Saving Seafood

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

ASMFC Seeks Proposals for Regional Pilot Projects in Support of Sustainable Aquaculture: Proposals Due January 15, 2021

November 11, 2020 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (Commission), in partnership with the NOAA Fisheries Office of Aquaculture, is issuing a Request for Proposals (RFP), seeking marine aquaculture pilot projects focused on sustainable aquatic farming techniques and regional business practices to grow U.S. domestic seafood. The geographic scope of the proposed projects is the U.S. East Coast states from Maine to Florida. The primary location of the proposed projects must be in the marine/estuarine environment.  Examples of the types of pilot projects being sought through the RFP follow:

  • Research and development related to the production and distribution of shellfish seed stock.
  • Finfish, shellfish (other than oyster*), and seaweed farming systems, especially for those species new to aquaculture in the region or that use novel production systems.
  • Identification and development of Aquaculture Development Zones with pre-planning and pre-permitting for a range of aquaculture activities.
  • Resolution of issues (e.g., enforcement, water quality, public trust concerns or impacts) related to open water finfish farming in state waters.
  • Business incubators
  • Regional market and economic impact studies
        • *Note: Proposals for oyster projects were already requested in a separate RFP (2019 Regional Oyster Aquaculture Research Consortia)
NOAA Fisheries, through the Commission, is making available $675,000 for the funding period of July 1, 2021 to June 30, 2022. Individual proposals should not exceed $200,000 or be less than $75,000. It is anticipated that approximately 4-6 projects will be funded. Eligible applicants include researchers at U.S. academic institutions, research laboratories, for-profit companies/firms, nonprofits, and state agencies.  Proposals from foreign entities are not eligible. Proposals involving multiple investigators are welcome. U.S. federal government agencies, including Regional Fishery Management Councils, are not eligible to receive funding through this solicitation. Federal staff may be collaborators on proposed projects, as long as they are not compensated for their contribution to the project.

Applicants seeking to apply to the RFP must submit, as a single file, an electronic proposal by email no later than 5:00 p.m. EST on January 15, 2021. Please see the RFP for complete proposal details, qualifying requirements, and submission instructions. The RFP is available athttp://www.asmfc.org/files/RFPs/ASMFC2021PilotAquacultureRFP_Nov2020.pdf.

For more information, please contact Dr. Louis Daniel at ldaniel@asmfc.org or 252.342.1478.

MAINE: Deadline Approaches for CARES Act Help for Fishermen

November 9, 2020 — The deadline is approaching for Maine fishermen to apply for help via the federal CARES Act.

The application period closes on Monday, the Maine Department of Marine Resources said. Assistance is available for fishermen in addition to aquaculturists and seafood dealers and processors.

The marine resources department said applications need to have been licensed to participate in their sector of the industry during 2019 to be eligible. The department said payments are expected to be made in December.

The coronavirus pandemic has hurt Maine’s seafood industry in part because of the hit taken by restaurants, which are critical customers for the industry.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at U.S. News

The Continued Fight over Farming the Oceans

November 9, 2020 — In January 2016, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) finalized a rule that authorized up to 20 permits for fish farming in the Gulf of Mexico’s federal waters. For 18 months, no one applied.

“They didn’t want to run the gauntlet of these permits because it was just so fraught,” said Neil Sims, a serial aquaculture entrepreneur who ultimately broke the stalemate. He proposed a pilot project dubbed Velella Epsilon, which would produce a total of 20,000 almaco jack, a fish native to the Gulf, in state-of-the-art net pens 45 miles off the coast of Sarasota, Florida. Sims said that his company, Ocean Era, aimed to “blaze a trail, so people can see the process that we go through.”

So far, that process has resembled more of a battle. Years later, the permitting process is still ongoing, and at each step, a mix of local residents and groups representing environmentalists and wild capture fisheries has mounted fierce opposition—with public comments, lawsuits, and, most recently, a “people’s hearing” on the project taking place on September 30.

“This is potentially a precedent-setting operation,” said Marianne Cufone, the executive director of the Recirculating Farms Coalition, which promotes a specific style of land-based aquaculture, and a founding member of the Don’t Cage Our Ocean coalition. In Cufone’s opinion, it must be stopped.

