Wednesday, September 5, 2007

 SARASOTA, Fla. – Olivia Bono, a 29-year-old Sarasota native, frequently orders grouper.

 "I love it blackened or Cajun grilled," Bono said.

Her penchant for the Gulf delicacy is matched by many Florida residents.

But that fact has led to overfishing, limitations on what can be caught and prices the likes of which have never been seen. In fact, domestic grouper might soon be priced off many restaurant menus.

There are five species of Gulf Coast fish now being overfished, including the wildly popular gag grouper.

Three years ago, a grouper sandwich was priced at about $8.95. Now, it can run you $13 or more, with restaurant owners paying $11 to $13 per pound for fillets.

 The price of whole grouper -- what fish houses pay to fishermen -- rose about 20 percent from 2003 to 2006, to $2.91 per pound, the Florida Department of Agriculture's Bureau of Seafood and Aquaculture Marketing reports.

This year, area fish house operators say they are paying about $3.20 per pound, representing another 10 percent increase in the last year.
 
 
Supply and demand

"The industry is facing some rather daunting challenges. It will be hard to hold on to our fishing heritage," said John Stevely, a University of Florida professor and extension agent for Florida Sea Grant College. "The industry is challenged by the overwhelming demand and a finite supply."

About 40 percent of gag grouper, for example, is pulled in by commercial fishing vessels while 60 percent is snared by recreational fishermen.

"We'll never have enough grouper to satisfy everyone," Stevely said.

In 1997, about 10 billion pounds of seafood came from domestic sources while 7.3 billion pounds was imported. That year, the United States exported 5.5 billion pounds.

A decade later, the U.S. seafood supply had risen to 13.3 billion total pounds, illustrating the enormous demand. Of that 13.3 billion pounds, more than 86 percent represented foreign imports.

The declines in U.S. production reflect a changing global marketplace. They also reflect tighter controls and fewer commercial fishermen. Fishing has always been an uncertain trade, Stevely said.

Beleaguered industry

The fishing industry has been battered by catastrophic hurricanes, the 1994 net ban and foreign imports.

Once rich with fish houses that sold their catch to restaurants and the public, Southwest Florida is now home to just two.

Eddie Toomer, former owner of Capt. Eddie's Seafood Bar in Nokomis, has fished commercially for nearly 30 years, but he relinquished his license in the last several weeks.

 "I was doing commercial fishing when they put that transponder thing into effect. It's a special monitoring system, big brother kind of thing, and it cost over $3,000 and a monthly fee. Then, they wanted me to install a $3,500 life raft on the boat," Toomer said. "It drove me out."

Recreational anglers have compounded the problem, he said.
 
 What's on the menu?

At Barnacle Bill's in downtown Sarasota, owner Bill Davis proudly shows off his daily catch in a refrigerated display case.

From Alaskan king crab legs to American red snapper to grouper, he knows exactly when each item was caught and what boat it came from.

"I think the consumer -- me being the consumer on the wholesale -- we have a responsibility to inspect the fish once it gets here," Davis said.

His menu changes daily to reflect the day's catch.

He says many area restaurants have been taking advantage of consumers for years by advertising one fish but serving up something entirely different.

Imported fish is cheaper and easier to get. Until recently, no one has paid any mind to the substitution issue. Though China has been on the hot seat lately, imports from Third World countries with substandard environmental protections -- think Thailand and Vietnam -- still dominate the U.S. seafood market.

For imported seafood the commodity chain is simply much longer, more hands are involved and the potential risks are greater, said Frank Alcock, an assistant professor at New College of Florida in Sarasota and director of the Marine Policy Institute at Sarasota's Mote Aquarium.

– Herald Tribune, South Florida

 HOUSTON – One of the staples of fast food outlets and restaurants featuring country cooking in the Houston area is batter-fried catfish.

 A flood of cheap, farm-raised Chinese fish into the United States has prompted demands from American producers that imports be identified on menus.

 Imported seafood accounts for more than 80 percent of U.S. consumption. More than a third of catfish eaten domestically comes from Asia. Testing by officials in several Southern states indicates a high proportion of Chinese catfish contains antibiotics and carcinogens banned here. Because of rampant water pollution and overcrowding in Chinese fish farms, such substances are necessary to keep the fish alive.

 U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., a major catfish-producing state, has drafted legislation that would require restaurants to include on menus the sources of their fish. Grocery stores have that requirement for all seafood.

