Monday, January 28, 2008PENSIVE
Business Toolbox: Lobster
JCanadian company says market a mess
“Canadian lobsters are still unfortunately undersold in the marketplace, in my opinion, because of the structure of the industry. The industry is chaotic at all levels above the fishing. The fishermen have a short access to supply; no one else does. So it's very difficult to encourage investment in the business. – Colin MacDonald of Clearwater Fine Foods, in the Halifax Daily News, Canada
Business Toolbox: What not to try at home
Sushi: Sex on a plate
Sushi making, they would have you believe, is an ancient art form descended from the gods. What it is not is slapping a slice of raw fish onto rice.
Check this from the Experience Japan website and tourism leaflet: "At a good sushi restaurant, the master chef makes the preparation look so effortless. Then, when you try to imitate him at home, you start to realise how difficult it is to make those perfectly shaped pieces of sushi.
"The art of making sushi is deep. And it's not just about appearance. A piece of sushi from the same fish will taste different whether prepared by a master chef or a well-meaning amateur."
Yeah, yeah, yadda yadda yadda, sushi, schmushi. But after two hours learning how to make it with sushi master (taisho) Eiji Hayashi in his Tokyo restaurant, I have to change my tuna. Never were truer words written. His sushi is sex on a plate; mine looks and tastes like spoor from a dying dingo.
A long table is already set up when our class of six arrives, festooned with bowls of mixed vinegar and water, bowls of ready-to-go rice (we aren't, thank God, expected to cook the rice, which is another skill entirely), bamboo sushi mats, dried seaweed (nori), wasabi and a few different slices of fish.
The idea is to learn how to make nigiri sushi (rice topped with raw fish) and makizushi (sushi rolled in dried seaweed) and then eat our own creations.
First, though, we have to wash our hands thoroughly, put on a coloured headband and an apron and dip our fingers into the water and vinegar mix. This stops the rice sticking to our fingers. Supposedly. Then we pick up a small ball of rice in the first three fingers of the right hand and use the left to shape it into the traditional sushi rice shape.
By now the taisho is falling about laughing and there is rice stuck to my eyebrows. Let's not go into the rest of the technical details (Step 6: "Turn the sushi around and make a beautiful shape") but suffice to say it is a hoot.
Some of us get the hang of this arcane art and turn out decent enough sushi, while others end up with things that could prop open a barn door and taste like they have.
Luckily, the finale also includes some of the master's own fresh, sublime sushi.
The sushi-making class costs 17,700 yen ($195), see www.j-experience.com. Other programs include Who Wants To Be A Samurai, Silk Dyeing, Japanese Calligraphy, Taiko Drumming and A Day In The Life Of A Sumo Wrestler. – Keith Austin, writing in the Sydney Morning Herald, Australia
Business Toolbox: Your customers' health
Pass the fish, hold the mercury
I consider myself an open-minded person. So just because a group attacks drunk-driving laws and anti-smoking regulations, just because it opposes replacing the junk food in school cafeterias and vending machines with healthy snacks, just because it opposed reducing the blood-alcohol level that constitutes the legal definition of drunk, and just because it calls concerns about obesity “hype,” do I dismiss its defense of mercury in tuna fish?
Of course not.
So when the Center for Consumer Freedom sent me (and probably scores of other reporters) a press release slamming the New York Times story chronicling the high mercury levels the newspaper found in tuna sushi served in New York City restaurants and sold in upscale stores, I didn’t reflexively think, “Oh, this is the group jump-started with a pile of money from a tobacco giant.” I didn’t think, “This is the group whose leader promised said tobacco company, Philip Morris, ‘to unite the restaurant and hospitality industries in a campaign to defend their consumers and marketing programs against attacks from anti-smoking, anti-drinking, anti-meat, etc. activists.’” I didn’t automatically recall the Washington Post editorial citing “documents showing that Coca-Cola, Wendy's, Tyson Foods, Cargill and Outback Steakhouse are among [founder Rick] Berman's largest donors.” I didn’t automatically recall that Berman had, as the Post reported, “accused Mothers Against Drunk Driving a. . . of ‘junk science, intimidation tactics, and even threats of violence to push their radical agenda.’” (I found those references only later.)
