Saving Seafood

Seafood Industry Fights Back Against Obama’s Fish Fraud Laws

January 13, 2017 — Even your humble local sushi joint will (hopefully) offer a dizzying array of seafood, from fluke to lobster to sea urchin. But chances are high that your sashimi isn’t what it seems: According to one report a couple years back from the ocean advocacy group Oceana, as much as 74 percent of fish sold at sushi spots in the US is fraudulent. Per that report, 92 percent of what’s sold as “red snapper” and 71 percent of what’s sold as “tuna” are actually imposter species of fish.

Seafood fraud is nothing new, and another Oceana report found that overall, 20 percent of all types of seafood sold nationally was mislabeled. Often, endangered fish of dubious origin can be passed off as more sustainable types of fish.

Last month, in an effort to enhance transparency for consumers and allow traceability of fish coming to US shores from foreign waters—where shady international fishing operators often use illegal methods to haul in catch en masse—the Obama administration announced rules that would require seafood importers to be able to trace the origin of each and every fish sold in the US back to an individual boat or fish farm.

Now, however, fishing industry players are fighting back, and have sued the government for placing what they say is an onerous and expensive burden on importers who already follow the rules.

The rule, which would go into effect on January 1 of 2018, requires importers to keep track of sourcing information for 13 priority species including tuna, swordfish, cod, and other species that are often mislabeled and overharvested. Importers would need to specify when and where a fish was caught, and would have to hold onto the data for two years. A new Seafood Import Monitoring Program within the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration would oversee the program.

When the program was announced, Kathryn Sullivan, a NOAA Administrator said, “As a global leader in sustainable fisheries management and seafood consumption, the US has a responsibility to combat illegal practices that undermine the sustainability of our shared ocean resources. We designed this program to further ensure that imported seafood is legally harvested and truthfully represented, with minimal burden to our partners.”

Read the full story at VICE

Sea turtles, shrimp fishermen tangled in government’s net proposal

December 29, 2016 — It’s hard to think of two species more beloved on the North Carolina coast than shrimp and sea turtles.

A generations-old low country diet had turned shrimp into a multi-million dollar industry for North Carolina fishermen. Sea turtles, on the other hand, have become the symbol of coastal conservation and a tourist draw at nest-hatchings and aquariums.But to a fishing net, all animals are the same. To protect endangered sea turtles, many shrimp boats in the Southeast are equipped with “turtle excluder devices” (TEDs), barred openings that let captured turtles shimmy out of nets.

TEDs are not required on some shrimp boats, but a rule proposed this month by the National Marine Fisheries Service would put them on more shrimp trawlers from North Carolina to Texas.

The proposal comes after a 2015 lawsuit from environmental group Oceana, which accused the federal government of violating the Endangered Species Act by not regulating shrimp fishing more stringently. Fishermen, for their part, say they are regulated enough and have gone out of their way to help turtle populations recover up and down the coast.

“North Carolina shrimp is our biggest-selling item in all markets, our most important product,” said Joe Romano, a commercial fisherman and co-owner of Wilmington-based Seaview Crab Company. “We have a system to do this and it’s already working.”

Read the full story at the Star News Online

Shrimp fishermen take issue with proposed TED rule

December 22, 2016 — New federal rules designed to protect sea turtles could soon impact the shrimp industry in Mississippi.

The proposed regulation calls for expanding the use of turtle excluder devices known as TEDs.

Shrimp boats that fish offshore already use TEDs. Turtle excluder devices use metal grates that prevent turtles from getting caught in the nets.

The new rule would apply to skimmer nets, which generally shrimp in shallower waters.

“It would affect about half of our fleet, which currently uses skimmer nets. They’ve been having to adhere to tow time restrictions. Now, they’ll have to use TEDs instead,” said Rick Burris, who directs the DMR Shrimp and Crab Bureau.

The proposed regulation to expand the use of TEDs is the result of a federal lawsuit filed by a nonprofit conservation group called Oceana, which blames commercial fishermen for killing hundreds of sea turtles each year.

“Certainly they’re being singled out. Oceana has had the shrimp industry as a target for a long time. Particularly as it relates to turtles,” said David Veal, executive director of the American Shrimp Processors Association.

Veal says the statistics cited by the conservation group are suspect.

“The numbers that Oceana uses and quotes in its press releases far exceed the documented cases of interaction between the shrimp industry and turtles,” said Veal.

Fishermen are concerned, because TEDs would be an added expense. It’s one, they say, would also hinder their catch.

