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EU May Ban Fish Dumping
BRUSSELS -- The European Union is preparing for the introduction of a ban on dumping fish catch to sea.
Environmental organizations welcome the decision, which is expected to help stagger pressure on marine environments. At the same time, the environmentalists stress that more still needs to be done in order to stop overfishing in the Barents Sea. Norway has for many years had a ban on dumping of fish catch to sea. Environmentalists now cheer over the EU’s apparent intention to follow suit. Figures from the World Wildlife Fund indicate that as much as one million tons of fish annually is dumped to sea in European waters. EU authorities this week presented a pilot project on the issue. - NKR Feds Want Relaxed Labeling of Irradiated Products WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is proposing to revise its labeling regulations for irradiated foods, suggesting some irradiated foods could now be labeled as "pasteurized".The proposed rule aims to provide consumers with "more useful" information than the current regulation. Irradiation works by exposing foods to ionizing radiation that kills insects, molds and bacterium. The technology, which can kill up to 99% of pathogens, is seen by the industry as a means of ensuring food safety. However public concerns over the health effects of the technology has meant global food companies have had to deal with a confusing thicket of legislation and restrictions when making and marketing their products. The US currently requires all single-ingredient irradiated foods sold in stores to be labeled as "treated with irradiation" and to carry the 'radura' symbol. Under the FDA's proposed labeling revisions, only those irradiated foods in which the irradiation causes a material change in the food, would bear the radura logo and the term "irradiated" or a derivative thereof, in conjunction with a description of the change in the food. FDA is also proposing to allow a firm to petition for use of an alternate term to "irradiation" (other than "pasteurized"). Currently the US has roughly 50 irradiation facilities, used mainly for medical supplies and other non-food items. According to a report published last year by Food & Water Watch, food irradiation is unpopular among consumers in the country, in part because of federal labeling rules. However, in the fall of 2006, food irradiation received renewed media attention in the US following the E coli outbreak in spinach from California. - Food USA Fisherman Pulls in Ancient Alaska Rockfish ANCHORAGE -- A commercial fishing boat has pulled up what could have been one of the oldest creatures in Alaska - a giant rockfish estimated to be about a century old.The 44-inch, 60-pound female shortraker rockfish was caught last month by the catcher-processor Kodiak Enterprise, owned by Trident Seafoods, south of the Pribilof Islands in the Bering Sea. The 275-foot, Seattle-based vessel was trawling for pollock at 2,100 feet. On one drag, the ship's big net pulled up an estimated 75 tons of pollock plus 10 bright-orange rockfish. Crewmen alerted Michael Myers, factory manager of the Kodiak Enterprise. He has fished in the Bering Sea since 1988 but never saw a rockfish that big. Myers is a regular at show and tell time at his sons' school. He immediately thought that he'd save the fish for federal researchers - after the elementary school children got a look at it. "I thought, 'They're going to love that,'" he said from his home in Marysville, Wash. Myers ordered the big rockfish to be frozen whole. Their enthusiastic reaction was subdued, Myers said, compared to the reaction by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration scientists at the Alaska Fisheries Science Center in Seattle. "They were like 9-year-olds on Christmas morning," Myers said. "They were giddy." Researchers estimate the rockfish was 90 to 115 years old. - Associated Press Arctic Ice Continues to Shrink ANCHORAGE-- Arctic sea ice this winter just missed setting the record for fewest square miles covered since monitoring by satellite began, according to University of Colorado researchers.The university's National Snow and Ice Data Center has measured ocean waters covered by at least 15% ice since 1979. "This year's wintertime low extent is another milestone in a strong downward trend," said researcher Walt Meier. "We're still seeing near-record lows (in sea ice) and higher-than-normal temperatures, and we expect this downward trend to continue in future years." He also suggested that predictions of sea ice decline expected Friday from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change may be conservative. Actual measurements are showing a steeper decline in the amount of sea ice that what models used by the panel predicted. "It appears that the models are not capturing something that's going on," Meier said. Declining sea ice has been blamed on higher winter temperatures in the Arctic, a result of rising greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and strong natural variability in the ice, Meier said. In the late 1970s and the early 1980s, a typical March measurement or Arctic sea ice would show it covering 6.4 million square miles, Meier said. That's been reduced in recent years by at least 600,000 square miles, an area more than double the size of Texas. Overall, the trend since 1979 shows sea ice decline throughout the Arctic at all longitudes. IPCC models show the Arctic Ocean could be ice free in summers by 2070. "Our data suggests it could easily happen by 2050 if current trends continue," Meier said. - Associated Press Hissy Fit: New NYC Fish Restaurant Big Apple restaurant tycoon Jeffrey Chodorow recently