Saving Seafood

PETTER JOHANNESSEN: The blue whiting and herring fisheries didn’t have to lose their MSC certification. Here’s what should happen next.

December 15, 2020 — The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) announced in early December that it would suspend its certification of Atlanto-Scandic herring and blue whiting fisheries as of Dec. 30, affecting eight certificates across European fisheries. This follows the suspension of the MSC certificate on mackerel fisheries in the Northeast Atlantic in 2019.

This had been expected for quite some time and the action taken by all involved stakeholders, starting with the MSC certificate holders (i.e. the fishing industry), including other industry representatives, during the last years, was sadly not enough.

What does it mean, really?

Let us be clear: the MSC suspension does not reflect an issue related to illegal, unreported or unregulated (IUU) fishing at an individual fishery level. No one has overfished their allocated quota.

Read the full opinion piece at IntraFish

Groundfish Forum forecasts only marginal lift in 2020 whitefish supply

October 17, 2019 — The supply of the big stocks of wild whitefish are set to remain stable for 2020, lifting by less than 1%, according to a forecast from the Groundfish Forum.

The forecast at the forum for the US supply of Alaska pollock for 2020 is 1.528 million metric tons, down from 1.552m in 2019. Undercurrent News previously reported the science on pollock points to possible cuts in the next couple of years.

For Russian pollock, the forum predicts a slight lift in supply for 2020, from 1.685m metric tons to 1.70m. Global pollock supply is set to be 3.44m metric tons, down marginally from 2019’s 3.45m.

For Atlantic cod, the total supply is forecast to rise very slightly, from 1.131m metric tons in 2019 to 1.132m. In June, the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) advised the cod quota in the Barents Sea for 2020 be set at a level 2% higher than its advised level for 2019 of 674,678t. At 689,672t, its 2020 advice comes in at 5% lower than the total allowable catch for 2019 set by the Norwegians and Russians, of 725,000t.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

Five Questions With: Kevin Stokesbury

March 27, 2019 — Kevin Stokesbury, professor of fisheries oceanography at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth’s School for Marine Science & Technology, was chosen for a service award from the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea last month. The council, in Denmark, recognized the Stokesbury for his work in restoring scallop stocks in the region. He served as chair of the ICES Scallop Assessment Working Group for five years.

PBN: Where are we in terms of scallop stocks in New England now as opposed to say, 10 and 20 years ago?

STOKESBURY: The scallop stocks of New England are a fisheries success story. For 2018, the stock is estimated at 482 million pounds … with a projected harvest of about 63 million pounds. For the last 10 years the average landings were 50 million pounds valued at $460 million; for the last 20 years the average landings were 46 million pounds valued at $345 million; and from 1970 to 1996 the average landings were 20 million pounds valued at $81 million, based on National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration data.

This success is the result of nature providing the right conditions for the scallops to produce large numbers of offspring; scientists and the fishing industry working together to develop new ways to document the number of scallops – their distribution, size and biomass – and agencies being open to new ideas on rotational management and flexible enough to act on the new scientific data.

The results have been a sustainable fishery with reduced environmental impact and economic prosperity.

PBN: One of the things you have been credited with is partnering with fishermen, getting their buy-in to gather information to manage scallop stocks. How would you describe that process?

STOKESBURY: The fishing industry originally approached [UMass Dartmouth professor Brian] Rothschild for help determining the abundance of scallops within the closed areas of Georges Bank. Rothschild had the ability to bring all the different agencies, academics and fishing groups together. The first cooperative dredge survey had already been completed when I came onboard in 1998.

Read the full story at Providence Business News

Report: UK, Denmark, Ireland quotas well in excess of scientific advice

February 11, 2019 — European Union member states are predicted to fish Northeast Atlantic stocks as much as 312,000 metric tons (MT) above the scientific advice in 2019, according to a new report published by charitable think-tank New Economics Foundation (NEF).

The latest edition of NEF’s annual “Landing the Blame” report states of the 120 total allowable catch (TAC) decisions made at the December 2018 AGRIFISH Council negotiations, 55 TACs or 46 percent were set above the advice of scientific bodies, predominantly the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES).

“This is continuing the trend of permitting overfishing in E.U. waters with Northeast Atlantic TACs set 16 percent above scientific advice on average – a big increase from the 2018 TACs (9 percent),” the report said. “The earlier negotiations for the 2019 Baltic and deep sea TACs were also set above scientific advice, with five out of 10 and eight out of 12 TACs exceeding advice, respectively.”

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Scientists say more cod might survive fishing than thought

April 22, 2016 — BIDDEFORD, Maine — A group of scientists say more Atlantic cod might survive being thrown back in the water by fishermen than previously thought.

Scientists from several organizations, including the New England Aquarium in Boston and University of New England in Biddeford, conducted a study. It’s published in the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea’s Journal of Marine Science.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the Washington Times

Europêche hits back at Pew response

November 23, 2015 — In a further letter to Pew, Javier Garat, President of Europêche and Pim Vasser, President of EAPO, said: “It is disappointing that your response fails to address the issues that we have raised. We drew attention to the startling divergence between the International Council for the Exploration of the Seas (ICES) view and Pew’s claims about fishing pressure and the state of the stocks off North Western Europe.”

Just last week an initial open letter to Pew, Europêche accused the report of making the assertion that fishing in pursuit of food and profit off North West Europe in recent decades has dramatically expanded.

Read the full story at World Fishing & Aquaculture

Harmful algal blooms and climate change: Preparing to forecast the future

October 26, 2015 — Marine scientists attending an international workshop warned that the future may bring more harmful algal blooms (HABs) that threaten wildlife and the economy, and called for changes in research priorities to better forecast these long-term trends.

The findings of the international workshop on HABs and climate Change were published Friday in the journal Harmful Algae. The workshop was organized under the auspices of the North Pacific Marine Science Organization (PICES) and the Global Ecology and Oceanography of Harmful Algal Blooms (GEOHAB) and endorsed by the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES). The central findings were that while there are reasons to expect HABs to increase with climate change, poor scientific understanding seriously limits forecasts, and current research strategies will not likely improve this capacity.

Empirical observations suggest cause for grave concern. Northward expansion of phytoplankton species, wider seasonal windows for HAB development, and an increasing prevalence of HABs worldwide all indicate a future with greater problems.

The impacts of algal blooms are extensive. Although phytoplankton blooms normally fuel productive ecosystems, some blooms create very low oxygen concentrations in bottom waters, killing or driving out marine fish or benthic organisms. Others produce potent neurotoxins that threaten ecosystems and human health.

Read the full story at EurekAlert