Saving Seafood

U.S. Interagency Working Group Marks International Day for the Fight against Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated Fishing

June 7, 2021 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

Every day, the United States works with our partners across the world to confront illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing. IUU fishing activities hurt law-abiding U.S. fishermen and their consumers, damage economies of developing coastal nations, and threaten marine resources. The global economic impact resulting from these activities is in the billions, or even tens of billions, of dollars each year. Furthermore, IUU fishing is sometimes linked to criminal activity, such as human trafficking, including forced labor, drug trafficking, smuggling, and other forms of transnational crime. Wherever it occurs, IUU fishing undermines global maritime rules-based order, which has been essential to global prosperity and development for the last 70 years.

June 5 marks the annual United Nations International Day for the Fight Against IUU Fishing. This day raises awareness of the impact of IUU fishing as one of the greatest threats to the sustainability of the world’s ocean resources. IUU fishing refers not only to illegal fishing activities, but also the often overlooked, but equally important U’s in IUU fishing activities. Unreported and unregulated fishing refers to fishing activities that are not reported, insufficiently regulated, or are misreported to relevant authorities. This hinders the ability for scientists to fully assess the health of fish stocks and endangers our food security.

Tackling all these issues requires particular, concerted action by different agencies and different operational and legal frameworks. It also includes a large net of coordination among regional fisheries management organizations, foreign governments, international organizations, nongovernmental organizations, and the private sector. NOAA, the U.S. Coast Guard, and the U.S. Department of State recently began implementing a law which advances a “whole-of-government” strategy to fight IUU fishing.

The Maritime Security and Fisheries Enforcement Act (SAFE) Act was passed in December 2019. It directed twenty-one federal agencies to establish a central forum to coordinate and strengthen their efforts—the U.S. Interagency Working Group on IUU Fishing. This Working Group set up mechanisms for agencies to:

  • Regularly share information and coordinate efforts
  • Strengthen maritime enforcement
  • Advance public-private partnerships
  • Provide technical assistance on IUU fishing

During its first year, member agencies developed an initial set of priorities and activities that included creating specific sub-working groups to collaborate on issues such as maritime intelligence, public-private partnerships, and human trafficking. The Working Group continues to conduct a series of outreach engagements with industry and the private sector. Moving forward, the Working Group will engage with various public and private stakeholders on building coordinated approaches in the priority regions where the Working Group has determined that IUU fishing issues are prevalent.

Combating IUU fishing is a top priority for the United States, and communication, collaboration and strategic coordination will be key in bringing about tangible results. The efforts of the Interagency Working Group now sit at the heart of our government’s coordination on tackling IUU fishing practices and setting the conditions where IUU fishing is neither accepted nor commonplace in the future. We are committed to continue working together on best practices and sharing results across agencies and partnerships to encourage their further adaptation and replication.

Read the full release here

Oceana reports Chinese, Spanish squid vessels ‘going dark’ off Argentina

June 4, 2021 — A South Atlantic shortfin squid fishery is dominated by distant-water fleets off Argentina, primarily Chinese vessels that account for an estimated 69 percent of fishing activity, according to a new report by the environmental group Oceana.

From Jan. 1, 2018 to April 25, 2021, the group documented more than 800 foreign-flag vessels logging more than 900,000 hours of apparent fishing activity, based on analysis of Automatic Identification System (AIS) data.

That analysis also showed vessels regularly “went dark” – apparently turning off their AIS transponders – effectively dropping out of sight for 600,000 hours in all. Some 66 percent of those outages involved Chinese vessels, raising the possibility of masked illegal fishing, such as intruding into Argentina’s exclusive economic zone, according to Oceana researchers.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

Illegal Fishing and Forced Labor Prevention Act unveiled by Graves

June 4, 2021 — U.S. Rep. Garret Graves (R-LA) on May 11 introduced a bipartisan bill to end foreign Illegal, Unregulated and Unreported (IUU) fishing, which he says is negatively impacting America’s fisheries, particularly in his home state of Louisiana. 

“Generations of Louisiana’s fishing families have made our state one of the top seafood producers in the country. The combination of great chefs and our seafood has resulted in Louisiana being a foodie destination,” Rep. Graves said. “However, hurricanes, government regulations, the pandemic and unfair competition from foreign fishing fleets are threatening the future of these hard-working men and women and threatening the sustainability of fisheries around the globe. 

“It has evolved from an environmental issue to an economic issue to a national security issue,” he said. 

The Illegal Fishing and Forced Labor Prevention Act, H.R. 3075, which Rep. Graves introduced with bill sponsor U.S. Rep. Jared Huffman (D-CA), would establish monitoring and detection programs to identify and prevent IUU fisheries from unfair competition with United States domestic fishing boats, according to a bill summary provided by Rep. Graves’ office.

Read the full story at The Ripon Advance

China brushes off US sanctions against Dalian Ocean Fishing

June 4, 2021 — U.S. sanctions filed last week against a Chinese distant-water fishing firm for alleged forced labor abuses amount to “American slander,” according to a Chinese state media outlet.

