Saving Seafood

Hawaii: More Tuna For Hawaii Fishing Boats In 2018

December 27, 2017 — Hawaii’s longline fishermen didn’t get everything they were hoping for at the most recent annual meeting of the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission, an international body that sets tuna catch limits for the U.S., several Asian countries and small island developing states.

But they did come out of the weeklong meeting in the Philippines with an agreement that will let the Honolulu-based fleet fish for an additional 400 tons of bigeye in 2018. Their quota next year will be about 3,500 tons, the same level as 2016.

Eric Kingma of the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council, a quasi-governmental body that manages 1.5 million square miles of U.S. waters, described the new catch limit as “suboptimal” for the roughly 140 longline vessels in Hawaii that target bigeye tuna for fresh sashimi markets and restaurants.

He said the measure does recognize the financial arrangements that Hawaii’s longliners have had the past few years with three U.S. Pacific island territories to extend their catch by up to 3,000 tons. The deals involve paying $250,000 into a fisheries development fund managed by Wespac in exchange for the ability to fish for an additional 1,000 tons and attribute it to that territory.

In 2017, the U.S. longline fleet hit its annual limit of 3,138 tons within the first eight months of the season, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Fisheries Service. The fishermen then caught an additional 1,000 tons by the first week of December that they attributed to the Northern Marianas and have continued fishing for another 1,000 tons under their agreement with American Samoa. There is a similar arrangement with Guam should they need it, but that doesn’t seem necessary this year.

Read the full story at the Honolulu Civil Beat

 

$4.6 million grant will allow genetic time travel for Old Dominion professor

September 27, 2017 — Kent Carpenter developed an interest in fish early in life.

“It started when I watched Jacques Cousteau at 13 years old,” said Carpenter who earned an undergraduate degree in marine biology at Florida Institute for Technology in 1975 and later went on to earn his doctorate at the University of Hawaii.

From 1975 to 1978, he was in the Peace Corps based in the Philippines.

That is when – and where – Carpenter said his interest in ichthyology, or the study of fish, flourished.

“I was in charge of coral reef research for the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources” (in the Philippines), he said.

Now a professor in the department of biological sciences at Old Dominion University, Carpenter has been awarded a $4.6 million grant from the National Science Foundation.

Read the full story at Inside Business

Seven Species of Giant Clam on Deck for Federal Protection

June 28, 2017 — The National Marine Fisheries Service announced that seven of ten giant clam species petitioned for listing under the Endangered Species Act need further study. The 90-day review process found that the petition provided enough scientific evidence to move seven of the species to the second stage of the ESA listing process, known as the 12-month status review.

The petition was filed by “private citizen” Dwayne W. Meadows Ph.D., formerly the Coordinator for the NMFS’ Species of Concern Program, who is a conservation biologist and educator, with additional background in SCUBA diving and underwater photography.

Giant clams live along shallow shorelines and reefs in the tropical Indo-West Pacific region. The largest of the giant clam species, Tridacna gigas, grows up to 4.5 feet wide and can weigh up to 440 pounds. “The petition points out that the giant clam (T. gigas) is preferentially targeted for international trade due to its large size and because it is considered a desirable  luxury item in China thought to confer supernatural powers and improve health,” the action notes. “A pair of high quality shells (from one individual) can fetch up to US $150,000.”

A United Nations tribunal arbitrated a dispute between the Philippines and the People’s Republic of China last year regarding maritime rights in the South China Sea, including the matter of China’s poaching of giant clams.

“The Tribunal is particularly troubled by the evidence with respect to giant clams, tons of which were  harvested by Chinese  fishing vessels from Scarborough  Shoal,  and  in  recent  years, elsewhere in the Spratly Islands. Giant clams (Tridacnidae)… play a significant role in the overall growth and maintenance of the reef structure…Excavation is highly destructive, with early reports showing a drop in coral cover by 95 percent from its original value. More recently, fishermen  in  the  South  China  Sea  are  reported  to  utilize  the  propellers  of  their  boats  to excavate shells from reef flats in the Spratly Islands on an industrial scale, leading to near-complete destruction of the affected reef areas,” the report stated.