 Such a law would benefit Thompson's fish farmer constituents, who comply with U.S. health standards and cannot compete with the inexpensive imports. It is also in the interest of Texas consumers, who are unknowingly exposed to food raised under questionable conditions that could contain banned substances. Few of us would eat catfish caught in the murky waters of Houston's Buffalo Bayou, but Chinese imports can be equally risky.

 As the Bloomberg Business News Service reported last month, nearly half of 94 samples of Chinese catfish tested by Alabama officials since March contained fluoroquinolones, antibiotics banned in foodstuffs in the United States. Another drug that turned up in the samples is malachite green, an anti-fungal agent that can cause cancer in people, given long-term exposure.

 The U.S. Food and Drug Administration, tasked with policing imported food, inspects less than 1 percent of imports entering the United States. The contaminated fish sampled in Alabama had already come into the country and were on the market.

 Many Americans would choose to consume clean catfish raised in this country under federally approved conditions rather than questionable Chinese imports if they were offered a choice. According to a consumer poll conducted by the Catfish Institute of the U.S., 96 percent of respondents wanted to know the country of origin for the fish on their plate.

 Just as shoppers can now find out where the catch du jour at grocery store fish counters comes from, so those ordering off a menu should have the right to know whether they are about to dine on a fish laced with banned substances.

 As Texas members of the House Agriculture Committee, Nick Lampson, D-Stafford, and Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo, should back their Mississippi colleague's legislation. It's not only a matter of supporting an American industry, it's also a measure to protect public health. – Houston Chronicle

 WILMINGTON, N.C. –In late June the U.S. Food and Drug Administration effectively banned the sale of several types of farm-raised seafood from China, including shrimp, catfish and eel, because of wide-scale contamination by unapproved drugs and additives.

With more than 80 percent of the country's seafood imported, the incident refocused attention on the difficulty consumers face knowing which fish or shellfish are safe to eat and which to avoid.

 A number of organizations offer guides to help shoppers wade through the often murky waters of what seafood is both eco-friendly and safe to eat.

Tim Fitzgerald, a marine scientist with Environmental Defense, said the groups don't always approach the issue from the same point of view.

"But there's no right or wrong answer," he said. "All are just trying to get more information out there into the hands of the consumer."

Locally, the N.C. Aquariums and N.C. Sea Grant have teamed up to create a pocket guide showcasing North Carolina-caught seafood.

The world-famous Monterey Bay Aquarium in California and Environmental Defense also have taken a stab at promoting safe and sustainable seafood. Even the federal government has launched a Web site swimming with information.

The hope is that U.S. consumers, who constitute one of the world's largest seafood markets, can use the power of the purse to spur change and promote safe and sustainable fishing practices - even outside the country's borders.

"If we don't shift what we do and how we want our seafood caught, then who is going to do it?" said Sheila Bowman, outreach manager for the Monterey Bay Aquarium's Seafood Watch program.
 
North Carolina's 'Local Catch' cards: (ncseagrant.org/localcatch)

The state's seasonal wallet-sized card program is an outgrowth of N.C. Sea Grant's popular seafood availability poster.

Joanne Harcke, conservation and research coordinator with the N.C. Aquarium at Fort Fisher, said visitors and groups who rent the aquarium for special functions often had questions about local seafood. So officials decided to create a portable guide that highlights what's seasonally available from the state's commercial fishermen.

 
Monterey Bay Aquarium's Seafood Watch program: (www.seafoodwatch.org)

With a focus on sustainability, the goal of the California aquarium's Seafood Watch is to help consumers make choices that are better for the world's oceans.

Environmental Defense Oceans Alive program: (www.oceansalive.org)

Rather than harping on regional seafood options or sustainability, the nonprofit environmental group's Oceans Alive site focuses on health issues.

NOAA's Fishwatch program: (www.fishwatch.noaa.gov)

This federal government seafood site provides extensive information on 30 popular seafood species, with more planned.

- Wilmington (N.C.) Morning Star

 BEIJING – China's agriculture minister sought to reassure domestic consumers concerned about toxins in their food as officials launched a new program requiring all packaged food for export to have a quality guarantee label.

 China will clamp down on food tainted with illegal or excessive chemicals, Sun Zhengcai was quoted as saying in Monday's People's Daily newspaper. The move follows domestic and foreign concerns about recent reports of toxins in meat, seafood and vegetables.

