Francisco,
Thank you for your VERY important and informative reply. I am a fisherman
like you. I started on the Grand Banks for swordfish in the 70's before GPS and
weather fax machines. We set miles of longline gear at sunset and started to
haul it back at dawn. I am well aware of the problems of fishing longline gear.
My personal opinion that the histamine problem is a BIG problem that it seems
that few people want to talk about. Especially people with onboard
experience. The US has inacted the Country of Origin labling and the EU will have the
mandatory traceability as of January 2005. I feel that we must take advantage of
these vehicles to begin to get a handle on this worldwide problem.
I have got to run but I will be back to continue this converversation
published to the list members. I am pleading those list members with first hand
experience, especially the initial handling stages to contribute to this
discussion. Once again. Thanks Francisco for your contributions.
Paul Dion
Paul Dion Associates, Inc.
Plymouth, MA
USA
In a message dated 11/10/2004 12:32:53 AM Eastern Standard Time,
francisco@ihug.co.nz writes:
> Subj: Histamine discussion
> Date: 11/10/2004 12:32:53 AM Eastern Standard Time
> From: francisco@ihug.co.nz
> To: seafood@ucdavis.edu
> Sent from the Internet
>
>
>
> Hi there
>
> As a private mail went went public, and my name has been invoked, here is my
> 5 cents contribution, in this topic
>
> (I have not dealt with Mahi Mahi exports, mostly because we eat it or went
> to crew catch!)
>
> For longlined fish. The market of most of that fish is either frozen or
> fresh sashimi market at various grades. Some of the pacific islands do
> longline albacore for canning, but is not a lot and is mostly a day fishery
> providing the shore based companies to freeze on site and ship out.
> Ergo, if you are going to expect premium price for fish, you provide premium
> quality. Temperature abused fish is quite obvious to the trained eye. And if
> you sent dodgy fish, histamine levels could be high and you are not going to
> stay in the market for too long.
>
> On my experience on board longliners (Tonga, Samoa, Fiji &New Zealand)
> quite a lot of the fish come on board alive, unless, as Ian mentioned
> before, it has been eaten by sharks... again this varies with species and
> locations.
>
> However, if you are investing in longlining you go for the bigger fish 30 kg
> + lower than that, market does not really justify the airfreight costs, and
> mostly you'll fish below the thermocline, and depending completely on the
> size of your reel, vessels specs, weather, bait, racks and so on... you set
> over an X period of time without interruptions and then go back to your
> setting point and start hauling... during that time you sleep and eat...
>
> Hauling takes a long time when every thing goes well, and even longer when
> things go "normal". (mainline cuts, sabotage, reel problems, to much by
> catch, to much fish, slurry problems), but basically the dodgier you are as
> a skipper and the associated condition of gear and crew... the dodgier your
> fish would be*
>
> And a in that sense the market regulates itself, a good HACCP plan in which
> histamine tests (from a registered lab) are used as a verification measure
> at regular intervals, should be enough. If you doubt on your suppliers, do
> internal verification by colorimetry, test kits, cheap lab services, or
> whatever your feel like)
>
> As somebody who worked in both sides of the fence (a fence that we in NZ are
> trying to break down), I'm very aware that in the cases where things go
> wrong (i.e. rejections, rapid alerts, etc) the CA does get into trouble, and
> upholds responsibility... but the producer gets into more trouble.
> He looses money big time... and you can do that only a couple of times in
> today's marketplace... so is at the end of the day, the system regulates it
> self a bit.
>
> For the species that are fished closer to the surface, you tend to aim to
> the "bulk" market, where size is not a conditional factor and the most
> common method is purse seining (yes I know I'm omitting pole liners, but
> just wait..) Again a different ball game all together as the gatekeepers are
> the canning factories, who are VERY particular about histamine
>
> Of course... you want to fill the ponds in one shoot if you can* but then
> you know that the fish you will be scooping at the end would be quite bad...
> and your engineer would be screaming at you and at the overwhelmed
> refrigeration system...
> again a mistake that you don't make many times... the seiners I worked on
> (Solomon Islands and Western Pacific) are really aware of this... and would
> go for the day quota that their boats could handle... because ...they don't
> get paid for rejected fish.
>
> How big of a problem is Histamine? I guess each of us would have a different
> answer.
>
> The better the fish you have access to the less the problematic issue it
> would be, the less "serious" your industry the bigger the problem, and if
> the importer in the US deals with dodgy producers for a quick buck, again
> not many mistakes are allowed*
>
> The worst part of the problem is, I know, that those histamine mistakes can
> cost lives, in the worst case scenario. (are they really significant in
> today's world of collateral damages?)
>
> But I believe, that more regulatory intervention, paternalistic approaches,
> and changing the nature of the fishing methods are not the solution
>
> I don't really know what the solution is, but I'm sure includes education,
> extension, fairness, pay per quality schemes, feedback, consultation,
> industry agreed standards, RMPs, and other strategies, tools and lines of
> work we are into.
>
> Thanks for the patience (we leave pole-lining and set driftnets for another
> day!)
>
> Francisco Blaha
>
>
>
>
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