since they talk about UK-based boats, my guess is the 'Queen Scallop"
is Pecten maximus?

On 6/26/18, David Kirsh <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Dear listers,
>
> Here’s an aspect of scallops I hadn’t thought of. (What’s a Queen Scallop?)
>
> https://grist.org/article/your-sustainable-scallops-might-have-been-caught-with-the-help-of-shady-labor-practices/
>
> Your sustainable scallops might have been caught with the help of shady
> labor practices
> By Justine Calmaon Jun 22, 2018
>
> Paula Bronstein / Getty Images
> Hari Pulapaka, chef and owner of the restaurant Cress in Deland, Florida,
> prides himself on his ability to tell diners the names of the captain and
> vessel that brought them the seafood on their plate. For the past few years,
> he has done this with the help of Sea to Table, a flourishing family-owned
> business beloved in the sustainable food movement for connecting chefs like
> him to independent, American fisherman.
>
> So when Pulapaka, a member of the Grist 50, recently saw a link in an online
> forum for like-minded chefs to a recent Associated Press investigation into
> labor abuses connected to Sea to Table’s suppliers, his response was three
> words: “Well that sucks.”
>
> “It’s slightly deflating, because then you have to ask yourself who do you
> trust? How do you go about trusting?” Pulapaka said.
>
> Chefs across the country who care about the sustainability of the seafood
> they serve are in a bind. It takes diligence to trace where your seafood
> comes from, and many chefs had relied on Sea to Table — one of the largest
> distributors of earth-friendly seafood. Last week, the company came under
> scrutiny when an AP investigation revealed that products it marketed as
> locally sourced were actually caught as far away as Indonesia by suppliers
> with a history of labor abuses. One fisherman on a boat that sent fish to a
> Sea to Table supplier said workers were “treated like slaves,” working
> without enough food or water while earning $1.50 for a 22-hour day.
>
> “The unimaginable working conditions and horrific treatment of marine life
> in the international seafood industry must be addressed,” Sea to Table said
> in a statement released after the investigation was published. “We would
> have never accepted overseas product fished in this manner.”
>
> “We try to buy primarily American seafood for that reason.” said William
> Dissen, chef and owner of three popular restaurants in Asheville, North
> Carolina. “It makes me just want to get closer to the source rather than the
> middle man.”
>
> Chefs like Dissen and Pulapaka see reason for optimism in the conversations
> that have followed investigations like the recent reporting on Sea to Table.
> The global sustainable seafood market was worth $12.7 billion last year,
> according to Coherent Market Insights. And as the market grows, advocates
> have raised questions about how to demand food procured in a way that not
> only preserves and protects ecosystems, but that protects workers.
>
> Katrina Nakamura, who owned five seafood restaurants before launching
> Sustainability Incubator, a Hawaii-based consultancy, says that despite
> years of effort to reckon with the environmental impact of the seafood
> industry, “it’s been very much divorced from the human beings in the
> [supply] chain. The disconnect is that the definition of sustainability so
> far hasn’t been about that part of the chain where peoples’ hands touch
> fish.”
>
> The seafood industry has been plagued by reports of human rights and labor
> abuses. In 2016, the AP uncovered slavery on American fishing fleets in
> Hawaii. In 2014, the Guardian reported on slavery on Thai shrimping boats.
> Between 2010 and 2016, the U.S. State Department’s Trafficking in Persons
> report identified trafficking related to seafood from 65 different
> countries.
>
> Nakamura, who works with businesses to ensure forced and trafficked labour
> isn’t a part of their supply chain, thinks the industry has reached a
> turning point. “Consumers and chefs, we all have to start thinking about the
> face of the people touching the fish.”
>
> Consider the queen scallop. A recent study found that eating shellfish, like
> scallops, could be even better for the environment than cutting out meat.
> And the Monterey Bay Aquarium, whose ‘Seafood Watch’ program is a go-to for
> consumers and businesses who care about sustainability, rates farmed queen
> scallops as one of the most earth-friendly seafoods. But in its slavery risk
> assessment, Monterey Bay gives queen scallops a critical-risk rating because
> of documented forced labor on U.K.-based scalloping vessels and evidence of
> forced labor and trafficking in U.K fisheries.
>
> So what can seafood-loving diners do? “Consumers can talk to their seafood
> retailer about how they trace their seafood and how they’re supporting
> efforts to improve labor conditions in their supply chains,” said a
> spokesperson from the advocacy group Fishwise, in an email to Grist. “This
> sends the message that this topic is important and that customers want more
> transparent information, which encourages the retailer to take action.”
> Fishwise also recommends looking for certifications from established
> interest groups, such as the Fair Trade USA certification.
>
> The Department of Labor has a mobile app called, “Sweat & Toil” that can
> help consumers browse for goods, including seafood, that might have been
> produced with child or forced labor. And Monterey Bay Seafood Watch, along
> with Liberty Asia and Sustainable Fisheries Partnership, recently launched a
> Seafood Slavery Risk Tool meant to help businesses assess the potential risk
> of forced labor, human trafficking, and hazardous child labor in fisheries.
> But these organizations say that the slavery risk assessments (unlike the
> Seafood Watch tool that recommends seafood with the least environmental
> impact) still don’t have enough data to help consumers choose what to eat.
>
> The answer isn’t necessarily a boycott of certain foods, said Sara McDonald,
> a senior fisheries scientist, with Monterey Bay. That can make the situation
> worse. “If I boycott, then that fish is going to be sold to a less
> scrupulous person,” she said. “It’s going to drive it underground. We want
> to keep it out in the sunshine.”
>
> What’s most important, advocates say, is for consumers to expect more from
> sellers and hold them accountable for taking care of the ecosystems and the
> people who provide our fish.
>
> “Sustainable food is good for the body and good for the planet,” Dissen
> said. “And when you’re taking care of everybody in the supply chain, that’s
> good for business.”
>
>
>
> David Kirsh, LPC, RN
>
> Sent from my iPhone
>
>
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