Seafood Fraud on NEFMC Radar

by Laurie Schreiber

PORTLAND—At its Dec. 1-3 meeting, the New England Fishery Management Council (NEFMC) heard a brief report from Ocean’s Gibb Brogan on the Presidential Initiative on Combating Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated (IUU) Fishing and Seafood Fraud.

“This should be on your radar,” Brogan told NEFMC. “Over the last six to nine months, there have been a number of actions to look at IUU issues, at seafood fraud, and at at-risk species—species most at risk of IUU and mislabeling.”

According to the task force, IUU fishing and fraudulent seafood products distort legal markets and unfairly compete with the products of law-abiding fishermen and seafood industries globally. The task force identifies at-risk species such as abalone, Atlantic cod, blue crab, dolphinfish, grouper, king crab, pacific cod, red snapper, sea cucumber, sharks, shrimp, swordfish, albacore tuna, bigeye tuna, skipjack tuna and yellowfin tuna.

The task force in March published an action plan with 15 recommendations. These include developing a seafood traceability program.

According to the National Atmospheric and Oceanic Administration, in 2013, U.S. fishermen landed 9.9 billion pounds of fish and shellfish worth $5.5 billion.

“Globally, IUU fishing causes significant economic losses, fueling trafficking operations while undermining economic opportunities for U.S. fishermen and others engaged in legal fishing,” according to a task force press release.

“They plan to go out for public comment period on the traceability program,” Brogan said. Species of interest to NEFMC, he said, included Atlantic cod and the sharks.

“Seafood fraud and IUU undermine everyone’s effort to manage the fisheries internationally,” said Brogan, “and puts U.S. fishermen at an unfair disadvantage” in relation to imported seafood “if it’s coming through as illegal catches or mislabeled.”