Seafood Imports Research Articles

Multistate outbreak of Salmonella Paratyphi B variant L(+) tartrate(+) and Salmonella Weltevreden infections linked to imported frozen raw tuna: USA, March-July 2015.

Foodborne non-typhoidal salmonellosis causes approximately 1 million illnesses annually in the USA. In April 2015, we investigated a multistate outbreak of 65 Salmonella Paratyphi B variant L(+) tartrate(+) infections associated with frozen raw tuna imported from Indonesia, which was consumed raw in sushi. Forty-six (92%) of 50 case-patients interviewed ate sushi during the week before illness onset, and 44 (98%) of 45 who specified ate sushi containing raw tuna. Two outbreak strains were isolated from the samples of frozen raw tuna. Traceback identified a single importer as a common source of tuna consumed by case-patients; this importer issued three voluntary recalls of tuna sourced from one Indonesian processor. Four Salmonella Weltevreden infections were also linked to this outbreak. Whole-genome sequencing was useful in establishing a link between Salmonella isolated from ill people and tuna. This outbreak highlights the continuing foodborne illness risk associated with raw seafood consumption, the importance of processing seafood in a manner that minimises contamination with pathogenic microorganisms and the continuing need to ensure imported foods are safe to eat. People at higher risk for foodborne illness should not consume undercooked animal products, such as raw seafood.

Mapping the impacts of farmed Scottish salmon from a life cycle perspective

PurposeThe European Union relies on seafood imports to supply growing demand that European production has failed to meet. Politically motivated media reports have denigrated competing imports in favour of local production. While life cycle assessment (LCA) measures global impact of value chains, it often fails to contextualise them. Using LCA, this article takes farmed Scottish Atlantic salmon as a case study of “local” production to identify and map the contributions to global environmental impact.MethodsData on the Scottish salmon value chain were collected by structured survey from a large international feed mill, six farms and a major processor. Secondary data were collected from available literature on feed ingredients and background data from EcoInvent2.2. A mid-point CML2001 approach was adopted focussing on global warming potential (GWP), acidification potential (AP), eutrophication potential, ozone depletion potential, photo-chemical oxidation potential, consumptive water use and land use. Results were displayed as contribution analyses of materials and processes and mapped geographically using area plots.Results and discussionFar from being a “locally” produced commodity, nearly 50% of the feed ingredients were sourced from South America and less than 25% originated in the UK. It was found that over 90% of the impact to farm-gate was embodied in feed, apart from eutrophication potential which was high at the farm from direct nitrogenous emissions into the marine environment. The majority of impacts do not occur in Scotland, particularly for land and water use, which occur at a more geographically significant level than GWP or AP, which are more global or regional impacts, respectively. High GWP emissions from vegetable-based ingredients were related to soil management and energy intensive processes such as wet milling to produce gluten from wheat and maize, sunflower and rapeseed oil processing.ConclusionsThe results show that in an age of globalised commodity trading, concerns around “local” production are often misleading. As consumers try to make more responsible purchase choices, they may be misled over the global impacts their choices are having. There are clearly trade-offs between different feed ingredients, especially regarding substitution of marine ingredients with those of vegetable origin. While marine ingredients perform comparatively well, they are highly limited, and biodiversity impacts of different ingredients are less clear and difficult to compare.

Delivering on seafood traceability under the new U.S. import monitoring program.

The United States is the world's largest fish importer. Recent reports, however, indicate that 25-30% of wild-caught seafood imported into the US is illegally caught, heightening concerns over the country's significant role in driving Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated (IUU) fishing. In January 2017, NOAA enacted the Seafood Import Monitoring Program in an effort to combat IUU fishing through mandating improved seafood traceability requirements. This program requires reporting of fisheries data from harvest to arrival at the US border. Given the role of the US as a major global importer of seafood, this regulation could be a transformative action on fisheries worldwide if implementation includes two key components-(1) applying best available and most appropriate technologies and (2) building monitoring and enforcement capacity among trading nations. This paper provides insightful commentary on the potential for this US policy to lead by example and improve an essential natural resource that over a billion people worldwide depend on for nutrition and livelihoods.

An Overview of Seafood Supply, Food Safety and Regulation in New South Wales, Australia.