 "Consumers have no reason to fear eating most of the nation's farm produce," Sun told the newspaper, which is the mouthpiece of the ruling communist party. "Judging from our system of monitoring, the acceptability rate of China's agricultural products is higher than it's ever been."

 From now on food packaged for export will not be allowed to leave the country if the product does not have an inspection and quarantine symbol, said the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection, and Quarantine in a separate announcement.

 The new measure, which began Sept. 1 as part of a broader plan to improve quality standards, covers seafood, eggs, rice, vegetable, oil, wine and biscuits.

 "The aim is to effectively curb illegal exports of food, protect the interests of legal export enterprises, strengthen consumers' confidence in the quality and safety of food made in China, and help trace and recall products that have problems," the supervisory agency said in a statement posted on its Web site.

 The agency also issued a notice Monday for fruit exporters to participate in a registration system to ensure quality and safety. Inspection and quarantine work will be strengthened, it said.

 Li Changjiang, the agency's head, met with the secretary of the Hong Kong Food and Health Bureau Secretary last week and assured him that the mainland "has attached great importance to the safety of food supplied to Hong Kong," the agency said.

 Most mainland food exported to Hong Kong comes from registered farms or has to go through more stringent inspection before entering the former British colony.

 In the past, high-profile cases of tainted mainland products in Hong Kong have included vegetables containing pesticide residue; fish containing malachite green, a possible cancer-causing chemical used to treat fungal infections in fish; and eggs that were tainted with the industrial dye Sudan Red.

 China has in recent days adopted sweeping measures to reassure consumers at home and abroad that it takes product safety seriously after potentially hazardous toxins were found in products ranging from toothpaste to pet food ingredients.

 Last week, the country's first recall system for unsafe food and toys went into effect, requiring manufacturers to stop production and sales, notify vendors and customers, and report to quality control authorities when defects are found.

 The system is part of a four-month campaign to step up overall product quality in the country.

– International Herald Tribune

 In a turbulent day for Long Island's recreational fishing industry, state environmental officials announced last week that the fluke season would close early -- on Sept. 4 -- because too many had been caught.

A few hours and a number of irate phone calls later, environmental Commissioner Pete Grannis amended that order, extending fluke fishing to Sept. 17, "to provide for an orderly shut-down of the season," said New York State Department of Environmental Conservation spokesman Yancey Roy.

New York's 2007 recreational season for the popular fish was supposed to last until the end of the year. Grannis said the early shutdown aimed to prevent the state from further exceeding its federal quota and thus triggering even stricter limits next year. Summer flounder, or fluke, have been declared overfished and are under federal management, to rebuild stocks after population declines in the mid-1990s.

The last-minute reprieve will give bait and tackle shop owners time to use up perishable inventory such as sand eels and killyfish, and offer charter boat captains a chance to reschedule fishing trips booked for late September and October. Summer flounder typically leave Long Island waters by the end of October.

"It's gratifying ... that he saw the other side of the picture and had the confidence to reverse his decision," said Dennis Kanyuk, a Point Lookout boat captain and president of the industry group United Boatmen of New York.

Kanyuk and others said they would offer alternatives to the DEC that would limit the number of fish caught while allowing the fishing industry to stay afloat through the fall. Among those proposals: extending the season through Columbus Day but increasing the fish size limit from 19.5 inches to 21 inches, and letting anglers keep only two fish per day instead of four.

Under the management plan for fluke, recreational and commercial fishermen in Atlantic states from Maine to North Carolina are supposed to catch no more than their federally allotted share of a coastwide total -- 17.11 million pounds in 2007. The goal is to increase the number of spawning-age fluke in the Atlantic to 197.2 million pounds by 2013, but the most recent stock estimates by the National Marine Fisheries Service put spawning stock at only about 93 million pounds.

The race to meet that timetable has pitted fisheries scientists and environmental advocates -- who say fluke are not rebounding fast enough -- against boat captains and commercial fishermen, who say population estimates don't reflect what they see on the water: more summer flounder than there have been in years.

Charles Witek of the Coastal Conservation Association New York, a nonprofit group of saltwater fishermen, said that the current fluke crisis was "avoidable" and came about because fishermen continued to take too many fish when stocks needed to rebuild.

"Nobody wants to see a disaster here," said John Mantione, owner of J&J Sports, a Patchogue tackle shop, and a government affairs representative for the New York Fishing Tackle Trade Association. Still, Mantione and others argue that the federal timetables built into the Magnuson-Stevens Fisheries Act should allow more flexibility.

– Newsday, Long Island

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