inspired headlines with his feud with New York Times food critic Frank Bruni. Now, a new battlefield has been declared with the opening of Chodorow’s latest entry into the trade: Wild Salmon. Here’s a review from a guy named Josh, writing for a blog called Gawker, featuring “daily Manhattan media news and gossip. Reporting live from the center of the universe.”In the same cavernous space that held the inappropriately named English is Italian (turns out English is the New Failure), Jeffrey Chodorow's newest restaurant Wild Salmon opened to the public Good Friday. Last night, So-So Thursday, we tried it out. It seems to be a Chodorow signature these days to have weird whatnots hanging from the ceiling. Instead of Kobe Club's swords, Wild Salmon features a school of 249 copper injection-mold salmon hanging by fishing line from the ceiling. Caught in the wild race upstream, the mildly abstracted fish bring to mind gilded spermatazoa. One is surprised not to find a giant ovum on one end of the restaurant. The menu, typically Chodorowian, is a 12"x17" sheet of heavy parchment. The Rosetta Stone is only slightly larger. As expected, salmon comes in all its variants: Alaskan King, Coho, Sockeye, Smoked, grilled, cedar planked, bronze seared, poached or en papillote. Throw in some Wagyu for $85, creamed corn and about a hundred other things and you get the idea. There were some hits (a delicious black cod, a surprisingly strong short rib entree) and some misses (smoked scallops, unhappily salty salmon). When we went, the room was filled with food journalists and bloggers, happy for the cocktails, the pandering and the free dinner—you can bet the day-to-day clientele will be much better dressed, richer and more appreciative. Be that as it may, there's plenty to roll one eyes about. Though the ingredients are fresh and expertly prepared, they feel asphyxiated by pretension in presentation. Then there's the elephant in the room, looming larger than the salmon and weighing heavy on the mind of both Chef Ramsmeyer and Capo Chodorow: Bruni Brundle v. Choad, one of the more epic battles in the catty world of chef v. critic. Times critic Frank Bruni already seems to dislike Chodorow's moremoremore aesthetic. (Higher prices, more decor, bigger menus!) It's like Mondo Restaurant. And Chodorow, well, he hates being disliked. So what of Wild Salmon? As we mapped out previously there are three essential possibilites. Bruni loves, hates, or ignores. Having met The Choad for the first time last night and having eaten ostensibly the best the restaurant can offer, we're going to say it would be best if Bruni steered clear. More likely is that the critic will visit and throw the place a star. Bruni, sensibly uncaring about the "feud," will in that case have turned the other cheek and Chodorow, as Chodorow likes to do, will stridently claim he makes restaurants not for critics, but for the people. Just not for the salmon. – Gawker Lobster Price Chokes Diners BOSTON -- Management has yanked the lobster from the menu at Courthouse Seafood Restaurant in Cambridge. Waiters at Bay Bridge Restaurant in Salem have been advising customers to try a more affordable option, such as the seafood bake with steamers and clam chowder. Diners who have glimpsed the prices at Turner Fisheries in Boston have walked out.An unprecedented shortage of lobsters has hit New England hard, chefs and lobstermen say, and the results have not been pretty. Restaurants, grappling with wholesale prices that have nearly doubled since Christmas, have been passing on costs to customers, losing money, or banishing lobsters altogether. In a region that is as passionate about lobster as it is about the Red Sox, the shortage is causing consternation. "I hate to say it, but we've added a surcharge on the lobsters; we've raised the prices three times in the past 10 days," said chef Bill Coyne of Union Oyster House in Boston, where the menu price for a 1 1/2-pound boiled lobster is $31.95, up from the usual $27.95. At Turner Fisheries, diners looking to crack into big 3 1/2-pound lobsters must shell out $115. Local lobstermen point the finger of blame northward, to Canada, which they say typically stocks lobsters through the winter and sells them to the United States and Europe. This year, lobstermen say, Canada's stocks have been thinner than normal, and what little the country does have, it has been shipping overseas, where the profit margins are larger. Locally, the lobster-rich waters off Massachusetts have been so cold that lobstermen say they have not set down their traps, and those who have are hauling in paltry catches. "There's a real shortage of lobsters in the whole system right now," said Sooky Sawyer, a Gloucester lobsterman and first vice president of the Massachusetts Lobstermen's Association. Lobstermen and chefs expressed optimism that prices will come down in the coming weeks, as more local lobstermen return to the sea. – Boston Globe Crawfish Boom in the South LAYFAYETT, LA -- To prepare for the busy Easter weekend, André Leger loaded up on crawfish all day Thursday - 76,819 pounds worth.It's not all for Leger - It's for his customers at Chez François seafood shop on Tissington Street. He said it's been an incredible year for crawfish sales, the best in his 32 years of business. "Talking to fisherman, they never seen what they seen in the last two weeks," Leger said. "They can't raise the traps out of the water there's so much in it. They're catching crawfish like they don't know what to do with." The tradition of crawfish boils on Good Friday and Easter Sunday usually account for one-third of all crawfish sales in April. This year has been a mirror opposite of last year, when a drought caused the crawfish supply