#(this isn't an ad for hellofresh)

[dragons-and-yellow-roses]

.

[sleepy-seal]

hey. look at me. look me in the eyes. you do realize that creatives leaving youtube to start their own streaming platform is maybe not their fault and instead evidence of a terrifying reality that is youtube no longer being a viable platform for anyone who is a filmmaker. maybe the fact that multiple channels are moving off platform is not because they're greedy assholes and instead just trying to survive in a world where everything is progressively getting shittier and censored and more packed with ads and the only way to sustain themselves is not being on a site that barely pays its creators fairly and the only way to make money is shitty sponsorships (like betterhelp, hellofresh, whatever was going on with that "lords and ladies" buying land bullshit was) and ad revenue, which has been proven in the past to not be nearly sustainable enough if you're a company channel (or in general!!!!). maybe this isn't the fault of INDIE MEDIA COMPANIES and the fault of big corporations who are taking money away from creators and putting it in their own pockets.

a lot of you are angry that the videos and creators you know and love are slowly getting paywalled and it's hard to afford things nowadays and i get that. i can barely afford things myself and i'm unemployed. i'm Lucky to even be able to live with my parents until i get a stable job and graduate college. but you all need to stop putting blame on these creatives who want to fund productions they love and are passionate about and put more pressure on corporations like youtube or google or like every big media company that's forcing ads in your face every day while it tries to make more money each quarter.

[mmoxie]

say you want to watch youtube and you don't want premium

you turn off your adblocker so you're allowed to use the website

you fire up your favorite iceberg video about the worlds funniest tornadoes

ad 1) don't forget football is on

ad 2) buy our taint shaving kit

video starts

"hey guys thanks for tuning in, today we'll be talking about your favorite E5 nutshot and some you didn't even know about- but first,"

ad 3) hellofresh script read by host

"without further adieu, let's get into it, tier 1,"

ads 4, 5, 6) buy our artisanal beaverskin condoms, get out of debt fast with a predatory loan, holden bloodfeast up for reelection

ads 7-30) just shit exported directly off the tv

ad 31) "well, that was tier 9 of the iceberg, what a ride. but before you go, I've got a few more words from today's second sponsor, extreme restraints dot com"

ad 32) joe rogan interviews a sickly horse

and then autoplay kicks in to get you to the worlds most CONTROVERSIAL tornadoes iceberg, and the cycle repeats

if you aren't being sold something at all times, from all angles, and a bean counter isn't recording the metrics so that a room full of shareholders can achieve erection, are you even fucking human, google asks

[pa-pa-plasma]

please do not give HelloFresh any of your money. not only is it more expensive than just buying your own groceries from a store near you (you can order online btw!), their workplaces are extremely unsafe, employees are underpaid, & they have a history of union busting.

if you want recipes, just look them up online. Gordon Ramsey has tutorials on youtube. there's a lot of stuff out there that's much easier to make than you might think. if you have trouble with portioning, get ziplocks for freezing extra meat & veggies for later (take them out of the freezer & put them in the fridge the night before cooking them) & get measuring cups & spoons for spices.

you can get spiced panko/bread crumbs at any grocery store & use that in a pinch (I usually add flour & more of whatever spices is in the ingredients list when I deep fry chicken with it), but if you want actual spices, I keep around: salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, cayenne, chili powder, cumin, paprika, oregano, parsley, bay leaf, thyme, red pepper flakes, lemon (squeezed, or from a bottle if you want but usually you need as much) & more that I'm probably forgetting but those are my go-to's. I usually put mostly salt & pepper, & then half that amount garlic & onion, & then half that amount anything else I feel like adding.

you can also just chop up onions & garlic & cook it with the rest, but if you don't want to buy them because you can't eat it all in time, powder is the way to go. it's fine to just add one or two spices (like salt & pepper) if that's what you want.

if you're worried about burning it (mostly happens while pan frying) then don't put the heat any higher than half, wait until the butter in the pan is fully melted before adding food, & keep pushing your veggies/mushrooms around until golden. meat can be burned a little & still be fine but it's basically the same thing.

