If 2014 welcomes the arrival of the next strong El Niño event, then the seafood industry will most likely experience the following impacts this coming winter and well into 2015:

1.  Aquaculture feed prices may increase due to lower catches of Peruvian anchovies starting in late

     2014 and this may put upward pressure on farmed seafood prices for those cultured species that

     depend upon feed made from fishmeal and fish oil.

2.  Dry weather in late 2014 and continuing into 2015 for China and S.E. Asia may cause a decrease in

     farmed shrimp production causing prices to increase.     

3.  Ecuador may see some increased farmed shrimp production due to warmer weather and increased

     rainfall.

4.  This year’s winter Southern California Market Squid fishery may dwindle.

These specific examples are only just a few out of a large basket of many possible disruptive and positive consequences that the seafood industry could face during a strong El Niño event. However, strong El Niño events can also severely impact the world’s entire agricultural and livestock production cycles, which then may shift food protein demand more towards seafood.  Consequently, this could result in a net positive economic benefit for our seafood industry.  El Niño events customarily produce differing degrees of both positive and negatives consequences to our global food production systems.

El Niño events happen approximately every 2-7 years and scientists are becoming more accurate in predicting their arrivals, strengths, and durations.  Unfortunately, accurately predicting all the possible consequences to our seafood industry from an El Niño event is much more difficult due to a myriad of complex climatic and economic variables.

Adaptability and resiliency have always been the hallmarks of our seafood industry.  These very traits were forged over time by the unpredictability of natural events and conditions. The seafood industry has certainly weathered past El Niño events and will do so again.  El Niño events will never deter us from supplying the consumer with the world’s most healthy and sustainable protein because we will always find a way to do so!

2014 may indeed be the year that welcomes the arrival of the next strong El Niño event…..stay tuned…..stay flexible

Synthetic Nitrogen Fertilizer

It is time for world governments and environmental organizations to boldly confront humanity’s dependency on synthetic nitrogen fertilizer and its negative consequences that undermine sustainable food production, not only from the land itself, but also from our aquatic ecosystems

.  

§  Synthetic nitrogen used for land based crop fertilizer has made it possible for an additional 3.5 billion people to be alive today.   Without it, we would only have enough food to feed half of our current world population of 7 billion.  Approximately 50% of the nitrogen contained in the muscles and other tissue of our bodies originated from synthetic nitrogen.

§  Synthetic nitrogen fertilizer is produced by the 100-year-old Haber-Bosch process that uses primarily nonrenewable natural gas as a key ingredient.  This nitrogen fertilizer production model is inherently unsustainable.

§  Worldwide synthetic nitrogen fertilizer runoffs into rivers and oceans from croplands and other associated chemical reactions that synthetic nitrogen has with the environment contribute greatly to the creation of marine dead zones, aquatic acidification, and global warming.  These all have profound negative impacts on the capacity of our marine and freshwater ecosystems to produce both wild and farmed seafood. 

§  These negative impacts will only intensify unless improvements are made to maximize the efficient application of synthetic nitrogen to croplands on a worldwide basis.  Ultimately, we will need to find renewables to replace the fossil fuels used in its production.

Sea Port believes that this New Year will welcome in a new age where there is a shared holistic concept that food production practices on land are inextricably linked to the healthy food production capabilities of Earth’s aquatic environments.   By boldly confronting our dependency upon synthetic nitrogen fertilizer, we will help advance sustainability improvements for our biosphere.  Such improvements will be critical as we endeavor to feed 3 billion more people (primarily by aquaculture) as our world population expands to 10 billion by the year 2050.

Sea Port is excited for the coming New Year.  We will continue to work toward our corporate goal of advancing sustainable seafood production.  In addition, we will wholehearted support others who share the holistic concept that improvements in land based agriculture accrue sustainability benefits to the entire global seafood industry and we believe that improving the use of synthetic nitrogen fertilizer on croplands certainly embodies this holistic concept.

                                                                     

Happy New Year!

Chilean Sea Bass Advancing along Sea Port’s

 Go Blue! Seafood Sustainability Spectrum

Sea Port conducted a sustainability assessment for the two species eleginoides and mawsoni of the genus Dissostichus that we market as Chilean Sea Bass.  We did this in order to reveal the existing and potential environmental impacts and risks that were associated with producing this luxury seafood.  This allowed us to establish its starting position along our progressive Go Blue! Seafood Sustainability Spectrum (see needle on spectrum above).  This assessment was only a single snapshot in time, therefore, we are continuously reassessing all the sustainability determinants and moving the needle along the spectrum as needed to reflect both the positive and negative developments for this fishery.

Sea Port is announcing that Chilean Sea Bass has advanced along our Go Blue! Seafood Sustainability Spectrum towards becoming more sustainable.