to drop. Good rain at the right times and a cold winter caused the early season catch to be small but led to a bountiful supply of crawfish right around this time. Leger calls it almost an overpopulation of crawfish. "Our good, cold winter means they don't feed in your trap. They just sit down tight and reproduce by the millions," Leger said. "Now, six to eight weeks later, those are big enough to catch in a trap." At Louisiana Crawfish Time on Verot School Road, owner Edward Wilkerson said the demand always has been high, but this year's endless supply makes a difference. That high supply means Leger didn't have to raise prices this year, the first time in three years, he said. He has priced 35-pound sacks at $30 and $45 each. Wilkerson is selling three-pound boiled orders for $12.95, five pounds for $19.95 and 10 pounds for $37.95. - Daily Advertiser, Lafayette, La. Gulf Agencies Argue Over Gillnet Ban MOBILE, Ala. -- Arguing that scientific evidence proves that gillnets harm coastal ecosystems, the head of saltwater fisheries in Texas recently wrote a letter to Alabama officials saying he was "astounded that this debate continues."The March 26 letter from Texas fisheries director Larry McKinney provided state data collected between 1975 and 2005 that shows overall fish populations and the number of species found have increased substantially since Texas banned all gillnets in 1988. Alabama is the last Gulf state that allows widespread use of gillnets year round. After Rep. Jamie Ison, R-Mobile, sponsored a bill to ban Alabama's gillnets last month, her local delegation colleague, Rep. Spencer Collier, R-Irvington, vowed to filibuster any such bill. The first ever quotas on the gillnetters will be imposed this year, designed to cut the harvest by a third or more, allowing recreational anglers more mackerel per year. Alabama's commercial fishermen argue that banning nets doesn't mean sports anglers will catch more fish, even if there are more fish to be caught. Figures from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission show that for some species, such as speckled trout, the commercial catch has declined by 94% since that state’s 1995 ban, but the recreational catch has only increased by 3%. For other species, such as pompano, the Florida’s commercial catch has declined by 54%, while the recreational catch has increased by 378%. Regardless of catch rates, the Texas data shows there are more fish swimming in state waters since gill nets were banned. McKinney reacted with surprise when told that 120 Alabama gillnetters brought in 900,000 pounds of Spanish mackerel last year. What we did was go to the recreational guys and say, 'Is this important enough to you to buy them out?' They decided it was and so we added a fee to every fishing license to pay for it." Ison's bill includes a call for a buyout of the netters but offers no method or funding source to pay for the endeavor. Studies conducted by North Carolina officials in that state's estuaries found that the nets caught 49 fish species, with about 61% of those fish being the few species that net fishermen were targeting, including flounder, mullet, trout, croaker and spot. Lobbyist Beth Marietta Lyons, representing Alabama's commercial netters and seafood processors in their fight against a ban, argued that the reason fish stocks have come back so strongly in Texas was because they were poorly managed prior to the net ban there. Others, including University of South Alabama marine biologists John Dindo and Bob Shipp, have argued that Alabama's fish stocks are not being managed properly, and blame the most liberal gillnet laws on the Gulf Coast for a "localized depletion" of fish in Mobile Bay and along Alabama's Gulf beaches. – Alabama Press-Register Times Tough on Mid-Coast Salmon Trollers PRINCETON-BY-THE-SEA, CA — Every few months, a fishing boat that once belonged to a commercial fisherman is towed onto a beach at Pillar Point Harbor. There it sits with broken hull, peeling paint and rusty nails until it is hauled away to the landfill.Pillar Point fisherman Don Pemberton has watched dozens of boats belonging to his fellow fishermen abandoned for the landfill because their owners couldn't pay their berth rent. Many boats, he believes, are casualties of annual restrictions placed on catching salmon, once the top crop at the harbor. This year's season promises to be considerably less restrictive than last year's, when nearly all salmon fishing was prohibited along 700 miles of the Oregon and California coast because of three straight years in which the numbers of spawning salmon returning to the Klamath River were low. Klamath River salmon now appear to be rebounding strongly, and many restrictions probably will be eased this spring by the Pacific Fishery Management Council. The recent announcement that the commercial salmon season will open May 1 is reason enough for cheer, considering the entire coastal region north of Monterey was closed to commercial fishermen in June and July — two of the most lucrative months. The recreational salmon season opened Saturday. "We think there's many more fish in the ocean this year than last year. That was one of the most restricted seasons we've had," said Eric Chavez, a natural resource management specialist with the NOAA Marine Fisheries Service. But the good news may be too little, too late. Times are tough for the entire West Coast salmon fleet, which during the past two decades has shrunk to half of what it used to be. The total West Coast catch in 2006 was 1,761 tons, or just 12 percent of a typical year, according to the Pacific Fishery Management Council. The U.S. Commerce Department put the losses to fishermen at $16 million. Pemberton and his fellow