The U.S. Department of Labor is working with local labor organization Centro Comunitario de Trabajadores to improve worker safety at seafood processing facilities in New Bedford, Massachusetts, U.S.A.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) offices in Braintree, Massachusetts and Providence, Rhode Island have signed a formal agreement with Centro Comunitario de Trabajadores to establish an alliance to address the risky workplace
… Read MoreNOAA Fisheries wants to create a new national database to collect private and public information – including vehicle registrations, phone records, social media accounts, and more – to help its law-enforcement division conduct investigations.
The agency issued a notice in late June seeking contractors capable of building the new system. Companies currently have until 12 July to submit capability statements to NOAA Fisheries as they
… Read MoreU.S. Customs and Border Protection is too slow in passing on information about potential illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing imports, making it difficult for NOAA Fisheries to conduct inspections, according to a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report.
NOAA Fisheries manages four separate programs designed to stop the import of IUU products, but it cooperates regularly with CBP and other agencies to target potential IUU
… Read MoreBull kelp does not warrant listing under the U.S. Endangered Species Act (ESA), according to NOAA Fisheries.
The Center for Biological Diversity, a nonprofit known for its work on protecting endangered species and other wildlife through legal action, petitioned the agency to declare bull kelp a threatened or endangered species in September 2022.
“Extreme heat events over the past eight years have caused immense damage to bull kelp
… Read MoreNOAA Fisheries has updated its Climate Science Regional Action Plans, providing new guidance to fisheries managers through 2024.
“The newly released plans build upon ongoing efforts first launched in 2015 by NOAA Fisheries to address climate change,” NOAA Fisheries said in a release. “They highlight our current and planned efforts with partners to better track, understand, forecast, and use information on changing ocean and
… Read MoreInternational trade imbalances are hampering America's seafood industry, but the U.S. government is working to address those issues and promote exports, according to a new export strategy from the U.S. Department of Commerce.
Released in late June, the strategy calls for increased coordination across government agencies, using artificial intelligence to process export data, and greater outreach to the seafood industry.
“Difficulty
… Read MoreU.S. federal lawmakers from the state of Maryland have revealed that USD 3.8 million (EUR 3.5 million) in loan funding has been made available to local meat and catfish processors.
Although Chesapeake Bay fishermen harvest more than 5 million pounds of invasive blue catfish annually, there are only 18 USDA-approved inspection facilities, resulting in a processing bottleneck. The funding announced last week will help local producers expand or
… Read MoreThe U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives are considering nearly identical figures for funding for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2024, but both proposals fall far short of U.S. President Joe Biden’s budget request.
Although Biden originally asked for USD 3.9 billion (EUR 3.6 billion) for the federal agency charged with food safety, the debt ceiling budget deal agreed to by Congress in June hampers any effort
… Read MoreFresh off legal victories, lobstermen in the U.S. state of Maine and salmon trollers across the country in Alaska are finding kinship in a shared narrative.
In a letter sent to the Alaska Trollers Association, Maine Lobstermen’s Association President Kristan Porter said both organizations had fought similar battles against environmentalists who want to end commercial fishing over concern about the threat it poses to
… Read MoreThe U.S. Department of Agriculture is continuing its seafood spending spree this week, after awarding nearly USD 90 million (EUR 82 million) in contracts last week.
The latest awards, which were announced on 29 June, are for the federal government’s domestic food assistance programs.
Seattle, Washington, U.S.A.-based OBI Seafoods was awarded a contract to supply 47,120 cases of canned pink salmon worth USD 2.6 million (EUR 2.4
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