Blue Planet II

Blue Planet II is a 

Must-see for Everyone on Planet Earth

I just finished watching the BBC’s Blue Planet II series and I want everyone alive to watch it! 

If you know nothing of the over 2/3rds of our planet that is blue, then watching this complete series will reward you with obtaining the highest degree of appreciation possible for our wondrous oceans.

Hopefully, the type of appreciation that Blue Planet II will elicit from you will be very similar to the “spirituality of nature” notion of appreciation that Native Americans and other cultures throughout history have had as they extracted from the miracle of nature to sustain themselves while never taking it for granted and never knowingly causing harm to that wondrous miracle.

In short, please take the time to watch Blue Planet II and become humbled by the miracle that is our one world ocean. 

To view:  visit the BBC’s website for all the viewing options available.

Sincerely,

Dave Glaubke

Director of Sustainability Initiatives – Sea Port Products Corp.

The Escape of Farm Raised Atlantic Salmon in Puget Sound Prompts Ignorant and Shortsighted Criticisms of Aquaculture

The unfortunate mismanagement of an aquaculture facility on the waters of Puget Sound in the state of Washington that allowed thousands of Atlantic salmon to escape prompted some in the public to claim that aquaculture is a danger to our natural environment and its wildlife and that farmed seafood is unfit to eat.

If these ignorant people would back up their criticisms by not ever eating beef, poultry, pork, and refrain from ice cream, then I could lend them just a teeny bit of credence, but they can't and they don't recognize the much greater damage livestock production has had on wild populations of buffalo, deer, elk, prairie chickens, and countless other natural critters worldwide by the global transformation of natural habitats to agriculture (both plant and livestock production).   Aquaculture has and will continue to have a minuscule impact on our natural habitats and wildlife compared to that of agriculture historically, in the present, and for the foreseeable future.

The ignorance shown by these aquaculture critics concerning food production history and the present world food security situation and of the stress that our food production capabilities will face in less than 40 years when our world will have 9-10 billion mouths to feed is extremely troubling.

Nothing focuses the mind better than a hungry stomach, but as we all know these critics of aquaculture (who have full stomachs) do not focus on the big picture of sustaining humanity via expanding and constantly improving best aquaculture practices, but rather they focus too narrowly on rare instances of aquaculture mismanagement and call for the end of all fish farming and the boycotting of its seafood for health reasons. This is a disgustingly shortsighted perspective to have.

All seafood lovers (and food lovers too) should educate themselves to appreciate the critical role aquaculture will play in dominating the sustainable production of protein going forward (aquaculture now outproduces beef!). The expansion of aquaculture will help secure the world’s food supply in a much more environmentally friendly fashion than land based livestock and crop production has ever done historically, currently, or will ever be capable of doing in the future.

We are now in the Blue Revolution era of global food production based on aquaculture.  With ever- improving aquatic husbandry practices and technologies we will be able to feed 9-10 billion people in the future by utilizing less than one tenth of one percent of our world’s oceans.  Let’s not be ignorant of the fact that in contrast, land based livestock production currently takes up over a third of the world’s land surface and the original habitats and countless wildlife that were originally occupying those spaces have forever been destroyed.  And tragically millions of acres of rainforests around the world are continually being lost each year due to expanding agriculture!

One last point, enjoy eating Atlantic salmon.  They are very wholesome/healthy (don't believe the ignorant critics).

Go Blue!, Dave

Supplier Acknowledgement of

Adherence to Sea Port’s Fair Labor

Practices Corporate Policy

Sea Port’s Fair Labor Practices Corporate Policy:

Sea Port is unequivocally against the exploitation of men, women, and children in the seafood industry and more broadly in the entire global economy.  It is our corporate policy to refuse to deal with entities that are engaged in any form of worker exploitation including, but not limited to, human trafficking, forced or slave labor, and illegal child labor practices and it is our mission to confront any abuses we discover in order to drive corrective changes within the industry.  It is our belief that by doing so we will advance the working conditions of all the fish workers of the world which are the true bedrock of a healthy, safe, and sustainable seafood industry.   Sea Port strongly supports all the governments, industries, and non-governmental organizations that are diligently working to improve the working conditions of our increasingly interconnected global workforce.

