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

Sea Port’s New Zealand Greenshell™ Mussels Are Sustainability and Nutritional Superstars

The AquacultureNew Zealand organization believes that New Zealand Greenshell™ Mussels are one of the most environmentally friendly seafood protein sources available.  Sea Port’s own assessment supports this view and we graphically communicate this by way of our “Go Blue! Seafood Sustainability Spectrum®” and our “Go Blue! Plate Choose My Seafood for Sustainability®”.

While New Zealand’s mussel aquaculture helps sustain and preserve the health of our oceans, actually eating the mussels helps sustain and advance our own personal health too.

Outstanding Nutritional Attributes:

·         Three times more iron than beef and a third of our daily protein needs in one serving

·         Three times our daily Vitamin B12 needs

·         100% of iodine and selenium (also a good source of other vitamins and minerals)

·         Contains over half the amount of Omega-3s as Sockeye Salmon (680mg)

  Enjoy These Sustainability and Nutritional Superstars Twice a Week!

Sea Port attends Presidential Task Force meeting to combat IUU fishing and seafood fraud

In Washington D.C. on August 18, Sea Port attended a meeting of a newly formed Presidential Task Force in order to offer advice on combating illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing (IUU) and seafood fraud in the U.S. marketplace. 

Sea Port was among a small but diverse group of seafood industry stakeholders that included fishing vessel owners, processors, distributors, retailers, and import/exporters.  The task force panel consisted of federal representatives from the Departments of State, Commerce, Defense, FDA, NOAA, USDA, and several other federal agencies associated with regulating our seafood.

President Obama directed this task force to formulate recommendations within 180 days for implementing a new comprehensive framework of programs to focus on the areas of greatest concern for the IUU and fraud problems occurring in the U.S. seafood marketplace.  To assist in completing their task, the panel wanted Sea Port and the group to define both the scope and the critical control points of these two distinct issues based on the perspective of our entire seafood industry.

The major points communicated to the Presidential Task Force by Sea Port and the seafood industry group:

Concerning IUU:

• The scope of the IUU problem is relevant for less than 5% of the wild seafood we consume and of this amount, the vast majority is associated with the wild caught seafood that we import from foreign countries that are sorely in need of more effective wild fisheries management and enforcement schemes.

·         The critical control point to eliminate IUU is at the foreign source regardless if the seafood was caught within a country’s 200 mile EEZ or attained on international high seas by their distant-water fishing fleets.

Concerning Seafood Fraud:

• The scope of the mislabeling of species fraud issue is most relevant at the critical control points located at restaurants and retailers.  The scope of the short weight (including full ingredients disclosure) fraud issue is relevant to the entire supply chain for both wild and farmed seafood.

Group advice offered to the Task Force for addressing the separate issues of IUU & and seafood fraud:

• Combating IUU fishing requires the U.S. to be more engaged  internationally with foreign countries, the FAO, and regional fisheries organizations so responsible wild fisheries practices and enforcement mechanisms can be agreed upon that clearly defined the pathway toward eradicating IUU on both the high-seas and within all nation’s EEZs.  However, If our actions simply redirect IUU seafood away from the U.S. marketplace to other countries that still accept IUU, then we will have done very little to solve this foreign fishing problem that truly requires a cooperative global solution.

    

• Initiating enhanced and robust efforts to enforce existing laws will very quickly produce dramatic improvements to the economic fraud issues of short weight, ingredient mislabeling, and species substitution in the U.S. marketplace. 

Sea Port’s Opinion on the Most Important Takeaways from the Presidential Task Force:  

1. FDA enforcement against “short weight” may soon be greatly enhanced and expanded and this may result in significant negative consequences for seafood companies that still engage in this type of seafood fraud.
2. Success in combating IUU fishing may soon advance due to heightening levels of U.S. international cooperation and new forthcoming initiatives to share proven U.S. fisheries management and enforcement schemes with the rest of the world.

Please don't be shy about leaving comments..........Sincerely, Dave