Today's Main Story: St. James Smokehouse's 
Salmon Supplier MKG Provisions Fined and Put on Probation for False Labeling
A story we published on Friday, April 29 from the BBC News by Douglas Fraser about UpRiver Aquaculture admitting to a Lacey Act Violation for false labeling said that the company supplied salmon to St. James Smokehouse. However, according to a press release issued by UpRiver’s General Manager Cheryl Lipson, the company does not supply salmon to St. James Smokehouse. Rather the company, which also does business as MKG Provisions, said it processed the salmon that it received from St. James. The packaging MKG used was also provided by St. James. “MKG’s customer [St. James Smokehouse] provided MKG with both the salmon as well as the pre-printed packaging, and the salmon was marketed and sold under the customer’s label, not MKG’s or UpRiver’s,” MKG said in a press release.
NMFS's annual Status of the Stocks fishery report continued to show the positive effects of US Fishery Management under Magnuson. However, Peggy Parker writes of one glaring error in this year's report about the overfishing status of Eastern Pacific Swordfish. There appears to be confusion on whether that fishery should be under the jurisdiction of the U.S. at all, even though references are in documents of the Pacific Fishery Management Council.
In other news, Chinese seafood export and import figures posted their worst declines in 20 years in 2015. According to our story, high inputs costs and over production combined with a decline in global and domestic seafood demand to hurt the sector's revenues and volumes.
Meanwhile, one Dungeness crab from California's North Coast tested positive for high levels of domoic acid, further delaying the start to commercial fishing activity in the region. The single positive "hot crab" now has the state's fishery managers questioning if anything can be done to expedite opening the fishery, rather than having to wait weeks for another round of tests.
Finally, the Togiak herring season that started April 17, the earliest opening in history, landed a cumulative total of 10,480 metric tons as of yesterday. That is just over 50 percent of the total purse seine allocation of 20,148 metric tons in 12 days.
Have a great weekend.
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