Supplier’s Acknowledgement of Adherence to Sea Port’s Fair Labor Practices Policy:

We the undersigned supplier to Sea Port Products Corporation unequivocally acknowledge and guarantee that we do not participate directly or indirectly in human trafficking, forced labor and unlawful child labor practices and that we adhere to all applicable laws and regulations governing fair labor practices in all our facilities and also indirectly in the facilities of our supply chain.  We further acknowledge we will be disqualified from doing business with Sea Port if we participate directly or indirectly in unfair or illegal labor practices or fail to halt such practices if they are newly discovered during the normal course of our business activities.   We sign this document in good faith and perpetually acknowledge our guarantee to adhere to Sea Port’s Fair Labor Practices Corporate Policy.

_________________________   ____________________                         ________________________

Printed  Name                                 Title                                                             Date

_______________________________________________

Signature

Packer Name: ___________________________________________________________________________________

Packer Address:

___________________________________________________________________________________

Sea Port's Fair Labor Practices Corporate Policy is posted here to bring broader public awareness to the issues of forced labor and other fair labor abuses that may exist in the global supply chains that need to be addressed by us all (not only the seafood industry).  Sea Port is proactively stimulating all industries to formulate their own corporate polices so we can collectively eliminate this social inequity on a global basis. 

Please feel free to leave any comments or suggestions how we can all

address this issue with positive, enthusiastic and determined attitudes...............Sincerely, Dave

In 2017, Let’s Boldly Proclaim the Essential Importance of Farm Raised Seafood for Now and for Our Future

Recently in the media, the seafood category of farm raised Chinese shrimp has been dragged through the mudhole of modern day sensationalism and it has effectively painted, with a broad brush, the entire farm raised seafood industry as something to avoid and be repulsed by.

This type of attention getting media that focuses upon the unacceptable farming and selling practices of a very few bad apples unfortunately tends to spoil the entirety of our rapidly improving aquaculture industry that today supplies over 50% of seafood worldwide and approximately 70% of our seafood consumed in the United States.

It would be a travesty if such exaggerated and unbalanced reporting drives consumers away from choosing to eat seafood at least twice a week as recommended by the United States 2015-2020 Dietary Guidelines for achieving and maintaining personal health.  Currently only one in ten Americans follows such guidance. Tabloid like stories that tell only the worst instances of poor aquaculture practices without balancing it with the good news of aquaculture’s ever- improving advancements unfortunately stifles the efforts to bring seafood to our dinner plates in place of a serving of meat from livestock. 

The bottom line is that our global population will expand to approximately 10 billion by 2050 and land based livestock and wild fisheries cannot provide us with the extra animal protein that will be needed. Aquaculture is currently the fastest growing animal protein production system in the world and now produces more than the global beef industry.

Our seafood industry needs to boldly proclaim in the coming new year that farm raised seafood is critically essential now and will continue to be so in the future for improving humanity’s health and wellbeing both globally and at home in the United States.

 

In parting, here is an interesting perspective to ponder:  12% of our entire Earth’s surface (all land/water surfaces) is used to produce our crops and livestock.  In contrast, less than 1/100^th of 1% of our Beautiful Blue Planet’s surface is devoted to aquaculture.

Wishing Everyone a Very Happy New Year!

David Glaubke, Director of Sustainability Initiatives

Go Blue!  For Our Health – For Our Environment – For Sustainability

Traceability Advances Sea Port’s Go Blue!® Seafood Sustainability Goal for Wild Caught and Farm Raised Seafood

Update as of 12-06-16: Our “Traceability Declaration” requirement will now directly address Child Labor, Forced Labor, and other forms of Unfair Labor Practices within all the related supply chains associated with the production of wild caught and farm raised seafood.

Our unending corporate goal at Sea Port to advance all our seafood items towards becoming more environmentally and socioeconomically sustainable is embodied in our Go Blue!® Seafood Sustainability Spectrum.  Advancing this goal, however, can only be accomplished when every seafood item is fully traceable back to its wild caught or farmed source.

To this end, Sea Port has further improved our enhanced “Traceability Declaration” requirement (initiated in 2012) to now directly address our suppliers’ knowledge of any existing Child Labor, Forced Labor, and other forms of Unfair Labor Practices within their supply chains.

Please note below (shown in red) the new requirements added to our ‘Traceability Declaration” for both wild caught and farm raised seafood items.