No, when the Center for Consumer Freedom demanded “a complete retraction” from the Times, calling their story “a completely irresponsible piece of ‘science’ journalism,” I looked into its accusations. What I found:
*The Center claims that the Food and Drug Administration’s “Action Level” for methylmercury, the form that poses the health threat, “includes a generous ten-fold safety cushion.” Implication: even though the sushi the Times tested exceeded the Action Level, don't worry.
No. The Action Level was established in the 1970s. It does not define a “safe” level of mercury. (Methylmercury can damage the brain, especially in fetuses and young children, putting them at risk for attention problems and poor language, visual-spatial, memory and coordination skills, as well as lower IQ.) The Action Level is a completely different kind of limit with the purpose of defining a mercury level—greater than 1 part per million--that makes fish “adulterated” under the law. “Adulterated” means FDA can immediately remove the food from the market. That's why it’s called an Action Level. The concept of a safety margin is incompatible with the legal concept and purpose of an Action Level.
In fact, FDA originally set the level at 0.5 ppm. But it was sued by the U.S. fishing industry, which argued that the economic impacts of that limit would be devastating. A judge agreed with the industry, and FDA had to raise the level to 1 ppm. The actual basis for the current level of 1 ppm is therefore avoiding economic impacts on the fishing industry, not safety.
More crucial, there is no single “safe” level of mercury in fish. But the Environmental Protection Agency’s reference dose, which is not a concentration like ppm but an amount of mercury consumed daily, is 0.1 micrograms per kilogram of body weight per day. That is presumably safe.
By this measure, a woman who weighs 60 kg (about 130 pounds) can consume 42 micrograms of mercury per week (0.1 ug/kg/day x 60 kg x 7 days) without exceeding the “presumably safe” dose. If she eats 4 ounces (120 grams) of fish four times a week, and the fish contains on average 0.1 ppm mercury (which would be low, given the mercury content of most fish on the market; the Times analysis found levels of .5, .6, .8 . . .up to 1.4 ppm), she would exceed the dose, getting 48 ug of mercury in a week. If she ate 16 ounces of swordfish, averaging 1 ppm, in a week, she’d ingest 480 ug of mercury, or more than 11 times what the EPA considers a red flag.
*The Center for Consumer Freedom also claims that “by definition, it’s not possible for anyone to exceed a reference dose with a single week’s worth of exposure.”
Someone needs to go back to 4th grade math. A single can of albacore tuna exceeds the weekly reference dose for a 60-kg woman (180 g x 0.36 ppm = 65 ug of mercury, and the allowed dose is 42 ug.)
*The Center for Consumer Freedom also claims that you’d have to exceed the allowed dose by 10-fold every day for your entire life to be at risk.
More nonsense. The greatest risk is to the developing fetus. We are not talking about cancer risk (which is often calculated in terms of lifetime risk and exposure.) The window during which a spike of exposure could be harmful to the developing brain might be as small as a few days, weeks at most.
All too often, people trying to balance the risks of mercury against the benefits of fish give up. Somehow we have let the tuna industry get away with claiming that if you worry about mercury you’ll lose out on the heart benefits of fish. More nonsense. A new analysis, “Hold the Mercury: How Consumers Can Avoid Mercury When Buying Fish,” by the ocean conservation group Oceana suggests lots of low-mercury fish. Tuna ain't one of them. Ocean finds that the 23 fresh tuna samples bought at grocery stores, mostly yellowfin and ahi tuna, had an average mercury content of 0.68 parts per million, in line with what the Times found. Tuna sushi tested even higher, with an average mercury content of 0.86 parts per million. One in three samples of tuna sushi was above the FDA’s action level of 1 ppm, with half the samples testing at 0.92 ppm. Says Oceana, “The mercury levels in our tuna samples were comparable to that of fish that FDA advises women of childbearing age and children to avoid.”