Rationale for this decision:

• Today over 80% of total global allowable catch for Chilean Sea Bass in the Southern Ocean and
  surrounding area is managed to prevent IUU fishing (illegal, unreported, unregulated) and overfishing
  through the co-operative efforts of CCAMLR, COLTO,  governments, and NGOs.

• Roughly, 2/3rds of the global Chilean Sea Bass catches have achieved Marine Stewardship Council
  certification (MSC) and are currently rated as “Best Choice” or “Good Alternative” by the Monterey
  Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch program.

Sea Port’s opinion is that the global Chilean Sea Bass fishery can currently serve as a model for how governments, fishers, NGOs, the foodservice industry and consumers can all co-operate to drive sustainability improvements in a once troubled and controversial fishery.

To celebrate the dramatic improvements in the Chilean Sea Bass fishery, the needle will be moved along our Chilean Sea Bass Go Blue! Seafood Sustainability Spectrum.

Please feel free to leave your comments..........................................Sincerely, Dave

New Zealand Orange Roughy Advances along Sea Port's Sustainability Spectrum

Orange Roughy Advancing along Sea Port’s

 Go Blue! Seafood Sustainability Spectrum

Sea Port conducted a sustainability assessment for the New Zealand Orange Roughy fishery in order to reveal the existing and potential environmental impacts and risks that were associated with producing this delicacy for human consumption.  This allowed us to establish its starting position along our progressive Go Blue! Seafood Sustainability Spectrum (see needle on spectrum above).  This assessment was only a single snapshot in time, therefore, we are continuously reassessing all the sustainability determinants and moving the needle along the spectrum as needed to reflect both the positive and negative developments for this fishery.

Sea Port is announcing the advancement of the New Zealand Orange Roughy needle along our spectrum towards becoming more sustainable due to advances in data collection for a major portion of the New Zealand fishing grounds.

Rationale for this decision:

• New Biomass data has been collected using sophisticated sonar and underwater video for a major portion of the New Zealand Orange Roughy fishing grounds.

• In addition to biomass size and distribution data, spawning behavior has been observed and tracked.

• State of the art sonar and underwater video will continue to advance the collection of important data for additional Orange Roughy fishing grounds

     

The New Zealand Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) and the deepwater group have been the driving force behind high technology data collection methods.   The additional data collected by these advanced techniques further strengthen New Zealand’s already modern Quota Management System.

Sea Port believes that because of these ongoing high tech data collection accomplishments, a major portion of this fishery is moving towards becoming more sustainable and because of this the needle will be moved along our Go Blue! Seafood Sustainability Spectrum. 

New Position: 

Please feel free to leave your opinion in the comment section.....................Sincerely, Dave

IUU Fishing and Ocean Acidification – Sea Port’s Letter to Congress:

Dear Senator Reid, Speaker Boehner, Senator McConnell, and Representative Pelosi,

Sea Port Products Corp is a member of a diverse group of stakeholders that share a common interest in healthy U.S. fisheries that support a robust domestic seafood industry and vibrant coastal communities. We are writing to urge you to support and quickly pass the International Fisheries Stewardship and Enforcement Act (S. 269/ H.R. 69) and the Pirate Fishing Elimination Act (S. 267) and to ratify the Port State Measures Agreement.  These bipartisan bills and the agreement would improve the detection and prosecution of illegal fishing on the high seas, keep suspected foreign illegal fishers out of U.S. ports, and protect U.S. fishermen, our domestic seafood supply, and enhance the sustainability of global marine fisheries. 

While we overwhelmingly support the passing of S. 269/H.R. 69, S. 267, and the Port State Measures Agreement, Sea Port would like to bring to your attention the larger crisis of emerging ocean acidification.  We believe that the increase in ocean acidity and global warming caused by the record levels of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere could have profound negative effects on the entire world’s fisheries that dwarf the current regulatory issues of illegal fishing, overfishing, and bycatch.

The global burning of fossil fuels, wood, and other organic matter to provide energy for a growing world population produces an ever-increasing concentration of atmospheric CO2 that both warms and acidifies our oceans.  Ocean acidification is inhibiting the ability of shellfish larvae and certain plankton to incorporate calcium into their bodies to assure their proper development and survival.  It is possible that the emerging negative consequences of ocean acidification will make all historical overfishing damages look tame by comparison.

Thank you for your consideration of passing S.269/H.R.69 & S.267 and the agreement.  In addition, thank you for considering the much wider focused perspective that identifies the increasing atmospheric concentration of CO2 and the emerging negative impacts it has on the entire world’s marine ecosystems.

David Glaubke, Director of Sustainability Initiatives

Note to Sea Port’s industry partners/customers:  Please use all or any portion of this letter to voice your support for these bills directly with your Congressional & House Representatives.

Please feel free to leave any comments or opinions. 