I'd love it if anyone else can add any cooking tips (or correct mine--i'm no chef, i'm a better baker tbh) because please do not use HelloFresh. doing it yourself isn't as hard as people make it out to be.

hey jsyk while hellofresh is dummy expensive and i wouldn’t recommend it if you already know how to cook (if you’re a beginner like i was when i had it for 3 months, then it’s worth it), you should know that ALL OF THEIR RECIPES are free on their website and they all fuck hard

i will say that all the cooking instructions for veggies are pretty much the same (season with salt + pepper and roast on the top oven rack at 425F), but if it ain’t broke don’t fix it.

that being said, it also introduced me to methods i wasn’t at all expecting. i would have never thought to use cream cheese in my meat sauce, and now all my friends are constantly asking me to make my special rigatoni.

happy cheffin! :)

[echotunes]

sorry hang on I just got a hellofresh ad that was like "good and healthy cooking isn't compatible with the true gamer lifestyle? wrong! with hellofresh [whatever]" but like. are you calling me a gamer. are you calling me a "true gamer" hellofresh

[but-the-library-of-alexandria]

Rating Ads That Have Been Shown To Me 100 Times A Day

Masterclass: I saw zero masterclass ads until a month ago, just after I visited their website. I did this because I'd been gifted a masterclass subscription and I was activating it. I've been using masterclass for a month and in that month I've seen multiple ads per youtube video every damn day for this product I already own. 5/10 he's a little confused but he's got the spirit

HelloFresh: I did once attempt to peruse their recipe offerings to see if there was anything a fussy eater like me could enjoy, only to find that despite the ads appearing to show multiple single people, the minimum serving size they offer is two. 0/10 this is why being single is a scam

London Theatres/Shows: yes arts! yes culture! yes local! I don't have a lot of time, money or energy to go to London for a show, and most of what you're showing me is too depressing for my taste, but I'm happy to see what's on. 8/10 I go to the globe at least once a year

Gucci: HAHAHAHAHA 0/10 if I could afford you I could afford stuff that isn't ugly

Wild Deodorant: in general I always try to buy ethical, eco-friendly products, so it makes total sense to advertise this to me, but I tried a spare one of my mum's for like a month and unfortunately I'm too sweaty for natural deodorant. 7/10 I'm sorry I wish things ended differently between us

Grammarly: I have an english degree. 2/10 I see the logic but it feels like an insult

eToro: yes I watch a lot of personal finance content but a) you will NOT make a finance bro out of me, b) do you think I have stocks-and-shares money at the age of five and twenty, and c) if/when I invest I'll be looking for ethical investments and not lending money to fortune 500 companies like I'm some dumb national government. 1/10 you get one point for acknowledging my financial literacy

PrettyLittleThing: fuck you. -100/10

[climbingrat]

I posted 14 times in 2021

14 posts created (100%)

0 posts reblogged (0%)

For every post I created, I reblogged 0.0 posts.

I added 36 tags in 2021

#knitting - 7 posts

#handmade - 6 posts

#socks - 4 posts

#crochet - 3 posts

#pink - 3 posts

#stuffed toy - 3 posts

#pastel - 3 posts

#pastel pink - 3 posts

#blue - 2 posts

#amigurumi - 2 posts

Longest Tag: 30 characters

#japanese knitting stitch bible

My Top Posts in 2021

#5

I crocheted a stuffed toy axolotl for my sister's birthday (because the Build-A-Bear one was sold out)

9 notes • Posted 2021-08-18 17:10:05 GMT

#4

"Socks for Warm Feet" from the Japanese Knitting Stitch Bible

I used some old yarn my Grandma gave me, but ran out at the end of the second sock. The yarn was discontinued so I tried to find one that matched. The colour change isn't super noticeable (and it will be covered when I wear shoes).

11 notes • Posted 2021-07-25 17:02:03 GMT

#3

I've knitted more socks!

