Saving Seafood

National seafood intel to offer competitive advantage for Maine businesses

April 30, 2021 — Data on national seafood sales is expected to give Maine’s aquaculture and seafood businesses a competitive edge by helping them identify the best prospects for market expansion.

Coastal Enterprises Inc. has acquired competitive national seafood industry sales information as part of its Maine Seafood Marketing Initiative, a pilot effort to establish a state seafood marketing association promoting all of Maine’s seafood products, according to a news release.

The nonprofit is sharing the data with Maine’s aquaculture and seafood industries.

“This intel gives Maine companies a competitive advantage over out-of-state producers and distributers,” Nick Branchina, director of CEI’s Fisheries and Aquaculture Program and principal of the Maine Seafood Marketing Initiative, said in the release.

Read the full story at MaineBiz

Norwegian technology tests Maine waters

April 29, 2021 — In Norway, one of the world’s top two producers of farmed salmon, raising fish at sea in closed cages has been tested for nearly a decade. Multiple contained floating systems are in commercial use there now after yielding positive test results. Whether such farms’ scale, though, fit Frenchman Bay, where a ferry, tour boats, fishing vessels and pleasure craft already coexist, is among many questions sparked by American Aquafarms’ plan to grow fish there on a large scale.

On Norway’s northwest coast, beginning in 2016,  the “Eco-cage” system that American Aquafarms’ proposes for Frenchman Bay was tested by its producer, Ecomerden AS, at the salmon farm Sulefisk in the westernmost Solund Isles archipelago for a two-year period. Compared to open-net pens used in Maine, the closed, floating system fared better. In 2018, Ecomerden AS General Manager Jan-Erik Kyrkjebø reported sea lice, a parasite that feeds on salmon skin and accounts for much fish mortality, had ceased as an issue and predators failed to penetrate the ocean pens’ strong, flexible membrane sack. Kyrkjebø also said the Norwegian company’s closed system boosted the salmon’s survival rate and reduced the fish’s grow-out period leading to harvest, according to Undercurrent News, a London-based, independent online journal focused on the global seafood market.

Earlier this year, Ecomerden, whose Eco-cage is proposed for Frenchman Bay, sold its semi-closed system for commercial use to the Norwegian salmon farm Eide Fjordbruk in the southwestern fjord town of Eikelandsosen. Another Norwegian fish farmer, Osland Havbruk, is using the Eco-cage to raise salmon in Norway’s largest and deepest fjord, Sognefjord, on the west coast, according to the Norwegian journal SalmonBusiness. However, Ecomerden’s Eco-cages are not yet being used commercially elsewhere in the world, according to American Aquafarms Vice President Eirik Jors.

Read the full story at the Ellsworth American

The salmon you buy in the future may be farmed on land

April 29, 2021 — In a series of indoor tanks 40 miles south west of Miami, Florida, five million fish are swimming in circles a very long way from home.

The fish in question are Atlantic salmon, which are far more typically found in the cold waters of Norway’s fjords or Scotland’s lochs.

As the species is not native to Florida, and would be unable to cope with the state’s tropical heat, the water tanks are kept well chilled, and housed in a vast, air-conditioned and heavily insulated warehouse-like building.

The facility, called the Bluehouse, opened its first phase last year, and intends to be the world’s largest land-based fish farm.

Targeting an initial production of 9,500 metric tonnes of fish per year, its owner – Atlantic Sapphire – plans to increase that to 222,000 tonnes by 2031, enough to provide 41% of current US annual salmon consumption, or a billion meals.

The company is at the forefront of a growing movement in Europe, Asia and the US towards land-based, indoor aquaculture. But what could it mean for traditional sea-based salmon farms, and most importantly – what about the welfare of the fish?

Read the full story at BBC

Sustainability, communication and collaboration are key for the future of aquafeed

April 28, 2021 — The Marine Ingredients Organization (IFFO) hosted a webinar with all members of the organization with the latest insights from nearly 20 speakers on the global fishmeal and fish oil markets, in-depth country presentations and new research insights.

The panel looked at salmon and shrimp market trends. All panelists, from Allan Cooper (Vitapro S.A.) to Therese Log Bergjord (Skretting), Aisla Jones (Co-op), Odd Eliasen (Havsbrun) and Jonathan Banks, underlined that sustainability, transparency and communication with consumers are central to the future of aquafeed. Documented facts and figures on seafood’s carbon footprint, nutritional properties of fishmeal and fish oil and sustainable harvesting of fish stocks demonstrate aquaculture’s success story.

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, a major shift has happened in the shrimp sector mainly, with some changes occurring also in the salmon industry. Supply chains have adapted to allow for a move to retail to be made. Digital transformation, through analytics, will be the way forward to improve service, traceability and feed efficiency.

Read the full story at Aquafeed.com

Maine farm that uses fish poop to grow crops year-round is expanding

April 27, 2021 — A Lisbon farm plans to add 500,000 square feet of greenhouse operations over the next six years and defy doubters who don’t believe its style of year-round growing, which uses fish waste to fertilize greens, can be scaled into a large commercial operation.

Springworks Farm, the largest aquaponics farm in Maine and one of the largest in the United States, aims to be a local organic alternative to lettuce and other greens trucked from California and Arizona to the East Coast.

