A bipartisan federal billwould buckle down on pinpointing illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing on imported snapper and tuna.
Co-introduced by U.S. Sens. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, and Ted Cruz, R-Texas, the Illegal Red Snapper and Tuna Enforcement Act that would direct the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to develop a standard methodology of identifying where fishers catch imported red snapper and some tuna species.
Schatz said in a statement, “Seafood that’s caught illegally or intentionally mislabeled rips off consumers and makes it harder for law- abiding U.S. fishermen to compete.”
“Our bill will help fight against anyone who tries to pass off cheap foreign tuna for high-quality ahi from local Hawaii fishermen,” Schatz said.
The standard methodology for identification would be based on chemical analysis to identify the country of origin of imported seafood, and would involve a field kit that could be easily carried by one person and can be used to test prepared food and raw seafood like ceviche, sashimi, sushi and poke.
According to a statement from Schatz’s office, technology already exists to chemically test and find the geographic origin of many foods, but not for tuna and red snapper.
Doing so would allow “federal and state law enforcement officers to identify the origin of the fish and intercept illegally caught or falsely labelled red snapper and tuna before it enters the U.S. market,” according to the statement.
Eric Kingma, executive director of the Hawaii Longline Association, said the organization is in full support of the bill and told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser that he’s grateful Schatz included the varieties of tuna caught mostly by Hawaii’s fleet of about 145 longlining fishing vessels.
The bill targets the identification of bigeye tuna, yellowfin tuna and bluefin tuna, which make up a large portion of Hawaii’s seafood production, according to HLA.
Hawaii’s longliners catch about 60% of U.S. yellowfin tuna landings and 95% of the nation’s bigeye tuna landings mainly 1,000 to 1,500 miles from Honolulu, Kingma said.
“It all lends to greater transparency in what we eat, what retailers and restaurants sell,” Kingma said. “It’s part of the bigger picture, and that is ensuring that consumers have the information that’s accurate and they’re not misled.”
About 70%-80% of the fleet’s catch stay in Hawaii and the remainder is exported to U.S. mainland markets, according to HLA.
Still, Kingma said 90% of seafood that comes to the U.S. comes from other countries. For Hawaii, about 60-70% of imported seafood is foreign, he said.
“More and more, people want to know where things come from,” Kingma said. “Look at your clothes — all of your clothes have where it’s manufactured. Why do your clothes have that, but not what you eat?”
It’s an issue that has gained traction locally as well.
In late June, Gov. Josh Green enacted Act 238, which, among other agricultural initiatives, will give retailers who sell ahi sashimi, poke and sushi in Hawaii a year to label the origin of yellowfin and bigeye tuna so consumers know where their fish comes from.
The state’s labeling requirement will take effect next July.
Kingma said both the state and federal efforts are a move toward giving consumers the information they need to make their own decisions about eating fresh fish.
He said, when in doubt, buy locally caught fish.
“For Hawaii-landed fish, for U.S.-landed fish, you don’t really need to (track where a fish was caught) because you know it’s well managed, it’s highly monitored,” Kingma said. “But for the imported stuff, if it’s previously frozen, gas-treated fish, I’d love to know what boat caught it, where it was caught, where it was processed.”
Source: The Garden Island
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