Seafood consumption is increasing in Australia, especially in New South Wales (NSW). Average per capita seafood consumption in NSW is higher than the national average. Seafood supply in NSW comes from domestic (wild catch and aquaculture) and overseas (seafood imports) sources. The contribution of wild catch and aquaculture in domestic seafood production (2012–2013) was 73.42% and 26.52%, respectively. Seafood-associated foodborne illness outbreaks are not common and on an average four outbreaks occur each year in NSW. Most of the outbreaks in 2015 and 2016 were related to ciguatera poisoning. The regulation of the seafood industry and the management of food safety is an example of the coordinated work of multiple government agencies and organizations in which NSW Food Authority is responsible for managing the overall risks through the Seafood Safety Scheme. Overall, seafood supply in NSW is of high quality and poses low food safety risk to consumers.

RETRACTED: Estimates of illegal and unreported seafood imports to Japan

Abstract An investigation of illegal and unreported fishing in source countries indicates that 24–36% of 2.15 million tonnes of wild-seafood imports to Japan in 2015 were of illegal and unreported origin, valued at $1.6 to $2.4 billion, out of a total import of US$ 13 billion. A supply chain case study of crab imported from Russia illustrates the intricacies of trade in illegal seafood products in this region. Weakly framed import regulations and outdated fisheries policies appear to be driving an inadvertent trade of illegal and unreported seafood products into the Japanese market. A multilateral approach could extend the strict requirements for food safety to the country of origin and provide more complete supply chain traceability for all commercial seafood species imported by Japan.

Uruguayan fisheries under an increasingly globalized scenario: Long-term landings and bioeconomic trends

The systematic dwindling over time of many commercially important fish stocks in developed countries and the increasing demand of international markets provided a window of opportunity for fishery sector development in many developing countries. Science-based assessments of how market forces impact on fisheries trends are particularly limited in developing countries. This study assessed long-term trends (1960–2013) of the Uruguayan industrial fishery sector, including: (i) landings discriminated by species and resource type; (ii) variations in nominal effort and fleet capacity; (iii) bioeconomic patterns for most important species; and (iv) export and import volumes at the Uruguayan seafood market. Results indicate the sector underwent four phases that depict long-term patterns: development, expansion, stabilization-diversification and declining yields and market contraction. The development of the sector was mainly due to the Argentine hake fishery, which was characterized by a sustained increase in landings, nominal effort and fleet capacity during the initial decades, but showed a decreasing trend afterwards. In response, a fishery diversification policy based on more valuable target species but with lower trophic levels was developed. Uruguay adopted a seafood net exporter role since the very beginning, with exports increasing linearly through time. More recently, seafood imports, with more competitive prices than locally caught seafood, have been gaining ground in the domestic market, reaching a third of all seafood currently consumed. Nowadays, the Uruguayan fishery sector is facing a crisis that is clearly reflected in the decreasing yields of the main species targeted, exports dwindling and increasing seafood imports. These results highlight the pressing need of the industrial sector to shift its model of fisheries exploitation. This study also provides evidence of the need to consider additional bioeconomic analysis to fully understand the behavior of the fishery sector as a dynamic social-ecological system operating in a globalized seafood trade scenario.

U.S. seafood import restriction presents opportunity and risk.

Marine mammal protections require increased global capacity

Diversity of species and antibiotic resistance in enterococci isolated from seafood in Tunisia

The purpose of this study was to analyse the antibiotic resistance and virulence of enterococci recovered from seafood and to characterise the associated genes. Forty-four enterococcal isolates [Enterococcus faecalis (21), E. faecium (11), E. casseliflavus (5), E. durans (3), E. hirae (2), E. gallinarum (1) and E. mundtii (1)] were recovered from 70 samples of seafood collected during March–May 2015 in Tunisia. Isolates were tested for antibiotic resistance to 12 antibiotics by the disc diffusion method. Rates of resistance in the range 25–45.5% were observed for pristinamycin, ciprofloxacin, streptomycin, tetracycline and erythromycin, and in the range 6.8–9.1% for kanamycin, gentamicin and chloramphenicol. However, all strains showed susceptibility to β-lactams and glycopeptides. Multi-resistance to at least three different classes of antibiotics was detected in 14 strains (31.8%). Among 12 tetracycline-resistant enterococci, tet(M) was detected in 11 isolates and tet(L) in seven isolates. The erm(B) gene was identified in 91% of erythromycin-resistant isolates. All chloramphenicol-resistant isolates carried the cat gene, and all kanamycin-resistant isolates harboured the aph(3)-IIIa gene. The aac(6′)-aph(2″) and ant(6)-Ia genes were detected in high-level gentamicin- and streptomycin-resistant isolates, respectively. The virulence genes gelE (29.5%), esp (9.1%), cylA and cylB (9.1%) were found in enterococci. This is the first study in Tunisia to underscore the importance of seafood as a reservoir of enterococci carrying resistance and virulence genes.