Oceana has asked major grocery chains to post the FDA’s mercury advisory at seafood counters, noting which species are high in mercury and which are okay. Whole Foods, Wild Oats, Trader Joe’s, Albertson’s and Safeway have; Oceana is still negotiating with Costco, Publix and A&P. – Sharon Begley writing for Newsweek
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Business Toolbox: Tough love
You’re fat and so are your kids
If you want the government, federal, state and local, to tell you what you can and cannot eat, please raise your hand. Apparently no one does except for the various politicians who think they were elected to determine what you should eat and drink.
Let’s get something straight, however. I’m fat. You’re fat. And your kids, if you have any, are probably overweight too. There are some easily understood reasons for this and economist, Eric A. Finkelstein, along with Laurie Zuckerman, tells us what they are in their new book, “The Fattening of America: How the Economy Makes Us Fat, If it Matters, and What to Do About it.”
Looking to the government for answers, however, is predictably a bad idea. Sally C. Pipes, president of the Pacific Research Institute, points out that “government data about what constitutes ‘overweight’ and ‘obese’ are misleading.” The standard metric for this is a person’s body-mass index (BMI). It is the ratio of one’s height to one’s weight. It is a measurement standard that “does not take into account an individual’s body type.” Some athletes would be categorized as obese, but their weight comes more from muscle than fat.
We keep hearing that America is in the midst of an “obesity epidemic” and this is just hype. Americans in general have put on more pounds, but an epidemic is a term applied to diseases that are quickly spread whereas the only thing spreading in America is our waistlines. It’s happening worldwide and even occurring in the world’s poorest countries. Finkelstein notes that “an astounding 1.6 billion people or roughly 25 percent of the planet’s population are (in a) higher than normal weight range, and 400 million of these are considered obese, according to a fall 2005 report by the United Nation’s World Health Organization.”
There are cultural and racial characteristics, too, that play a role in over-weight. “As was the case 30 years ago, excess weight remains more common among African-Americans and Hispanic children than among whites.” And, if the kids are fat, their parents are likely to be fat, too.
Plainly said, Americans are just eating more. “Between the late 1970s and today, men have increased their daily food intake by about 180 calories and woman have increased their daily food intake by about 360 calories.” For men that’s the equivalent of a pint of beer and, for women, it’s a four-ounce slice of chocolate cake. Over all, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), men now consuming 2,600 calories per day and woman now consume 1,900 calories daily.
A major contributing factor has been the price of food that has dropped 38 percent relative to the prices of other goods and services. Add to this that, “high-calorie foods have become much cheaper compared to healthier alternatives such as fish, fruits, and vegetables.” Fast food establishments have thrived in the U.S. and even restaurants serve large portions these days. It’s Economics 101. Cheaper food equals eating more.
In San Francisco, Mayor Gavin Newsom recently announced he intends to tax retail chains for stocking Coke, Pepsi, and other drinks sweetened with high fructose corn syrup. He is typical of politicians who (a) think raising taxes on anything is a good idea and (b) haven’t a clue about nutrition.
Henry Miller, a physician and fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, the author of “The Frankenfood Myth,” points out that “In sweetness, high-fructose corn syrup is equal in intensity to disaccharide sucrose, otherwise known as table sugar.” Moreover, “Sugar and high-fructose corn syrup also have essentially the same affect on the body’s production of insulin, which helps burn calories and lowers blood sugar.”
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Americans actually consume less high-fructose corn syrup than sugar.
As the price of corn continues to rise, thanks to the government mandates for the use of ethanol as a gasoline additive, so will the price of hundreds of thousands of food products that have relied on this sweetener. Corn syrup, for example, is about 20 percent cheaper than table sugar.
Government intervention in agricultural practices and prices, as well as energy choices, has a history of being wrong, wrong, and wrong.
The other factor that is making most of us fatter than we want to be is a lack of exercise. We burn less calories because so many of us live largely sedentary lives. Finkelstein notes that, “roughly one fourth of U.S. adults get no leisure-time activity at all.” Then add in the way technology has radically reduced energy use at work, at home, and everywhere else. We use remote control to change television channels. We cook food in microwaves. We have devices to effortlessly do most things our grandparent’s generation had to physically do such as mow the lawn, wash the car, et cetera. Or we hire illegal immigrants to do much of the physical work.
