A Message From the Founder

In 1990, I was drawn to the seafood industry. Being a grandson of Azorean Portuguese immigrants, a passion for fish was in my blood. I also believed strongly in the need to responsibly harvest marine resources without damaging the long-term health of the species or their habitat. It seemed this industry would offer opportunity to contribute to the move to sustainable methods of harvest and seafood business. Our company works only in fisheries whose stocks are considered healthy and sustainable. The seafood industry has been seen as espousing positions that polarize it to the environmental community. I desire to work with environmental groups to find a common ground and long-term solutions to both utilize and protect the ocean's resources. There can be no healthy seafood industry without healthy oceans. We are presently working on a fisheries educational center that will be part of our new, soon to be constructed, City of Eureka seafood facility. My goal is to help educate seafood consumers, whose choices and voices can ultimately promote healthy marine stewardship.

It has been a pleasure to serve as a conduit of some of the most nutritious and delicious foods on earth. We take pride in producing products of unsurpassed quality, as well as developing unique products to fill the needs of the consumer. We pioneered the "minimal mercury" classification of Albacore tuna for consumers who desire to limit their exposure to mercury, while continuing to enjoy and receive the health benefits of tuna. I am especially pleased that this product and the public awareness it generated, is protecting the health of many young children, especially the unborn.

In the past thirteen years, we have developed niche markets that have diversified and increased the demand for certain seafood products. This brings more value to the fishery. It results in economic benefit for everyone.

1. Consumers receive higher quality products and more options that fill their
   seafood buying preferences.
2. Producers, distributors and retailers all have new products to sell, with new
   accompanying revenues.
3. Fisherman receive more for their products, which helps them prosper, even amid
   harvest restrictions.
4. Coastal communities benefit when more fishing enterprises succeed.

There is a disturbing political effort underway that proposes to allocate the rights to harvest and the rights to process seafood. Limiting and timing the harvest of products has merit. However, the proposals involve awarding the rights to catch and also the rights to process the catch to fisherman and processors who would thereupon own a commodity that could be sold. This will lead to corporate ownership of public resources. The opposite of what I described above would be true. Everyone would suffer economically, as those with money would buy these rights, stack them and control the industry from catch to consumption. Opportunity for new entrants to the industry and competitive effort would be forgotten, abandoned components of American seafood history. I, obviously oppose these proposals.

A beneficial proposal is that implementing a "full retention" harvest policy. Currently, trawl vessels are allowed to sell species-specific poundage quotas. In the process of collecting these quantities, there is a significant discard of over-quota fish. This is not just by-catch of underutilized species. It could be thousands of pounds of lingcod, rockfish, or other highly valued species. whose very stocks we are trying to rebuild. These fish are thrown over dead, unused, wasted. The concept of "full retention" is to have the vessel bring in and deliver, all that comes aboard. He is paid for the quota quantities. the balance of the load can be processed by the processor and sold into a managed program for the benefit of charities, food banks or a number of other programs. In addition to the benefit to recipient groups, the processing company, it's employees and the coastal communities would benefit economically from what is now a wasted resource. In addition, fisherman who must bring in everything that comes aboard, will be more greatly motivated to employ gear types and harvest techniques that minimize by-catch. This is the best way to promote conservation of the resource.

I'd like to thank you for your interest in our company and our objectives in the seafood industry. I invite you on a company tour, to become acquainted with our personnel, facilities and the fishermen. I also welcome your input on the issues discussed herein. Feel free to email me at billc@carvalhofisheries.com