21 notes • Posted 2021-06-27 06:29:04 GMT

#2

I knitted more socks! This pair is for my mum. She asked me to make her some with the same pattern after she saw my pink ones.

56 notes • Posted 2021-06-13 14:40:25 GMT

#1

I finished my long furby yesterday. It’s not the best craftsmanship, but I still like him. I knitted the body on circular needles like a sock. I also added a little button-up part at the back in case I need to replace the batteries.

Someone gave me the insulation of the top of their HelloFresh box, for the stuffing. It wasn’t quite long enough, so I used some loose toy stuffing at the bottom.

My furby is quite top-heavy and sometimes falls over. If anyone has any advice, please could you tell me? :)

61 notes • Posted 2021-03-30 15:11:52 GMT

Get your Tumblr 2021 Year in Review →

[patchbadger]

Second therapist chiming in please talk to an actual person!!!!

For all the flaws humans can have we actually have perspective, feelings, empathy, judgement, and most importantly UNCONDITIONAL POSITIVE REGARD

The problem with AI fast tracking mental health supports is that it is stopping you from LEARNING IT YOURSELF.

Learned helplessness is not the same as skill building and doesn't supply you with the confidence you need to apply what you've learned.

My partner downloaded the app and it basically just reframed your day for you........

This is a basic technique anyone can do. Hell a hellofresh ad does this.

Yes combating depression and anxiety takes effort that is what therapy is about. Sometimes you need it modeled but using AI to consistently have it handed to you is NOT appropriate modeling.

These apps and ai are encouraging self isolation in individuals who self isolate like is no one thinking that???

But what if I can't leave my home: guess what? You still need social isolation in person. I'm saying it because i fucking see it everyday apps aren't an excuse to self isolate and not use community resources.

Use Psych2Go videos and other skill building videos to be an active participant in your mental health care.

But what if people can't afford a therapist?

OpenPath is an online US based therapy service offering 60$ and lower therapy rates. Many providers are LGBTQIA+ and telehealth.

Emergency hotlines are free. I will emphasize emergency hotlines are national wide no matter where you live and free.

You can even use a computer.

AI has also told a person to commit when the individual asked for mental health help. Like get off the trend train this isn't an appropriate use for AI.

Call a friend. Call a hotline. Talk to a pet. Talk to a plant- I have client practice mindfulness and mindfully caring for plants when they need extra support because the oxygen helps the plant and so does mindfully observing the plant. It grounds them in reality and engages them in a passive relationship.

Talk to a neighbor. You don't need to talk about what's wrong you can talk about the weather just engage in a social activity.

Tumblr is currently serving me an ad for "Voda, the LGBTQ mental health app" offering "daily meditations, self-care and AI advice" and as a therapist I am begging you not to download an app where an AI tries to help you with your mental health. Please do not. They tried to have an AI chatbot counsel eating disorder patients and it told them to diet. That shit is not safe. Do not talk to an AI about your mental health please. You don't need to talk to a professional but talk to a PERSON.

[investmart007]

MONTAUK, N.Y. | AP Investigation: Fish billed as local isn't always local

New Post has been published on https://is.gd/fdjvzP

MONTAUK, N.Y. | AP Investigation: Fish billed as local isn't always local

MONTAUK, N.Y. — Even after winter storms left East Coast harbors thick with ice, some of the country’s top chefs and trendy restaurants were offering sushi-grade tuna supposedly pulled in fresh off the coast of New York.

But it was just an illusion. No tuna was landing there. The fish had long since migrated to warmer waters.

In a global industry plagued by fraud and deceit, conscientious consumers are increasingly paying top dollar for what they believe is local, sustainably caught seafood. But even in this fast-growing niche market, companies can hide behind murky supply chains that make it difficult to determine where any given fish comes from. That’s where national distributor Sea To Table stepped in, guaranteeing its products were wild and directly traceable to a U.S. dock — and sometimes the very boat that brought it in.

