A Massachusetts federal court has granted a motion to dismiss a request for injunctive relief but allowed to continue other claims alleging that Gorton’s Inc. misleads consumers by marketing its tilapia products as “sustainably sourced.” Spindel v. Gorton’s Inc., No. 22-10599 (D. Mass., entered August 24, 2022). The court noted that in a hearing, Gorton’s acknowledged “that some of its tilapia comes from fish farms in China but contended that it follows industry best practices in its sourcing from China.” “To the extent plaintiffs are casting a wider net in arguing that only tilapia raised in the wild are sustainable, they will come up empty,” the court found. “However, Plaintiffs do assert a plausible (albeit hotly disputed) claim that Gorton’s tilapia are sourced, in part, from unsustainable Chinese fish farms with ‘environmentally destructive and inhumane’ practices.” Accordingly, the court denied the motion to dismiss these claims.
Tag Archives fish
A California federal court has ordered the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to conduct an assessment on the effects that could ensue if genetically engineered (GE) salmon escaped aquaculture farms and established themselves in the wild. Inst. for Fisheries Resources v. FDA, No. 16-1574 (N.D. Cal., entered November 5, 2020). The court found that the agency did not "meaningfully analyze what might happen to normal salmon in the event the engineered salmon did survive and establish themselves in the wild," "[e]ven if this scenario was unlikely." The court noted that FDA knew that AquaBounty was likely to establish additional farms. "Obviously, as the company’s operations grow, so too does the risk of engineered salmon escaping. Thus, it was particularly important at the outset for the agency to conduct a complete assessment of the risks posed by the company’s genetic engineering project, including an assessment of the consequences for normal salmon…
The New Yorker has described a visit to the warehouse of Fulton Fish Market, a web start-up that aims to provide fresh fish across the United States using "an Amazon-esque warehousing-and-logistics system." In "The Last Robot-Proof Job in America?" the author states, "There is one thing, however, that the sophisticated logistics system cannot do: pick out a fish." Robert DiGregorio, the expert who selects fish for the company, The New Yorker explains, "possesses a blend of discernment and arcane fish knowledge that, so far, computers have yet to replicate." "What can a fishmonger see that a computer can't?" The New Yorker points to "a nice 'film'—as in slime," which purportedly protects the fish from bacteria and parasites, along with the smell—"when [skate] goes bad, it smells like ammonia," DiGregorio told the magazine. Further, he said that he builds relationships with the fishmongers to "get the best stuff—not the stuff they…
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued guidance revising advice for pregnant women about safe fish consumption. “Advice About Eating Fish: For Women Who Are or Might Become Pregnant, Breastfeeding Mothers, and Young Children” includes "a statement that eating fish when pregnant or breastfeeding can provide health benefits and states that fish and other protein-rich foods have nutrients that can help children's growth and development. The revisions also include a statement that, as part of a healthy eating pattern, eating fish may offer heart health benefits and lower the risk of obesity. The revised advice also makes clear that many types of fish are both nutritious and lower in mercury." FDA will accept comments until September 9, 2019, about suggested additional target populations for the advice, suggestions for effective means to distribute the advice and other information that may be useful to include.
Cape Florida Seafood has filed a lawsuit alleging that several companies have "conspired since at least 2015" to fix prices on farm-raised Norwegian salmon. Cape Fla. Seafood v. Mowi ASA, No. 19-22002 (S.D. Fla., Miami Div., filed May 17, 2019). The complaint asserts that salmon prices before 2015 were correlated with the cost of feed protein, while after 2015, "regression analyses indicate that . . . as fishmeal prices declined, farm-raised salmon prices increased." The plaintiff asserts that the regression analyses "are concrete evidence that farm-raised salmon prices were not increasing as a response to costs and, instead, were being affected by Defendants' combination, contract, and/or conspiracy." Cape Florida Seafood seeks class certification and damages for the alleged unlawful restraint of competition in violation of the Sherman Act.
National Public Radio (NPR) has published a piece on BlueNalu, a company aiming to market and sell fish cultivated in a laboratory. "[U]nlike today's wild-caught or farmed fish options, BlueNalu's version of seafood will have no head, no tail, no bones, no blood. It's finfish, just without the swimming and breathing part," the article explains. "It's seafood without the sea." BlueNalu is one of six companies working on lab-grown seafood, NPR reports, and all are "likely five to 10 years away from having actual product on the market." A BlueNalu executive told NPR that he is confident the products will not "end up languishing within the [U.S. Food and Drug Administration] for years, the way AquaBounty's genetically modified salmon did," partly because lab-grown fish is "not using any genetic modification" such as CRISPR. "We aren't introducing new molecules into the diet. We're not introducing a new entity that doesn't exist…
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has deactivated an import alert that prevented the introduction of genetically engineered (GE) salmon into interstate commerce. The agency's statement indicates that it placed the ban in 2016 with the intention of lifting it when standards for labeling GE food were finalized. With the implementation of the National Bioengineered Food Disclosure Standard in late 2018, the authority to regulate GE food shifted to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), according to the statement, so the import ban deactivation will remove barriers for USDA regulation. "With the deactivation of the import alert, AquAdvantage Salmon eggs can now be imported to the company’s contained grow-out facility in Indiana to be raised into salmon for food. As was determined during the FDA’s 2015 review, this fish is safe to eat, the genetic construct added to the fish’s genome is safe for the animal, and the manufacturer’s…
According to the New York Times, Chinese regulators have announced that rainbow trout can be sold as salmon within the country. Rainbow trout and salmon are closely related, the China Aquatic Products Processing and Marketing Alliance found, and the breeds have apparently been sold interchangeably for several years. Because rainbow trout is cultivated in freshwater, consumers reportedly worry about the threat of parasites, which salmon cultivated in saltwater is less likely to carry. The regulators noted that markets and restaurants must list the species of fish and its origin on the label, such as “salmon (Atlantic salmon)” or “salmon (rainbow trout).”
In collaboration with EUROPOL, Spain's environmental protection service has seized 45 tons of tuna illegally treated with color-enhancing substances. The tuna was frozen and acceptable for canned use, but four individuals were recoloring the fish and selling it as fresh, according to the investigators. The alleged perpetrators face up to four years in prison for "endangering public health."
The U.S. Court of International Trade has approved a preliminary injunction preventing the importation of fish from Mexican commercial fisheries that use gillnets near where vaquitas are found. NRDC v. Ross, No. 18-0055 (Ct. Intl. Trade, entered July 26, 2018). The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) filed the lawsuit to protect the remaining population—about 15—of the vaquita, a type of small porpoise. “It is undisputed that the cause of the vaquita’s precipitous decline is its inadvertent tangling, strangulation, and drowning in gillnets, which are fishing nets hung in the water to entangle fish and shrimp,” the court noted. “The Government of Mexico, which regulates fishing practices in the Gulf of California, has banned the usage of gillnets in certain fisheries within the vaquita’s range, though illegal gillnet fishing continues. In other fisheries, gillnet fishing remains legal. If current levels of gillnet fishing in the vaquita’s habitat continue, the species will…