Read the full story at Civil Eats

FAO projects a decade of increased fish consumption, but Africa poses concerns

November 6, 2020 — The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations projects that global seafood consumption will reach a level of 21.5 kilograms per capita in 2030, and thereby maintain a year-on-year growth trend that has already spanned 60 years, with increased fisheries and aquaculture production and growing market demand fueling the rise.

According to the FAO’s latest report “The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture 2020,” also referred to as “SOFIA 2020,” per capita food fish consumption grew from 9 kilograms (live weight equivalent) in 1961 to 20.5 kilograms in 2018, equating to around 1.5 percent growth each year. At the same time, since 1961, the average annual rise in global food fish consumption of 3.1 percent has outpaced the population growth of 1.6 percent, and exceeded the consumption escalation of all other animal protein foods (like beef, poultry, and milk), which increased by 2.1 percent per annum.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Court orders FDA to assess environmental impact of GM salmon

November 6, 2020 — A federal court judge ordered the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Thursday to conduct an environmental assessment of genetically modified salmon that he said was required for the agency’s approval of the fish.

But the judge did not vacate the FDA’s approval of the salmon for human consumption in the meantime, because he said the risk for near-term environmental harm is low.

“The FDA has to go back to the drawing board and do its homework,” said George Kimbrell, legal director for the Center for Food Safety, one of the groups that filed suit challenging the agency’s approval of the genetically modified salmon.

The ruling by U.S. District Court Judge Vince Chhabria in San Francisco centers on AquaBounty’s salmon, which are genetically modified to grow faster than normal salmon. In 2015, the fish became the first genetically modified animal approved for human consumption in the U.S. After clearing other regulatory hurdles. AquaBounty began growing the fish in indoor tanks at an Indiana plant last year.

Read the full story at The Washington Post

AquaBounty announces Kentucky as next planned GE salmon farm site

October 30, 2020 — AquaBounty Technologies announced that Mayfield, Kentucky, U.S.A., has been selected as its favored site for a future 10,000 metric ton (MT) land-based salmon farm.

The new farm would be the first large-scale commercial facility for the company’s AquAdvantage salmon – a proprietary genetically engineered Atlantic salmon. The new location would be eight times the size of the company’s existing farm in Albany, Indiana, which currently has a production capacity of 1,200 MT.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Gulf of Maine Research Institute launches new aquaculture knowledge portal

October 29, 2020 — The Gulf of Maine Research Institute (GMRI) has announced the launch of a new online portal, “The Maine Aquaculturist,” designed to help aquaculture operations in the U.S. state of Maine access resources in the state.

The new portal was created in response to the growing number of aquaculture operations that are either already in business or are planning to establish locations in the state, according to GMRI. In the past few years, companies including Whole Oceans, Nordic Aquafarms, The Kingfish Company, Aquabanq, and American Aquafarms have all announced proposals for either land-based or net-pen aquaculture operations in various locations throughout the state. Those primarily finfish operations are additions onto the existing – and growing – shellfish aquaculture operations in the state, farming oysters in locations up and down the coast.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

How aquaculture’s pivot to direct distribution could go beyond pandemic

October 28, 2020 — Like wild fisheries, Maine’s aquaculture industry felt an enormous impact early in the pandemic with the shutdown of restaurants, the industry’s largest market and the setting where most seafood, wild and farmed, is consumed.

Mainebiz asked Sebastian Belle, executive director of the Maine Aquaculture Association in Hallowell, how the industry is faring now and what the outlook is going forward.

Here’s an edited transcript.

Mainebiz: How has the pandemic impacted the aquaculture industry?

Sebastian Belle: The impact was enormous, particularly when the restaurant sector shut down. It was a big shock to everybody, how quickly that impacted sales.

MB: What have seafood farmers done since then?

SB: You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to understand we have to figure out a way to get seafood to consumers. The pandemic has forced an evolution of some of the industry’s distribution channels at an accelerated rate. Those changes were happening anyway, but the pandemic sped it up. Historically, the farmer sells to a local wholesaler, which then ships to a regional wholesaler, then to wholesaler in another region, then to a retail outlet. We saw individual farmers being very innovative in terms of figuring out other ways to sell their product. In particular, I’m thinking about direct distribution to consumers and retail.

Read the full story at MaineBiz