Blog

By Rob Ross

The morning of April 29, 2015 CAA offices received an email from the Assembly Agriculture Committee telling us that Assemblyman Mark Stone, D. Carmel, withdrew his bill from consideration and would not present his AB 820 relating to fish and seafood labeling. Well acquainted with the rules of the legislature and nuances surrounding legislative hearings we confirmed our vote count, and that Oceana did not have sufficient votes to get their bill out of committee. They threw in the towel. As Tuesday April 29 was the last hearing of the Assembly Agriculture Committee for bills that cost the state money to implement or enforce, pulling the bill from the committee calendar, not having a hearing, killed the bill.

Here’s what the bill would have done:

1. Required all processed (canned, breaded, frozen, more) fish and seafood sold in California to include on the label whether this seafood was farm raised or wild caught.
2. Required restaurants to include on their menu if the fish or seafood offered at the restaurant was farm raised or wild caught.
3. Codified a convoluted chain of responsibility and liability for mislabeled product.
4. Prohibited the use of the term Pacific Red Snapper for the 13 species of rock fish that State law currently authorizes and prohibit the term Butterfish for Sable fish. The bill was silent on the term Black Cod.
5. Stated that it was legislative intent to increase penalties and fines for seafood mislabeling.

Opponents to the bill included:

• American Fish Company
• California Aquaculture Association
• California Farm Bureau Federation
• California Fisheries Association Board members
• California Grocers Association
• California Retailers Association
• Canadian Seafood Council
• Grocery Manufacturers of America
• Individual Fishermen
• National Fisheries and Seafood Institute
• Retail Industry Leaders Association
• Sea Breeze Seafoods International
• The Fishery
• West Coast Seafood Processors Association

We want to thank CAA members and allied organizations for an outstanding communication and lobbying effort.