fishermen await further news of limits on how many pounds of salmon they can catch this year, and which areas will be off-limits. Accounting for weather and other events, Pemberton predicted he would see no more than 15 days of decent salmon fishing per month. "Believe me, that's a big increase from what it's been. We're ecstatic about that," he said, dryly. Pemberton, 52, has been fishing for salmon out of Pillar Point Harbor since 1978. Back then, salmon were a big part of his annual catch — and his livelihood. Now he protects his bottom line by fishing for crab, rockfish, cod and other species. "Pretty much everyone has been forced to diversify — you can't just fish salmon or crab. I can't tell you if I'm going to make $500 or $500,000 in salmon (a year)," said Pemberton. The demographics at the harbor have shifted over time to reflect these changes. Only 113 of the 300 slips are filled with commercial fishing boats, which used to be in the majority. Of those, only 30 boats belong to full-time fishermen, Harbormaster Dan Temko said. "There was definitely a time when there were a couple hundred full-time fishing boats in the harbor. There were a number of young guys getting into the fishery," said Temko, who came to the harbor in 1985. These days, he said, "I can count on one hand how many young guys I know who bought boats in the past three years — the industry is really a skeleton of what it once was." Each year at Pillar Point, fishermen abandon boats they cannot afford to maintain or keep tied up to a dock. Some are sent to the junkyard, while others are seized by credit agencies, Temko said. Meanwhile, fewer boat trips mean fewer jobs for deckhands. Princeton has also lost one of three local seafood processors that operate out of the harbor, part of a larger trend affecting processors along the West Coast. Fishermen have little hope of recovering their losses from last year. Legislation that would have awarded them $5 million in grants and $20 million for a zero-interest loan program died in the state Senate last summer. A long-awaited $60.4 million congressional aid package for California fishermen also looks likely to fail this session: It is tied to an Iraq war funding measure that President Bush has said he will veto because it includes a timetable for withdrawing U.S. troops. As if the situation weren't challenging enough, the San Mateo County Harbor District recently proposed increasing berth rental fees at both Pillar Point Harbor and Oyster Point Harbor by up to 18 percent for some fishermen. Full-time commercial fishermen would likely pay less than others under the harbor district's proposal, which is aimed at balancing its budget, according to district General Manager Peter Grenell. Sport and commercial fishermen have come together to oppose the proposal, which will go through changes before a final vote in late May or early June. - San Mateo County Times Seafood Merchant Jailed for Korean Clams KITAKYUSHU, Japan -- The president of a seafood company in Sanyoonoda, Yamaguchi Prefecture, and seven employees were arrested for allegedly importing North Korean clams in February without authorization, law enforcement authorities said.The Japan Coast Guard and Yamaguchi Prefectural Police suspect that Toen Boeki K.K. President Noboru Fujioka, his brother and company executive Yoshio Fujioka, and six other employees imported littleneck clams from North Korea and sold them as Chinese products. Clams are subject to Japan's economic sanctions on North Korea. Eleven crew members of a Chinese cargo ship, which allegedly imported the clams, were also served with arrest warrants. The company has said it has ordered shipments of Chinese clams but never ordered North Korean products. The company is suspected of commissioning the 207-ton Chinese freighter Hai Xing 3 to import around 55 tons of clams loaded at a North Korean port and importing them to Japan through Shimonoseki port in Yamaguchi Prefecture on Feb. 22 by claiming they were Chinese. Eleven crew members and skipper Liu Mingguo, 58, of the freighter were arrested by the Japan Coast Guard when it entered Shimonoseki port in March for allegedly declaring that they came directly from China when in fact they stopped over at a South Korean port. The coast guard raided Toen Boeki on March 22 and has been combing through computer data and other evidence they seized. Japan has banned imports of all North Korean products since October as part of its sanctions after Pyongyang said Oct. 9 it had conducted a nuclear test. - Kyodo Mass Gov Declares Fishery Disaster BBOSTON — Gov. Deval Patrick yesterday requested federal assistance for the state's fishing communities, saying new regulations that strictly curtailed days at sea had created a "true economic disaster" for fishermen.Federal restrictions on groundfishing put in place last year have cost Massachusetts $22 million, the state said in a request for an economic disaster declaration. The application was filed with U.S. Commerce Secretary Carlos M. Gutierrez. "Everyone agrees that the stocks of groundfish in the waters off the coast of Massachusetts need to be replenished," Gov. Patrick said in a written statement. "Everyone also agrees that the fishing industry needs to remain part of the life of the commonwealth. The revenue declines experienced by fishing communities represent a true economic disaster." Paul Diodati, the director of the state Division of Marine Fisheries, said it would be premature to say how much aid the state might get, what type, and what it might mean to individual fishermen. Last year, Congress reauthorized the Magnuson-Stevens Act that governs commercial fishing, specifically allowing relief to be sought based on the economic impact