Seafood Sustainability:Why it Matters

Sam Wiley, Wiley’s Finest, April 19th 2015

EPA & DHA are scarce nutrients in Land-based Diets

CalciumMagnesiumPhosphorus

IronSeleniumPotassiumVitamin AVitamin D

ManganeseProtein

ALA

Fish &Seafood

LandPlants

& Animals EPA & DHA

Where do EPA & DHA come from?Ultimately most all EPA & DHA from microscopic marine plants. Fish have limited ability to synthesize

Krill

Larger Fish

Shellfish

Phytoplankton

Forage Fish

Fish are EPA / DHA collectors

Source: http://alwaysomega3s.com/learn/good-sources/seafood-for-omega-3s

How much Omega-3s are in seafood?

Revised Seafood Intake Recommendations during Pregnancy

• Previous confusing recommendations that pregnant mothers limit seafood consumption to not more than 12 ounces per week.

• FDA and EPA now recommend that mothers eat at least two (and up to three) servings of fish per week during pregnancy for proper child development.

• Many believe that mercury content of fish is a big concern, in fact Omega-3 deficiency from not eating fish is a much larger and more severe dietary issue.

• Recent findings indicate that the benefit of getting enough omega-3 for both mother and child is far more important than the potential risk of consuming mercury.

“91% of Seafood sold in the United States is imported”

• In 2012, Americans ate little less than 15 lbs of seafood per person (compare to 212 lbs of red meat + poultry)

• 1/3 of seafood US produces is exported

• 79% of all Alaska Salmon is exported

Author Paul Greenberg American Catch

Common Fishing Problems• We eat the largest size fish• We eat the choicest, most

prized & tastiest species• We grind up most of the small

fish into animal feed• We waste a lot of other fish

(bycatch)• No one owns the fish -

Incentives are to catch more fish than other fishers

• Fishing has an impact on ecosystem

IUU FishingIllegal, Unreported, Unregulated

“An Oceana study found between 20 to 32 percent of wild-caught seafood imported to the U.S. comes from illegal fishing, either fishing in closed areas, catching threatened or endangered species or using banned gear, that damages marine ecosystems. The illegal takes cost an estimated $32 billion a year.”http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2015/03/15/us/ap-us-tracking-seafood.html

USCG cutter Rush escorts the 177-foot Da Cheng, a suspected illegal high-seas driftnetter. The vessel was targeting albacore tuna and had 30 metric tons aboard, along with 6 tons of shark carcasses and fins.

IUU Fishing(not just bad for fish, bad for people too)

“When the reporter went to the island, she found men held in a cage so that they wouldn't run away. "They were trapped. They had no way to go home; they had not heard from their family in five, 10 years. They were in a desperate situation," Mendoza says.”- AP report March 27th 2015http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2015/03/27/395589154/was-your-seafood-caught-by-slaves-ap-uncovers-unsavory-trade

AP Report in March 2015 found that Burmese slaves (Myanmar) were being used to fish in indonesian waters

Thomas Henry HuxleyInspector of FisheriesPresident of the Royal Society(grandfather of author Aldus Huxley)

“I believe that it may be affirmed with confidence that, in relation to our present modes of fishing, a number of the most important sea fisheries, such as the cod fishery, the herring fishery, the mackerel fishery, are inexhaustible,

And probably all the great sea-fisheries, are inexhaustible; that is to say nothing we do seriously affects the number of fish.

And any attempt to regulate these fisheries seems consequently… to be useless.”

Great International Fisheries Exhibition of 1883London, England

Supplies of fish were once thought to be unlimited

Forage Fish

• Menhaden and Anchovy key sources

• Also Herring, Sardine, and Mackerel

• Impractical & costly (but not impossible) to filet and then render trimmings to extract oil

“1/3 of all the wild fish caught on Earth end up as fish meal or fish oil.

Of that, 81 percent goes to feed farmed fish”Andy Sharpless, CEO of Oceana, Perfect Protein, pg 78

Forage Fish: Peruvian Anchoveta (Engraulis ringens)

• Forage Fish (filter feeder)• UN’s FAO calls it “The most heavily exploited fish in world history,

yielding 13MM MT in 1971” at its peak fishing• 2010 catch was just under 7MM MT• Almost exclusively a reduction fishery• Approximately 60% of global market for raw fish oil

Jan 6, 2012

The problem with Anchovies

• In his book Perfect Protein Oceana’s CEO Andy Sharpless estimates that if all of the Peruvian Anchovies were canned or frozen and fed to humans, you could provide an extra 400MM dinners / year

• Currently, only about 2% of the catch is eaten directly by people.

