Saving Seafood

Statement From Glenn Cooke Commending President Donald Trump On His Executive Order That Will Improve US Aquaculture Competitiveness and Economic Growth

May 8, 2020 — The following was released by Glenn Cooke, CEO of Cooke Seafood:

Glenn Cooke, CEO of the Cooke family of companies, provided the following statement after President Donald Trump signed the first ever Executive Order that includes provisions to improve U.S. aquaculture competitiveness and economic growth on Thursday.

“I am very pleased President Trump has recognized that domestic farmed production of aquaculture seafood is vital to help correct the severe trade imbalance and strengthen local food security. This should be viewed as a call to State and local governments that the country is in dire need of domestically produced seafood protein and that they should find ways to support, promote, and expand this essential food sector as other countries have.

As a family company, with marine fish farming operations in Maine and Washington and shellfish farming in North Carolina, and wild fisheries in other states including Virginia, Louisiana, Mississippi and Alaska, we are extremely proud of the hard work and dedication that our people put in every day to produce healthy seafood meals for families across the USA. Cooke Aquaculture USA in Maine was very proud to have been chosen as the supplier of sustainably farmed Atlantic salmon for the President’s 2017 inauguration. Our strong operations have shown that aquaculture presents a tremendous opportunity to create thousands of jobs and build vibrant working waterfronts co-existing with traditional fisheries in rural coastal communities.

President Trump and his Executive Agencies are to be commended for their leadership to address the regulatory challenges with establishing seafood farms by revising the National Aquaculture Development Plan and implementing a Nationwide Permit authorizing finfish, seaweed or multi-trophic culture in federal marine waters.”

Read the full release here

US State Department bars import of wild-caught shrimp from China, Venezuela

April 30, 2020 — In a public notice posted to the Federal Register on 30 April, the U.S. Department of State announced that it is suspending the certification of wild-caught shrimp from China and Venezuela, making it ineligible to enter the U.S. for sale.

The suspension was in accordance with Section 609 of Public Law 101-162, which requires countries harvesting wild-caught shrimp in areas that contain sea turtles prove they have adequate laws regarding turtle excluding devices (TEDs). China’s certification was suspended due to “the use of methods of harvesting shrimp that may adversely affect sea turtles,” while Venezuela was suspended “due to the inability to confirm whether methods of harvesting shrimp may adversely affect sea turtles.”

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Canada allocates $62.5M for fish and seafood processors amid COVID-19

April 28, 2020 — Canada’s fish and seafood industry is getting new funding in an effort to keep grocery shelves stocked amid the COVID-19 crisis.

The Canadian Seafood Stabilization Fund, which was announced by Prime Minister Justine Trudeau on a live broadcast on April 25, is aimed to provide fish and seafood processing plants access to short-term financing to pay for maintenance and inventory costs, and adapt operations to respond to changing requirements and new market demands.

“As we fight COVID-19, people who work in fish and seafood processing plants across the country are playing a crucial role when it comes to getting food to our tables. This fund will help ensure that they can safely continue to their important work,” said Trudeau during his Saturday broadcast.

Read the full story at Aquaculture North America

Deadly shrimp virus has farmers in China fearing the worst

April 28, 2020 — A virus that has plagued shrimp farmers in China since 2014 may be rebounding with a vengeance, this time in Guangdong Province, a crucial hub for aquaculture production in the country.

The South China Morning Post reported on 12 April that Decapod iridescent virus 1 (DIV1) had been detected once more in a number of shrimp farms in the southern province of Guangdong, along the Pearl River Delta, as of February 2020. According to the newspaper, about a quarter of shrimp farming operations in the province have been infected by the current outbreak, which previously struck stocks in China at the start of 2019 before summer temperatures prevailed.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

US lawmakers pushing for USD 19 billion relief program to help aquaculture sector

April 22, 2020 — The U.S. Department of Agriculture has announced a USD 19 billion (EUR 17.6 billion) relief program to give “critical support” for farmers and ranchers to ensure the integrity of the country’s food chain during the coronavirus pandemic.