However, an Associated Press investigation found the company was linked to some of the same practices it vowed to fight. Preliminary DNA tests suggested some of its yellowfin tuna likely came from the other side of the world, and reporters traced the company’s supply chain to migrant fishermen in foreign waters who described labor abuses, poaching and the slaughter of sharks, whales and dolphins.

The New York-based distributor was also offering species in other parts of the country that were illegal to catch, out of season and farmed.

Over the years, Sea To Table has become a darling in the sustainable seafood movement, building an impressive list of clientele, including celebrity chef Rick Bayless, Chopt Creative Salad chain, top universities and the makers of home meal kits such as HelloFresh.

“It’s sad to me that this is what’s going on,” said Bayless, an award-winning chef who runs eight popular restaurants and hosts a PBS cooking series. He said he loved the idea of being directly tied to fishermen — and the pictures and “wonderful stories” about their catch. “This throws quite a wrench in all of that.”

As part of its reporting, the AP staked out America’s largest fish market, followed trucks and interviewed fishermen who worked on three continents. During a bone-chilling week, they set up a camera that shot more than 36,000 time-lapse photos of a Montauk harbor, showing no tuna boats docking. At the same time, AP worked with a chef to order fish supposedly coming from the seaside town. The boat listed on the receipt hadn’t been there in at least two years.

Reporters also tracked Sea To Table’s supply chain to fishermen abroad who earn as little as $1.50 a day working 22-hour shifts without proper food and water.

“We were treated like slaves,” said Sulistyo, an Indonesian fisherman forced to work on a foreign trawler that delivered fish to a Sea To Table supplier. He asked that only one name be used, fearing retaliation. “They treat us like robots without any conscience.”

Sea To Table owner Sean Dimin emphasized his suppliers are strictly prohibited from sending imports to customers and added violators would be terminated.

“We take this extremely seriously,” he said.

Dimin said he communicated clearly with his customers that some fish labeled as freshly landed at one port was actually caught and trucked in from other states, but some chefs denied this. Federal officials described it as mislabeling.

____

A century ago, small-scale fisheries dotted America’s coasts and fed the country’s demand for seafood. But as time passed, overfishing, strict government regulations and outsourcing to developing countries changed the industry, making it nearly impossible for local fishermen to compete.

The U.S. seafood market is worth $17 billion annually, with imports making up more than 90 percent of that. Experts say one in five fish is caught illegally worldwide, and a study last year by the University of California, Los Angeles and Loyola Marymount University found nearly half of all sushi samples tested in L.A. didn’t match the fish advertised on the menu.

Sea To Table offered a worry-free local solution that arrived from dock to doorstep by connecting chefs directly with more than 60 partners along U.S. coasts. While its mission is clear, scaling up to a national level while naming specific boats and docks is currently unrealistic. Still, the company is predicting rapid growth from $13 million in sales last year to $70 million by 2020, according to a confidential investor report obtained by the AP.

As its business expanded, AP found Sea To Table has been saying one thing but selling another.

For caterers hosting a ball for Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, who had successfully pushed through a law to combat seafood mislabeling, knowing where his fish came from was crucial.

The Montauk tuna arrived with a Sea To Table leaflet describing the romantic, seaside town and an email from a salesperson saying the fish was caught off North Carolina. But the boxes came from New York and there was no indication it had been landed in another state and driven more than 700 miles to Montauk. A week later the caterer ordered the Montauk tuna again. This time the invoice listed a boat whose owner later told AP he didn’t catch anything for Sea To Table at that time.

“I’m kind of in shock right now,” said Brandon LaVielle of Lavish Roots Catering. “We felt like we were supporting smaller fishing villages.”

Some of Sea To Table’s partner docks, it turns out, are not docks at all. Their seafood was advertised as “just landed” from wholesalers and retailers like Santa Barbara Fish Market — which also has imports — and Red’s Best in Boston. Both collect seafood at harbors and companies up and down their coasts.