Shipping the good fish out? An empirical study on the EU seafood imports under the EU’s Generalized System of Preferences

ABSTRACTThe impact of the EU (European Union) Generalized System of Preference (GSP) on the relative EU’s demand for seafood quality was evaluated in the study. We first explored the theoretical Alchian–Allen result of change in ad valorem tariffs in an n–good world, and then tested this result in the empirical study. The theoretical analysis suggests that whether a reduced ad valorem tariff in an n–good case raises the relative demand for high-value goods depends not only on the substitutability between high-value and low-value goods but also on the substitutability between these similar goods with their weak substitutes. In the empirical sections, we first estimated the elasticities of the substitutions and then used these elasticities to evaluate the quality composition of the EU’s seafood imports from the beneficiary countries. The empirical results in general confirm the occurrence of ‘shipping the good fish out’ due to the reduced tariff rates under the EU’s GSP arrangements.

Mitigating uncertainty and enhancing resilience to climate change in the fisheries sector in Taiwan: Policy implications for food security

The human population is projected to grow to more than 9 billion by 2050. New farming and fishing techniques are continually being developed. However, food production remains restricted by the finiteness of natural resources and the rapid increase in the global population. In the future, food production may decline because of the aggravated effects of climate change. Food production will be unable to satisfy the demands of the global population, leading to a food security crisis. As the world population continues to increase, food shortages will become increasingly severe, particularly for regions located in “climate impact hot spots” in tropical and subtropical zones and for small-island countries such as Taiwan. In the present study, supply and demand are analysed to examine the risks and uncertainties associated with the impact of climate change on the domestic and imported seafood supply. First, we conduct a literature review to identify the climate risk for sea food security, and then, we analyse the domestic production of both the marine fishing catch and aquaculture. This study also examines the critical problems of the imported seafood supply and applies a comparative analysis of impact type and differences in the top 10 seafood import countries to organize adaptation strategies to climate change. Moreover, due to the type of climate impact and the differences between long-term climate impact and extreme climate impact, we collect and compile the existing climate adaptation strategies of fishery production, seafood importing, and the demand and supply of seafood in Taiwan. Finally, we perform a comparative analysis to seek any deficiencies in the existing climate adaptation strategies and offer new adaptation guidelines based on the existing climate adaptation strategies. The results show that Taiwan’s major adaptation strategies have been precautionary mitigation measures. In terms of resilience management, only the buffer stock scheme plan and the stabilization funds method are selected for some specific species to mitigate the short-term fluctuation in both yield and price for imported domestic seafood. However, we will confront uncertainties stemming from global climate change in the future; the existing climate adaptation strategies of Taiwan are still not sufficient to respond to climate impacts. For example, the climate change early warning system is still very inadequate, the existing scientific knowledge is insufficient, and the current adaptation strategies are insufficient for resolving the fluctuations in the market mechanism of seafood. According to the principles of risk management, the adaptation strategies recommended in this study can be differentiated into two categories: precautionary mitigation measures can be used to adapt to domestic production and uncertainties; such measures include avoidance, transfer, and reduction to prevent the frequency and consequences of climate change for building a resilient fisheries sector. Moreover, resilience management (e.g., risk retention) can be used to respond to uncertainties in supply for adjusting production and mitigating the risks of climate change.

Provenance of global seafood

AbstractKnowing where and how seafood is caught or farmed is central to empowering consumers, and the importers that supply them, with informed choices. Given the wide‐ranging, complex and at times commercially sensitive nature of global seafood trade, it can prove very challenging to link imported seafood with information about its provenance. The databases involved are incomplete, at times vague and not harmonized. Here, we present a first attempt to link all global seafood imports through a virtual marketplace to exports and map their origins. Considerable work remains to ground‐truth the specific origins of all seafood commodities. We illustrate the flow of seafood and its evolution since the 1970s when supporting records began. This work allows the impact of fishing or marine farming to be associated with seafood imports.