Sedentary? You bet! We spend more time sitting in cars. Fully 88 percent of us drove to work in 2000 as opposed to the 3 percent who walked or 5 percent who used public transportation. Our kids spend more time watching television or playing video games than playing outside, burning off their calories. An estimated 10 percent of high school students are completely sedentary. Constant testing and increased homework loads contribute to that. -- Alan Caruba writing in The Conservative Voice, North Carolina
Business Toolbox: Annals of culinary striving
Yes, we have no Red Lobster
Wisconsin's proud tradition of Friday night fish fries might be the reason that we don't have a Red Lobster in Wausau.
And, strange as it seems, our not having a Red Lobster might be the reason we don't have an Olive Garden.
This has been a hot topic on the Daily Herald's Web site for a couple of weeks now, since a poll asked readers what restaurants they would like to see come to the area. The top two responses: Red Lobster and Olive Garden.
Both chains are owned by Darden Restaurants, and in many cases the company does not open one in a new market without opening the other, said Dean Zuleger, the village administrator for Weston who has worked with national restaurant chains to bring new businesses to town. That's not always the case, Zuleger said, but often the company's franchise agreements come in twos.
"What we know about Red Lobster is it's very difficult for Red Lobster to compete with the central and northern Wisconsin fish fry," Zuleger said. The fish fry is a local institution and usually comes cheaper than Red Lobster entrees, he said.
Where to open a new restaurant is, of course, a business decision, but "there's no silver bullet as far as what we're looking for," said Katie Lennon, an Olive Garden spokeswoman. "It's a number of factors that align and it just works for us."
Although Lennon declined to offer specifics ("Unfortunately, unless there's a signed contract, that's the only time we can confirm our plans"), Zuleger said chains like these look for a metropolitan area of between 100,000 and 125,000, as well as proximity to traffic sources.
"It's all statistically based," Zuleger said. "They're looking at day traffic, lunch traffic. A restaurant can sustain its cash flow with dinner, but what we've learned in talking with them is that in many cases their money is made at lunch." – Wausau (Wisc.) Daily Herald
Business Toolbox: Growth strategies
Could a new IKEA be in your future?
A brief tale of a fishmonger: IKEA, which racked up $28.9 billion in global sales in the fiscal year that ended August 2007, was started by a former farm boy who started by selling fish from his bicycle in 1943. - Palm Beach Post
Wedneday, January 30, 2008
Business Toolbox: Tough love
Consumer boycott grows concerning bluefin tuna
As more and more major European retailers boycott Mediterranean Bluefin Tuna, WWF used the occasion of the Barcelona Seafood Summit to call on more to join the ban until the imperilled species is out of the danger zone.
France's Auchan group, with a nearly 14 per cent share of the retail fish trade, declared its boycott on 28 December, noting that scientists had advised a 15,000 tonne ceiling on annual catches, while the international tuna management body was allowing a 2008 quota of 29,500 tonnes.
"Moreover, each year, captures greatly exceed the fixed quotas," Auchan said in a statement outlining how the ban had been taken in line with its policy of pursuing a sustainable trade in fish.
“WWF applauds Auchan in France, Carrefour in Italy, Coop in both Italy and Switzerland, and ICA in Norway for their courageous decisions to stop selling Mediterranean bluefin tuna – and we urge other retailers to follow suit,” says Dr Sergi Tudela, Head of Fisheries at WWF Mediterranean.
“The seafood industry is waking up to its responsibilities, recognising that there is not an endless supply of fish like bluefin tuna. By taking action now, retailers can help give this amazing species a fighting chance of survival, for the benefit of both business and the marine ecosystem.”
Scientists have declared it “probable” that populations of the magnificent bluefin tuna, much prized especially for sushi in Japan, will soon collapse in the Mediterranean – unless action is taken now.
Before retailers started taking matters into their own hands, WWF had suggested to the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) meeting in November that contracting countries agree on a 3-year ban on bluefin tuna fishing, but this move was rejected.
