More News and Impressions from Sea Port's GOAL 2014 attendance in Vietnam 

During October National Seafood Month Sea Port attended the Global Aquaculture Alliance’s GOAL  2014 conference (Global Outlook on Aquaculture Leadership) held in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. While in the country, we ventured to the Mekong Delta to visit several producers of seafood.  We returned home with great enthusiasm for seafood, as well as a deep appreciation for all the Vietnamese people who contribute so much to our aquaculture industry.

Listed below are a few highlights and observations from both the GOAL conference and our seafood travels throughout the Vietnamese countryside:

• The EMS disease crisis, while creating a great set-back in the production of shrimp, has now created a positive wave of new aquaculture technologies and practices while also motivating shrimp farmers to adhere more strictly to current best aquaculture practices.  Many industry leaders, including the Global Aquaculture Alliance have worked together to find the cause and ways to mitigate this disease.   Exciting progress in terms of EMS:
• One exciting announcement was the possible discovery of an EMS resistant strain of white shrimp! 
• GAA Announced  the development of a Zone Management Standard.  This standard will assist small farmers to “cluster” with other farms in close proximity, essentially being its own co-op  and will provide veterinary services, best management practices, information sharing, etc.  This will be a huge help to farmers.
• Tilapia has been a key player in reducing the risk of EMS – How?  Farmers in Vietnam have found that the use of the polyculture farming technique has helped reduce the outbreak of EMS in their farm.  Farmers are growing shrimp with Tilapia.  (And subsequently are now producing that Tilapia).
• The upward trajectory of worldwide farmed shrimp output has returned and the speculation at the GOAL conference was that we may see a doubling of production in ten years!
• Other conference buzz included the need for all seafood stakeholders to work harmoniously to help reduce and simplify seafood certification schemes;  producers expressed frustration of how much time and money is spent on implementing different  sustainability requirements from various customers.  Producers requested buyers to harmonize their requirements to make their efforts much more efficient.
• Sea Port experienced firsthand how disappointed Vietnamese shrimp farmers were that the US Department of Commerce imposed the highest import duties ever on their production.  Just as EMS is being successfully mitigated and credit is finally becoming more available to finance pond stockings, these duties were seen as ill-timed, wholly unnecessary, and running counter to the spirit of last year’s U.S.-Vietnam Comprehensive Partnership agreement
• Sea Port’s overall impression of Vietnam and its people was overwhelmingly positive.  All the Vietnamese stakeholders along the seafood supply chain were extremely hard working, highly skilled, and motivated to advance economically.  We believe that the production of sustainably produced seafood for international trade creates tremendous opportunity for many Viatnamese people. 

Trading seafood with this rapidly developing nation will strengthen ties and help heal old wounds of war.  The Vietnamese people are industriously pursuing a seafood future that will not only positively transform their economic state of wellbeing but also greatly serve a world hungering for more healthy and sustainable seafood.

World Farmed Shrimp Production to Double in Ten Years!

Sea Port heard this prediction from George Chamberlain, the president of the Global Aquaculture Alliance, while attending the organization’s GOAL (Global Outlook on Aquaculture Leadership) conference this month (October National Seafood Month).

Mr. Chamberlain proffered this positive prediction while being fully aware of the major shrimp production shortfalls that diseases have caused during the last two years (especially EMS).

However, the foundation of his prediction was that the aquaculture industry will steadily improve

its knowledge of disease processes and will continually implement new practices that will not only help prevent and treat diseases, but also more effectively control their spread.

Back in March of 2013 Sea Port Blogged about  EMS?…..this too shall pass and at that time we took a similar upbeat view that EMS and other disease occurrences were normal growing pains of young industry that is currently the world’s fastest growing food production system!

Since Sea Port’s EMS blog over a year and a half ago, shrimp farmers have demonstrated progress in avoiding and mitigating EMS and other diseases.  They accomplished this by diligently adhering to established best aquaculture practices and by implementing newly developed husbandry technologies and practices such as:

• utilizing genetically improve stocks that resist disease
• Improving breeding techniques to assure disease free seedstocks
• Starting the early identification of diseased stocks and implementing isolation schemes that address direct and indirect exposure to healthy stocks
• Developing and utilizing enhanced feeds that promote disease resistance
• Implementing various water quality improvement schemes

     World Farmed Shrimp Production to Double in Ten Years?
                                   (Sea Port is definitely not betting against George)

Happy October National Seafood Month!

Sincerely, Dave Glaubke

Director of Sustainability Initiatives – Sea Port Products Corp. 