Sea To Table also promoted fresh blue crab from Maryland in January, even though the season closed in November. In addition, the company said it never sells farmed seafood, citing concerns about antibiotics and hormones. But red abalone advertised from central California are actually grown in tanks — it’s been illegal to harvest commercially from the ocean since 1997. Rhode Island and Washington state also supply aquacultured seafood, such as oysters and mussels.

Dimin said farmed shellfish “is a very small part of our business, but it’s something that we’re open and clear about.” When asked to provide evidence that the company has been transparent about its use of farmed shellfish, he paused and then replied, “There’s nothing to hide there.”

However, days later, he said he decided to drop aquaculture from his business because it contradicts his “wild only” guarantee.

Private companies that mislead consumers, clients and potential investors could face lawsuits or criminal liability. Both the Food and Drug Administration and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration are charged with enforcing laws to prevent fish fraud. Sellers who know, or even should have known, that fish is mislabeled could be found guilty of conspiracy to defraud the U.S. government, mail fraud and wire fraud. The crimes carry potential fines and jail time.

Carl Safina, an award-winning author and leading marine conservationist at New York’s Stony Brook University, said companies that prey on consumers’ good intentions “deserve to be out of business immediately.”

A half dozen commercial fishermen and dealers in various regions of the country voiced concerns and, in some cases, anger about Sea To Table. Others have lashed out in the past using social media. Most spoke on condition of anonymity out of concern for their safety and their businesses in an industry where relationships often overlap.

Eric Hodge, a small-scale fisherman from Santa Barbara, said he considered partnering with Sea To Table a few years ago. He quickly changed his mind after seeing canary rockfish on the distributor’s chef lists when the fish was illegal to catch. He also learned Sea To Table was buying halibut from the fish market, which relies heavily on imports. He said he spoke to the company about his concerns.

“Honestly, they know. I just don’t think they care,” Hodge said. “They are making money on every shipment, and they are not going to ask questions. And in seafood, that’s a bad way to go about it because there is so much fraud.”

___

The idea for Sea To Table began with a family vacation to Trinidad and Tobago more than two decades ago. Following a fishing trip there, Michael Dimin and his son, Sean, eventually started shipping fresh catch from the Caribbean nation to chefs in New York. Later, they shifted their model to work exclusively with small-scale American coastal fishermen.

Restaurants and other buyers demanding sustainable products were drawn to the company by a marketing campaign that provided a story not just about where the fish came from, but the romantic image of an American pastime. And they were willing to pay a lot — sometimes more than $20 a pound — for high-end species.

The New York Times, National Geographic, Bon Appetit magazine and many others singled out Sea To Table as the good guys in a notoriously bad industry. Larry Olmsted, author of the bestselling book “Real Food, Fake Food,” recommended it as an answer to fraud in a Forbes article.

After learning about the problems, Olmsted said he was disappointed, and that it made no difference to him if part of the business was legitimate: “It either is reliable, or it’s not.”

Sea To Table partnered with sustainability giants such as the Monterey Bay Aquarium, the Marine Stewardship Council and the James Beard Foundation, which collaborated on events and referred to the distributor as an industry favorite. They expressed concern that suppliers who knowingly mislabel catch will damage the movement.

Sea To Table’s products are sold in almost every state, reaching everywhere from Roy’s seafood restaurants to Tacombi taco chain. It can be found at eateries inside the Empire State Building in New York and Chicago’s O’Hare airport, direct to consumers from its own website and even on Amazon for home cooks to order. In addition, more than 50 college campuses such as Yale, Ohio State and the University of Massachusetts have signed up. So have some of the biggest make-it-yourself meal kits, including Home Chef and Sun Basket, a rapidly growing market that Sea To Table says generates a third its revenues.

Whether they know it or not, a company spending money at any point in a long chain that begins with an abused fisherman and ends with a diner is inadvertently supporting the problem. Customers who responded to AP said they were frustrated and confused.

“Not ok,” Ken Toong, who is responsible for UMass Dining, said of Sea To Table. “We believed them.”