It already produces one million heads of lettuce and up to 60,000 pounds of tilapia each year, and plans to have its third greenhouse completed in May. The technique uses less water and can produce up to 20 times more lettuce in an acre as conventional soil gardening, according to Springworks.

Read the full story at the Bangor Daily News

Native American leader that pushed Washington aquaculture development dies in car wreck

April 26, 2021 — Washington state’s Kurt Grinnell, a Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe council member for 16-plus years, died in a single-vehicle wreck Tuesday, April 20, on Mount Pleasant Road in Port Angeles.

Grinnell, 57, a Port Angeles resident, was the tribe’s aquaculture manager and served on the tribe’s hunting and fishing committee for 33 years after being elected to the council in October 2004, reported the local news site Sequim Gazette.

Grinnell was also CEO of Jamestown Seafood, which opened in 2016 and harvests oysters and geoduck and produces oyster seed for commercial sale.

He had previously worked on projects with Canadian salmon giant Cooke that included a joint venture with the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe to produce sterile all-female native steelhead trout at a defunct Cooke salmon pen.

Read the full story at IntraFish

Trial shows Calysta’s FeedKind can replace 30 percent of fishmeal in yellowtail feed

April 26, 2021 — A trial at Japan’s Kindai University has shown that Menlo Park, California-based Calysta Inc.’s FeedKind bacterial protein meal (BPM) can replace up to 30 percent of fishmeal protein – or up to 20 percent of total feed – in the diet of yellowtail without any impact on growth rate, digestibility, daily feeding rate, or feed efficiency.

The paper, “Methanotroph (Methylococcus capsulatus, Bath) bacteria meal as an alternative protein source for Japanese yellowtail, Seriola quinqueradiata,” written by a group of researchers led by Amal Biswas, was published in the journal Aquaculture. It details two trials – one of 1,500 yellowtail fish, and the second of 800 – analyzed over an eight-week period. In both cases, a control diet was used alongside increasing concentrations of FeedKind. Fish survivability was 100 percent across all tests, with no significant difference between the control diets and the 25 percent inclusion rate across both trial groups.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Nicole Naar: Building an Accessible Aquaculture Network

April 22, 2021 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

Dr. Nicole Naar is an Aquaculture Specialist at Washington Sea Grant. She earned her doctoral degree in anthropology from the University of California-Davis, where she conducted fieldwork in Mexico and Tanzania. Currently her work focuses on conducting outreach for sustainable aquaculture and helping coastal communities respond to social and environmental challenges.

Blending Marine and Social Sciences

Growing up in Florida, Naar always had an interest in marine biology. In high school, she also developed an interest in social science. At the time, it seemed difficult to find a link between the two career paths. Luckily, on a student trip to Mexico, her eyes were opened to the possibility of combining anthropology, sustainability, and marine biology in a coastal setting.

One of Naar’s visits to Mexico focused on a small coastal town where many job seekers came from other areas of the country to work and fish. Fisheries were rumored to be overexploited due to the growing number of immigrant workers. To address these concerns and perceptions, Naar began to gather data on resource use, regulation compliance, and other factors. Ultimately, her work demonstrated that in terms of fishing practices, there was no difference between locals and non-locals.

“Fisheries are directly connected to the social science issues many people care about, such as job creation, local food systems, and environmental sustainability,” said Naar. “Social science research provides data that empowers communities to make informed decisions about sustainable wild-capture and aquaculture.”

Read the full release here

Cleaner fish from salmon farming affect wild populations

April 21, 2021 — A growing demand for cleaner fish in salmon farms raises concerns about overfishing and human-mediated geneflow to wild populations. A recent study reveals that up to 20 percent of the local populations of corkwing wrasse in mid Norway may constitute escapees and hybrids.

Every year, millions of wrasses are caught along the Swedish and Norwegian coasts, and transported to  for parasite control. Effects on the wild harvested populations, and the risks from  escaping the farms, are poorly investigated.

Two recently published studies take a closer look at how the current fishery is affecting source populations and ecosystems, and to what degree translocated fish are escaping and mixing with populations outside the fish farms.

Read the full story at PHYS.org

Baby elvers rocket back up in value in Maine

April 21, 2021 — Tiny baby eels are worth big bucks again in Maine.

The state is home to the U.S.’s only significant fishery for the baby eels, which are called elvers, and it’s taking place right now. Prices tanked last year due to disruption to the worldwide economy caused by the onset of the coronavirus pandemic.

This year, the fishery is experiencing a return to normalcy. The tiny, wriggling fish are worth $1,634 per pound to fishermen, the Maine Department of Marine Resources reported on Monday.

The elvers are worth so much because of the crucial role they play in Asian aquaculture. They’ve been worth between $1,300 and $2,400 per pound every year since 2015, except last year, when they were worth $525.

The elver business has benefited from improved health in international trading at large, said Mitchell Feigenbaum, an elver dealer.

“There’s confidence in the market in all commodities right now,” Feigenbaum said “There’s a crazy boom in real estate, a crazy boom in the stock market, a crazy boom in the eel market.”

Read the full story at the Associated Press