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U.S. catfish growers facing growing global rivals

They don’t look too much like catfish. They don’t taste like them, either - at least to catfish connoisseurs. But Vietnamese basa and tra fish often fool consumers in the United States, where they’re sometimes billed as Asian catfish. Sometimes they’re even labeled Delta grown.

That’s the Mekong Delta, not the Mississippi.

American-bred catfish - mostly farmed in the Southeast United States - dominate the world market, but the region’s farmers are on the defensive against growing foreign competition of basa and tra, cheaper breeds that threaten U.S. catfish superiority.

Meeting recently in Atlanta to promote American-bred catfish, industry leaders voiced their frustration with how Chinese and Vietnamese farmers have been nibbling away at their customers with prices that are between 50 cents and a dollar per pound cheaper.

While the federal government predicts that 560 million pounds of American farm-raised catfish will be processed this year, a drop of 15 percent from three years ago, foreign rivals are making up ground.

More than 24 million pounds of Vietnamese basa and tra have been shipped to the United States this year, doubling last year’s total. And catfish imports from China have almost tripled, rising to 4.1 million pounds of frozen fillets, according to the National Marine Fisheries Service.

Another spike looms if the United States agrees to a pact that would permanently normalize trade relations with Vietnam, which President Bush discussed last week with Vietnamese executives during an eight-day trip to Asia. Although the two countries have a bilateral trade agreement, American companies cannot take full advantage of Vietnam’s entry into the World Trade Organization unless the trade bill passes.

The agreement along with Vietnam’s entry into the WTO would require the country to slash tariffs and trade barriers, making it easier for foreign companies to enter its market while opening up export opportunities for Vietnamese companies.

The plan is expected to pass Congress, although The Catfish Institute, a Jackson, Miss.-based group, has tried to stave off a deal by questioning the presence of banned chemicals in the foreign fish.

Catfish farmers have fought back before to protect their share of the nation’s top aquaculture product, a resilient fish that spawns easily and can survive fairly drastic temperature swings.

Unfair trade complaints in 2003 led to antidumping restrictions that cut in half the number of basa and tra imports. The same year, Congress passed a law preventing the Vietnamese basa from being labeled “catfish.”

More recently, Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama - where most catfish are farmed - have issued alerts that call for strict inspection of some catfish imports after antibiotics showed up in some samples. And a federal law passed that requires sellers to slap “made in” stickers that show where fish are caught.

To environmentalists, who consider catfish among the greenest of seafoods, the foreign surge is a cause for concern.

While Vietnamese breeds are often trapped in net-pen systems that can tax natural resources, the U.S. fish are raised in closed ponds that reduce the risk of spreading disease and have a minimal environmental impact, Leonard said.

The Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers would not return messages for comment on this story, but its president, Ho Quoc Luc, has said his country has been working to meet seafood safety standards.

Many seafood eaters can’t tell the difference between the types of fish. Both are white meats with a relatively mild flavor and look enough alike, at least splayed out on a plate. To experts, though, there’s no comparison.

Group gets $348,000 to help protect fish

A Marin fish advocacy group has received $348,000 from a state agency to help protect salmon and trout from sediment that washes into creeks from dirt roads in the San Geronimo Valley.

The state's Water Resources Control Board gave the funding to the Forest Knolls based-Salmon Protection and Watershed Network - SPAWN - which works to protect coho salmon and other fish. Coho are listed as a threatened species by the federal government and as endangered by the state.

The San Geronimo Valley is a particularly treacherous area for the fish because of development adjacent to creeks - sometimes within feet.

"Half of Marin's coho population spawns here in the valley," said Paola Bouley, SPAWN's watershed biologist

There are roughly 1,500 parcels in the valley, and about 15 percent include creek habitat, according to SPAWN.

The state money will be used to focus on unpaved roads not maintained by the county.

By fixing the roads and stopping sedimentation, creeks will be cleaner and healthier for fish, she said.

In the 1940s, there was a statewide peak of 500,000 coho. But today's native coho population is 1 percent of that - a decline caused primarily by a loss of free-flowing creeks and rivers that have been affected by development, culverts, dams and other obstacles.

A state official said SPAWN has done well with other grants for programs that protect fish.