Alaska Seafood Newsbrief

Happy New Year!

The staff of the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute sends you best wishes for a healthy and prosperous 2010. We look forward to serving the Alaska seafood industry, the State of Alaska and our Alaska seafood customers around the world as we welcome the new decade.

At the last ASMI "all hands" meeting a presentation was made by Linda Chaves of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) regarding the new regulations adopted by the European Commission (EC) requiring that fisheries products harvested from January 1, 2010, forward that are imported into E.C. member countries to have documentation of the legality of the catch. The purpose of the catch certificate program is to help crack down on IUU fishing: illegal, unreported and/or unregulated fishing. The National Marine Fisheries Service signed an agreement with the EC aimed at making sure U.S. exports to EC member countries won't be disrupted. Seafood exporters can get information from the Seafood Inspection Program website, www.seafood.nmfs.noaa.gov.