Saving Seafood

West Coast Whiting Stock Assessment Shows Population Highest Since 1980s

February 1, 2017 — SEAFOOD NEWS — The draft stock assessment for the Pacific whiting (hake) stock off the west coast of North America was released yesterday with higher estimates of spawning biomass than last year, which could result in an estimated median catch limit for 2017 of 969,840 tons.

In the past, Canada and the U.S. have agreed to a much lower catch limit due to the abundance of smaller fish, but this year the incidence of smaller size fish was only about 15% of the catch. However, uncertainty in abundance, recruitment, and future performance in the stock is high due in part to natural forces, so a precautionary approach is traditionally taken when setting the TAC.

Coastwide catch in 2016 was 329,427 tons, out of a TAC of 497,500 tons. The U.S. landed 70.7% of its quota; the Canadian fleets landed 53.7% of their quota. Both countries had a variety of constraints that prohibited full attainment.

The new estimate for catch is based on the whiting default harvest rule. That rule allows a level of removals that, according to the model, may result in lower spawning biomass as soon as the next two years. For that and other reasons, harvest levels have always been less. Last year’s TAC was the highest set in recent history, which shows a gradual increase since 2012. 

This year’s estimate of spawning biomass at 2.129 million tons compares to last year’s estimate of 1.993 million tons, which is slightly higher than the 1.885 million tons estimated in an earlier assessment.

“The stock is estimated to be at its highest biomass level since the 1980s as a result of es­timated large 2010 and 2014 cohorts. The 2014 cohort has not yet been observed by the survey and only twice by the commercial fishery, thus its absolute size is highly uncertain,” reads the report.

The draft was posted on the Pacific Whiting Treaty website by the Joint Technical Committee (JTC) of the Pacific Hake/Whiting Agreement Between the Governments of the United States and Canada. The Joint Management Committee (JMC) is planning a teleconference to discuss this document, during which the JTC will brief the JMC on the preliminary draft 2017 stock assessment on February 9, 2017.

The stock assessment model for 2017 is similar in structure to the 2016 model. It is fit to an acoustic survey index of abundance and annual commercial catch, as well as age compositions from the survey and commercial fisheries.

The spawning biomass in 2017 is estimated to have increased from 2016 due to the 2014 year-class likely being above average size.

This story originally appeared on Seafood News, a subscription site. It is reprinted with permission. 

JOHN SACKTON: Oceana Uses ‘Study’ on Seafood Fraud to Push for More Traceability Regulation

September 8, 2016 — SEAFOOD NEWS — Oceana has released a new ‘study’ claiming that 20% of global seafood trade is mislabeled.

The study was not a scientific sampling, but instead an analysis of Oceana’s sampling of high-risk species in various countries such as escolar, pangasius, and hake.  They also had a high proportion of snapper and grouper samples, species where literally dozens of genetically distinct species are legally sold under one name.

However, the implication to consumers is that they should suspect that their McDonald’s pollock fillet could potentially be mislabeled.  It is not.

The seafood industry and the supply chain have focused increasingly on traceability in the past few years.

NFI says “mislabeling is fraud and fraud is illegal, period. We emphasize that NFI members are required to be members of the Better Seafood Board, the only seafood industry-led economic integrity effort. And NFI Member Companies are at the forefront of eliminating fish fraud.”

NFI suggests that Oceana would be far more effective lobbying for stronger enforcement of existing laws.

The report was released prior to an upcoming Our Oceans conference in Washington, and also to pressure the  Presidential Task Force on Combating IUU Fishing and Seafood Fraud to issue stronger recommendations.

The task force has proposed to require traceability for 13 species deemed to be at risk of IUU fishing and fraudulent labeling.  However, the requirements would only be for imports, and not apply to commerce within the US.

Oceana wants species scientific name traceability to extend to all seafood, period.  They hold up the EU traceability requirements for imports as a model, and say that this has helped reduce seafood fraud in Europe.  Yet at the same time they document numerous examples of mislabeling in the UK, Italy, Belgium and Germany and other EU countries (see map).

The fact is that importers still have little control over how restaurants menu their items.  Oceana admits this in a backhand fashion, saying in the report that the fraud numbers for Massachusetts are low due to the fact that most samples were from retail, and that retail stores generally label their products correctly.

Oceana is the NGO that ‘owns’ seafood mislabeling, relying on their mislabeling reports to get media attention. Other NGO’s have other brands.  The competition among NGOs for media attention, donations,  members, and activists can warp their approach to simple problems.  So for Oceana, DNA testing and labeling is the path to improved seafood sustainability.

Oceana recognizes that stronger fishery management and enforcement globally would eliminate overfishing and IUU fishing, but can’t make that case because it is indistinguishable from what is also being recommended by the global seafood industry, governments, the FAO, and all others with a stake in long-term seafood sustainability.

This story originally appeared on Seafoodnews.com, a subscription site. It is reprinted with permission.

The boats that land the fish

May 11, 2016 — To ask the question “what boat landed this fish?” may be one of the most important environmental, social and political acts of 2016.

