Tag Archives: National Fisheries Institute

Biden’s lavish lobster dinner doesn’t change his hostility to seafood industry

Bob Vanasse, executive director of Saving Seafood, commended Golden for calling out Biden on the issue and said that his organization has had trouble meeting with the current administration. Vanasse said that it’s not just lobster, but other seafood industries like tuna and swordfish, are having issues meeting with the White House. “I applaud the congressman for calling out the administration’s hypocrisy when it comes to our domestic fisheries and their policies,” “This is not the first time that something like this has happened, but it is good to see, and particularly a Democrat pointing it out because this administration has frankly not been friendly or helpful to our domestic fishing industry,” >click to read< 20:02

Ray Jones, well-known leader in the seafood industry, has passed away in Brunswick, Georgia

Raymond Lee Jones, 72, died on June 21, 2021, in Brunswick, Georgia, after a brief battle with pancreatic cancer. He was a loving father, grandfather, a well-known leader in the seafood industry and a genuinely good soul who shall be deeply missed. In 1988, he accepted a position at Rich Products Corp., working for its SeaPak Shrimp and Seafood division on St. Simons Island, Georgia. Over the next three decades, Ray would have a huge influence on the company, and on the seafood industry at large. He was a genuine advocate for seafood and a trusted voice in meeting with members of the House, Senate and regulatory agencies. Ray served as chairman of the National Fisheries Institute’s technical committee from 1994 to 1996, and was the technical chairman of the National Shrimp Industry Association from 1998 to 2005. >click to read< 17:30

Seafood from America is safe. 

National Fisheries Institute Statement on the Safety of Seafood from the United States –  Seafood from America is safe.  The World Health Organization, United National Food and Agriculture Organization, and all major national food safety agencies report there is no connection between seafood and COVID-19.  Simply stated, people cannot get COVID-19 from eating seafood.  Specific to imported seafood that Chinese families enjoy, experts at the Chinese National Health Commission stated, “There’s no evidence so far showing salmon are the origin or intermediate hosts of the coronavirus.” Consumers in China and in other countries should be aware that seafood portioned and prepared in America must comply with the rules and regulations of the United States Food and Drug Administration to ensure safe food. >click to read< 17:38

Nova Scotia Live Lobster Exports to China Hit a Snag

A recent coronavirus outbreak traced to a market in Beijing is disrupting Canadian live lobster exports to China. New testing measures imposed in at least three cities — Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou— have led to cancelled lobster shipments from Nova Scotia this week and delays for shipments that do arrive. “We’ve hit a significant snag,” said Geoff Irvine, executive director of the Lobster Council of Canada. “The latest news is that they will continue to do these random inspections, which has effectively caused many of the large shipments to stop.” >click to read< 10:22

  Tasmanian lobster, abalone exports at risk as latest COVID-19 outbreak closes Beijing markets – “Australian seafood exports are not being blocked by China [but] authorities there have advised that they may conduct COVID-19 testing on live, fresh, chilled and frozen imports of Australian seafood upon arrival into China,” said chairman Nathan Maxwell McGinn. >click to read< 13:08

Commercial fishing industry in free fall as restaurants close, consumers hunker down and vessels tie up

The novel coronavirus pandemic has destroyed demand for seafood across a complicated U.S. supply chain, from luxury items such as lobster and crab, generally consumed at restaurants, to grocery staples sourced from the world’s fish farms. Now, with restaurants closed, many of the nation’s fisheries — across geography, species, gear types and management — have reported sales slumps as high as 95 percent. Boats from Honolulu to Buzzards Bay, Mass., are tied up dockside, with fisheries in the Atlantic, the Pacific, the Gulf of Mexico and Alaska affected, throwing thousands of fishermen out of work and devastating coastal communities. >click to read< 16:52

2019-2020 Sea Scallop Research Set-Aside Awards Announced

Northeast Fisheries Science Center and the New England Fishery Management Council (NEFMC) have selected 13 projects for awards through the Sea Scallop Research Set-Aside (RSA) Program. The awards are expected to generate more than $14 million; $2.8 million to fund research, and $11.4 million to compensate industry partners who harvest set-aside quota.,,, Among the research projects that will be supported this year are automated image annotation for optical scallop surveys, testing different scallop dredges for efficiency and performance, and development of a high-resolution model to assess the potential impact of offshore wind resource facilities on the regional fishery industry.>click to read<16:42

Gulf fishermen applaud seafood labeling law

A new regulatory program that will go into effect next year would require seafood to be labeled with its country of origin. Although some are worried about how the labeling might negatively affect the seafood industry as a whole, local fishermen and processors are seeing it as a boon. Opponents of the Seafood Import Monitoring Program, chief among them being the National Fisheries Institute that recently lost its lawsuit to stop the Jan. 1 implementation, say that the labeling for wild caught and farm-grown seafood could cost the industry millions of dollars. David Chauvin, owner of David Chauvin’s Seafood Co. in Dulac, said he believes the new regulations will help level the playing field for local fishermen and help the flagging seafood industry in the Gulf of Mexico. click here to read the story 13:15