Investing in the human capital of the aquatic food sector: AQUA-TNET and the road ahead

Global aquaculture production now provides around 50 % of human seafood consumption and with expected population growth and increased per capita seafood consumption, production is expected to rise from the current 63 million tonnes to almost 100 million tonnes by 2030. In contrast, aquaculture production in the European Union is relatively low, having more or less stagnated since 2000, despite the EU being the largest global importer of seafood. However, a new strategy for aquaculture development is in place with every EU Member State committed to preparing a national plan. This will involve greater focus on current constraints and issues that need to be overcome through innovation and engagement with a wide range of stakeholders. This will require the input of research, knowledge exchange and human capacity building. The AQUA-TNET thematic network for lifelong learning in aquaculture, fisheries and aquatic resource management has brought together European organisations engaged in these activities since it first started in 1996. This paper aims to present some of the analyses and thinking of that network in relation to the role of education and training in strengthening the human capital of the European aquaculture sector as a contribution to overall sector development. The approach is therefore that of a review article, drawing on a diverse range of previous work to identify themes and trends to help inform future research and activities. Further and higher education institutions play a partial but nonetheless significant role in aquaculture sector development. When considering future contributions to the sector, account needs to be taken of the changes taking place within the tertiary education sector as new technologies, global competition and government policies challenge the status quo of current organisation and practice. Though these present risks, they also offer considerable opportunities to build new collaborations, adopt new patterns of teaching and learning and perhaps apply new frameworks for accrediting learning and skills that could benefit the aquaculture sector. With funding from the European Commission Lifelong Learning Programme for AQUA-TNET having come to an end in 2014, future work of the network in promoting and enabling innovation will need to be reconfigured around other types of sector organisations. It may also be the right time to look towards a more global platform for aquaculture education and knowledge exchange.

The Monitoring of Triphenylmethane Dyes in Aquaculture Products Through the European Union Network of Official Control Laboratories.

Aquaculture has been the fastest growing animal production industry for the past four decades, and almost half of the fish eaten in the world are now farmed fish. To prevent diseases in this more intensive aquaculture farming, use of therapeutic chemicals has become a basic choice. The monitoring of malachite green, a triphenylmethane dye and one of the oldest and widely used chemicals in fish production, has gained more interest since the mid 1990s when this substance was finally proven to be toxic enough to be prohibited in seafood products destined for human consumption. The enforcement of the European Union (EU) regulation of this banned substance along with some other triphenylmethane dye congeners and their metabolites in its domestic production and in seafood imports was undertaken through the National Residue Monitoring Plans implemented in nearly all of the 28 EU member states. The reliability of the overall European monitoring of this dye contamination in aquaculture products was assessed by using the results of proficiency testing (PT) studies provided by the EU Reference Laboratory (EU-RL) in charge of the network of the EU National Reference Laboratories (NRLs). The proficiency of each NRL providing analytical support services for regulating dye residues was carefully checked during three PT rounds. In the process, the analytical methods developed and validated for this purpose have gradually been improved and extended over the last two decades.

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‘Genitalia of the Sea’: Seafood and Sexuality in Greek Comedy

Fish play a sizable role in the remains of ancient Greek comedy. Although scholars have proposed various cultural, economic, and generic explanations for comedy’s interest in sea creatures, they have not adequately considered the importance of seafood’s relationship to obscenity and sexuality. Greek comic poets correlate a range of sea creatures with sex and sexuality in imaginative and humorous ways, making obscene jokes about courtesans and aphrodisiacs, as well as creating double entendres for male and female genitalia. This study provides a lexical resource for Greek comedy’s numerous seafood fragments, uncovering many neglected ancient sexual jokes and offering fresh insight on comedy’s interest in sea creatures.

Estimates of illegal and unreported fish in seafood imports to the USA

Illegal and unreported catches represented 20–32% by weight of wild-caught seafood imported to the USA in 2011, as determined from robust estimates, including uncertainty, of illegal and unreported fishing activities in the source countries. These illegal imports are valued at between $1.3 and $2.1 billion, out of a total of $16.5 billion for the 2.3 million tonnes of edible seafood imports, including farmed products. This trade represents between 4% and 16% of the value of the global illegal fish catch and reveals the unintentional role of the USA, one of the largest seafood markets in the world, in funding the profits of illegal fishing. Supply chain case studies are presented for tuna, wild shrimp and Chinese re-processed Russian pollock, salmon and crab imported to the USA. To address this critical issue of unintended financing of illegal fishing, possible remedies from industry practices and government policies may include improved chain of custody and traceability controls and an amendment to the USA Lacey Act.