In a White House briefing on Friday, 17 April, Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue said the money will be split among two programs, with USD 16 billion (EUR 14.8 billion) earmarked for direct payments to farmers and ranchers. The USDA will use the remainder to purchase fresh products that the agency will distribute to food banks across the country.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Danielle Blacklock, director of NOAA Fisheries’ Office of Aquaculture, discusses future of U.S. industry

April 21, 2020 — Danielle Blacklock took over as director of NOAA Fisheries’ Office of Aquaculture in mid-March, just as the COVID-19 pandemic began to come to a head in the United States. Over the past decade, Blacklock has served in multiple positions at NOAA, most recently as a senior policy advisor for aquaculture. In that role, Blacklock completed a six-month assignment at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, focused on aquaculture sustainability globally. She also served as the acting deputy in the office for several months.

Blacklock is charged with overseeing the aquaculture component of NOAA’s sustainable seafood portfolio and providing the strategic vision for developing a stronger aquaculture industry in the United States. Nearly a month into her appointment, SeafoodSource connected with Blacklock to discuss her goals as director, the office’s response to COVID-19 complications and what the future of U.S. aquaculture looks like.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

English fishing, aquaculture businesses receive GBP 10 million coronavirus support

April 20, 2020 — More than 1,000 fishing and aquaculture businesses in England are being offered the opportunity to receive direct cash grants through a new multi-million-pound fisheries support scheme launched by the U.K. government.

Announced by Environment Secretary George Eustice and Chief Secretary to the Treasury Steve Barclay, the fund is the latest step to protect businesses affected by COVID-19, with up to GBP 9 million (USD 11.2 million, EUR 10.3 million) made available for eligible fishing and aquaculture businesses.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

UK government announces £10m coronavirus fund for English fishing sector

April 17, 2020 — The UK government on Friday announced a £10m ($12.4m) fund to shield England’s fishing and aquaculture sectors from the impacts of coronavirus.

More than 1,000 fishing and aquaculture businesses in England will receive £9m in direct cash grants through a new fisheries support scheme, the government said, noting that the supports were designed to assist the sector with its “immediate needs” during the crisis.

The government also said that a further £1m would be made available to support projects to assist fishermen to sell their catch in their local communities during the pandemic.

The move, it said, would enable them to find new markets and support communities that depend on the fisheries industry.

Read the full story at Yahoo News

The coronavirus pandemic’s influence on aquaculture priorities

April 13, 2020 — It didn’t make the nightly news, but Great Falls Aquaculture in western Massachusetts, USA, might have been the first seafood victim of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic in the United States.

Most of the fish being raised in the company’s recirculating aquaculture system (RAS) facility in rural Turners Falls, Mass., are sold to live markets in major U.S. and Canadian cities, like New York, Boston, Toronto and Vancouver. The fish are typically raised to about 1 pound in size, perfect for whole-roasted individual servings.

Don’t worry – the fish are all alive and safe. But the fact that they’re all still in the tanks is a problem. Shortly after Chinese New Year celebrations in late January, the market for live barramundi (Lates calcarifer), known as the Asian sea bass, simply up and vanished.

“We were in contact with our Chinese customers on a daily business. Things were slowing down, family members weren’t coming home, they weren’t buying as much. They were nervous,” company owner Keith Wilda told the Advocate in late March. “Then, second week of February, people stopped going to Chinese restaurants in New York City.”

Great Falls was selling 23,000 pounds of barramundi per week before the COVID-19 outbreak. “Next week, I don’t know that I’ll even sell a fish,” he said, with 945,000 hungry barramundi currently swimming in indoor tanks. It’s a living inventory that reminds him of the tens of thousands of dollars it costs each month to operate, in energy and heating costs alone.

Read the full story at the Global Aquaculture Alliance

Shrimp expo in Vietnam postponed for a second time

April 13, 2020 — Organizers of a government-sponsored shrimp exhibition in Vietnam have decided to reschedule the event for a second time over fears of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Vietshrimp Aquaculture International Fair 2020, sponsored by Vietnam’s General Department of Fisheries and the Can Tho City government, will now take place from 7 to 9 October in Can Tho, in the Mekong Delta area.

Read the full story at Seafood Source