest fisheries news and information with our members, GSSA holds our leaders accountable to the concerns and priorities of New Jersey’s hard working, historic fishing industry.