Read the full story at Courthouse News Service

Philippines Government eyes ‘shame campaign’ to stop illegal fishing

January 18, 2017 — The Department of Agriculture shall file administrative charges against local officials who do not stop illegal fishing in their area, the secretary said Wednesday.

In a press briefing at Malacanang, Secretary Emmanuel Piñol said the Duterte administration shall launch a campaign against illegal fishing that is as strict as its war against drugs and criminality

He revealed President Rodrigo Duterte in their last Cabinet meeting announced that mayors and barangay chairmen of towns and villages where illegal fishing is prevalent will be identified.

“We’re giving them six months, until June. After that, the Department of Agriculture will file administrative charges against all mayors and barangay chairmen who could not stop illegal fishing in their communities,” he said.

Citing data from Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), non-government organization Oceana said more than 50 million Filipinos are dependent on fish for food, and fisheries sector employs almost three million fishers, 70 percent of which are municipal fisherfolks.

It is alarming, they said, that per report by the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources, 10 out of 13 major fishing grounds surveyed in the Philippines are already overfished.

Oceana lauded the government’s initiative to suspend the underperforming local executives, underscoring that “irresponsible fishing has reduced many wild fish populations to historically low levels right at the moment when the world needs its oceans more than ever.”

Read the full story at ABS CBN

8 Fishermen Killed in Suspected Pirate Attack in Philippines

January 11, 2017 — MANILA, Philippines — Eight Filipino fishermen were fatally shot by at least five suspected pirates who boarded their boat in the southern Philippines, officials said Tuesday.

Seven other crewmembers survived the attack Monday night in waters near Zamboanga City by jumping off the boat and swimming away when the attackers began tying up their colleagues, said Commodore Joel Garcia, head of the Philippine Coast Guard.

“According to the initial investigation, (the attackers) were on board a boat and they were all armed,” he said. “They immediately tied up eight of the crewmen, and the seven others were able to jump out and survive.”

Two of the survivors reached land and reported the massacre to a village leader, who alerted the coast guard. Two vessels were sent to the area, and coast guard personnel found the fishing boat floating with eight bodies on board.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the New York Times

Why the death of coral reefs could be devastating for millions of humans

November 10th, 2016 — Coral reefs around the globe already are facing unprecedented damage because of warmer and more acidic oceans. It’s hardly a problem affecting just the marine life that depends on them or deep-sea divers who visit them.

If carbon dioxide emissions continue to fuel the planet’s rising temperature, the widespread loss of coral reefs by 2050 could have devastating consequences for tens of millions of people, according to new research published Wednesday in the scientific journal PLOS.

 To better understand where those losses would hit hardest, an international group of researchers mapped places where people most need reefs for their livelihoods, particularly for fishing and tourism, as well as for shoreline protection. The researchers combined those maps with others showing where coral reefs are most under stress from warming seas and ocean acidification.

Countries in Southeast Asia such as Indonesia, Thailand and Philippines would bear the brunt of the damage, the scientists found. So would coastal communities in western Mexico and parts of Australia, Japan and Saudi Arabia. The problem would affect countries as massive as China and as small as the tiny island nation of Nauru in the South Pacific.

Read the full story at The Washington Post

Indonesia’s Solution to Illegal Fishing Boats Is Just to Blow Them Up

September 21, 2016 — The South China Sea and its surrounding waters are the most hotly contested fishing grounds in the world, with China, the Philippines, Vietnam, Taiwan, Malaysia, and Brunei all laying claim to parts of the region and the delicious seafood within. But while the competing nations are engaging in dangerous standoffs and fishing the Sea to collapse, nearby, around the Natuna Islands, Indonesia has developed a policy of dealing with illegal fishing that’s having some unexpected benefits: by blowing up poachers’ boats.

And it’s working! They’ve put a dent in overfishing and rejuvenated their fisheries. Bloomberg reports that Indonesia’s policy of destroying illegal fishing vessels is giving the fishing stocks within Indonesia’s economic exclusivity zone (EEZ) the chance to rebound, according to Indonesia’s Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Minister Susi Pudjiastuti. In recent years, Indonesia’s fishing haul has risen from 2.5 million tons to 6.6 million tons this year. Next year, the stock might even be sustainable, with Indonesian fishermen bringing in nearly 10 million tons of seafood.

