Saving Seafood

MAINE: This Major Effort To Restore Atlantic Salmon Involves A Company That Raises The Fish For Food

October 7, 2019 — As many as 15,000 adult Atlantic salmon will be put into the Penobscot River over the next three years, most of them after being raised in penstocks off the coast of Washington County. They are expected to create up to 56 million eggs as part of one of the most ambitious efforts yet at reversing the decades-long decimation of Maine’s wild salmon population.

The first 5,000 fish will be placed in the East Branch of the Penobscot River near the Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument next fall as part of the Salmon for Maine’s Rivers program, which is funded by a $1.1 million federal grant and involves the state and federal governments, a Native American tribe and a New Brunswick-based company that raises salmon in pens off the Maine coast.

No one should expect the wild salmon population in the Penobscot and its tributaries to explode in the next three years, said Andrew Lively, a spokesman for Cooke Aquaculture USA, which raises salmon in farming pens off the Maine coast and is aiding in the restoration effort.

In addition to Cooke Aquaculture and Maine’s Department of Marine Resources, the other partners in the effort are the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Marine Fisheries Service and the Penobscot Indian Nation.

As the state’s sole commercial grower of sea-penned Atlantic salmon, Cooke’s involvement will vastly improve state revitalization efforts, said Dwayne Shaw, executive director of the Downeast Salmon Federation.

Read the full story at Maine Public

Analyst: Salmon farming needs sector sea lice solutions to meet its full potential

October 7, 2019 — Soaring global demand for farmed Atlantic salmon has put many of the sector’s producers in a very strong financial position in recent years, but greater gains are there for the taking if they can overcome biological production barriers, according to an aquaculture analyst.

Christian Nordby, equity research analyst at Kepler Cheuvreux, informed the recent Aquaculture Innovation Europe conference in London that the salmon market continues to grow at a rapid rate with demand surpassing the supply, and said farmers will remain in good stead as long as they don’t take the “unlikely” approach of creating oversupply in the market.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Cooke gains permission to raise rainbow trout in Washington

October 4, 2019 — Cooke Aquaculture has moved a step closer to ensuring a long-term presence in Washington State after the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) confirmed earlier this week that it plans to issue a five-year marine aquaculture permit to the Canadian aquaculture company to farm all-female rainbow trout at its existing farms in Puget Sound.

Washington lawmakers voted to phase out and ban non-native finfish net-pen farming in the state following the 2017 collapse of a Cooke farm that released at least 250,000 Atlantic salmon into Puget Sound. If Cooke does not repurpose its salmon farms, they will be shut down by 2022.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

MAINE: Aquaculture Operation to Support Novel Approach to Wild Atlantic Salmon Restoration

October 3, 2019 — The following was released by the Maine Department of Marine Resources:

The Maine Department of Marine Resources (DMR) will employ a novel approach to rearing Atlantic salmon for restoring native populations on the East Branch of the Penobscot.

The project, funded through a NOAA Section 6 Species Recovery Grant totaling $1,075,000, will involve a partnership between DMR, Cooke Aquaculture USA, US Fish and Wildlife Service, NOAA Fisheries, and the Penobscot Indian Nation to grow juvenile Atlantic salmon to adult size in aquaculture pens located near Cutler Maine. The adult salmon will then be released into the East Branch of the Penobscot to spawn, a river with large amounts of high-quality salmon habitat.

Smolts raised from native broodstock by the US Fish and Wildlife Service at the Green Lake National Fish Hatchery in Ellsworth, Maine, and smolts captured in the wild by rotary screw traps will be used to stock the marine net pens in 2020, 2021, and 2022. Smolts will include only those from Penobscot River origin to ensure the genetic integrity of salmon released into the river.

Plans call for increasing the number of smolts captured in the wild from the East Branch to be used to supply juveniles that will be grown out in the net pens. While hatchery spawned fish help ensure an adequate supply of fish for recovery goals, those spawned in the natural environment are more robust due to the impact of natural selection which results in fish that are better suited to survival in the wild.

The smolts will be placed in net pens under a limited-purpose aquaculture lease in Cutler, Maine where they will be fed and managed in cooperation with Cooke Aquaculture USA for 16 to 30 months, during which time they will grow to mature adults. The DMR will hold the lease on the pens while Cooke will supply the pens and feed for the salmon as they grow.

