Hake Archives - Page 2 of 4

Culinary events seek to build demand for Maine’s underappreciated fish

February 5, 2020 — A new series of events called “What’s the Catch?” seeks to build consumer awareness of Maine’s underutilized fish species.

Greater consumption of species like monkfish, redfish, flounder and hake could help fishermen who primarily depend on the lobster fishery to diversify their income. And that’s an important consideration if today’s robust lobster stocks ever decline, Ben Martens, executive director of the Maine Coast Fishermen’s Association, told Mainebiz.

The association is collaborating with Luke’s Lobster on the series, which features a different fish species at four monthly events and highlights fishermen and the working waterfront.

Hosted the second Wednesday of each month from January through April, the series is part social event and part educational.

The January event featured monkfish. The next event, featuring redfish, is scheduled for Feb. 12, from 6-8 p.m., at Luke’s Lobster on the Portland Pier. The March 11 event features flounder, and the April 8 event will focus on hake.

Read the full story at MaineBiz

Clarification: Southern Red Hake Commercial Possession Limit Reduction

February 5, 2020 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

On February 3, 2020, we sent an email notifying the industry that the southern red hake commercial per-trip possession is reduced to 400 lb per day for the remainder of the 2019 fishing year, through April 30, 2020.

The reduced possession limit is 400 lb per trip total, not per day, for the remainder of the 2019 fishing year, through April 30, 2020.

For more information read the bulletin or the notice published in the Federal Register.

NOAA Fisheries Announces Southern Red Hake Commercial Possession Limit Reduction

February 3, 2020 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

The southern red hake commercial per-trip possession is reduced to 400 lb per day for the remainder of the 2019 fishing year, through April 30, 2020.

This action affects federally permitted vessels fishing for southern red hake. This reduction is required by regulation because as of January 14, 2020, the southern red hake fishery was projected to reach or exceed 90 percent of the total allowable landings (TAL) on or around February 2, 2020.

For more information read the bulletin or the notice filed in the Federal Register.

Report: Europeans eating more seafood, markets importing and exporting more products

December 12, 2019 — There has been a marginal rise in seafood consumption across the 28 E.U. member states, with growth supported by increases in both the domestic supply and imports, the latest analysis published by E.U. fish processors and traders association AIPCE-CEP has found.

According to the “Finfish Study 2019,” total E.U. consumption climbed to almost 12.9 million metric tons (MT) in 2018, equating to 25.1 kilograms per capita. It also calculated that 62.5 percent of the seafood products eaten by Europeans that year were imported.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

NOAA Fisheries Announces Reduction of the Northern Red Hake Commercial Possession Limit

September 10, 2019 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

Effective today, we are reducing the northern red hake commercial per-trip possession from 3,000 lb to 400 lb per day. Federally permitted vessels fishing for northern red hake may not exceed the incidental commercial possession limit of 400 lb per trip for the remainder of the 2019 fishing year, which ends on April 30, 2020.

This reduction is required by regulation because as of September 3, 2019, the northern red hake fishery is projected to reach or exceed 37.9 percent of the total allowable landings (TAL) on or around September 4, 2019.

Vessels that are currently on a trip when this reduction becomes effective may retain northern red hake up to the prior possession limit of 3,000 lb for the completion of that trip. Dealers issued federal permits for small-mesh multispecies may not purchase more than 400 lb of northern red hake per trip from federally permitted vessels for any trip that started after September 9, 2019 through the remainder of the fishing year (April 30, 2020).

For more information read the rule as filed in the Federal Register or the bulletin posted on our website.

NGO outcry as latest EU report shows little improvement in ending overfishing

April 12, 2019 — Environmental NGOs have decried a new European Commission report, claiming it shows species such as sardine, hake, and cod could suffer commercial extinctions in European waters in the short term.

The 2019 report by the Scientific, Technical and Economic Committee for Fisheries (STECF) led Oceana to state that overfishing is “plaguing EU seas”. Around 40% of Atlantic stocks and 87% of Mediterranean ones are found to be fished unsustainably, it said.