Following massive demand in recent years – especially from Japan where Atlantic bluefin is prized for sushi – high-tech fishing fleets have hunted down, often illegally, ever-declining numbers of these migratory ocean giants. – World Wildlife Fund
Business Toolbox: Sustainability
Michelin-star chef to use only sustainable fish
LONDON – Michelin-star chef Tom Aikens, who has just been awarded his fifth AA rosette, will be turning eco-warrior on behalf of the world’s dwindling fish stocks for his third venue, the seafood-based Tom’s Place, which opens shortly in 1 Cale Street, Chelsea.
Fish will be mostly line-caught to avoid the devastation caused by trawling and will come from sustainable, Marine Stewardship Council-approved sources that include small, family boats.
Aikens will be promoting less familiar and less threatened species such as grey and red gurnard, and megrim sole fillets. Aikens will use his restaurant as an educational tool for the public and has produced a one-inch-thick booklet on the fishing industry for customers. – The Observer, London
Business Toolbox: Your product
Alaska's weathervane scallop prices down
KODIAK, Alaska – Prices were down and costs were up for those who participated in the scallop fishery this year.
Jim Stone, owner of the fishing vessel Ocean Hunter, has been in the scallop business for about 12 years. His was one of five vessels that took part in the fishery in two areas around Kodiak this year. Two of those vessels dredged scallops in the northeast area, which is divided into several sections, three in the Shelikof District.
Stone said this year was “nothing stupendous” as far as harvesting scallops went; everything was normal.
However, Stone estimates the price of scallops is down about 10 to 15 percent from last year.
While several factors can affect price, for about 20 pounds of scallops Stone said a shopper could expect to pay about $8 per pound. Compared to the retail price of $15 to $16 per pound, that’s a bargain, he said.
Stone experienced the same pains as in every other industry with rising fuel costs. Stone said fuel used to account for about 10 percent of cost. Now, it ranges between 25 and 30 percent of the cost.
With the decreased scallop price and increased fuel costs, the year was not as profitable as it could have been, though Stone still spoke positively of the harvesting.
Judging by what Stone saw during the five months or so harvesting scallops, next year should yield more. He said the fishery is looking healthier, despite the quota being much lower than what it has been in the past.
Area shellfish management biologist for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game Division of Commercial Fisheries Nicholas Sagalkin said the guidelines for harvesting scallops are based on data collected from onboard observers during the commercial fishery. Data collected this year will help set next year’s guidelines.
This year, 170,000 pounds of scallop meat could be harvested in the Shelikof District, and 90,000 pounds in the northeast area.
In both areas the amount harvested came “very close” to the guidelines, Sagalkin said. The scallop fishery closed recently.
Stone said the product is sold to a number of different buyers. Some scallops are sold locally, though the bulk are shipped to other locations, including Anchorage and Seattle.
Open access again
Scallops are harvested from beds using dredges. Sagalkin said specialized gear is required for the fishery, and there is a fair amount of technique in locating scallop beds and in shucking scallops.
A limited number of permits are issued for vessels to harvest scallops. The limited access was enacted, Sagalkin said, to keep the fishery from being exploited.
However, that legislation has a “sunset” date of 2009. After that, the fishery will become open access again in state waters unless legislators decide to continue limited access. The bill will go before the state Legislature during the current session.
Sagalkin said as it appears now, the law will not be renewed.
State legislation extends only to areas within a 3-mile range of shore. Beyond that, federal regulations must be observed. Current federal regulations require limited access to the scallop fishery.
Sagalkin said many scallop beds are split on that 3-mile line, which could complicate efforts to enforce the federal limited access regulations. – Kodiak Daily Mirror
Business Toolbox: Research
Fish oil helps criminals go straight?
LONDON – A major trial is to be launched to see whether giving young offenders nutritional supplements reduces anti-social behaviour in prison. Its authors believe this could prove a seminal piece of research with major implications for the criminal justice system.
Young offenders, including murderers, in three institutions in the UK are to be given a cocktail of vitamins, minerals and "essential fatty acids" on top of their normal prison diet.