Exploring Patterns of Seafood Provision Revealed in the Global Ocean Health Index

Sustainable provision of seafood from wild-capture fisheries and mariculture is a fundamental component of healthy marine ecosystems and a major component of the Ocean Health Index. Here we critically review the food provision model of the Ocean Health Index, and explore the implications of knowledge gaps, scale of analysis, choice of reference points, measures of sustainability, and quality of input data. Global patterns for fisheries are positively related to human development and latitude, whereas patterns for mariculture are most closely associated with economic importance of seafood. Sensitivity analyses show that scores are robust to several model assumptions, but highly sensitive to choice of reference points and, for fisheries, extent of time series available to estimate landings. We show how results for sustainable seafood may be interpreted and used, and we evaluate which modifications show the greatest potential for improvements.

Effort Triggers, Fish Flow, and Customary Exchange in American Samoa and the Northern Marianas: Critical Human Dimensions of Western Pacific Fisheries

This article draws on anthropological research and long-term observation of regional fisheries to examine sociocultural and resource management dimensions of small-scale and traditional fishing operations in American Samoa and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. Ethnographic and survey research were undertaken in both archipelagos with the principal objective of describing and analyzing the nature and extent of traditional and customary fishing activities and associated seafood distribution practices. The resulting description and analysis focus on factors that trigger fishing effort and facilitate distribution of seafood in extended family and community settings across the study regions. Research findings indicate the ongoing importance of seafood in dietary terms and in terms of social organization and cultural continuity; these are discussed in relation to two ongoing resource management issues in the western Pacific.

Is the Bioterrorism Act a Barrier to Developing Country Seafood Exporters

The United States is one of the largest seafood importers in the world and most of the seafood that is consumed is imported. More strict food safety regulations, such as mandatory HACCP in 1997 and the Bioterrorism Act in 2002, have been established to ensure the safety of products. This has led to debates about the role of food safety regulations acting as technical barriers for developing countries. The HACCP and Bioterrorism Act are used in this study to represent the implementation of stricter food safety regulations to the U.S seafood trade flow. A fixed effects gravity model is used to analyze the panel data of 30 developed and developing exporting from 1992 to 2006. Nineteen of these countries are developing, while 11 countries are developed. Not surprisingly we find the impact on US imports to be positive for the exporting country’s GDP, its export volume, and its membership in regional trade agreements; and negative for distance and time. The results show negative, but statistically insignificant, effects of HACCP and the Bioterrorism Act overall. We reject the hypothesis that these regulations act as de facto barriers to trade and suggest that food safety regulations may not affect the seafood imports to the U.S as a whole.Analyzing developed and developing countries separately reveals negative effects of HACCP and Bioterrorism for developing countries as a group and positive effects for developed countries as a group. However, since the estimates from this analysis are not statistically significant, we must reject the hypothesis that food safety regulations act as technical barriers to impede trade for developing countries.The results from country-level estimates are quite varied. Both developed and developing countries are found with both positive and negative coefficients for HACCP and Bioterrorism with most of them being insignificant. However, we find significant positive estimates for three developed countries and both positive and negative effects among developing countries. These significantly different effects among countries may support the view of food safety regulations as technical barriers for certain countries.Since exporting countries have different levels of market share and different abilities to comply with food safety requirements, the impacts from food safety regulation are different among countries. For example, large exporting countries may have little impact from stricter food safety regulations or even gain from regulations while small exporting countries may face negative impacts. It appears that the role of food safety regulations may be better analyzed on an individual country basis rather than as a group.Our study tended to confirm previous results that found food safety regulations could be either a barrier to trade or a catalyst by enhancing the quality of products and export performance.

A cointegration analysis of seafood import demand in Caribbean countries

Cointegration analysis and error correction model are used to estimate seafood import demand for selected Caribbean countries. The results show that seafood import is price elastic. Exchange rate has a negative effect, while Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and tourism have positive effects on seafood imports. Import and domestic production do not have a short run causal relationship. The increase in Caribbean seafood imports is primarily due to decreasing import price and increasing domestic demand. The decline of domestic fisheries production has other causes than import competition. However, imports and domestic production have a negative long run equilibrium relationship. Tariff and production expansion policies both help producers, but tariff may reduce total economic surplus, while supply expansion can increase total economic surplus.