“As the 2020 deadline for ending overfishing is fast approaching, scientists confirm, with just months to go, the EU countries are still nowhere near reaching the legal obligation of the common fisheries policy (CFP).”

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

MSC research counters findings of other mislabeling studies

March 26, 2019 — A new Marine Stewardship Council study has found mislabeling of its certified seafood is lower than the average of several other recent studies, which claim to have detected seafood mislabeling rates as high as 30 percent.

MSC’s expansive analysis of 1,402 MSC-certified fish products from 18 countries found that fewer than 1 percent of MSC-labeled seafood products were mislabeled.

The results were published in the journal Current Biology.

“There is widespread concern over the vulnerability of seafood supply chains to deliberate species mislabelling and fraud. In the past, this has included some of the most loved species such as cod being substituted by farmed catfish, which can seriously undermine consumer trust and efforts to maintain sustainable fisheries,” the lead of author of the paper, the MSC’s Jaco Barendse, said in an MSC press release.

The MSC’s ecolabeling and Chain of Custody program is an effective deterrent for systematic and deliberate species substitution and fraud, the organization said.

In the new study, the largest and most comprehensive assessment of MSC-labeled products, MSC worked with laboratories of the TRACE Wildlife Forensics Network and SASA’s (Science and Advice for Scottish Agriculture) Wildlife DNA Forensic unit to employ DNA barcoding.

Of the 1,402 seafood products tested, 1,389 were labeled correctly and 13 (0.92 percent) were not. Mislabeled products were found in fresh and frozen pre-packed products and in restaurants, mainly in Western Europe, with one case in the U.S. All cases of mislabeling were identified in whitefish (such as cod, hake, and hoki) and flatfish products.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Seafood Fraud: Is your hake fake? Not if it’s ecolabeled!

March 19, 2019 — The following was released by the Marine Stewardship Council:

DNA barcoding of more than 1400 Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) labelled products has shown that less than 1% were mislabeled, compared with a reported average global seafood mislabeling rate of 30 percent. These results published in the journal Current Biology suggests that the MSC’s ecolabeling and Chain of Custody program is an effective deterrent for systematic and deliberate species substitution and fraud.

The MSC is a global non-profit that sets a benchmark for sustainable fishing and traceable supply chains. If fisheries and supply chain companies get certified, they can use the MSC’s blue fish label on products in stores, on fresh fish counters and on restaurant menus.

Species identification

“There is widespread concern over the vulnerability of seafood supply chains to deliberate species mislabeling and fraud. In the past, this has included some of the most loved species such as cod being substituted by farmed catfish, which can seriously undermine consumer trust and efforts to maintain sustainable fisheries,” said Jaco Barendse, Marine Stewardship Council and lead author on the paper

DNA methods have been widely used to detect species mislabelling and a recent meta-analysis of 4500 seafood product tests from 51 peer-reviewed publications found an average of 30 percent were not the species stated on the label or menu In the present study, the largest and most comprehensive assessment of MSC-labeled products, the MSC worked with laboratories of the TRACE Wildlife Forensics Network and SASA’s (Science and Advice for Scottish Agriculture) Wildlife DNA Forensic unit to employ DNA barcoding to identify the species in 1402 MSC certified fish products from 18 countries.

They found that 1389 were labeled correctly and thirteen were not. This represents a total rate of less than 1% (0.92) species mislabeling in contrast to the global average of 30%. Mislabeled products were found in fresh and frozen pre-packed products and in restaurants, mainly in western Europe, with one case in the USA. All cases of mislabeling were identified in whitefish (cods, hakes, hoki) and flatfish products.

Mislabeling or fraud?

There are many reasons that mislabeling may occur. Unintentional mislabeling can result from misidentification of species when the fish is caught, mix-ups during processing, or ambiguities in product naming, such as the use of catchall trade names such as ‘snapper’ or ‘skate’.