Read the full story at WLOX

The Feds Are Finally Doing Something About America’s Serious Seafood Fraud Problem

December 19, 2016 — Chances are you’ve rarely stopped to think about the origin and authenticity of the tuna, salmon, or unagi lining your sushi roll before breaking out the chopsticks. But for those occupying the surprisingly shady world of international seafood trade, this information is essential in determining the value, quality, and legality of the protein piled in your poke bowl.

For years, lax laws on fish imports have allowed many illegally fished and fraudulently labeled species to slip through the cracks and make their way into consumers’ California rolls. However, this week, the Obama administration announced new regulations in an effort to crack down on fishy industry behavior—pun intended.

In recent months, the administration faced added pressure to fortify seafood regulations by the nonprofit ocean advocates Oceana, after the organization issued a report revealing that one in five seafood samples in the world are fraudulent or mislabeled on some or all levels of the supply chain, from import to packaging to retail.

The new rules, which will go into effect on January 1, 2018, will require detailed tracking information to be kept on a number of priority species, from initial harvest to entry into US commerce, in hopes of maintaining a clear log of the source and history of any given fish. These species, which have been identified as the most likely to be passed off fraudulently, include a variety of tunas, sharks, Atlantic cod, and swordfish.

To implement these additional oversights, the Department of Commerce will create the Seafood Import Monitoring Program, a governmental body tasked with keeping a keen eye out for any illegally obtained or mislabeled products. While the economic implications of stricter regulations are still unclear, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration estimates that the current global economic impact of illegal and fraudulent fishing every year is easily in the billions.

In a statement from senior campaign director Beth Lowell, Oceana lauds the new regulations, calling the announcement “a groundbreaking step towards more transparency and traceability in the seafood supply chain.” Lowell notes that “For the first time ever, some imported seafood will now be held to the same standards as domestically caught fish, helping to level the playing field for American fishermen and reducing the risk facing US consumers.”

Read the full story at VICE

Plan for imperiled shark doesn’t please all conservationists

December 19, 2016 — PORTLAND, Maine — The federal government isn’t going far enough with a plan to protect a threatened shark that lives off the East Coast and has been decimated by the fin trade, some conservationists argue.

The National Marine Fisheries Service is proposing changes to federal fishing rules with the goal of protecting dusky sharks, a large species that is down to about 20 percent of its 1970s population off the East Coast and in the Gulf of Mexico because of commercial fishing for the species that’s now illegal off the U.S.

Dusky sharks were long hunted for their meat and oil, as well as their fins, which are used to make soup in traditional Chinese cooking.

The fisheries service is proposing a suite of new rules for recreational and commercial fishermen designed to protect the shark, which is sometimes still killed via accidental bycatch by fishermen seeking other species. But conservation group Oceana said the rules aren’t strict enough and leave the sharks vulnerable.

Part of the problem is that the plan focuses on accidental catch of the sharks by swordfish and tuna fishermen, and they are often caught by fishermen seeking other species than those, said Lora Snyder, the Oceana campaign director.

“We see this as more of the same,” she said. “They are ignoring fisheries where dusky shark bycatch is happening.”

The government’s proposal is subject to public comment until Thursday. The proposal comes as a result of a legal settlement between the fisheries service in Oceana after the conservation group charged in federal court that the government was taking too long to protect dusky sharks.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at CNBC

Proposed rule: Shrimpers should use safety devices to protect endangered sea turtles

December 16th, 2016 — In an effort to save thousands of endangered sea turtles, the Obama administration on Thursday issued proposed rules that would require U.S. shrimping boats to insert metal grates into their nets to allow the gentle creatures to escape.

By requiring “Turtle Excluder Devices” in the nets of U.S. shrimpers, some 800 to 2,500 sea turtles in the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic Ocean could be saved each year, according to the proposal, which will be published Friday in the Federal Register by the Department of Commerce.

If adopted and enforced, the rule would cut the prevalence of what’s known as “bycatch,” the unintended capture of marine creatures by commercial fishing vessels that are looking for different species.

Currently, less than half of U.S. shrimp boats are required to use the Excluder devices, according to Oceana, an international marine conservation and advocacy group. The new rule would require roughly 5,800 additional boats to do so.

David Veal, executive director of the American Shrimp Processors Association in Biloxi, Mississippi, said his organization shares the public’s concern for sea turtles, but he questions Oceana’s claim that shrimpers kill tens of thousands of turtles each year.

He said contact with recreational fisheries, damage from vessels and environmental problems all cause turtle deaths.