Their behaviour will be compared with others who are given a placebo.
Researchers, funded by the Wellcome Trust, have high hopes for the million pound trial on 1,000 volunteers -- the largest of its kind -- after a much smaller study did find supplements had a favourable impact on levels of violence and ill-discipline in one institution in Aylesbury.
This is not about improving prison food, which the team believe is -- from a nutritional perspective at least -- more than satisfactory.
"The problem is that prisoners do not make good dietary choices," says Professor John Stein of Oxford University, "and that's what we're trying to overcome."
The idea that better nutrition could change behaviour is obviously an attractive one - providing a pill is both very simple and incredibly cheap. But it is not without controversy.
When Dr Hugh Sinclair persuaded the British government in 1942 to supplement children's diets with orange juice and cod liver oil, he speculated that among other ills, poor diets could lead to anti-social behaviour.
He may not have then predicted the way in which cod liver oil -- rich in an essential fatty acid called omega-3 -- would be seized from the shelves of health shops and supermarkets by a later generation of parents convinced it would help their child excel at school.
But while there is pretty much consensus within the scientific community about the protective effect these oils have on the heart, their impact upon the brain -- whether to lift depression, curb violent urges, or simply to boost concentration -- are less well documented.
Small trials on selected groups of children with disorders such as dyslexia and ADHD have shown mixed results, with small improvements seen in some participants but not others. – BBC
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Business Toolbox: Your customers' health
Fish mongers testing product for mercury
A number of restaurants and retailers in different parts of the country have started testing the fish they sell in response to concerns about the amount of mercury in seafood, and the Environmental Protection Agency is beginning to examine the mercury content in fish sold in the New York City region.
The regional office of the federal agency, which began the study because the city found high levels of mercury in the blood of New Yorkers last spring, will examine the 20 most commonly eaten fish in the region, including tuna.
Recent laboratory tests reported last week in The New York Times found so much mercury in some sushi made with tuna, particularly bluefin, that a long-term diet of even two or three pieces a week would exceed the levels considered acceptable by the Environmental Protection Agency.
The National Fisheries Institute, a trade association for some of the seafood industry, said it was sending fish sellers leaflets offering information on seafood safety. Some retailers said they also received faxes from the institute criticizing the article in The Times.
Mary Anne Hansan, the vice president of the National Fisheries Institute, said it was sending out the leaflets because “what we are hearing is a lot of consumer confusion about what to believe when it comes to seafood.” The association, she said, is letting people know about “the well-documented benefits” of seafood.
The group said that the mercury levels found in seafood eaten in the United States did not present a health risk. But many scientists suggest that it is best for people to choose fish with low mercury levels and high levels of beneficial fatty acids. – New York Times
Business Toolbox: Your supply
Grouper fishermen say you’ll get no more fish
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – Federal regulators took preliminary steps to reduce gag grouper fishing in the Gulf of Mexico by 45 percent, a severe cutback that could cripple commercial fisherman and the charter boat industry.
The proposed restrictions would close down recreational grouper fishing for three months in the winter, just when tourists arrive.
Commercial fisherman would face a quota on gag for the first time, with limits tight enough to shut down the entire grouper fleet every year by October or so -- forcing restaurants and consumers to rely on imports.
The cuts would spill over to other grouper species as well, because grouper swim together, and it's impossible to protect one species without inadvertently cracking down on others.
"This will cost the state of Florida $300 million in direct expenditures,'" said Dennis O'Hern, director of a recreational advocacy group called the Fishermen's Rights Alliance.
With a bag limit of only one gag and only nine months to fish for any kind of grouper, anglers will not sink $20,000 or $30,000 into offshore boats and spend hundreds of dollars in fuel to go bottom fishing, O'Hern said. Tourists will not spend $1,000 to hire a charter boat.
"This is going to kill us," said Tarpon Springs charter boat captain Ed Walker. Migratory fish like king mackerel, cobia and tarpon hang out in warmer southern waters during the winter, he said. Red snapper, another popular offshore bottom fish, is already under tight restriction because of dwindling stocks.
"Essentially they have left us nothing to fish for during the peak tourist season," Walker said.
