Saving Seafood

US certifies countries and fisheries for wild shrimp imports

May 17, 2022 — The United States has certified 37 countries, 13 fisheries in seven other nations, and Hong Kong as having shrimp-harvesting practices that protect sea turtle populations, according to the U.S. State Department.

The State Department’s findings were published last week in the Federal Register and publicized in a press release issued Monday, 16 May, 2022. The determinations means wild-caught shrimp from those countries are eligible to be imported into the U.S.

Read the full story at SeafoodSource

 

Eastern Pacific is a major supply chain for illegal shark fin trade, researchers find

October 14, 2020 — New research reveals the Eastern Pacific is a particular hotspot for the shark fin trade—and a danger zone for an endangered species fighting for survival.

Florida International University (FIU) postdoctoral researcher Diego Cardeñosa and Demian Chapman, an associate professor of biological sciences and marine scientist in the Institute of Environment, collaborated with scientists in Hong Kong to track and monitor the global shark fin trade using DNA testing.

They tested fins from endangered pelagic thresher sharks (Alopias pelagicus)—a species commonly found in the fin trade. Almost 85 percent of fins sampled from retail markets in Hong Kong and China were genetically traced back to sharks caught in the Eastern Pacific. It’s not the first time the scientists have linked fins from endangered sharks to this specific area.

“The findings weren’t surprising, because earlier this year we discovered the majority of fins from endangered scalloped hammerhead sharks also originated from the Eastern Pacific,” Cardeñosa said. “This is a region with poor fisheries management and poor capacity to enforce international regulations.”

Read the full story at PHYS.org

Seafood Expo Asia moves online with Seafood Expo Asia Reconnect

September 24, 2020 — Seafood Expo Asia, an annual seafood trade show produced by Diversified Communications, has announced its 2020 event will take place online as a three-day “Seafood Exo Asia Reconnect” experience 17 to 19 November, 2020.

Seafood Expo Asia, which has taken place in the past in Hong Kong, was set to move to Singapore this year, but the coronavirus pandemic put a pause on those plans. Instead, Diversified Communications said it has created “a digital solution to connect seafood buyers throughout Asia with suppliers from around the world.”

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Shark fin smugglers using coronavirus as cover to ramp up illegal shipments into Hong Kong

June 12, 2020 — Conservationists in Hong Kong remain puzzled by the scale of record illegal shark fin shipments into the city this year, at a time when overall consumption is down.

The two consecutive shark fin shipments, totaling 26 metric tons (MT) and valued at HKD 8.6 million (USD 1.1 million, EUR 950,000), were seized by the Hong Kong Customs on 28 April and 4 May. An estimated 38,500 sharks were killed for the fins seized in Hong Kong, mostly from the thresher and silky shark, whose trade is regulated under the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) Appendix II. None of the required permits accompanied the shark fins seized in Hong Kong.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

US considering revocation of Hong Kong’s special trade status

May 29, 2020 — United States Secretary of State Michael Pompeo announced on 27 May that the State Department is recommending the revocation of Hong Kong’s special status, which would eliminate special tariff exemptions to the region.

Hong Kong’s special status was created in 1997, five years before the United Kingdom handed control of Hong Kong over to China with special conditions. The status gives Hong Kong special trade and economic status benefits, and the region currently has a zero tariff rate on U.S. imports.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Seizure of 26 tonnes shark fin shipments from Ecuador largest in Hong Kong history

May 18, 2020 — Hong Kong customs officials have seized 26 tonnes of shark fins, taken from 38,500 endangered sharks, which were uncovered in two shipping containers from Ecuador, it was revealed on May 6th, 2020.

The two consignments doubled the amount seized last year, and were worth HK$8.6 million (US$1.1 million).  The majority of the dried fins were from thresher and silky shark species, both of which are protected.

“It’s shocking to see such a big smuggling case in the city,” said Gloria Lai Pui-yin, Senior Conservation Officer, Sustainability at WWF-Hong Kong. “The two species of shark in the recent seizures – the thresher shark and silky shark – are both threatened species and listed on Appendix II of CITES, meaning that the international trade of these fins is controlled. WWF-Hong Kong has been working for over a decade to transform Hong Kong into a shark-fin free city by expanding our no carriage policy and ‘no shark fin’ corporate pledge. We need to remain vigilant and ensure there is better oversight in the city.”

Officers told the South China Morning Post (SCMP) that they were suspicious of the shipments because the containers had Spanish-language markings identifying them as dried fish.

Read the full story at Oceanographic

US Customs and Border Protection seizes 3,400 pounds of invasive mitten crabs

January 27, 2020 — U.S. Customs and Border Protection has seized 3,700 live mitten crabs – sent under false manifests – shipped from China and Hong Kong to individuals and businesses in the United States over the past four months.

