WASHINGTON — The Catfish Farmers of America are applauding the U.S. Department of Agriculture for recommending implementation of a law requiring tough new inspections and regulation of all catfish sold in America. “We are extremely pleased that the USDA has recommended stricter regulation of catfish which will mean greater protection for American consumers,” said Joey [...] [...]
WASHINGTON — The Agriculture Department has delayed a decision on a new catfish inspection program that threatens to derail U.S. trade relations with Vietnam. The agency released a proposed rule Friday seeking more comment on the key question of whether Asian catfish will be subject to a new inspection regime that Congress passed in 2008 [...] [...]
GULF OF MEXICO — President Barack Obama’s administration said yesterday it supports the farming of fish in federal waters, but that the practice needs to be done in a safe and scientifically sound manner. In the Gulf of Mexico, businesses have proposed growing fish on unused oil and natural gas platforms. Farming fish along the [...] [...]
WASHINGTON — Sen. Thad Cochran (R-Miss.) and Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) recently testified before the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) that existing antidumping duties must be extended to promote an even playing field for U.S. shrimpers “besieged by unfair foreign imports.” The ITC is in the process of determining whether conditions within the U.S. shrimp [...] [...]
WASHINGTON — The catfish industry is pointing to a recent airing of NBC’s “Today Show” as more proof the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s inspection system for imported seafood is weak. Many Americans are eating foreign catfish and other seafood tainted with chemicals that could cause cancer, birth defects and other serious health problems, according [...] [...]
OCEAN SPRINGS — About 3,000 pounds of shrimp have been harvested from an aquaculture project at the Gulf Coast Research Laboratory’s Cedar Point site. The harvest of saltwater shrimp Aug. 10 was the largest since the program began in the mid-1980s, said Jeff Lotz, chairman of the University of Southern Mississippi Department of Coast Sciences [...] [...]
The Catfish Farmers of America (CFA) last week released the findings of a study evaluating the risks associated with eating catfish. The report, conducted by Exponent, backs CFA’s prior claims that imported fish bring greater risks to public health than domestic aquaculture and that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) should conduct catfish inspections. Based [...] [...]
MISSISSIPPI GULF COAST — The Mississippi Commission on Marine Resources (CMR) decided in a special session held April 6 to authorize a special management season for oyster harvest in selected areas of the Mississippi Sound. The adopted motion states that Conditionally Approved Area II “A” and Conditionally Approved Area II “B” will be opened to [...] [...]
BATON ROUGE, La. — For the third time in a week, the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals has closed an oyster harvesting area because of an outbreak of illness. This time, it’s “Area 13,” west of the Mississippi River in southern Jefferson and Lafourche parishes. Last Wednesday, the department closed an area in Plaquemines [...] [...]
BILOXI — The American Shrimp Processors Association (ASPA) is strongly condemning the proposed settlement and revocation of the antidumping order on imported shrimp from Thailand. ASPA said it believes that the Southern Shrimp Alliance (SSA), the purported representative of the domestic shrimp industry, is “selling out the American shrimp industry to Thailand in order to [...] [...]
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