Federal law leaves regulators little choice. Biological studies indicate that the gulf's gag grouper stock is being fished at unsustainable levels. Regulators are required to impose restrictions to protect the fish.
Though the gulf holds dozens of grouper species, gag and red grouper are the two most important. Gag is the preferred target of recreational anglers. It migrates close to shore and even into Tampa Bay during the winter, which gives people with smaller boats a chance to catch it when weather cooperates.
Commercial fishermen have historically caught more red grouper, but gag has made up about one-third of the catch in recent years. Restaurants often charge a premium for gag because many people think it tastes and flakes better than red grouper. Menus often label gag as "black grouper" because it sounds better. -- St. Petersburg Times
Business Toolbox: Your supply
And here's why grouper to disappear from the market
This also appeared in our Fish Wrap service..
To the Editor:
“Until All the Fish Are Gone” (editorial, Jan. 21), about the economic and ecological costs of overfishing, did not include nations like the United States, Australia, Iceland, Canada and New Zealand, which have implemented effective policies to end overfishing and rebuild stocks.
The United States is eliminating overfishing on stocks, resulting in enormous economic benefits to our nation. In 2006, 25 percent of American. stocks were overfished, which, although excessive, pales in comparison to more than 80 percent for fisheries controlled by the European Union.
New amendments to the federal Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act require that overfishing be eliminated by 2010 for all domestic stocks. But the United States still needs its international partners to do their part for bluefin tuna, sharks and other species that migrate.
Healthy fish stocks support thousands of jobs in several sectors of the economy from commercial and recreational fishing to import/export businesses. Consumers worldwide would benefit from consistent national policies to eliminate overfishing and rebuild all depleted populations. -- Steven A. Murawski, director of scientific programs, NOAA, writing to the New York Times
Business Toolbox: Your supply
Here's why grouper must be protected?
About a fifth of the world's fish landings are illegal and the proportion is increasing, adding to the global problem of declining fish stocks, scientists have said.
The global illegal catch is reckoned at between £1 and £4.5 billion a year, according to a study carried out for the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.
The body also known as the World Conservation Union said declining fish stocks and growing consumer demand for marine food were encouraging corrupt fishing practices and even the false labelling of products as "eco-fish".
Research showed there were incidents of officials taking bribes, of renaming and mislabelling of fish products, of illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing, exceeding of quotas, piracy and harassment of observers.
Corruption in fisheries ranged from the fishermen themselves right up to officials and governments on a national and international level.
Ahead of a meeting in Washington on fisheries and corruption organised by the IUCN and hosted by the World Bank, a briefing paper for the conservation organisation said illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing accounted for an estimated 16 million tonnes in 2002.
It is getting worse as wild-caught fish become scarcer and demand grows, the IUCN warned.
According to the international conservation group, corruption undermines scientific monitoring of fisheries because it means official estimates for how much fish is being removed from the seas are lower than actual figures.
As a consequence, those managing fisheries are likely to set quotas that are too high to be sustainable.
The IUCN is calling for better enforcement of current rules, better tracing and labelling of fish and the introduction of satellite tracking of fishing vessels to cut corruption.
Carl Gustaf Lundin, the organisation's head of global marine programme, said: "The large-scale occurrence of corruption adds insult to injury.
"The world's global fish stocks are already severely depleted and this is just making the situation worse."
Andrew Hurd, programme deputy head, added: "Scientists' evidence is not being taken into consideration when it comes to management decisions on fisheries and quotas.
"Fisheries managers should be held accountable when ignoring scientific evidence."
The paper by researchers at the University of British Columbia (UBC), Canada, said corruption can be found throughout the industry from the international level down to the ships on the water.
In many instances fishers exceed quotas, discard much of the catch and mislabel their haul to dodge regulations, while some have been caught smuggling illegally caught fish hidden under legitimate catches.
Juvenile fish are also frequently caught and in some cases used as bait instead of being released, the research said.
In England, fishermen had been known to re-label excess cod as "ling" to get it ashore.