of regulations. "The state has made a compelling case to support a fishery disaster declaration, and I urge the Department of Commerce to provide the declaration as quickly as possible, so that immediate steps can be taken to remedy the economic losses," Diodati said. So far, Gutierrez has not said how he might act on the declaration. First, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration would have to declare that there was a fisheries resource disaster beyond the ability of fisheries managers to mitigate. A disaster declaration would allow Congress to appropriate money for relief. The federal government provided $60 million in disaster assistance to groundfishermen after the collapse of fishing stocks in 1994 and 1995. It included direct aid, retraining and vessel and permit buyouts. Priscilla Brooks, the director of the Conservation Law Foundation's ocean conservation program, said the short-term relief to fishermen would not solve the bigger problem — a lack of fish. The National Marine Fisheries Service in November passed regulations to prevent overfishing and keep rebuilding programs on track for cod, yellowtail flounder and other declining groundfish stocks. The state of Massachusetts is challenging the new federal regulations in U.S. District Court. - South Coast (Massachusetts) Today New Chodorov Restaurant in NYC Editor’s note: Jeffrey Chodorow opens another restaurant in New York City, and volleys of astonishment and abuse thunder across Manhattan. The latest:NEW YORK -- Wild Salmon opened Friday. What does it serve raw? Salmon. What does it serve smoked? Salmon. What does it serve grilled, baked in paper, poached, seared or planked? Salmon. What did our nice waiter recommend? Kobe beef. (And salmon.) Welcome to the latest Manhattan venture by Jeffrey Chodorow. To be fair, our waiter didn't say Kobe beef. The chap merely pointed at the priciest section of the menu and remarked: “You just can't beat these steaks.” They are “Washington Wagyu” and cost $50 and $85 apiece. If that sounds like a typical Chodorow “upsell,” it is. But if you think this is a typical Chodorow venue, you're wrong. His global assortment of restaurants, past and present, have hosted a reality television show, cage dancers, all-you-can-eat extravaganzas, waiters pushing $100 entrees and nearly naked women flying in harnesses. Then came the Kobe Club Affair. New York Times critic Frank Bruni recently panned Chodorow's New York temple to outrageously expensive beef. The restaurateur responded by defending Kobe Club and questioning Bruni's credentials -- in a full-page Times ad. If the Kobe Club ruckus was Chodorow at his most, Wild Salmon is him at his least. In other words, the menu is reasonably priced and largely gimmick-free, courtesy of former Seattle chef Charles Ramseyer, who's largely ego-free. The raw bar includes West Coast oysters that don't often appear on East Coast menus, such as Hama Hama, Malaspina and Kushi. Dungeness crab? It's shelled, chowdered, cocktailed, ceviched, stewed and raviolied. We sampled the pasta version, a tad sweeter than everyday lobster ravioli, with a tarragon broth. Still, a restaurant called Wild Salmon will draw its laurels from that pink-fleshed fish. Here are some tasting notes from the restaurant's opening night: Coho: simply grilled, with a mild flavor, for fans of farmed salmon. Sockeye: full flavored, almost fruity, cooked medium rare on a cedar plank. King: moist, rich and buttery, thanks to gentle cooking en papillote. Cheese course? Try cheddar ice cream (don't worry, it doesn't taste like cheddar), a perfect match for your pinot noir ice cream. Dinner for three, which also included a smoked salmon platter, two Washington state beers and three glasses of wine, cost $255. Wild Salmon is at 622 Third Ave., at 40th St. Information: +1-212-404-1700. – Bloomberg How the Other 90% Live Editor’s note: From the hallowed halls of gastronome to more plebian pursuits, we thought you might like to know what senior citizens in Nashua, N.H., are eating this week.Monday: Kielbasa or beef ragout, buttered noodles, creamed corn, braised cabbage, pumpernickel bread, chocolate chip cookie. Tuesday: Asian chicken thighs, vegetable fried rice, oriental blend vegetables, wheat bread, fortune cookie, pineapple. Wednesday: Stuffed chicken with supreme sauce, roasted red bliss potatoes, broccoli casserole, snowflake roll, chocolate raspberry layer cake. Thursday: Penne pasta with meatballs and sauce, Parmesan cheese, Italian zucchini, beef barley soup, garlic roll, apple crisp with topping. Friday: Meat and cheese casserole or seafood quiche, peas, mushrooms and onions, salad with dressing, honey wheat roll, orange. Note: Weekend meals will be available, although The Telegraph did not receive menus for those days. Saturday and Sunday meals are usually delivered Thursdays. – Nashua (N.H.) Telegraph Climate Changing Japan Catches OSAKA -- Like the blooming of cherry trees, the arrival of ikanago, or tiny sand eels, marks the start of spring in Japan.But this year, fishermen are reporting ikanago catches as small as one-tenth the volume of last year. The eels are larger than usual, posing a challenge for chefs who've had to adapt their menus to suit the bigger fish. The changes are just some of the irregularities being reported by people in the seafood industry who say the unseasonably warm winter has produced some decidedly queer fish. In Osaka Bay, fishermen are catching oversized aji horse mackerel. Specialists say full-grown mackerel that have wintered in the bay are very rare. "Maybe the mackerel got the seasons mixed up due to the warm winter and never left the bay," a fisherman in Kobe said. According to the Akashiura Fishermen's Cooperative