Seafood Safety & Sustainability

A Two-Park Webinar Series

Ensuring the safety and sustainability of fish, shellfish, and other seafood products intended for human consumption is an important and complex process for government entities around the world. This two-part webinar series highlighted two specific challenges: assessing and ensuring seafood safety following a disaster event, and tracing the origin and nature of commercially sold finfish and shellfish. Each webinar featured government, nongovernmental, and industry panelists to discuss the strengths and weaknesses of current management frameworks and possible next steps.

Part 1: Ensuring Seafood Safety After a Disaster

Friday, November 15, 2013
1:00pm – 3:00pm ET
Webinar

Recent coastal and marine disasters like the April 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil release in the Gulf of Mexico and the Fukushima Daichii nuclear disaster following the March 2011 Japanese earthquake and tsunami drew particular attention to procedures for assessing seafood safety in the aftermath of a major disaster. This seminar brought together government, non-governmental, and industry experts to discuss the impacts of recent natural disasters on finfish and shellfish, as well as the framework for responding to and assessing potential contamination from these disasters. Panelists paid particular attention to the role of the federal government in orchestrating response efforts and to how commercial enterprises react and respond to these disasters.

PANELISTS:

  • Peter Koufopoulos, Chief, Seafood Processing and Technology Policy Branch, Center for Food Safety & Applied Nutrition, U.S. Food & Drug Administration

  • Harlon Pearce, Owner, Harlon’s LA Fish and Former Chair, Louisiana Seafood Promotion & Marketing Board and Ewell Smith, Former Executive Director, Louisiana Seafood Promotion & Marketing Board

  • Timothy Fitzgerald, Marine Scientist/Senior Policy Specialist, Environmental Defense Fund

MODERATOR:

  • Jordan Diamond, Co-Director, Ocean Program, Environmental Law Institute

View a summary of the webinar (PDF)

View a recording of the webinar (video)
 

Part 2: Tracing Seafood from Vessel to Plate

Thursday, December 12, 2013
1:00pm – 3:00pm ET
Webinar

In recent years, numerous reports and analyses have highlighted one of the continuing challenges in fisheries management: determining the origin of harvested fish and shellfish. While consumer interest in “sustainable” seafood has steadily increased, tracking seafood from vessel to plate remains challenging. Increasing traceability and other accountability measures is critical to ensuring fisheries sustainability, reducing illegal, unregulated, and unreported (IUU) fishing, and preventing fraud in the marketplace. This seminar will bring together governmental, nongovernmental, and industry experts to discuss the need for and challenge of deploying effective traceability systems.

PANELISTS:

  • John Connelly, President, National Fisheries Institute

  • Tim Hansen, Director, Seafood Inspection Program, National Marine Fisheries Service, National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration

  • Peter Koufopoulos, Chief, Seafood Processing and Technology Policy Branch, Center for Food Safety & Applied Nutrition, U.S. Food & Drug Administration

  • Beth Lowell, Campaign Director, Oceana

MODERATOR:

  • Read Porter, Senior Attorney, Environmental Law Institute

View a summary of the webinar (PDF)

View a recording of the webinar (video)
 

This seminar series was made possible by the generous support of the Naomi and Nehemiah Cohen Foundation.