____

AP’s investigation began with one of Sea To Table’s nearby suppliers. Located on New York’s eastern coast beyond the posh Hamptons, Bob Gosman Company opened in Montauk as a mom-and-pop clam shack more than six decades ago.

Now run by cousins Bryan and Asa Gosman, it is a small empire sitting on a multi-million dollar property. Oceanfront restaurants, shops and motels bustle with tourists in the summer. And its fish market, where 70 percent of the tuna is imported, has become one of the biggest wholesalers in the area.

Gosman’s gets most of its tuna along with other species from a place in the state where fish can always be found, regardless of the season: The New Fulton Fish Market. The nine-acre refrigerated warehouse just outside Manhattan is the second-largest facility of its kind, moving millions of pounds of seafood each night, much of it flown in from across the globe.

Beautiful maroon slabs of imported high-grade tuna were on display for several nights in December, January and February, as well as other times throughout last year, when AP reporters roamed the market. The frigid building buzzed with workers on forklifts zigzagging across slick concrete floors, stacking orders waiting to be picked up.

In the early hours, often between 2 a.m. and 4 a.m., boxes of fish bearing foreign shipping labels from all over the world were arranged into piles with “Gosman” scribbled across them in black marker. They were later hoisted onto a waiting truck with the same name.

After a three-hour drive east, the AP watched the loads arrive at the company’s loading dock in Montauk, just as the sun was rising on the tip of Long Island.

The tuna, swordfish and other species were then ferried inside Gosman’s warehouse. They came from Blue Ocean in Brazil, Vietnam’s Hong Ngoc Seafood Co., and Land, Ice and Fish in Trinidad and Tobago. Occasionally, boxes showed up from Luen Thai Fishing Venture and Marshall Islands Fishing Venture, part of a Hong Kong-based conglomerate that’s a major supplier of sushi-grade tuna. Despite recent conservation partnerships, Luen Thai has a checkered past, including shark finning and a bribery scandal that resulted in the jailing of a former Cook Islands marine resources minister in 2016.

Bryan Gosman said Sea To Table stressed it would not take imports. But with no yellowfin tuna landed in New York during the coldest winter months — which a federal official confirmed — it was impossible to provide high-quality loins from Montauk.

“So in the beginning, there were times when we were trying to hustle around fish,” Gosman said. “Buying fish at different places, so it could be a legitimate business plan that they’re trying to follow.”

Eventually, with Dimin’s blessing, Gosman said he started getting fish from as far away as North Carolina and trucking it up to New York.

They stopped that arrangement in March. Gosman said it wasn’t profitable. Dimin said they wanted to avoid the “complexity of communicating” their sourcing.

Meanwhile, in the dead of winter, AP had turned to a chef to order $500 worth of fish on their behalf. Sea To Table provided a receipt and verbal assurances that the seafood — which arrived overnight in a box bearing the company’s name and logo — had been landed in Montauk the day before.

The invoice even listed the “Standin Up” as the boat that caught it. But the vessel’s owner said it was in another state at the time, hundreds of miles away.

“I know my name is being used,” said Robert Devlin, who was upset by the news. “A lot of people do fraud that way.”

The AP also shipped tuna samples supposedly from Montauk to two labs for analysis: Preliminary DNA testing suggested the fish likely came from the Indian Ocean or the Western Central Pacific. There are limitations with the data because using genetic markers to determine the origins of species is still an emerging science, but experts say the promising new research will eventually be used to help fight illegal activity in the industry.

Bryan Gosman said they keep Sea To Table’s fish separate, but acknowledged there’s always a chance some imported tuna can slip through with domestic.

“Can things get mixed up? It could get mixed up,” he said. “Is it an intentional thing? No, not at all.”

___

The investigation didn’t end in Montauk. One of the boxes in Gosman’s stack at the Fulton fish market was stamped with a little blue tuna logo above the words “Land, Ice and Fish,” out of Trinidad and Tobago.