Association in Akashi, Hyogo Prefecture, local amagarei flounder were a lot bigger than normal this winter, and nori seaweed cultivated in local waters was thriving. According to the Osaka Prefectural Fisheries Experimental Station, now the Research Institute of Environment, Agriculture and Fisheries, the water temperature in the bay was consistently high since mid-January, with the temperature exceeding the average by over 3 degrees on some days. Besides changes in fish size and haul volume, some fisheries are noticing a change in seasons, too. The kanburi haul was disappointing up to December, but soon after January, the catch began to increase, and the season continued until the end of February. Kochi Prefecture is famed for its delicious katsuo bonito. This year, fresh hatsu-gatsuo, the first bonito of the season, has arrived late, and there are fewer fish than normal. – Asahi Chinese Market Captures Fishermen’s Interest MCKAY, New Zealand – Fishermen have turned their backs on catching home-grown seafood in favor of supplying the lucrative Chinese demand for live coral trout.The change has forced fishmongers like David Caracciolo, from the Mackay Fish Market, to stock his shop with overseas imports such as mixed reef and snapper from Papua New Guinea (PNG) and white snapper from Bali. Caracciolo warned that consumers wanting to buy fresh Mackay reef fish could expect to pay through the nose if the trend away from fishing in Mackay waters continued. Commercial fisherman Les Pollard said live coral trout could fetch up to $40/kg in Hong Kong and China compared to $10/kg when dead. He blamed the rising cost of taking a boat to sea for the move away from catching cheap regional fish plus the snowball result of restrictive green zones and people leaving the industry for the mines. The number of reef fishing boats in Mackay had dropped in recent years from 40 to 17 and the number of fishermen had fallen 50%, he said. But it cost about $10,000 for an eight-day fishing trip which meant boats needed to bring in at least $30,000 worth of fish. - Daily Mercury, Mackay, NZ News: Founder of Nation’s Largest Fish Smoker Dies NEW YORK -- Rubin Caslow, who died Sunday at 86, built his father-in-law's Greenpoint factory into the largest fish smoker in the nation, with customers including such temples to lox as Zabar's, Barney Greengrass, and Russ & Daughters.Caslow was chairman of Acme Smoked Fish Corp., which annually brines, smokes, slices, and distributes more than 7 million pounds of salmon, whitefish, and herring nationwide. The company was begun in 1954 by Caslow's father-in-law, Harry Brownstein, who worked as a horse-powered wagon jobber, delivering wholesale fish to stores from the turn of the 20th century. Brownstein started several short-lived fish companies in the 1930s and 1940s, then founded Acme. Acme now operates out of an 80,000-square-foot facility that includes tanks for brining and a giant forced-air smoker. Each of the company's several dozen products is certified kosher with the exception of sturgeon, a fish whose kashruth is a matter of long-standing rabbinic dispute. Rubin Caslow, the son of Russian immigrants, grew up in Bedford-Stuyvesant and attended Samuel J. Tilden High School. After marrying Harry Brownstein’s daughter, Charlotte, who survives him, Rubin started out as a deliveryman at Acme. He soon became a manager. - New York Sun News: Seafood Firm Pressured to Cut Ties with Whalers WASHINGTON -- Global environment groups have urged a top US sushi meat supplier to pressure its new Japanese partner, seafood dealer Kyokuyo, to cease its controversial whale meat trade.Kyokuyo recently partnered with True World Foods to begin marketing its new frozen sushi product in the United States as early as this summer. But Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), Humane Society International (HSI) and the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) urged American grocery stores to think twice before placing the new product on their shelves. “We appeal to True World Foods to use their influence to persuade Kyokuyo to immediately end their massive sale of whale meat and to uphold international laws that protect great whales from commercial hunting,” EIA president Allan Thornton said. True World Foods representatives were not immediately available for comment. The International Whaling Commission banned commercial whaling in 1986 but Japan, which says whaling is part of its culture, uses a loophole that allows whaling for scientific research, with the meat going on sale. It hunts about 1,000 of the giant mammals a year. In a report Tuesday the groups said that although Kyokuyo divested its shares in a commercial whaling company in March last year, it remained closely involved in the industry as a major producer and distributor of whalemeat. - AFX Analysis: Dam Revives Source of Caviar ALMATY, Kazakhstan -- As the sun rises above the Aral Sea, Alek, a local fisherman, steers the boat, leans forward and pulls the net full of carp, sturgeon and flounder out of the water."All thanks to the dam," Alek grins as he throws the fish into a growing pile on the bottom of his rowing boat. The dam is part of a $68m project, initiated by the Kazakh government and financed by loans from the World Bank. It is an ambitious undertaking that aims to reverse one of the world's worst man-made environmental disasters and bring back the sea which many predicted could never return. "The Aral Sea did not die, the Aral Sea was murdered," said Nazhbagin Musabaev, the governor of the Aralsk region. 