These are some names of Gloucester day boats, boats that make short trips to Jeffreys Ledge, Ipswich Bay and Middle Bank: the Maria GS, the Santo Pio, the Angela & Rose, the Janaya & Joseph, and Cat Eyes. And there are more. These boats land a mix of species that call the Gulf of Maine home, but they are primarily landing codfish, dab flounder, blackback flounder, yellowtail flounder, gray sole and some whiting.

These are some of the offshore Gloucester boats currently fishing the northern edge of George’s Bank: The Miss Trish, The Midnight Sun, the Teresa Marie III, the Harmony, the Teresa Marie IV and the Lady Jane. Again, there are more boats than this. Right now, they are landing haddock, redfish, pollock, codfish, dab flounder, gray sole and some hake.

In port, these boats, and others, can be seen tied up at Felicia Oil, Rose Marine, Gloucester Marine Railways and the State Fish Pier, wharfs along the Inner Harbor, many in clear sight of some Gloucester restaurants.

In an effort to celebrate and promote the quality seafood that these boats land, Gloucester Seafood Processing in Blackburn Circle stamps every issue of fish with the name of the fishing vessel that landed it. They are hoping other processors will, too. Restaurants — particularly in Gloucester — should proudly be announcing to their guests, “This pollock was landed yesterday on the Angela & Rose!” — or the Janaya & Joseph, or the Santo Pio.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times

From necessity, delicious seafood invention

April 5, 2016 — Because restaurants sell 70 percent of the seafood consumed in the United States, chefs are hugely influential in creating market trends, so Latitude 43’s chef Ryder Ritchie wants you to know there’s nothing fishy about dogfish. Or, for that matter, monkfish. Or pogies, or skate, or pollock, hake, tusk, or even, once you get the hang of them, those ubiquitous little invasive crustaceans, green crabs.

Notice, he doesn’t mention redfish, a species that — armed with their moveable feast of redfish soup — the formidable duo of Mayor Sefatia Romeo Theken and Angela DeFillipo have done a dazzling job of marketing at Boston’s Seafood Expo and beyond.

But everything else that might ever have been referred to as “trash fish?”

Look for it on chef Richie’s future forward menus at Latitude 43.

This Wednesday evening — Latitude 43’s third annual sustainable seafood benefit for Maritime Gloucester — Ritchie recommends for starters, Saffron Monkfish Stew in wild mushrooms and basil; Atlantic Razor Clams with lemongrass, house-made chilies and charred bread; followed by an entree of brown-butter-seared local flounder with capers and golden raisins, grilled asparagus, olive-oil-poached fingerling potatoes, sherry foam and pine nuts.

Flounder? Underutilized?

Yes, says Ritchie. Maybe not as underutilized as other species Gloucester natives like himself grew up hearing “bad stuff about,” but certainly never up there with, say, the now highly regulated, venerable cod.

Read the full story at The Gloucester Times

BANGOR DAILY NEWS: How a groundfish disaster today can spawn a different-looking fishery tomorrow

January 27, 2016 — The federal government declared the Northeast groundfish fishery a disaster in 2012. But disaster arguably struck the region’s groundfishing fleet, particularly in Maine, long before that.

In 1982, there were 328 vessels from Maine actively fishing for groundfish. By 2012, the number had fallen to 63 vessels participating in the first true industry that took root in colonial America — fishing for cod, haddock, flounder, pollock, hake and other ocean bottom dwellers. In 2014, 52 Maine vessels held groundfish permits.

The disaster declaration paved the way for Congress to provide disaster aid, and Congress followed suit in February 2014, granting $32.8 million to New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Maine.

But the funding the states have distributed so far has largely gone to those who have continued to land groundfish — not the dozens of vessels that have been forced out of the fishery, arguably those most affected by the fishery’s disastrous state. In Maine, 50 groundfish permit holders qualified for $32,500 each in disaster relief because they had caught at least 5,000 pounds of groundfish in at least one of the past four years.

In the coming weeks, Maine has a small opportunity to use its remaining disaster funds in a different way — to help set the groundfish fishery on a sustainable path for the future and make it a viable and affordable option for new and small players, including lobstermen looking to diversify beyond the booming crustacean.

Read the full editorial at Bangor Daily News

DR. RAY HILBORN: Plenty of Sustainable Seafood Options Available

December 28, 2015 — The rising trend of “trash fish,” or unusual and underutilized seafood species, on fine dining menus in New York City was discussed last week in The New York Times by Jeff Gordinier. The idea is to, “substitute salmon, tuna, shrimp and cod, much of it endangered and the product of dubious (if not destructive) fishing practices,” with less familiar species that are presumably more abundant, like “dogfish, tilefish, Acadian redfish, porgy, hake, cusk, striped black mullet.”