       

            

Obama designates huge expansion of the existing Pacific Remote Islands National Marine Monument creating the world’s largest area protected from commercial fishing!

On Thursday September 25^th, President Obama expanded the size of America’s largest marine reserve.  In doing so, he created the world’s largest marine area that is protected from commercial fishing activities.  This area, called the Pacific Remote Islands National Monument, was established in 2009 by President Bush.  It is located in the central Pacific and now encompasses over 490,000 square miles (about the size of three Californias).

          Sea Port’s questions and thoughts about this historic event: 

·         Coincidentally, on the same day the International Seafood Sustainability foundation (ISSF) stated that Pacific Bigeye Tuna are overfished.  Will Obama’s new marine reserve expansion actually help the Bigeye Tuna stocks in the central Pacific recover to a non-overfished status?

·         The Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council opposed the expansion of the monument area stating that economic hardships would befall the central Pacific tuna/pelagic fishers.  Will this expansion actually increase catches and economic prosperity in the long run for these fishers as highly migratory species perhaps recover in the protected areas and then move outside of the safe havens?

·         Will this presidential action encourage other nations to expand or create additional marine protected areas?  Please see our past Go Blue! Seafood Sustainability Blog for Sea Port’s views on expanding MPAs.

President Obama’s historic expansion of the Pacific Remote Island’s National Monument may cause a type of “Butterfly Effect” that produces a cascading of positive events that will help propel us all closer to sustainably managing the world’s precious marine resources for the benefit of current and future generations.

Go Blue! and eat more seafood………………Sincerely, David Glaubke – Sea Port’s Directory of Sustainability Initiatives 

    National Seafood Month Happenings – Week 1

The Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act reauthorization process is now taking place in Washington D.C.

    -   How far have we come since its inception in 1976?

    -   What are the proposed modifications circulating on Capitol Hill?

    -   What is Sea Port’s view?

How has the Magnuson-Stevens Act evolved since its inception in 1976?

·         In a span of just less than 40 years, we went from no comprehensive management plan for our federal marine fisheries to the present day system administered by NOAA that is internationally regarded as the best.

·         We have ended overfishing for over 92% of our federally managed marine fish stocks.  Just a few stocks like the problematic New England cod fishery are being overfished and this confounding situation may be entirely related to ecosystem changes rather than any failings of the science that establishes annual catch limits to prevent overfishing.

 Some of the proposed modifications circulating on Capitol Hill:

·         Expand the utilization of real time high-tech sensors for collecting catch data on vessels and directly from marine habitats to better assess the status of stocks and their changing environments.  Please see Sea Port’s past blog about high-tech sensors changing sustainable fishery practices and policies.

·         Provide better direction and authority to councils for implementing ecosystem based fishery management decisions

·         Address stock allocation equity issues between commercial and recreational fisheries and improve the collection of catch data from the sports fishery sector

·         Provide for increased flexibility in meeting rebuilding timelines for overfished stocks to allow for the consideration of subsistence fisheries, fishing communities, and changes in marine ecosystems

·         Make available a NOAA sustainability label or certificate for federal fisheries that are responsibly managed

Sea Port’s view

·         Sea Port believes there is a timely need for the Magnuson-Steven Act to take an even more holistic view of the ecosystem based fishery management model.  This broader perspective would include the consequences of man’s behavior on both land and sea.  By doing so, the human activities that cause harmful levels of CO2 emissions, oil spills, fertilizer runoff marine dead zones, and riparian and coastal wetlands loss would be identified as being key determinants in our ability to achieve sustainable fisheries for future generations.  Currently, these human created negative impacts all threaten the productive capacities of our global marine resources.

·         Sea Port would also like to see enhanced efforts to increase NOAA’s international leadership role to help solve the global problems of high seas fisheries accountability, IUU fishing, fish stock mismanagement, and the environmental degradation that is occurring worldwide to productive coastal and riparian habitats.

The Bottom Line (not an October surprise):

The Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act evolved into an environmental and economic success story for the vast majority of our federally managed marine fisheries and the communities they support.  Let’s all celebrate this by choosing to eat a variety of seafood more than just two times per week during our National Seafood Month of October.

"Seafood has become a powerful ambassador for global ocean stewardship--effectively connecting the wellbeing of human populations to the health and productivity of our ocean resources; and more importantly, our collective responsibility for their stewardship."  read more...

Eileen Sobeck, Assistant Administrator for Fisheries

National Seafood Month, 2014

Happy National Seafood Month!

Sincerely, Dave Glaubke – Director of Sustainability Initiatives