'Die gracefully' Mr Musabaev remembers how in the late 1960s the Soviet government held a plenary session in the Uzbek capital Tashkent, during which the Deputy Minister of Irrigation and Water Resources of the USSR talked about the government plans for boosting the region's cotton production. The two main Central Asian rivers Amu Darya and Syr Darya, he said, would be diverted to irrigate the cotton plantations in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. "But what will happen to the Aral?" someone from the audience shouted. "The Aral," the deputy minister responded, "will have to die off gracefully." Disaster But the death of the Aral was far from graceful. As the water-starved sea shrank, the desert spread, changing the climate, destroying the eco-system, eradicating entire species and forcing thousands of people to flee. Every year fishermen would have to travel further and further to get to the water, and every year there would be less and less fish left to catch. Desertification and rising salt levels in the shrinking sea brought salt storms. Diseases, like anaemia and cancer, swept through communities. Future hopes The recently constructed 13km dam has split the Aral Sea in two parts. The dam did not solve the entire problem. On the Uzbek side the Southern Sea continues to shrink. "The Uzbek government needs to hurry if they want to preserve at least some of the sea," Musambaev said. In Kazakhstan, the dam has allowed the river to feed the northern Aral and as a result the sea has been pushing back into the desert. Kazakh officials say 40% of the water has already returned. The fishermen are back in their boats. The clouds and the rain have returned. Using a new $126mn World Bank loan, the government now plans to build a second dam, which they hope will bring the water back to the port of Aralsk. "The sea has left the harbor, but it hasn't left our hearts," reads a dilapidated sign in the dried-up Aralsk harbour. – BBC News: Alaska Salmon Farm Fish Go Wild KODIAK -- Don't refer to it as farming -- but home-grown fishes are Alaska's largest agricultural crop. The industry sometimes calls it "ocean ranching."Whereas farmed fish are grown in closed pens or cages until they're ready for market, some Alaska fish -- mostly salmon -- are raised in hatcheries until they grow to fingerlings and are released to the sea. The fish feed and grow on the "open range" for one or more years until they return home to the "ranch" to spawn. Many Alaskans might be surprised that fish from hatcheries make up part of Alaska's annual salmon catches. The state oversees operations at 30 privately run hatcheries, which raise a mix of all five Pacific salmon species. According to the annual report on Alaska's salmon enhancement programs, nearly 1.5 billion baby salmon were released to the ocean last year, while 48 million returned to their home hatcheries. Those fish accounted for about 20% of Alaska's total salmon catch last year -- and at nearly $59 million, 21 percent of the harvest value. In some regions, ranched salmon make up most of the common-property fishery. At Prince William Sound, fish returning to five hatcheries comprise 73% of the annual harvest – 80% pinks, 75 percent chums, 49% silver and 38% reds. The combined catches rang in at $19 million, 48 percent of the total Sound value. In Southeast, they accounted for 36% of all fish harvested last year, worth $31 million, or 41% of the total value. In Cook Inlet, 30% came from hatcheries, worth $6.5 million, or 44 percent of the harvest value. For Kodiak, the total was 7% of the salmon catch, worth $2.5 million or 10% of the value. – Laine Welsh in Anchorage Daily News Brief: Alaska Bay Too Cold for Sea Otters ANCHORAGE -- Alaska`s sea otters are in peril after a cold winter on the Alaskan Peninsula has frozen them out of their bay habitat.The Anchorage Daily News reported that as the otters are pushed out of their usual habitat and onto the tundra, they have become easy prey for wolves and humans. The Daily News reported that villagers have also hunted otters, skinning them to make hats, gloves and blankets from their thick pelts. A source from the United States Fish and Wildlife Service said the otters have come onto land looking for food after an extra-cold winter froze them out of their bay habitat where they scour the sea bottoms looking for urchins and clams. Moving awkwardly across land, many otters have died simply from exhaustion. Western Alaskan sea otters are listed as threatened under the United States` Endangered Species Act. The Daily News reported a 20% drop in sea otter populations over the past 20 years. – United Press International Brief: Lobster Prices Soar PORTLAND, Maine - Lobster prices in Maine have soared to record highs, leaving lovers of the state's signature seafood reeling from sticker shock.Even with retail prices hovering around $15 a pound, some dealers said supplies of lobster were close to nonexistent. Harsh winter weather, abnormally cold water and the timing of fishing seasons are blamed for the shortage. "Everything that can go wrong has gone wrong," said Peter McAleney, owner of New Meadows Lobster, which exhausted its supply Monday. Bob Bayer of the Lobster Institute said this past winter's weather, especially the wind, made it tough for lobstermen to get out on the water. The colder ocean water made lobsters less hungry and thus less likely to head into a trap in search of food. Bayer also pointed to reduced stocks in tidal lobster pounds. At DiMillo's Floating Restaurant along the Portland waterfront, Steve DiMillo said he's been paying wholesale prices of $45 a pound for lobster meat and $11.50 a pound for whole lobsters. "It's the highest I've ever seen," said DiMillo. Relief is in sight. With improving weather, the water will begin to warm and the lobsters will make their way toward the traps. Also, the Canadian lobster season will