Changing diners’ perceptions isn’t always easy, especially about seafood, but there is certainly momentum building for more diverse seafood species. Seafood suppliers are reporting record sales of fish like porgy and hake. Chefs feel good about serving these new species because, “industrially harvested tuna, salmon and cod is destroying the environment.” A new organization, Dock-to-Dish, connects restaurants with fishermen that are catching underutilized species and these efforts are highlighted as a catalyst for this growing trash fish trend. From a culinary perspective, this trend allows chefs to sell the story of an unusual and sustainable species, which more compelling than more mainstream species like tuna, salmon or cod. From a sustainability perspective, Gordinier implies that serving a diversity of seafood species is more responsible than the mainstream few that are “industrially caught” and dominate the National Fisheries Institute list of most consumed species in America.

Comment by Ray Hilborn, University of Washington

While I applaud the desire to eat underutilized species, it seems as if the chefs interviewed don’t know much about sustainable seafood. Below are a few quotes from the article that give the impression that eating traditional species such as tuna, cod, salmon and shrimp is an environmental crime.

“Salmon, tuna, shrimp and cod, much of it endangered and the product of dubious (if not destructive) fishing practices”

“The chef Molly Mitchell, can’t imagine serving industrially harvested tuna or salmon or cod. “You can’t really eat that stuff anymore,” she said. “It’s destroying the environment.”

“Flying them halfway around the world may not count as an ecofriendly gesture, but these oceanic oddities are a far cry from being decimated the way cod has. “Hopefully they’ll try something new and not just those fishes that are overfarmed and overcaught,” said Jenni Hwang, director of marketing for the Chaya Restaurant Group.”

“A growing cadre of chefs, restaurateurs and fishmongers in New York and around the country is taking on the mission of selling wild and local fish whose populations are not threatened with extinction.”

Read the full commentary at CFOOD

 

Seafood Restaurants Cast a Wider Net for Sustainable Fish

December 22, 2015 — Michael Chernow doesn’t want people to step inside Seamore’s, his fish-fixated restaurant on the rim of Little Italy, worrying that they’re about to get a heap of science homework dumped onto the table.

“Our goal is not to say: ‘Welcome to Seamore’s School. We’re going to teach you all about sustainable fish,’” said Mr. Chernow, who is also one of the entrepreneurs behind the Meatball Shop chain.

But there is a blackboard. Labeled “Daily Landings,” it covers a wall of the restaurant, operating as a shortcut syllabus for anyone who wants to learn not only what fish are being cooked in the kitchen at Seamore’s, but also what species have been deliciously available for human consumption for centuries: dogfish, tilefish, Acadian redfish, porgy, hake, cusk, striped black mullet.

“Once they see the board, everybody gets pumped,” Mr. Chernow said. “‘Wow, look at all these fish, and I’ve never tasted them before.’”

Over the last decade or so, restaurant diners in this country have become more sophisticated about, and open to, ingredients that used to throw them for a loop: bone marrow, pork belly, sunchokes, orange wine, the ubiquitous kale.

Read the full story at The New York Times

When it comes to ‘trash fish,’ what’s in a name?

December 9, 2015 — “Trash Fish.” Would you eat it?

It’s a two-word buzz-inducing phrase that covers all the ocean’s under-loved varieties: the hake and redfish and dogfish of the world that are plentiful off New England’s coasts, yet so often ignored in this region.

The many Boston-area experts who spoke with Metro agree: for a sustainable fishery future, area diners need to broaden their palates and eat more than just the staples like haddock and cod. But is “trash fish” the title these oceanic underdogs need to make it to the mainstream?

“We wanted it to be provocative,” said Alisha Fowler of the Cambridge-based   Chefs Collaborative, which hosts “trash fish dinners” to promote the lesser-known breeds. “We’re not trying to say they’re like trash, or unworthy. But just the fact that they’re cast aside and treated like they’re not worthy.”

Provocative it has been. Since 2013, it’s caught the attention of the culinary community around the country. More than 50 chefs have led “trash fish dinners” of their own, she said. In April, the Collaborative plans to host a food summit in New York for an estimated 350 cooks, which she said will focus in part on the subject.

Read the full story from Metro

NEFMC proposal would limit access to hake fishery

December 8, 2015 — The New England Fishery Management Council is hosting a public meeting tonight in Gloucester as an initial step in possibly drafting an amendment that would modify the small-mesh multispecies fishery into a limited access fishery.

The meeting, to solicit public comment and gather information that ultimately would be used in the drafting of an environmental impact statement, is scheduled for 7 p.m. at the state Division of Marine Fisheries office at 30 Emerson Ave.

Currently, the small-mesh multispecies fishery, which includes whiting (silver hake), red hake and offshore hake, is an open fishery, accessible to any fisherman with the appropriate permit.

The proposal to limit access to the fishery is based in concerns “over unrestrained increases in fishing effort” in the small-mesh fishery, the council said.

“The need for the amendment is to reduce the potential for a rapid escalation of the small-mesh multispecies fishery, possibly causing overfishing and having a negative impact on red hake and whiting markets, both outcomes having negative effects on fishery participants,” council said.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times