Two industry groups testified before a congressional committee last week during a hearing addressing the impact illegal fishing has on the nation’s seafood trade – which led to a disagreement over the implementation of the Seafood Import Monitoring Program (SIMP).
At the House Natural Resources Committee’s Water, Oceans and Wildlife Subcommittee hearing, held on Thursday, 14 November, NOAA Fisheries Acting Director for the Office of International Affairs and Seafood Inspection Alexa Cole said combating illegal fishing remains a priority for the Trump Administration. One of the ways the agency has fought that has been through SIMP, which started last year.
In her testimony, Cole said NOAA Fisheries has asked for an extra USD 1.6 million (EUR 1.4 million) to hire additional staff who can investigate claims of seafood fraud and conduct examinations of imported seafood products.
“The recently-implemented SIMP is an important, risk-based approach that established reporting and recordkeeping requirements for imports of certain seafood products to help prevent illegal, unreported, and unregulated and/or misrepresented seafood from entering U.S. commerce,” she said in her written testimony.
However, National Fisheries Institute President John Connelly said SIMP has provided administrative burdens for companies conducting legal trade. It even affects American fishermen who rely on overseas processors to package their harvest for sale in U.S. grocery stores and markets.
SIMP requires companies to maintain records on a variety of seafood species that are imported into the U.S. Those companies must be able to document how and where the fish was harvested and how it was processed.
However, Connelly said SIMP has increased the cost of Americans doing business and it is not able to catch companies that change labels once the products are accepted at U.S. ports.
“A misperception persists that IUU seafood is connected to seafood fraud within our borders, and that SIMP is the cure,” Connelly testified.
The Southern Shrimp Alliance, though, fought for shrimp to be included in the program, which it was by the end of last year. In his testimony last week, Nathan Rickard, the group’s trade counsel, said the SSA has been calling for other federal agencies, such as the Food and Drug Administration and Customs and Border Protection, to have access to SIMP data.
Meaningful traceability guidelines can deter illegal fishing, he said.
“Careful oversight by Congress of NOAA Fisheries’ administration of SIMP will be essential in ensuring that the program effectively eliminates seafood harvested through IUU fishing from the U.S. market,” Rickard said.
Photo courtesy of Two Bridges Photography/Shutterstock