Traceability Declaration for Wild Caught Seafood

·         Species and common name of product

·         Identifying Processor, Brokers, Buying Station, Auction Market, Vessel(s)

·         Catch Method(s), Catch Area (FAO#,etc.), Catch Date(s)

·         Supplier warrants and guarantees that it has complied with all forced labor rules under Section 307 of the Tariff Act of 1930 (19 U.S.C. § 1307), including but not limited to the full prohibition on merchandise that has been mined, produced, or manufactured, wholly or in part, at any stage in the supply chain by forced labor, including prison labor and forced or indentured child labor.
      Yes ?   No ?
If no, then Sea Port cannot proceed with this purchase.

Traceability Declaration for Farmed Raised Seafood

·         Species and common name of product

·         Identifying Processor, Brokers, Buying Station, Auction Market, Farm(s)

·         Aquaculture Method(s) (extensive-intensive, pen, cage, etc.), Farm location, Harvest Date(s)

·         Supplier warrants and guarantees that it has complied with all forced labor rules under Section 307 of the Tariff Act of 1930 (19 U.S.C. § 1307), including but not limited to the full prohibition on merchandise that has been mined, produced, or manufactured, wholly or in part, at any stage in the supply chain by forced labor, including prison labor and forced or indentured child labor.
Yes ?   No ?
If no, then Sea Port cannot proceed with this purchase.

Our commitment to constantly advance seafood sustainability will be greatly enhanced by this new Fair Labor addition to our “Traceability Declaration” requirement of our suppliers for both wild and farm raised seafood.

Go Blue! For Our Environment • For Our Health • For Sustainability

It’s Time to Reform the Hawaiian Longline Fishing Sector’s Use of Undocumented Workers

Seven to eight hundred undocumented foreign workers are currently used by the Hawaiian longline fishing fleet that catches primarily tuna and swordfish and these workers lack basic fair labor protections due to a federal loophole that was engineered by past Hawaiian congressmen.   It is now time to quickly reform this practice because the workers’ pay is typically much less than federal minimum wage, they cannot set foot on U.S. soil, and they are at very high risk of suffering all the abuses that are associated with human trafficking.

Because these trafficked foreign workers (mostly from S.E. Asia) have no visas and their passports and identification documents are confiscated by the vessel owners/captains, they are not able to ever leave the fishing boats.  This de facto permanent detention goes against the basic human right of mobility and provides very little ability for workers to protest or seek relief from unfair labor practices and dangerous workplace conditions.

Just this week the FBI concluded its 10^th annual Operation Cross Country in which it arrested 349 individuals for human trafficking for the U.S. and international sex trade.  While the sex trade both locally and internationally is certainly more abhorrent than the Hawaiian longline fishing sector’s labor trafficking, our seafood industry cannot tolerate any longer the condition of employment that they impose on their undocumented foreign workers.

The situation is simply unsustainable and not in the best interest of our seafood industry and seafood lovers everywhere.  All our efforts to promote seafood as the healthiest and most environmentally friendly animal protein on Earth will ring morally hollow if we don’t act now to stop human rights abuses and unfair labor issues in our own backyard and around the globe. 

It is definitely time to reform the Hawaiian longline fishing sector’s use of undocumented workers.

Sincerely,

David Glaubke, Director of Sustainability Initiatives

The Increasing Availability of 4 Star BAP Certified Shrimp

Sea Port is continuing to advance the environmental and social sustainability of farm raised shrimp by seeking to offer 4 Star BAP Certified Shrimp as they start becoming more available in the market place.

For years Sea Port has been a proud governing member of the Global Aquaculture Alliance that operates the BAP (best aquaculture practices) certification program.

Explanation of the BAP Star certification system: Each Star certifies that a specific supply chain activity for producing farmed raised shrimp is done with the best available aquaculture practices that minimize environmental impacts, respect workers’ rights and produce wholesome products.  The four specified areas are the processing plants, the farms, the hatcheries, and the feed mills.

Four Stars:  Product produced by a BAP-certified processing plant, BAP-certified farm(s) only, BAP-certified hatchery only and BAP-certified feed mill only

Three Stars:  Product produced by a BAP-certified processing plant, BAP-certified farm(s) only and BAP-certified hatchery and/or feed mill only

Two Stars:  Product produced by a BAP-certified processing plant and BAP-certified farm(s) only

One Star:  Product produced by a BAP-certified processing plant

Sea Port is an avid supporter of all the Stars of the Global Aquaculture Alliance’s BAP certification program.  Please consider sourcing your shrimp using the BAP Stars as your guideline and join Sea Port in helping to advance sustainable aquaculture.            

       Sincerely, David Glaubke - Director of Sustainability Initiatives - Sea Port