This is where the AP traced companies in Sea To Table’s supply chain to slave-like working conditions and the destruction of marine life.

The global seafood industry is known for providing cheap fish that comes with another price. Unscrupulous foreign companies operate with virtually no oversight in vast swaths of international waters, as AP reported in a series of stories in 2015. Those reports helped free more than 2,000 enslaved fishermen in Indonesia.

Though it’s nearly impossible to tell where a specific fish ends up, or what percentage of a company’s seafood is fraudulent, experts say even one bad piece taints the entire supply chain.

On learning that Sea To Table’s supply chain could be tracked to businesses engaged in labor and environmental abuses, Dimin said it was “abhorrent and everything we stand against.”

He said he was temporarily suspending operations with two partners to conduct an audit.

During the investigation, reporters interviewed and obtained written complaints from more than a dozen current and former Indonesian fishermen — including Sulistyo — who were connected to companies in Sea To Table’s supply chain.

Sulistyo said his trawler plied waters between Africa and the Caribbean. Occasionally, it stopped in Trinidad and unloaded swordfish, yellowfin and bigeye tuna at Land, Ice and Fish.

Some crew members who docked there said they were beaten and forced to work when they were sick or hurt. At times, they said, migrant workers died on board and were tossed in the freezer with their catch while the boat continued to fish.

“You are out 500 miles or a thousand miles from shore, he is the law at that point,” John Duberg of Land, Ice and Fish said of individual captains. “And if he feels he has a misbehaving crew member, he may have to take disciplinary actions.”

Marine life was treated with even less respect. Some men said they were ordered to pull in as many sharks as they could catch and slice off their fins, which are a delicacy in Asia. The bodies were tossed back into the ocean, a practice banned by many countries.

Whales also were killed, their heads sometimes chopped off and their teeth extracted as good luck charms. The workers showed photos and videos of fishermen posing with mutilated sharks and whales. While some men appeared to celebrating, others said it left them feeling sickened.

Sulistyo endured the abuse and long hours for a year before jumping to another ship in 2017, demanding to be taken to port. He returned to Indonesia and was classified as a victim of trafficking by the International Organization for Migration.

After hearing that just 30 pounds of tuna could be sold in America for more than $600 — the amount Sulistyo earned during his entire year of work — he stared at the ground in disgust.

“I want to say to the Americans who eat that fish, please appreciate what we did to catch this fish with our sweat, with our lives,” Sulistyo said. “Please remember that.”

____

AP journalists Julie Jacobson in New York and Niniek Karmini in Jakarta, Indonesia contributed to this report

By ROBIN MCDOWELL, MARGIE MASON and MARTHA MENDOZA,

By Associated Press

___

[investmart007]

MONTAUK, N.Y. | AP Investigation: Local fish isn't always local

New Post has been published on https://is.gd/8m2HC9

MONTAUK, N.Y. | AP Investigation: Local fish isn't always local

MONTAUK, N.Y. (AP) — Caterers in Washington tweeted a photo of maroon sashimi appetizers served to 700 guests attending the governor’s inaugural ball last year. They were told the tuna was from Montauk.

But it was an illusion. It was the dead of winter and no yellowfin had been landed in the New York town.

An Associated Press investigation traced the supply chain of national distributor Sea To Table to other parts of the world, where fishermen described working under slave-like conditions with little regard for marine life.

In a global seafood industry plagued by deceit, conscientious consumers will pay top dollar for what they believe is local, sustainably caught seafood. But even in this fast-growing niche market, companies can hide behind murky dealings, making it difficult to know the story behind any given fish.

Sea To Table said by working directly with 60 docks along U.S. coasts it could guarantee the fish was wild, domestic and traceable — sometimes to the fisherman.

The New York-based company quickly rose in the sustainable seafood movement. While it told investors it had $13 million in sales last year, it expected growth to $70 million by 2020. The distributor earned endorsement from the Monterey Bay Aquarium and garnered media attention from Bon Appetit, Forbes and many more. Its clientele included celebrity chef Rick Bayless, Roy’s seafood restaurants, universities and home delivery meal kits such as HelloFresh.

