Redefining 'sustainable'
Monday,24 January,2011 08:44:18
The battle over New England's groundfish quotas rages on this week with Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) stepping up to bat and New Bedford, Mass., Mayor Scott Lang talking to Frank and Rep. Walter Jones (D-N.C.) in a closed-door meeting on Capitol Hill.
The mission is to bump sector quotas in order to keep the little guys afloat. This is not an effort to overfish, but rather to fish just enough, to stay on the water without taxing the resource. That is the true definition of a sustainable fishery.
In keeping with that mission of balancing fishermen's livelihoods with ecologically sustainable practices, the Gulf of Maine Research Institute, based in Portland, Maine, is starting a new program aimed at training Northeast fishermen to ease environmental impacts while simultaneously boosting their profits.
The first Environmental Management System program is scheduled to take place in Beverly, Mass., on Feb. 16 and 17. Admission is free but limited to 20 participants.
If you're interested in attending, please contact Steve Eayrs (steve@gmri.org or 207-228-1659) or Jen Levin (jlevin@gmri.org or 207-228-1688) at GMRI.
Thank you for your time.
Jessica Hathaway
Editor in Chief, National Fisherman
www.nationalfisherman.com
Dead fish swimming
Monday,17 January,2011 09:39:00
Whenever a new scientific study on fishing is released, I'm generally torn between elation that people are studying fishing and concern that they are only getting part of the picture and/or are being paid by some private group to prove a political point.
And so it was today when I read the headline "Virus may have killed Fraser River sockeye" in the Vancouver Sun.
I would love to hear that we are closer to some answer as to why the Fraser River sockeye has been in decline for years, only to surprise us all with a 2010 return of 30 million.
The fact that no one was able to predict the biggest run in almost a century tells me that we have essentially no idea what's going on out there. (And let's not forget another recent study showing that roughly 75 percent of the world's marine species are still unknown to humans.)
And yet, the first item on the list as to why the sockeye is struggling is, drumroll please, "overfishing."
That's right folks, between climate change, farmed salmon sea lice infestations, pollution and fishing, we have an obvious primary culprit.
Or rather, I suspect, we have a culprit that's friendly to science because it's easy to track with landings. The other factors are all notoriously difficult to pin down.
Unfortunately, according to the article, the funding to continue studying this virus is not guaranteed. Which means a deadly salmon disease is likely to land at the bottom of our list of menaces to the Fraser River sockeye.
The problem, according to popular opinion, is still overfishing — with a twist of virus.
Thank you for your time.
Jessica Hathaway
Editor in Chief, National Fisherman
www.nationalfisherman.com
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Green is go; red is delicious
Monday,10 January,2011 08:08:25
New Year's has come and gone. Nevertheless, I feel compelled to raise my glass to Legal Sea Foods and its President and CEO Roger Berkowitz.
On Monday, Jan. 24, the Boston-based seafood chain's flagship location will host a meal featuring only "blacklisted" seafoods. That is, fisheries the Monterey Bay Aquarium and their ilk have called on chefs and patrons to boycott.
The problem with the blacklisted fisheries, as the organizers point out and most fishermen know already, is that their categorization often ignores the complexity of the oceans. The justifications for blacklisting (or greenlisting!) are varied, sometimes politically influenced, and even based on old data or perceptions.
The menu will feature tiger shrimp, cod cheeks and hake, all of which were carefully chosen to represent sustainable fisheries that are labeled as seafoods to avoid.
I am all for chefs and consumers making informed decisions about what they buy and eat or serve. And that includes those daring enough to reach beyond the greenwashing and ask why.
The average consumer will see Monterey Bay Aquarium's red (avoid) list and refuse to eat what's on it without questioning the methodology that landed the fishery on the list. Can we blame them? The list is put out by a well-respected aquarium.
But what they, and many activists, fail to understand is that buying Northeast cod will not empty the oceans of cod. U.S. fishery management does not respond to demand; it responds to biomass (ideally).
A fixed amount of cod enters the marketplace every year. The result of buying and eating cod is that the limited supply will simply be more valuable. What happens then? The fishermen who fish for it might actually be able to make their boat payments with their quota! Is that so harrowing a prospect?
So if you can't be at the Legal Sea Foods blacklisted dinner, I encourage you to pick a red- or blacklisted U.S. fishery to dine on the evening of Jan. 24. And join me in a toast to the future of wild American seafood.
Thank you for your time.
Jessica Hathaway
Editor in Chief, National Fisherman
www.nationalfisherman.com