“We are committed to be part of this wild Atlantic salmon enhancement project in Maine. Cooke Aquaculture has the experience working with Atlantic salmon in their natural environment based on proven aquaculture and fish-health science. Working with the Penobscot Nation and government partners, together we will make this restoration program a success by seeing the fish return to their native waters,” said Glenn Cooke, CEO, Cooke Aquaculture USA.

Approximately 5,000 adult fish will be transported from the net pens to target tributaries and the mainstem of the East Branch of the Penobscot River in the fall of 2021 or 2022 where they will find suitable habitat to naturally spawn. This will result in more spawning adults than have been present in the Penobscot River for decades.

While net pens are not new in Maine for cultivating Atlantic salmon, using them to cultivate salmon for conservation purposes at this scale is new in Maine and showing promise in a Bay of Fundy partnership between Cooke and Canadian provincial and federal governments, First Nations and academia.

The Penobscot Indian Nation has inhabited the Penobscot River drainage since time immemorial. The deep cultural, spiritual and historical connections between the Tribe and the Atlantic salmon of the Penobscot River go back thousands of years, said Dan McCaw, Fisheries Program Manager for the Penobscot Nation. The Penobscot Nation is hopeful that this new program can help to restore this iconic species to its ancestral homeland and applauds the collaborative nature of this multi-stakeholder endeavor.

As populations expand, the goal is to build healthy wild populations of Atlantic Salmon on the East Branch, including the potential for downlisting. The estimated 5,000 adults produced by this effort could result in 20 times more eggs in the gravel in the Penobscot River basin compared to existing stocking and natural reproduction, said Sean Ledwin, Director of DMR’s Searun Fisheries and Habitat Division.

The program will involve surveys of redds in spawning areas to assess spawning success of released fish. Released fish will also be tracked using Passive integrated transponders (PIT tags) and radio telemetry. Electrofishing surveys and use of rotary screw traps, along with genetic analysis, will be used to assess the abundance of offspring from this effort.

The program will also include a public outreach effort undertaken by the department and other program partners that will provide information on salmon and other sea-run species, and the impact of protecting ecosystems on which they rely.

https://www.maine.gov/dmr/news-details.html?id=1597983

Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe partnering with Cooke Aquaculture Pacific for Northwest native species farm

October 3, 2019 — The following was released by the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe:

The Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe is pleased to announce a joint venture with Cooke Aquaculture Pacific.

The joint venture will initially work to rear sablefish (black cod) and sterile triploid, all-female rainbow trout. The venture will require reinstatement of the farm lease at Port Angeles, in exchange for significant investment by the venture in new infrastructure and local jobs in the area. The two partners will work together to rear these Northwest native species in Port Angeles Harbor.

“Our Council is committed to pursuing our self-reliance goal through diversified economic development and education, and we believe this partnership with Cooke Aquaculture Pacific will contribute to meeting that goal,” says Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe Chairman/CEO W. Ron Allen. “We, along with our sister tribes, are strong stewards of our environment. And we firmly believe we can implement net pen aquaculture consistent with our tribal heritage and cultural values. By working together, combining our history and experience fishing on the Olympic Peninsula with Cooke’s experience and expertise in aquaculture, we are confident that we can raise a sustainable supply of trout and sablefish and contribute to our local economy.”

This partnership with Cooke augments the well-established working relationship between the Tribe, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA’s) Northwest Fisheries Science Center, Manchester Research Laboratory and the University of Washington, who have worked together since 2015 on black cod aquaculture research.

The Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe is the second largest employer in Clallam County, providing jobs for over 750 people in its Tribal government and businesses. In addition to the businesses that provide revenues for Tribal programs and services, the Tribe is an active partner in many community projects focusing on protection and restoration of natural resources and habitat, improving health and wellness for the Olympic Peninsula, public safety, and promoting quality education.

“The Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe is known for being progressive and forward-thinking in its approach to resource management and economic development,” says Glenn Cooke, CEO of Cooke Aquaculture Pacific. “We look forward to working together to produce top quality seafood for consumers in Washington and across the US.” The partners are expecting to start up the operations in the fall of 2019.

For more information, visit https://jamestowntribe.org or www.cookeseafood.com.

Caught by surprise, Canadian salmon farming group sees closed containment push as limiting

October 2, 2019 — A promise from Canada’s Liberal Party that if they’re elected they’ll introduce legislation to move net-pen salmon farming in the province of British Columbia to closed-containment systems by 2025 caught many in the salmon farming sector by surprise.