• Instead, they go mostly to feed farmed salmon:

Dr. Patricia Majulf“Eat Anchovies”“Each year, 6 million to 10 million metric tons of anchoveta, a fish in the anchovy family, are extracted from a narrow strip of ocean off the coast of Peru, known as the Humboldt upwelling ecosystem. Most of the anchoveta are converted to fish oil and fishmeal, used as animal feed for chickens, pigs, and salmon, among others.”

http://www.pewtrusts.org/en/about/news-room/press-releases/2012/02/28/peruvian-scientist-patricia-majluf-awarded-2012-pew-fellowship-in-marine-conservation

“We need to use science to improve the use of fish in the world, definitely. We're wasting too much fish. We could eat more fish if we were just more careful about what we’re catching and how we use it. We could do better.”

http://www.lenfestocean.org/en/publications/fact-sheet/making-marine-science-matter-qa-with-patricia-majluf-imcc-keynote-speaker

Oysters & Mussels:great source of sustainable seafood

• Farmed, but not fed any fishmeal, corn or soy meal

• Indistinguishable from wild shellfish

• Basically like a tree farm• Great source of Omega-

3s and other nutrients

http://www.fishersislandoysters.com

What’s wrong with this picture?• Commercial sources of Arctic

Char are all farmed• Lack of consumer AND Retailer

knowledge about seafood sources

• Recall when I was in college about a decade ago, crab sold in major grocery retailer would say “product of USSR”

• Consumer Reports estimates 20-25% of fresh & frozen seafood sold in U.S. is mislabeled for species Courtesy Paul Greenberg twitter post

Little transparency about species source for Fish Oils

Important Questions for assessing sustainability of a fishery

• What species is being caught?• Who caught it?• Where did they catch it?• What gear type did they use?• How much non-target species (bycatch) was

caught?• Is the biomass scientifically studied and assessed?• Is the fishery managed independently with a

fishery management plan?• Is a quota system in place?

Good Solutions to Fishing Problems

• Harvest & Eat fish which reproduce quickly

• Don’t just eat Salmon & Tuna – smaller species like Pollock, anchovies, oysters, and mussels

• Transparent, Science based fisheries management

• Individual Fishing Quotas (IFQ)

What does it mean for fishing to be sustainable?1. Target fish stocks come back year after year2. Bycatch of non-target species is minimized3. Impact of fishing vessels on rest of ecosystem is

minimized

Monterey Bay Aquarium• Great simple guide to seafood • Uses Green-Yellow-Red system• Problem that it focuses on species

common name – can confuse some consumers

• For instance Albacore Tuna is Red – Avoid, but US troll and longline US Albacore is fine.

• Formally Recognizes MSC as equivalent standard

What does Really Mean?

The Marine Stewardship Council, started by the WWF, is the Gold Standard for sustainable & responsible fishing practices

1. Independent Assessment of fishery to global standard to ensure target Fish stocks are well-managed and healthy

2. Full Lot & Species Traceability of products back to fishing vessels

3. Guaranteed Species – MSC conducts un-annouced DNA testing for fresh & frozen seafood labeled as MSC

What does Really Mean?

COMPARISON OF WILD-CAPTURE FISHERIES CERTIFICATION SCHEMESSept 2012 Accenture study commissioned by WWF

Food Fish: Alaska Pollock

Alaska Pollock (Theragra chalcogramma)

• Member of the Cod Family (Gadidae)• Largest fishery for human food

consumption in the world• Nearly 40-yr track record of responsible

fisheries management• Caught in the Bering Sea and Gulf of

Alaska

US Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ)

Jan 6, 2012April 12, 2010

• US Territorial Waters only go out 12 miles from land• Binding international recognition of the 200 mile Exclusive Economic Zone by the Third United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea in 1982.• Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) covers resources like oil and fish

Only US Flag vessels can fish in the US EEZ

Source – Page 110 of the EBS SAFE - http://www.afsc.noaa.gov/REFM/Docs/2012/EBSpollock.pdf

37yrs since 1976

Alaska Pollock: 38 years of Sustainable Fisheries Management

Why Alaska Pollock is sustainably harvested

1. Only American owned fishing vessels can fish in Alaskan waters2. Bering Sea ecosystem is exhaustively studied and researched3. 38 year track record of managing sustainable catch levels4. Quota system incentivizes Fishers to fish sustainably 5. Onboard Observer Program ensures fishery is closely monitored

“The modern pollock industry, while by no means perfect, is one of the best managed in the world”Andy Sharpless, CEO of OceanaPerfect Protein: The Fish Lover’s Guide to Saving the Oceans and Feeding the World, pg. 99

“Pollock is considered one of the world’s best-managed populations…It is sometimes referred to as a poster child of marine fisheries management”Kevin M. Bailey“Billion-Dollar Fish: the untold story of Alaska Pollock”

Sam’s Naughty & Nice List

• Naughty– Chilean Sea Bass (except

MSC certified)

– Orange Roughy– Swordfish– Shark– Bluefin & Yellowtail Tuna

• Nice– Alaska Pollock– Pacific (Alaskan) Cod– Alaskan Salmon– Mussels– Oysters– US Pacific NW Albacore

Pacific Albacore Tuna (Thunnus alalunga)Orange Roughy (Hoplostethus atlanticus)

Recommended Reading• The Omega-3 Effect by Bill Sears• Overfishing: What you Need to know by

Ray Hillborn• Cod: A Biography of the Fish that changed

the world by Mark Kurlansky• American Catch by Paul Greenberg• Tuna: Love, Death, and Mercury by

Richard Ellis• Perfect Protein by Andy Sharpless• The End of the Line: How Overfishing Is

Changing the World and What We Eat by Charles Clover

"I weep for you," the Walrus said:"I deeply sympathize."With sobs and tears he sorted outThose of the largest size,Holding his pocket-handkerchiefBefore his streaming eyes.

"O Oysters," said the Carpenter,

"You've had a pleasant run!Shall we be trotting home again?"But answer there came none—And this was scarcely odd, becauseThey'd eaten every one.—Lewis Carroll

The Walrus and the Carpenter