Fraud, on the other hand, occurs when there is intentional substitution mainly for financial gain. This is typically when a higher value species is substituted with one of lower value. Fraud may also arise when species from unsustainable or illegal fisheries gain access to the market by passing them off as legally caught fish.

While DNA testing can identify cases of species substitution, on its own it cannot confirm whether this was fraud. To do this it is necessary to trace the product’s movement back through the supply chain to identify the exact step where the issue occurred.

The MSC’s Chain of Custody certification requires that every distributor, processor, and retailer trading certified seafood has a documented traceback system that maintains separation between certified and non-certified seafood, and correctly identifies MSC products at every step.

For the thirteen mislabeled products, records were obtained from each company at each step in the supply chain. Trace-backs revealed that only two mislabeled samples could be confirmed as intentional substitutions with species of non-certified origin. MSC certified products can command higher prices and better market access than non-certified products therefore these substitutions were likely to be fraudulent. Those responsible for the substitutions had their MSC certificates suspended. There were other instances where substitutions inadvertently occurred at the point of capture or during onboard processing – likely due to misidentification between closely related, similar-looking species that co-occur in the catch. There was no discernible financial motive.

“The use of DNA tools to detect substitution in the fish supply chain is well-documented but until now has essentially revealed a depressing story. Our research flips this on its head and demonstrates how we can apply similar technology to validate the success of eco-labels in traceable, sustainable fishing,” said Rob Ogden, TRACE Wildlife Forensics Network and University of Edinburgh.

Next steps

MSC certificates apply only to fish stocks and fisheries, and not entire species. Although MSC Chain of Custody Certification requires separation of MSC and non-MSC certified products, there remains a risk for possible deliberate substitution between certified sustainable and other fish of the same species.

Francis Neat, Head of Strategic Research at the MSC said “While we can get a good indication of whether species-level substitution is taking place, using DNA barcoding and tracebacks, the future for the MSC is to invest in state-of-the-art next generation gene sequencing and isotopic and trace element profiling. This will make it possible to determine which stock a fish product came from, in addition to whether it is the species mentioned on the packaging.”

NOAA Fisheries Announces Reduction of the Northern Red Hake Commercial Possession Limit

February 27, 2019 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

This reduction is required by regulation because as of February 13, 2019, the northern red hake fishery is projected to reach or exceed 37.9 percent of the total allowable landings (TAL) on or around February 22, 2019.

For more information read the rule as filed in the Federal Register or the bulletin posted on our website

Pacific Hake Researchers Hustle to get U.S. Data into Stock Assessment After Government Shutdown

February 1, 2019 — SEAFOOD NEWS — The Pacific Hake Joint Technical Committee, comprising both U.S. and Canadian scientists, is hustling to include U.S. Pacific hake age data in the coastwide draft stock assessment, the Committee said in an email to interested parties this week.

The researchers made the update this week after the partial U.S. government shutdown ended. U.S. scientists Ian Taylor and Aaron Berger, both with the NMFS Northwest Fisheries Science Center, were furloughed during the shutdown. The JTC is responsible for producing the coastwide whiting stock assessment upon which both countries’ allocations are based.

At the time of the shutdown in December 2018, U.S. age data was not included in the modelling. Canadian researchers said then they would do their best to produce the stock assessment based on information they had at the time. The draft assessment is due for publication on Feb. 6.

In this week’s email notice, the JTC said it will “present the assessment based on the modelling done so far, without 2018 age data included for the base model and sensitivities. The Executive Summary will be based on the model which does not include 2018 age data.”

However, they are still hoping to get 2018 U.S. age data included.

“If this happens within the next few days, the model with 2018 age data included will be run as an MCMC and presented as an appendix with all projections and decision tables, the same as what appear in the Executive Summary,” the JTC said in the email. “It will be subject to review and can be chosen to be the model for providing advice by the [Scientific Review Group] should they choose to do so.”

The SRG is scheduled to meet Feb. 19-22 in Vancouver, British Columbia, to review the assessment.

This story was originally published by SeafoodNews.com, a subscription site. It is reprinted with permission.