Timothy Kennedy, president and CEO of the Canadian Aquaculture Industry Alliance (CAIA), said that’s because industry representatives had long been engaged with the government and other stakeholders to discuss technological improvements to salmon farming that would have satisfied many concerns.

That process determined that “hybrid” technologies to grow larger smolts on land and reduce the time farmed salmon spend in the ocean as the medium and near-term solutions that were the most feasible, he said.

“There’s a lot of opportunity and a lot of investment going into that,” he said. “This sort of commitment within an artificial time frame is really challenging and very undermining of the process and the intent of those who were involved in the process.”

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

Canadian Aquaculture Industry Alliance CEO: Banning BC salmon farms will drive farming to other nations

October 1, 2019 — Representatives of Canada’s salmon farming industry are hitting back hard at plans unveiled in the recently released Liberal party platform headed by incumbent Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to transition salmon farming in British Columbia from ocean netpen farms to land-based operations.

The Liberal platform has potentially serious and far-reaching negative consequences for Canadian jobs and the environment, said the Canadian Aquaculture Industry Alliance (CAIA), which represents the interests of Canada’s aquaculture producers.

“This is a reckless policy, not grounded in science, and it will threaten good middle-class jobs across Canada,” says Timothy Kennedy, CAIA president and CEO.

If implemented, Kennedy added, farmed salmon production would simply be driven to other countries, undercutting efforts the industry has made to improve sustainability.

Read the full story at IntraFish

The sticky problem of sea lice – and what’s being done to stop them

September 30, 2019 — Since its inception in the 1970s, the global salmon farming industry has struggled to manage the severe economic, animal welfare, and ecological impacts of sea lice infestation, which are preventing salmon farming from reaching its true potential. The economic impact has been estimated at between USD 400 to USD 600 million (EUR 366 million to EUR 549 million) per year.

Sea lice (Lepeophtheirus salmonis and members of the Caligus genus), settle on their host as free-swimming larvae, attaching firmly to and feeding from the salmon. They cause physical damage and stress in the fish, and adversely affecting growth and performance. Severe infestations can lead to secondary infections and mass mortalities.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Liberal Policy Harmful to Canada’s Innovative Seafood Farming Community, Not Based in Science

September 30, 2019 — The following was released by the Canadian Aquaculture Industry Alliance:

The Canadian Aquaculture Industry Alliance, together with its regional counterparts, BC Salmon Farmers Association, Ontario Aquaculture Association, Atlantic Canada Fish Farmers Association, Aquaculture Association of Nova Scotia and Newfoundland Aquaculture Industry Association, today issued the following joint statement:

The Liberal platform commitment to moving all salmon production in British Columbia to “closed containment by 2025” is highly irresponsible with potentially serious and far-reaching negative consequences for Canadian jobs and the environment.

“This is a reckless policy, not grounded in science, and it will threaten good middle-class jobs across Canada,” says Timothy Kennedy, President & CEO of the Canadian Aquaculture Industry Alliance.

Salmon farming is the most environmentally sustainable large-scale farmed animal production in the world. It’s a solution to climate change. British Columbia farm-raised salmon production has been recognized as being a global top sustainable performer: the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s “Seafood Watch” recognized the provincial production as “a good alternative” last year, the only region so recognized in the world, and the FAIRR Global Index lists BC salmon producers as the top sustainable global producers of animal protein. It is a critical solution to the world’s growing demand for low impact, low-carbon emissions, high-protein food supply while alleviating pressure on threatened wild fish stocks.

Seafood farming provides 26,000 full-time jobs across Canada. It generates $5.4 Billion in economic activity in Canada. Salmon farming makes up close to 90% of this economic value.  This is a young, highly innovative sector that is providing full-time jobs across Canada where these jobs are needed most: in indigenous, remote, and coastal communities.

The Liberal party has consistently said it will base decisions on science. There is no evidence that B.C. salmon farms are harming wild salmon populations. While pilot projects to grow salmon to full size in closed containment are happening around the world, this work needs to continue in partnership and without any artificial mandates and timelines.

No other nation has proposed this requirement of their salmon production. If implemented, this requirement will only move local, top-quality production to other countries that may not have the high environmental standards Canada already employs.

“While we are already a top global performer, our sector is committed to constant improvement. Our farmers need support and confidence to continue to invest in Canada. This irresponsible policy platform seriously undermines this confidence,” Kennedy concluded.

Read the full release here