The China Youth Daily, the official newspaper of the Communist Party Youth League, has sought to link the  U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s sanctioning of the Dalian Ocean Fishing Co. to other Western claims of human rights abuses as part of a coordinated effort to “tarnish” China.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Greenpeace report finds forced labor among Indonesian migrant fishermen

June 3, 2021 — Greenpeace Southeast Asia is claiming that 20 Indonesian manning agencies and 26 fishing firms from China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Cote d’Ivoire, and Nauru are allegedly involved in forced labor practices against Indonesian migrant fishers.

The allegations were presented by the organization in a report released 31 May, “Forced Labour at Sea: The Case of Indonesian Migrant Fishers,” released in partnership with Indonesian migrant workers union Serikat Buruh Migran Indonesia (SBMI).

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Hundreds of fishing fleets that go ‘dark’ suspected of illegal hunting, study finds

June 2, 2021 — Giant distant-water fishing fleets, primarily from China, are switching off their tracking beacons to evade detection while they engage in a possibly illegal hunt for squid and other lucrative species on the very edge of Argentina’s extensive fishing grounds, according to a new study by Oceana, an international NGO dedicated to ocean conservation.

Every year, vessels crowd together along the limits of Argentina’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) to take advantage of the lucrative fishing grounds.

By monitoring the ships’ tracking beacons between January 2018 and April 2021, Oceana found that more than 800 vessels apparently conducted nearly 900,000 hours of fishing within 20 nautical miles of the invisible border between Argentina’s national waters and the high seas.

“During this three-and-a-half-year period, there were over 6,000 instances in which these fishing vessels appeared to go ‘dark’ by potentially disabling their electronic tracking devices, known as Automatic Identification Systems (AIS),” says the report, published on Wednesday, titled, Now You See Me, Now You Don’t: Vanishing Vessels Along Argentina’s Waters.

In all, these vessels were “hidden” for over 600,000 hours during which Oceana suspects they crossed over into Argentina’s territorial waters for illegal fishing.

“It’s very suspicious that they have their AIS turned off for such a large proportion of the time they are out fishing,” said Marla Valentine, an ecologist at Oceana, an international NGO dedicated to ocean conservation.

Read the full story at The Guardian

US issues order against Chinese fishing company accused of forced labor

June 1, 2021 — A Chinese spokesperson on Monday, 31 May, rejected American claims that a Chinese fishing company has committed forced labor violations, calling the claims “totally unfounded.”

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security announced on Friday, 28 May, that Customs and Border Protection officials had issued an order against the Dalian Ocean Fishing Company, Ltd. That order came after agency officials said they identified all 11 signs of forced labor during an investigation. Those signs included isolating workers, withholding wages, using intimidation, and retaining workers’ identification documents.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Global Fishing Watch opens doors on new MPA management portal, transshipment data

May 27, 2021 — Global Fishing Watch, an international nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing the sustainability of our ocean through increased transparency of human activity at sea, is seeking to improve science-based management of marine protected areas with a new digital tool aiming to “revolutionize [the] ability to dynamically monitor and conserve marine ecosystems.”

On 27 May, it formally launched its Global Fishing Watch Marine Manager, a technology portal that will allow regulatory authorities and researchers to monitor vessels involved in commercial fishing and other activities, such as vessels involved in tourism, oil drilling, and shipping. Vessel information can be overlaid with other datasets in the portal, including environmental such as salinity and sea surface temperatures, according to Global Fishing Watch CEO Tony Long.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

U.S. Asks WTO to Address Forced Labor on Fishing Vessels

May 27, 2021 — The U.S. asked the World Trade Organization’s members to address the problem of forced labor on fishing vessels, seeking the issue to form part of ongoing talks to curb subsidies in the industry.

The U.S. proposal also calls for WTO members’ explicit recognition of the forced-labor problem and proposes additional transparency with respect to those vessels or operators that use forced labor, the U.S. Trade Representative said in a statement Wednesday.

“Forced labor harms the lives and well-being of fishers and workers around the world and it must be eliminated,” U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai said in the statement.

Global leaders in 2015 tasked the WTO with ending excessive and illegal fishing through eliminating government subsidies that spur companies to deplete the world’s fish stocks and threaten coastal economies. Negotiators have failed to reach an agreement.

WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has made the issue her top priority, and plans a July conference that could help seal an international accord.

Read the full story at Bloomberg

NORTH CAROLINA: ‘It’s fraud’: DNA tests reveal seafood mislabeled in Triangle markets

May 27, 2021 — Fresh and local are huge selling points for seafood, but when you buy fish or shellfish from local grocery stores and markets, are you getting what you’re paying for?

“People want Carolina shrimp. It’s that simple,” said Doug Cross, co-owner of Pamlico Packing, which gets locally caught seafood to North Carolina plates.

“Our shrimp, most of them, are caught in a more brackish environment in the Pamlico Sound, which is one of the best places in the world to grow a shrimp,” Cross said.

But Cross’ competition is not just coming from other coastal fishermen. With demand for fresh and local, many sellers are cutting corners by getting their seafood from other countries. And in some cases, high-demand fish is being mislabeled.

In the past two years, two North Carolina-based crab meat companies admitted in federal court they were labeling crab as a U.S. product when a lot of the meat was foreign.

Read the full story at WRAL