Since the end of 2014, Indonesia has blasted 220 boats to the briny depths, making something of a show of the whole thing by dramatically blowing up the boats in public in various locations around the country.

Read the full story at VICE

US seafood distributor off the hook for hepatitis outbreak caused by contaminated scallops

August 30, 2016 — New Jersey-based seafood distributor True World Foods has been cleared of blame in reference to a hepatitis A outbreak that has afflicted more than 200 Hawaiians thus far this summer.

The Hawaii Department of Health withdrew initial reports implicating True World Foods when it discovered that the raw Sea Port Bay Scallops responsible for the outbreak – which were provided to Genki Sushi restaurants on Oahu and Kauai – were supplied by a different distributor. While True World Foods does indeed purchase Sea Port Bay Scallops, the company has not shipped compromised lots of the product from its warehouse.

“The scallops received by True World Foods have not been distributed to any restaurants in the state and were embargoed at their warehouse,” according to the Hawaii Department of Health’s website.

“This incident marks the first time in our 38-year history that seafood distributed by True World Foods has been linked to hepatitis A contamination, despite the fact that we sold 34 million pounds of seafood last year,” added Robert Bleu, president of True World Foods. “Food safety is a top priority at our company, and we are continually monitoring our suppliers, processes and procedures to protect the health of every consumer who eats at any of our customer sites.”

True World is destroying all potentially contaminated scallops from the Philippines at its Hawaii-based facility with the help of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA); none of the scallops at True World Foods’ 22 other warehouses in the U.S. come from the lots implicated in the outbreak, said the company in a press release. However, as a precaution, True World has suspended the sale of any seafood products produced by the Philippines-based scallop supplier in question until an internal food safety investigation is complete.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Fisherman scoops up $100 million pearl — but keeps it under the bed for 10 years

August 24, 2016 — A fisherman in the Philippines is happy as a clam after discovering that a mammoth pearl he stashed away for 10 years under his bed is worth a cool $100 million.

The lucky angler, who has not been identified, discovered the 75-pound pearl — believed to be the biggest ever — in the sea off Palawan Island, the Mirror of the U.K. reported.

Unaware of the giant pearl’s value, he kept it as a good-luck piece under his bed until a fire in his home forced him to move. The superstitious fishermen then decided to hand it over to the tourism office in remote Puerto Princesa, city officials said.

A stunned tourism officer determined that the pearl, measuring a foot wide and 2.2 feet long, dwarfs the official current record holder — the $35 million, 14-pound Pearl of Allah, which in 1934 was also found off Palawan.

“The fisherman threw the anchor down and it got stuck on a rock during a storm,” tourism officer Aileen Cynthia Amurao explained. “He noticed that it was lodged on a shell and swam down to pull up the anchor, and also brought the shell with him.

“He didn’t know how much it was worth and kept it tucked away at home as a simple good-luck charm,” she added.

Read the full story at MarketWatch

Researchers register success in breeding Pacific blue tangs aka ‘Finding Dory’ fish

July 25, 2016 — You can call it ‘Finding Dory’ effect, as a rise has been witnessed in the sales of Pacific blue tang since the movie has been released. Blue tangs can only be captured in the wild. As per experts, the methods used for the same are environmentally harmful.

For past many years, researchers have been tried to replicate the species; mating, hatching and growing behavior. Researchers from the University of Florida have achieved success in the same and have been able to breed Pacific blue tangs.

The research was carried out by the university researchers along with Rising Tide Conservation and the SeaWorld-Busch Gardens Conservation Fund. The species is considered to be the most difficult fish. In fact, only 12.5 to 15% of aquarium creatures can be bred in captivity. It has now become vital to increase the percentage.

As mentioned above, only method to get them is from the wild. Blue tangs are not going to become extinct, as they reproduce in large number and live in reefs across the world. But reefs are what giving concerns to scientists.

Read the full story at NorcalNews