soon begin. - Portland (Me.) Press Herald News: North Carolina Fish Houses Disappearing MANTEO, N.C. -- Research completed last month shows that one-third of the state's fish houses have closed since 2000.The North Carolina Sea Grant Program research project was conducted by cultural anthropologist Barbara Garrity-Blake and North Carolina Sea Grant Seafood Specialist Barry Nash. Garrity-Blake and Nash found that only 78 of the 117 fish houses open in 2000 were still in operation in 2006. In the northeast coastal region, the area with the highest seafood landings in the state, the number of fish houses dropped from 27 to 22. The number went from 20 to 15 in the southeast region. The central coastal counties experienced the most dramatic reduction, from 70 to 41 fish houses. Garrity-Blake and Nash note that the large number of small businesses that closed in Hyde and Pamlico counties contributed to that reduction. The report, called "An Inventory of North Carolina Fish Houses," defines fish houses as businesses that provide a place where commercial fishermen land domestic wild-caught fish and shellfish that is then processed or packed for distribution to markets. "Growth in a worldwide seafood market has not yet expanded opportunities for North Carolina fishermen," wrote Garrity-Blake and Nash. "Rather, the value of domestic-caught seafood has declined due to a flood of less expensive, farm-raised imports into United States markets." Other factors impacting the industry include stricter fishing regulations, increased operating costs, labor shortages, changing coastal demographics, and the scarcity of some species. Garrity-Blake and Nash predict that the industry in the state will continue to experience a reduction in the number of fish houses and fishermen. – Outer Banks Sentinel Brief: Pop Diva’s Entourage Upsets Fishing Village HONG KONG -- Japanese pop queen Ayumi Hamasaki upset locals in a Hong Kong fishing village when she made a surprise visit for a seafood meal with 22 aggressive bodyguards and flunkies, witnesses said.Hamasaki, known as "Ayu" to her fans and the biggest-selling solo pop star in Japan, was cocooned by her entourage who prevented locals from getting near her table or fans from taking photos. Local websites complained that the diminutive singer, whose large round eyes are believed to have sparked a rash of eye-lid cosmetic surgery among Japanese girls, had upset locals. "The most famous J-pop star of all time was having a post-concert bite accompanied by no less than 12 bodyguards and another 10 strong entourage," wrote one anonymous subscriber to Lamma.com.hk, the blog for island residents. A spokesman for the Rainbow Restaurant, where Hamasaki ate, confirmed the singer had dined at the eatery but wouldn't comment on her entourage's behavior. Leafy Lamma Island's seafood restaurants regularly attract celebrities. Most recently action star Jackie Chan and Philippine President Gloria Arroyo were spotted eating there. Lamma native "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" star Chow Yun-fat also makes regular return trips. – China Daily Brief: Tribe to Open Walleye Plant RED LAKE, Minn. — The Red Lake band of Chippewa is planning to open a commercial walleye processing plant in June thanks to a $1 million grant from the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community.Red Lake Chairman Floyd "Buck" Jourdain Jr. said the band will open the Redby plant where tribal members will fillet and freeze the catch themselves. The operation would be part of Red Lake Foods, which already sells wild berry jams and syrups and wild rice. Jourdain said only hook-and-line fishing would be allowed for at least the first two or three years. The walleye catch limit, which was 10 fish per day on tribal waters in 2006, may be raised, but the harvest would not exceed the band's total quota, he said. The band controls all of Lower Red Lake and roughly 60% of Upper Red Lake. Only band members are permitted to keep fish caught in tribal waters. In the mid-1990s, walleye populations in Red Lake declined dramatically, leading to a ban on commercial fishing. In 1999, the band entered a 10-year agreement with the state of Minnesota and the Bureau of Indian Affairs to restore the fishery. Walleye fishing on Red Lake resumed last spring. New Bedford Markets Seafood NEW BEDFORD -- The world could be New Bedford's oyster. Or at least provide a wider market for its scallops.That's what economic officials are hoping as they explore ways to better promote the port's fresh and frozen seafood products to foreign markets. High demand for scallops in France, Spain, Italy and other countries could create lucrative export opportunities for New Bedford seafood companies and bring economic benefits to the city, said Matthew Morrissey, executive director of the New Bedford Economic Development Council. Morrissey is courting state and regional business, trade and tourism agencies to help market New Bedford scallops and seafood overseas. According to Seafood Export USA Northeast, scallops are the largest-growing seafood export in the Northeast. Scallops have put New Bedford on the map as the most valuable fishing port in the country — a title the city has held for the past six years. In 2005, New Bedford's seafood landings were valued at $282.5 million, thanks to scallop prices that soared to about $10 per pound. The seafood industry's impact on the local economy has been estimated at $1.6 billion, about six times the catch value. On behalf of the city, Morrissey is exploring a study to identify ways to grow the seafood industry, and is considering how to increase New Bedford's presence at upcoming seafood shows in Boston and Brussels. – South Coast (Mass.) Today |