“While we’re sensitive to the sea turtles’ (plight) and we’ll do what we have to do to minimize the impact on the turtle population, we continue to believe that it’s unfair to target us as the sole source of these problems,” Veal said.

Read the full story at The Miami Herald 

To protect coral, bottom fishing gear banned near Delaware’s coast

December 16th, 2016 — The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency is banning commercial fishing gear that could drag along the seafloor in part of the Atlantic Ocean – including a portion 66 miles off the Delaware coast.

Deep-sea coral can live for hundreds to thousands of years, but once they are damaged, they can take decades or even centuries to re-grow.

To ensure these corals can live undisturbed, a section of the Atlantic Ocean from New York to Virginia – about the size of Virginia – has been designated as “protected”. The protected area is about 66 miles from Delaware’s shore and covers a portion of the Baltimore Canyon. Joseph Gordon, Pew Charitable Trust’s manager of U.S. northeast oceans, said that means fishing gear that reaches down to the depths that deep-sea coral inhabit would not be allowed to operate there.

“They’ve lived a long time but they live in an environment that is cold, with huge pressure, without light,” Gordon said, about the coral. “And so fishing technology could damage them in a way that could take centuries to recover from.”

Some bottom-fishing technologies include rockhoppers and canyon-busters. They are designed to roll over boulders and canyons, and according to Oceana, they can weigh at least several hundred pounds. NOAA authorizes the gear that fishermen can use for commercial fishing, and documented almost 1,000 bottom-fishing technologies in use in the Mid-Atlantic region in 2016. That is up from 630 documented in 2013.

Read the full story at Delaware Public Media 

The White House Just Made It Easier To Know The Fish You’re Eating Is Actually Fish

December 9, 2016 — The Obama administration took a massive step in the fight against seafood fraud and illegal fishing on Thursday, introducing a rule that will help Americans know the fish they’re eating is truly what they paid for.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration will oversee the Seafood Import Monitoring Program, which will require about 25 percent of imported seafood to be traced from the boat or farm it comes from to the U.S. border. The rule is meant to curb the mislabeling of fish before it enters the U.S. (about 90 percent of fish we consume is imported) and cut down on overfishing. Businesses will have until the beginning of 2018 to comply.

“Today’s announcement is a groundbreaking step towards more transparency and traceability in the seafood supply chain,”said Beth Lowell, a senior campaign director for the environmental group Oceana, in a statement. “For the first time ever, some imported seafood will now be held to the same standards as domestically caught fish, helping to level the playing field for American fishermen and reducing the risk facing U.S. consumers.”

Read the full story at the Huffington Post

Obama finalizes stricter monitoring of seafood imports

December 9th, 2016 — The administration U.S. President Barack Obama has announced the implementation of the Seafood Import Monitoring Program to qualified enthusiasm from environmental groups.

The fruits of the Presidential Task Force on Combating Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) Fishing and Seafood Fraud, authorized by Obama in June 2014, the program will require “at-risk” seafood that is imported into the United States to be tracked to its source and properly labeled.

Studies by ocean conservation watchdog Oceana found that around one-third of market and restaurant seafood products were mislabeled, while the organization estimates that up to one-third of the wild-caught seafood being imported into the United States is the result of IUU fishing.

Oceana’s senior campaign director Beth Lowell released a statement today saying the program should help protect U.S. fisherman from being undermined by illegally caught imports.

“For the first time ever, some imported seafood will now be held to the same standards as domestically caught fish, helping to level the playing field for American fishermen and reducing the risk facing U.S. consumers,” Lowell’s statement said.

Read the full story at Seafood Source 

MEPs support further control of fleet operating outside the EU

December 7th, 2016 — The European Parliament’s Fisheries Committee on Monday approved the European Commission’s proposal to regulate the activities of the EU fleet operating outside European Union waters.

MEPs have recognized the need to take steps towards greater transparency and sustainability of fisheries. One of the measures proposed is the creation of the first public register on fleet activities in third countries, international waters and Regional Fisheries Organizations (RFOs).

Several environmental organizations welcomed the decision taken by the Committee on Fisheries of the European Parliament.

Oceana, in particular, congratulates MEPs on their support for the creation of the first public database of fishing authorizations (including IMO numbers, owners and potential catches).

“The European Parliament has today taken a significant step towards raising standards and providing pioneering rules for fishing activities outside EU waters, which accounts for 28 per cent of total EU catches. The vote of the Committee on Fisheries is a great step forward in making the European fleet to consolidate as an international model of transparency, accountability and sustainability,” explains Maria Jose Cornax, Campaign Director for Oceana in Europe.

Read the full story at FIS