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Wednesday, October 9, 2024

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Hurricane Milton makes landfall near Siesta Key; expected to remain a hurricane as it moves across central FL; Groups file an emergency lawsuit to reopen FL voter registration amid hurricanes; ND wildfires: Heavy damage to cropland; importance of early warnings; Report: 67 PA counties boom for low unemployment, job growth, wage increase.

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President Biden denounces disinformation about federal disaster response. Experts address concerns about how hurricanes impact voting, and activists left and right question VP Harris' stance on meat.

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Hurricane Helene has some rural North Carolina towns worried larger communities might get more attention, mixed feelings about ranked choice voting on the Oregon ballot next month, and New York farmers earn money feeding school kids.

Mainers seek more ‘sustainable’ seafood but labels may be misleading

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Thursday, August 29, 2024   

Mainers are buying more "sustainable" and "humane" seafood but animal welfare advocates said such labels may not be telling the whole story.

The sustainable seafood market is predicted to top $26 million by 2030 as more consumers focus on environmental health.

Helen Browning, researcher and lecturer at the University of Southampton in the U.K., said the sustainable label simply means a species was not overfished but not necessarily treated well.

"I think that could be quite confusing for consumers," Browning contended. "They might think that humane products are sustainable, sustainable products are humane, when actually neither of those things has to be the case."

She recommended Seafood Watch or the Monterey Bay Seafood Watch Guide, which offer online tools for consumers to learn which species and regions are harvested responsibly. The tools cover both wild fisheries and aquaculture operations.

Fifteen percent of the world's wild-caught fish are certified by the Marine Stewardship Council but it does not address animal welfare. Rather the nonprofit focuses on environmental sustainability, healthy ecosystems and maintaining legal fishing regulations. The Aquaculture Stewardship Council published its Fish Health and Welfare Criterion in 2023.

Maria Filipa Castanheira, spokesperson for the council, said the guidelines lay out best practices for fish farmers.

"The group called for certain welfare considerations to be included, including anesthesia of fish during handling operations that can inflict pain or injury if fish are moving, and maximum time fish can be out of water," Castanheira outlined.

Some national animal welfare groups are promoting the idea of humane slaughter for fish, which aims to reduce or eliminate pain and suffering. Currently, many fish are chilled to death in an ice slurry or asphyxiated by being taken out of the water before being stunned or killed.

This story is based on original reporting by Jessica Scott-Reid at Sentient.


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Hurricane Milton grew to become a major hurricane on the morning of Oct. 7, 2024. (AWS S3 Explorer/Wikimedia Commons)

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