National Fisheries Institute bristles at comments by Canada’s fisheries minister

An American seafood industry association is disputing statements by Canada’s fisheries minister that Canadian producers need to “raise their game” in order to meet new traceability rules for seafood imported into the U.S. The Washington-based National Fisheries Institute, which opposes the new rules, says Canada has nothing to do with the illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) catches the new Seafood Import Monitoring Program was brought in to stop. The institute was reacting to a CBC News report where federal Fisheries Minister Dominic LeBlanc called increased traceability “very laudable,” even if Canada was not the target. He said Canada has been working with the U.S. government for months on this issue.  “We need to raise our game to ensure that the Americans receive the evidence they require that our fisheries are compliant, as they are,” LeBlanc said. That statement put LeBlanc offside with the National Fisheries Institute, which is part a powerhouse lawsuit launched last month to block the Seafood Import Monitoring Program brought in by the former Obama administration in December. Read the story here 15:00

NFI sues NOAA over new IUU rule

The National Fisheries Institute (NFI) has sued the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the Department of Commerce over a recently enacted rule that could cost the commercial fishing industry as much as USD 1 billion (EUR 946 million) annually. NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service issued a final rule on 9 December that requires U.S. seafood importers to trace the origin of the fish they import to either the specific boat that caught the fish or to its collection point, as well as the location and date the fish was caught. The regulation was designed to combat illegal, unregulated and unreported (IUU) fishing regulation, but it will cost the industry at least USD 100 million (EUR 95 million) per year, NFI said in a press release. Read the story here 14:11

Oceana going overboard on fish fraud with “misleading hyperbole”, distorts its findings by design

shutterstock_294415232The National Fisheries Institute (NFI) is calling into question both the findings and motives of the latest fish fraud study by Oceana, a global environmental group. The action marks a break between the two groups since they previously were largely in sync with one another over the worldwide problem of fish fraud, which is where lesser-value species are marketed as higher-value ones. NFI claims that by finding 20 percent of all seafood mislabeled globally, Oceana’s latest report is both overstating the problem and unnecessarily calling for an expanded regulatory bureaucracy when enforcement of existing laws is all that is needed. NFI, a trade association representing the seafood industry with a core mission of sustainability, charges that the environmental group has turned to “misleading hyperbole.” “Oceana’s focus on the most often mislabeled species distorts its findings by design. It is a common technique that ironically perpetuates a fraud on the readers of these reports,” the NFI statement adds. Read the story here 16:56

Research finds trawling not as devastating as often portrayed

An ongoing two-year independent study on trawling and its effect on benthic sea life — species that live on sea floors where trawling occurs – has found that the practice may not be as devastating as it is portrayed by some NGOs. The major data collection and analysis for the project has been completed, including assessments of mobile bottom contact gear in Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Argentina, South Africa and most of the US, making it six times more extensive than and previous compilations. Read the article here 18:36

Greenpeace Pushes Annual Fundraising Tool

Greenpeace is touting the latest in its long line of opaque, subjective, and hopelessly flawed “reports” on retail seafood. This year’s model may have lost the juvenile aesthetic and top hat donning cartoon fish of previous iterations, but the substance—or lack thereof—remains much the same.  It is still first and foremost a fundraising tool and evidence of that can be found in its erratic methodology and narrative. Read the rest here 16:20

Dear Greenpeace USA, We are in receipt of your petition, and are responding,,,

Wrecking the Planet, one campaign at a time!

We are in receipt of your petition, and are responding on behalf of member companies Bumble Bee, Chicken of the Sea, and StarKist. We’ve reviewed your petition and attached letter and have found several inaccurate aspects and outright misinformation that we would appreciate you address. While we always welcome feedback from consumers, it does concern us that some of the petition’s signatories appear to come from communities of questionable provenance like “Jerrabomberra, North Carolina”. It is our sincere hope that you have vetted and authenticated,,, Read the rest her  20:01

Sea hunt: Officials plan to track seafood ‘bait to plate’ to end fraud

For crimes committed on the high seas, Arnold Bengisclip_image002_001 is going to pay. He’s already served a five-year federal prison sentence for stealing massive amounts of rock lobster from South African waters and importing it to the United States. Now a federal judge wants the former Long Island resident and two co-conspirators to fork over another $20 million in restitution to the South Africans. Described as a modern-day pirate, Bengis is the face of fishery crime. Read the rest here 09:31

Tuna Gets Snagged in Food Safety Tug-of-War – “clearly out of step with mainstream published peer-reviewed science.”

Consumer alert: Pregnant women should avoid eating tuna, including tuna salad sandwiches, sushi, and grilled tuna steaks, a new study from Consumer Reports says. “We’re particularly concerned about canned tuna,,, Read more here 20:12

A new report on Ocean Grabbing – The Global Ocean Grab

Ocean grabbing is not only about fisheries policy. It is unfolding worldwide across an array of contexts including marine and coastal seawaters, inland waters, rivers and lakes, deltas and wetlands, mangroves and coral reefs. The means by which fishing communities are dispossessed of the resources upon which they have traditionally depended is likewise taking many shapes and forms. Read the report here    09:52

National Fisheries Institute: NOAA should lead US sustainable seafood debate

NFI’s Connelly said that he and NFI members are confused as to the singular focus of seafood sustainability. “NOAA’s fisheries management is generally excellent, that’s been a common theme throughout this morning,” he said. “Yet few in government or the public know this. more@seafoodsource 11:57

NFI: Mercury warning based on fraudulent report

The National Fisheries Institute (NFI) has condemned a report by the Biodiversity Research Institute (BRI) which it says misled the public on the safety of commercial seafood. The BRI reported data which warned of mercury levels in seafood exceeding guidelines, but the NFI has said this data was “false, and has not been peer-reviewed or published in scientific journals”. Read more