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Update: On November 16, 2023, NOAA announced an additional two-year delay in the implementation of the Marine Mammal Protection Act Import Provisions. Original post from November 1, 2023: Fifteen years after the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) was asked to ban seafood imports under the Marine Mammal Protection Act,
Deep Dives
Bombshell reporting this week on China’s abuse of forced labor in seafood has erupted into finger-pointing and calls for action across industry, service providers, advocates and even Congress. A quick aside: This is the important ‘out loud’ part of how any industry evolves and becomes more responsible over time.
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Yesterday The New Yorker published two lengthy exposés from indie journalist Ian Urbina on China's labor abuse in the seafood sector (citations below). They claim that 17% of the squid imported to the US was processed by forced laborers in China, some of it harvested by fishers enslaved
Deep Dives
In my first year of college I heard that Big Coffee was pushing small roasters out of business and self-imposed a ban, going out of my way (and budget) to buy coffee exclusively from small vendors. One day I asked a barista about their beans and was shocked by the
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This morning, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) shared some practical information about their plans for enforcing FSMA 204 on an operational level. Here's our quick breakdown of what you should know: 1. Industry will be able to submit data to the FDA in two ways: 1.
Deep Dives
One of the first goals we set at Goldfish was to offer industry a gut check on sourcing data. Anyone working in trade should be able to quickly and easily assess if—for example—bluefin tuna really is harvested in the Solomon Islands using handlines (yes), or off the coast
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Last week NOAA issued its biennial report on international fisheries management, which includes a list of nations engaged in Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing. The report chronicles the recent history of enforcement, diplomacy and capacity building between the US and a host of nations on fishery management issues ranging
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The US Department of State is all about diplomacy, but did you know that it also has a small but influential role in regulating shrimp imports? It’s true! The department bans imports from foreign shrimp fisheries that do not meet the US standard for protecting sea turtles. Thematically, the
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Goldfish asked NOAA for extra time to review its estimate of how much Seafood Import Monitoring Program compliance costs US industry. In the 30-day extension NOAA gave we surveyed brokers and importers to test NOAA’s assumptions as well as our own. Here's what we learned: It takes
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Does SIMP compliance really cost $20? Importers, brokers and vendors: Click here to complete our 5-minute survey on SIMP to make the industry’s efforts heard as the government considers expansion! Special thanks to NCBFAA for partnering on this effort. Earlier this month, we asked NOAA for more time to
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Our mission is to support industry by opening new markets. As a software company, we spend most of our time translating complex regulations into software and keep an eye on the politics through our trade associations. On occasion, the right thing to do for our customers is to is stand
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It is illegal to import goods produced using forced labor, but screening for violations is easier said than done. US Customs and Border Protection (CBP)’s main tool for restricting seafood imports at risk of labor violations is Withhold Release Orders. CBP has issued a handful of these targeting specific