The crabs were sent in 51 separate shipments through the port of Cincinnati, Ohio, U.S.A., and weighed in at around 3,400 pounds, according to a CBP press release. Mitten crab is considered to be an invasive species that can have a “disastrous impact on native habitats,” according to CBP.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Japan’s seafood sector holds breath through advances and setbacks on Fukushima radiation

March 8, 2019 — On 13 February, a robot arm successfully picked up pebble-sized pieces of radioactive fuel at Japan’s Fukushima nuclear plant. The plant operator, Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO), sent a remote-controlled probe to the bottom of the plant’s Number 2 reactor. It grasped five small pieces of debris from the fuel rods and lifted them a couple of inches.

The robot did not actually remove the fuel debris. This was just a test to see if it could be moved. The company plans to actually remove some fuel debris as a sample by March 2020. Robots have already been used to remotely observe the inside of the reactor. The purpose of the latest test was to see whether the fragile material would crumble when picked up. Actually removing the melted fuel is considered the most difficult part of the clean-up operation.

This marks a step forward in the clean-up, but setbacks continue and lingering problems remain. Just as the Japanese government was making a new push to ease import restrictions in Taiwan and Hong Kong, radioactive cesium above the legal limit was detected in a fish caught off Fukushima. And though scientists are gaining a better understanding of how radioactivity forms hotspots, a new release of stored radioactive cooling water appears unavoidable.

More than seven years after the accident, fear of radiation now poses a greater obstacle to the economic recovery of the region’s seafood industry than any actual physical damage. Several countries have put in place bans on Fukushima’s seafood as a preventative measure.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

New study sheds light on the the dark side of Hong Kong’s most lucrative seafood trade

February 6, 2018 — Hong Kong is the global hub for the more than USD $1 billion Live Reef Food Fish Trade (LRFFT), much of it unreported and unregulated with serious consequences for vulnerable species, food security and livelihoods in Southeast Asia, according to a report released on February 1.

Published jointly by the Swire Institute of Marine Sciences at the University of Hong Kong (HKU), ADM Capital Foundation and the WWF Coral Triangle Program, the report, Going, Going Gone: The Trade in Live Reef Food Fish, says popular wild-caught reef fish species could be gone from diners’ tables within our lifetime if we do not act now to stem this burgeoning and often illegal trade.

“The rate at which we are taking reef fish from our oceans, including juveniles, is simply not sustainable,” said Dr Yvonne Sadovy, a professor of biological sciences at HKU and lead author of the report. “The LRFFT is symptomatic of the pressure being put on these fish resources and the potentially devastating effects on livelihoods. As the epicentre of the LRFFT, it is critical Hong Kong takes steps to regulate before it is too late.”

Live seafood is part of the culinary tradition of southern China, with most species coming largely from the seas of Southeast Asia. Demand for these attractive and increasingly rare fish species, eaten mostly at banquets and as displays of wealth, has grown with expanding affluence in Mainland China.

Although the trade is not large by global fisheries standards, it is disproportionately valuable, estimated between 20,000 and 30,000 metric tonnes (mt) annually in the trade hub of Hong Kong, and valued in excess of USD 1 billion, according to the report. This does not count illegal trade. The trade supplies a luxury seafood market with high retail value fishes, with some species, such as Napoleon fish, fetching in excess of USD 600 per kg.

Read the full story at Phys.org

 

Air China bans shark fin cargo, reflecting dramatic shift in attitudes

January 9, 2017 — BEIJING — Air China has become the first airline in mainland China to ban shark fin cargo, marking a dramatic shift in attitudes toward trade in endangered wildlife here and throwing a lifeline to shark populations threatened with imminent extinction.

The news, released late Friday, came just a week after China announced plans to ban its domestic ivory trade, a landmark decision of vital importance in ending an epidemic of elephant poaching in Africa.

It marks the country’s gradual transformation from being the biggest source of the problem — as the largest market in illegal wildlife products — to becoming a major part of the solution.

“Scientists estimate that fins from up to 73 million sharks a year are used for shark’s fin soup, with much of the trade in shark fin destined for China,” said Alex Hofford, a wildlife activist from the conservation group WildAid in Hong Kong, which applauded Air China for taking “an ethical stance” to help protect sharks and oceans. “It’s a bold move, and this is likely to have a huge and lasting impact on shark populations and marine ecosystems worldwide.”

Hofford said the decision by China’s national flag carrier “puts FedEx to shame” — the U.S. multinational courier company has resisted repeated calls to take a similar step, despite a petition signed by 300,000 people, and an appeal from a coalition of animal welfare conservation groups who expressed concerns that its service could be used to carry fins of endangered shark species. That would be a violation of the Convention on Trade in Endangered Species (CITES).

Read the full story at the Washington Post