As part of their investigation, reporters staked out America’s largest fish market, followed trucks and interviewed fishermen who worked on three continents. During a bone-chilling week, they set up a time-lapse camera at Montauk harbor that showed no tuna boats docking. The AP also had a chef order $500 worth of fish sent “directly from the landing dock to your kitchen,” but the boat listed on the receipt hadn’t been there in at least two years.

Preliminary DNA tests suggested the fish likely came from the Indian Ocean or the Western Central Pacific. There are limitations with the data because using genetic markers to determine the origins of species is still an emerging science, but experts say the promising new research will eventually be used to help fight illegal activity in the industry.

Some of Sea To Table’s partner docks on both coasts, it turned out, were not docks at all. They were wholesalers or markets, flooded with imports.

The distributor also offered species that were farmed, out of season or illegal to catch.

“It’s sad to me that this is what’s going on,” said chef Bayless, who hosts a PBS cooking series. He had worked with Sea To Table because he liked being tied directly to fishermen — and the “wonderful stories” about their catch. “This throws quite a wrench in all of that.”

Other customers who responded to AP said they were frustrated and confused.

Sea To Table owner Sean Dimin stressed that his suppliers are prohibited from sending imports to customers and added violators would be terminated.

“We take this extremely seriously,” he said.

Dimin also said he communicated clearly with chefs that some fish labeled as freshly landed at one port were actually caught and trucked in from other states. But customers denied this, and federal officials described it as mislabeling.

The AP focused on tuna because the distributor’s supplier in Montauk, the Bob Gosman Co., was offering chefs yellowfin tuna all year round, even when federal officials said there were no landings in the entire state.

Almost nightly, Gosman’s trucks drove three hours to reach the New Fulton Fish Market, where they picked up boxes of fish bearing shipping labels from all over the world.

Owner Bryan Gosman said some of the tuna that went to Sea To Table was caught off North Carolina and then driven 700 miles to Montauk. That practice ended in March, he said, because it wasn’t profitable. While 70 percent of his yellowfin tuna is imported, he said that fish is sold to local restaurants and sushi-bars and kept separate from Sea To Table’s products.

“Can things get mixed up? It could get mixed up,” he said. “Is it an intentional thing? No, not at all.”

Some of Gosman’s foreign supply came from Land, Ice and Fish, in Trinidad and Tobago.

The AP interviewed and reviewed complaints from more than a dozen Indonesian fishermen who said they earned $1.50 a day, working 22 hours at a time, on boats that brought yellowfin to Land, Ice and Fish’s compound. They described finning sharks and occasionally cutting off whale and dolphin heads, extracting their teeth as good luck charms.

“We were treated like slaves,” said Sulistyo, an Indonesian who worked on one of those boats and gave only one name, fearing retaliation. “They treat us like robots without any conscience.”

Though it’s nearly impossible to tell where a specific fish ends up, or what percentage of a company’s seafood is fraudulent, even one bad piece taints the entire supply chain.

Dimin said the labor and environmental abuses are “abhorrent and everything we stand against.”

For caterers serving at the ball for Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, who successfully pushed through a law to combat seafood mislabeling, knowing where his fish came from was crucial.

The Montauk tuna came with a Sea To Table leaflet describing the romantic, seaside town and the quality of the fish. A salesperson did send them an email saying the fish was caught off North Carolina.

But the boxes came from New York and there was no indication it had landed in another state and was trucked to Montauk. A week later the caterer ordered Montauk tuna again. This time the invoice listed a boat whose owner later told AP he didn’t catch anything for Sea To Table at that time.

“I’m kind of in shock right now,” said Brandon LaVielle of Lavish Roots Catering. “We felt like we were supporting smaller fishing villages.”

By ROBIN MCDOWELL, MARGIE MASON and MARTHA MENDOZA by Associated Press