Middlemen are also mislabelling fish as sustainably caught, which undermines the work of genuine "eco-fish" campaigns, adds to the degradation of fisheries and can have adverse effects on human health, the researchers said. – Telegraph, U.K.
Friday, February 1, 2008
Business Toolbox: Sports Page
Off the field, chowders battle to fill super
Friendly kitchen rivalry is as much a part of Super Bowl tradition as elaborate halftime shows. This year's match — the New York Giants against the New England Patriots — is made in culinary heaven, pitting cream-based New England Clam Chowder against the tomato-based Manhattan version.
As with so many rivalries, the more similar the opponents, the fiercer the fight. Both chowders call for mostly the same ingredients: salt pork or bacon, potatoes, onions and often celery, and clams. The difference? New England-style uses milk and cream; Manhattan-style uses tomatoes.
The contest dates back decades. In his Dictionary of American Food and Drink, John Mariani quotes author Eleanor Early, who in 1940 decried the "terrible pink mixture (with tomatoes in it, and herbs), called Manhattan Clam Chowder, that is only a vegetable soup and not to be confused with New England Clam Chowder, nor spoken of in the same breath."
Oddly, Manhattan Clam Chowder is thought to have originated in Rhode Island, an assertion that makes sense. Rhode Island has a large Portuguese community; in Portuguese fish stews, tomatoes and seafood go together like hype and game day.
Nobody knows how it came to be associated with Manhattan, but by the turn of the last century, the city's storied Delmonico's restaurant served Manhattan Clam Chowder — and today, the equally celebrated Grand Central Oyster Bar is famous for its rendition. – Houston Chronicle
Business Toolbox: Vacuuming up the ocean
Krill harvest expands into health supplements
The company harvests krill, tiny shrimp-like invertebrate animals, which are used to make oil and food products for the aquaculture and animal feed industry.
However, Aker Biomarine hopes the little shrimps will turn into a gold mine because they also contain bioactive materials that can be used in dietary supplements for better health and to prevent heart disease.
Four years ago, the company started trawling for live krill in the frigid waters along the edge of Antarctica. It has developed a specially outfitted ship that has an advanced factory onboard for processing the health-promoting ingredients – phospholipids and astaxanthin – from live krill.
The company has also developed its own trawling technology to pioneer live-krill fishing in the Antarctic.
The krill fishing is somewhat controversial, however, as they are an important part of the food chain for many animals, birds, and fish.
Aker BioMarine plans to launch its first nutritional supplement from the live krill, featuring high concentrations of Omega-3, in March. – Aftenposten, Norway
Business Toolbox: Your customers’ health
Pregnant women urged to eat oily fish
Pregnant women should eat at least two portions of oily fish per week to give children the best start in life, peers have said.
Women should increase their intake of oily fish to help their unborn baby's brain develop, an all-party group recommended.
At present, the Food Standards Agency (FSA) says expectant mothers should eat at least two servings of fish a week, including one of oily fish.
The Associate Parliamentary Food and Health Forum said this should be increased.
In a wide-ranging report on the importance of nutrition, the group also called for more research into the link between poor diet and crime rates, aggression, depression and poor school performance.
It wants the government to promote healthy breakfast clubs in schools and give children free breakfasts if they already get free lunches.
Its report added: "We recommend that more research to test the effect of selected essential fatty acids on the cognitive skills, mood and behaviour of both "healthy" children (that is, children suffering from no known disorders), as well as children suffering from a range of behavioural disorders should be undertaken. -- The Press Association, U.K.
Business Toolbox: Stewardship
Estate owner wants to give fish farms the boot
An estate owner has said a fish farm threatens his plans to attract tourists and restore wild fish stocks.
Marine Harvest wants to renew and modify its lease for the site on Loch a'Choire, Lochaber.
Kurt Larson, who owns Kingairloch Estate, has told Highland Council he will defer plans involving thousands of pounds of investment if it is renewed.
Council officers have recommended that the lease be given go-ahead, but for a smaller area and with conditions.
The Crown Estate, which has the final say on the plan, has consulted the local authority's Ross, Skye and Lochaber planning application and review committee. – BBC
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