Saving Seafood

Slavery risk warning over UK’s scallop fisheries

Register singles out industry with retailers told to check suppliers are clear of any link to bonded labour

February 2, 2018 — Marine conservation campaigners have warned there is a critical risk that slaves are being used on British scallop fishing boats, and urged retailers to be on their guard.

A new slavery risk register published in the US on Thursday has singled out the UK’s queen and giant scallops fisheries as the most at risk of modern slavery after a Guardian investigation found allegations of bonded labour in the industry.

Nine African and Asian crew were taken off a pair of British scallop trawlers in Portsmouth in December as suspected victims of modern slavery, and two skippers, one from Scotland and the second from Merseyside, were detained by police.

The register, compiled by Monterey Bay Aquarium – one of the most prominent conservation campaigns in the US – the anti-slavery group Liberty Asia and the Sustainable Fisheries Partnership, also cites other alleged cases of suspected slavery involving migrant labour in Scotland and southern England in 2017, 2014 and 2012.

Read the full story at the Guardian

 

Seafood can’t be sacrificial lamb in Brexit negotiations

July 5, 2017 — Confirmation that creating a new fisheries bill will be one of the U.K. government’s immediate priorites as it looks to make a success of its departure from the E.U. has eased one of the seafood sector’s biggest fears regarding the Brexit negotiations that are now underway: that fisheries could be packaged into a broader multi-industry deal in pursuit of other, more lucrative agendas that might not serve its best interests.

On the eve of the fisheries bill announcement, which came in the recent Queen’s Speech – the event that traditionally opens parliament, with the monarchy listing the laws that the government hopes to get approved during the year ahead – delegates at the London seminar, “Priorities for U.K. fisheries policy – sustainability, trade, access and funding,” heard industry leaders and other key stakeholders warn about the dangerous ramifications of overlooking fisheries and the needs of the broader seafood supply chain while Brexit talks progressed.

Lord Robin Teversen, chair of the House of Lords’ E.U. select sub-committee on environment and energy, which also covers fisheries and farming, said a major concern is the sheer scale of policymaking now required from the government’s Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA), which is responsible for getting good post-Brexit policies in place for agriculture and the environment, as well as for fisheries. He also warned the rule-makers to expect an a ferocious fishing industry should they fail to deliver a satisfactory package.

“Although fisheries is seen as a marginal sector to macro-economists, with something like 0.7 percent of the GDP – my goodness, the industry can make itself felt. Politically, it’s a very sensitive area and one that I am sure will dominate more of the Brexit negotiations than perhaps the GDP [share] would suggest. Whichever government it is that’s in power when we come to Brexit, if a wrong decision is taken on fisheries, they will get to know about it; that’s how important and politically charged this area is,” Teversen said.

“The other thing about fisheries that makes a [deal] even more important is that it’s the one area of Brexit on day one – 29 March, 2019 – that could see actual physical conflict if it goes wrong. We shouldn’t underestimate that importance when it comes to making sure that an agreement is reached,” he said.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Britain’s fishing industry voted overwhelmingly to leave the EU — now it feels ‘betrayed’ by May’s Brexit proposals

November 8, 2016 — Britain’s £1-billion fishing industry, which voted overwhelmingly to leave the EU, says it feels “betrayed” by the current course of Brexit negotiations.

A poll before the referendum suggested 92% of fishermen would vote to leave the EU, but many are now worried about Theresa May’s plan to roll over the EU’s much-maligned Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) into UK law.

The CFP sets rules for how many fish each EU country’s boats can land. Several politicians have warned that dropping the policy will not benefit the industry, but most fishermen disagreed, believing that its restrictions are the cause of a rapidly declining UK fleet.

But Prime Minister Theresa May intends to introduce a ‘Great Repeal Bill‘ in the wake of Brexit, which will roll over all EU law into UK law — including the CFP.

Alan Hastings, a spokesman for Brexit campaign group ‘Fishing For Leave,’ told Business Insider that the proposal risks “throwing the industry under a bus.”

Read the full story at Business Insider

Could man-made noise interfere with cod reproduction?

October 6th, 2016 — A new study of Britain’s seas is attempting to determine whether man-made aquatic noise is affecting the communication and breeding of cod.

Led by Steve Simpson, associate professor in marine biology and global change at the University of Exeter, the study will look at how unnatural noise — from shipping, wind farm construction, and oil and gas drilling — has affected the reproductive behavior of fish.

Cod and haddock, for instance, are known to use certain sounds to attract mates.

“We’re interested in whether the human noise we’re making is drowning this out,” Simpson said.

Additionally, the two-year study will seek to determine whether fish — not unlike killer whales and songbirds — have “regional accents,” or mating calls particular to certain areas. Climate change has sent some fish migrating north in search of cooler waters, and the result could be a sort of underwater language barrier, according to the British scientists. (On this side of the Atlantic, warming waters have coincided with a dramatic drop in cod stocks.)

Read the full story at The Boston Globe 

Maine lobster suppliers strategize to foil EU ban

May 9, 2016 — Maine lobster suppliers met behind closed doors with dealers from some of Europe’s biggest lobster importing countries in Brussels last week to discuss a pending ban on importing live North American lobsters into Europe.

The six Maine companies joined their Massachusetts and Canadian peers, as well as national trade officials, to discuss the proposed ban with buyers and trade officials from eight European countries, including the three biggest importers of Homarus americanus: France, Italy and Spain. The meeting occurred at the world’s largest seafood industry trade show, said spokesman Gavin Gibbons of the National Fisheries Institute, an American seafood industry trade group.

About 75 people met for 90 minutes to talk about how to avoid the all-out ban that Sweden asked the European Union to adopt in March after finding North American lobsters in European waters.

“Brussels was productive,” Gibbons said. “Unnecessarily excluding live North American lobsters from that market would have real impacts on both sides of the Atlantic, sales and jobs. So, no one is taking this lightly.”

In March, Sweden petitioned the European Union to declare the North American lobster an invasive species, which would ban live imports to the EU’s 28 member states. It based its petition on an 85-page risk assessment that claims the discovery of a small number of North American lobsters in the waters off Great Britain, Norway and Sweden over the last 30 years, including one female lobster carrying hybrid eggs, proved cross-breeding had taken place. The Swedish scientists say a ban would protect the European lobster from cross-breeding and diseases carried by the North American lobster.

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald