Saving Seafood

Fight over Cooke’s steelhead permits in Puget Sound headed to Washington Supreme Court

November 27, 2020 — Earlier this month, conservation groups lost a lawsuit to block Cooke Aquaculture from raising domesticated steelhead in net-pens in Washington’s Puget Sound, but the groups announced on 23 November they will file a second appeal to the state’s Supreme Court.

In January, authorities from Washington’s Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) granted Cooke a five-year permit to farm steelhead in Puget Sound, and received water quality permits from the state’s Department of Ecology in September. A month later, a coalition of environmental groups, led by the Wild Fish Conservancy (WFC), filed a lawsuit claiming the permitting process was incomplete.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Additional Public Listening Session on December 3 for Aquaculture Opportunity Areas

November 25, 2020 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

December 3, 2020 from 12 pm to 2 pm ET

Aquaculture Opportunity Areas (AOA), which are called for in the May 2020 Executive Order on Promoting American Seafood Competitiveness and Economic Growth, are defined as geographic areas that have been evaluated for their potential for sustainable commercial aquaculture. Selected areas are expected to support multiple aquaculture farm sites of varying types including finfish, shellfish, seaweed, or some combination of these farm types.

We have added a fifth AOA listening session to grant stakeholders another opportunity to provide comment. To ensure that all stakeholders, including the recreational and commercial fishing industries, from whom we would like to hear more, have the opportunity to provide comments the additional public listening session will be held December 3, 2020 from 12:00-2:00 ET.

Through the current request for information, which is open until December 22, the public and our stakeholders are encouraged to provide comments for AOA creation in federal waters off of southern California and the Gulf of Mexico as well as the location of future AOAs. The synthesis of public input and NOAA’s powerful data-driven siting analysis are essential elements to highlight space that is environmentally, socially, and economically appropriate for commercial aquaculture. We look forward to hearing from you. 

Read the full release here

New research signifies “an important step forward in aquaculture genomics”

November 20, 2020 — New research highlights the possibilities that genetic variation in Atlantic salmon offers for advancing aquaculture production.

Spearheaded by Alicia Bertolotti, the new research involved sequencing the genomes of 492 Atlantic salmon in a project led by professor Dan Macqueen at the Roslin Institute (University of Edinburgh) in partnership with Xelect, the University of Aberdeen, and many international collaborators – including the Norwegian University of Life Sciences.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Nordic Aquafarms granted state permits for Maine RAS project

November 20, 2020 — Nordic Aquafarms Inc., the company planning a large salmon recirculating aquaculture system in Belfast, Maine, has been granted state-level permits via a unanimous vote by the Maine Board of Environmental Protection (BEP).

The acquisition of state permits is the result of nearly two years of work on the permitting process, which was marked by interruptions from local opposition. Local opponents filed multiple objections to the permitting process, before the permits were found to be complete in June 2019.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Canadian organizations seeking comment on new salmonid farming code of practice

November 19, 2020 — The National Farm Animal Care Council (NFACC) and the Canadian Aquaculture Industry Alliance (CAIA) are seeking comment on a draft of a new code of practice for farming salmonids in the country.

The Code of Practice for the Care and Handling of Farmed Salmonids has been the result of two years of work via a multi-stakeholder approach across relevant stakeholders in various agriculture sectors. The code is intended to serve as guideline for sound management and welfare practices for the farming of salmonids, including requirements for “rearing units, feeding, transportation, and other animal husbandry practices.”

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Seychelles opening aquaculture investment space to foreign investors

November 19, 2020 — The Seychelles has completed a review of its fisheries policy that could soon enable foreign investors to partner with local seafood entrepreneurs as the government focuses on achieving full, sustainable exploitation of its marine fisheries.

According to the Seychelles Fishing Authority (SFA) Principal Aquaculture Officer Aubrey Lesperance, the island-nation’s government “has relaxed the regulation with regards to joint ventures when a partnership is established with foreigners.”

Read the full story at Seafood Source

These futuristic salmon farming concepts could radically reshape the aquaculture sector. Here’s where the projects stand

November 16, 2020 — Nearly two dozen Norwegian companies have received salmon farming licenses to pursue pilots of their innovative aquaculture concepts, but when these futuristic concepts will hit the water at a large scale remains murky in some cases.

A total of 20 companies received 102 development permits between 2016–2020, and while many have not even begun construction of the projects, the Norwegian government says the green light to pursue the farming systems won’t be turned off.

The development permits (see sidebar) were granted in some cases for a period of up to 15 years, giving companies plenty of runway to raise financing and refine the technology — a critical element to the successful implementation of the projects, according to Anne Osland, section manager for the Norwegian Directorate of Fisheries.

“Many of these projects are very complex, and that it may take some time to get into operation,” Osland told IntraFish.

Read the full story at IntraFish

B.C.’s Open-Net Salmon Farms On The Way Out, But Replacement Systems May Differ By Region

November 16, 2020 — The federal government’s plan to phase out open-net salmon farms on the B.C. coast could result in different rules for different areas of the province.

The Department of Fisheries and Oceans says it is exploring the use of an “area-based management approach” to aquaculture that would take into account the cumulative impact of groups of fish farms in a certain area.

Read the full story at Seafood News

Americans don’t eat enough fish and miss out on robust health benefits

November 13, 2020 — Eating fish can provide powerful advantages for the heart and brain, yet Americans eat less than half of the 26 pounds per year that experts recommend. By contrast, Americans buy seven times more chicken and beef annually than fish.

Why Americans don’t eat more fish has been pondered for a long time by health experts, fish farmers and fishermen themselves. One way to consider this question is production. Consumers can buy a product only if it’s available. The more they buy, theoretically, the more that item will be produced. In this case, a greater demand for fish would be stimulated if more fish were offered for sale.

More seafood could be made available for American consumers from global ocean sources given that at least 60% of seafood in the U.S. is imported. U.S. aquaculture has the capacity to significantly increase. Research conducted by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries also indicates slightly more domestic wild-caught fish can be harvested.

Read the full story at Yahoo News

How the digital wave is contributing to the rise of sustainable fisheries

November 12, 2020 — World fish consumption has almost doubled between the 1960s and now, and some estimates suggest fish contributes to at least 50 percent of total animal protein intake in developing nations. Despite higher demand for seafood and fish, world reserves have not kept up, and aquaculture is becoming more common as a result.

Aquaculture uses techniques of breeding marine species in all types of water environments as a means to supplement seafood demand. The practice comes with many advantages, including reducing the dependence on wild-caught species, but also raises environmental concerns, which some industry experts are trying to address with up-and-coming technologies such as analytics, blockchain, artificial intelligence and the internet of things.

Jennifer Kemmerly, vice president of global ocean initiatives at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, said a focus on sustainability is necessary in the field, as 3 billion people rely on seafood, and 60 million people rely on the seafood industry for their livelihood. But this demand comes with noticeable problems, Kemmerly observed during a breakout session during VERGE 20 in late October.

“There’s a lot of overfishing, or depleted fish stocks on the wild side of capture fisheries. There is illegality and mismanagement traceability back to the source of where the seafood is coming from, even whether it is farmed or wild… There are environmental issues and concerns that need to be dealt with,” she said.

Read the full story at GreenBiz