Seafood Nutritional Partnership

The Seafood Nutrition Partnership (SNP) Sends a Strong Message about Seafood’s “Must Have” Nutritional Benefits

 The recently formed Seafood Nutrition Partnership (SNP) brought together healthcare, nutrition, education, and seafood experts and created a united voice in order to convince U.S. consumers to eat seafood for its essential nutritional health benefits.  Sea Port joined with others in the seafood industry to provide startup funding for this partnership and is pleased that an informed group of experts now exists to promote the uniquely essential nutritional health aspects of seafood.  The partnership strongly states that the risks of eating seafood (e.g. mercury) are far outweighed/countered by seafood’s multiple essential nutritional benefits (e.g. omega 3s, selenium).

Simply put,  by not eating seafood at least twice a week (8-12 ounces) as recommended by the USDA Dietary Guidelines for Americans, children (also developing fetuses), adults, and senior citizens are not getting the proper amount of the essential nutrients that seafood supplies for optimum brain, eye, and cardiovascular health. 

Not only does the Seafood Nutritional Partnership website list the state of the art science to back their seafood essential nutrients message, but they also list multiple seafood preparation instructions using the pictorial power of Pinterest.  The use of this innovative tool helps take the mystery and fear out of cooking seafood for the consumer.  Seafood preparation is appropriately given major emphasis by the partnership, because in the long run, convincing people how easy it is to cook seafood will help bring consumption up to the recommended levels.  For the public to finally acknowledge that seafood provides critically essential nutrients is one thing, but getting people to feel comfortable cooking seafood is quite another.  The Seafood Nutritional Partnership is positioned well to convince the remaining 80% of us that do not eat enough seafood to do so and hence improve our personal health and that of our potentially unborn children.  Sea Port wholeheartedly supports this critically important mission.

Sea Port will also continue to expand on its own internal initiatives such as its “Go Blue! Plate – Choose My Seafood for Sustainability” which promotes both human health and environmental stewardship by simply advising consumers to choose to eat a variety of seafood at the proper weekly intervals.  Please visit our website and our Go Blue! Seafood Sustainability Blog today to stay informed on socioeconomic, environmental, and sustainability developments in our seafood industry.

Elephant in the Room?

Environmentally Destructive Human Activities That Take Place on Land May Ultimately Determine the Health of Our Marine Living Resources

Now is the time for the proponents of the Ecosystem Approach to Marine life Management to more fully confront the environmental damages that arise from land based human activities.  Broadly speaking, ocean ecosystems are not protected enough from the negative environmental by-products arising from our ever expanding world population as it struggles to feed, clothe, house, create products, transport, and heat/cool itself.

1.  Worldwide, runoffs of agricultural fertilizers/pesticides, industrial wastes, and sewers have caused a growing number of coastal “dead zones” where very little marine life can live due to oxygen depletion or other toxicities.  There are over 400 of these dead zones that persist or exist periodically each year around the globe.  These types of runoffs will most likely continue to increase along with our ever-growing population and create additional problems that may negatively affect the entire structure of the ocean food web.

2.  The global burning of fossil fuels, wood, and other organic matter to provide energy for a growing world population produces excessive greenhouse gases and airborne particulates that increase global warming and the acidity of our oceans.  Ocean acidification has been linked to inhibiting the ability of shellfish larvae and certain plankton to incorporate calcium into their bodies to assure their proper development and survival.  It is possible that the emerging negative consequences of ocean acidification will make all historical overfishing damages look tame by comparison. 

3.  Worldwide, people are increasingly building on marine coastlines and in riparian zones resulting in the destruction of estuaries, swamplands, marshes, mangrove forests, and watersheds.  This results in the degradation of productive coastal marine and riparian habitats that have for millions of years served as nurseries and homes to a vast diversity of aquatic life.  This continual loss of productive marine coastlines and riparian zones may prove to be much more negative in the long run than any overfishing activities currently happening around the world today.

Many environmental activists call for the establishment of marine reserves to allow for the recovery of ocean habitats that have been damaged by irresponsible fishing.  They advocate that 10% to 50% of our oceans be placed in such reserves.  They want approximately 80% of these reserves to be located near the coastlines of the world.  These marine areas, unfortunately, are where most of the negative environmental influences coming from the land-based activities of humans mentioned above tend to manifest themselves.

Without NGOs and nations taking a more aggressive role in confronting our growing world population with its concomitant environmental impacts, all our efforts to manage fisheries or to create marine reserves may ultimately prove to be too narrow-minded.  The Ecosystem Approach to Marine life Management needs to broaden its perspective to incorporate the negative environmental by-products of the land based activities of an ever-expanding world population that may reach 10 billion by the year 2050.  Now is the time to more fully confront this elephant in the room that we too often seem to ignore.