Saving Seafood

Iceland allocates $1.4m for improved aquaculture management

September 18, 2019 — Iceland’s government has allocated a total of ISK 750 million (around $6m) for the improvement of aquaculture management and control.

This includes ISK 600m for the Marine Research Institute (MRI)’s new research vessel, on which a total of ISK 900m has been spent.

It also includes ISK 150m in place of the funding the MRI used to receive from the “Fisheries Project Fund”, but which has been on the wane for several years now.

“This year’s draft budget is about to change this arrangement and ensure that the institute has fixed income so that the MRI will no longer be subject to volatile income sources with associated uncertainty for its core activities,” said the government.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

Salmon Farmers Are Already Transparent About Escapes

September 13, 2019 — The following was released by the Atlantic Canada Fish Farmers Association:

Statements made this week by the Atlantic Salmon Federation (ASF) about the transparency of reporting farmed salmon escapes and the potential risks involved with escapes cannot go unchallenged.

Salmon farmers do not want to lose a single fish. Their fish are their livelihood. When escapes do happen, they are largely a result of extreme weather events. Occasionally escapes are due to equipment malfunction or human error when fish are being handled (i.e. harvesting, fish health inspections). Salmon farmers are already transparent about escapes. When escapes happen, New Brunswick salmon farming companies voluntarily report it to the provincial regulator, who in turn notifies numerous groups, including the ASF, that are members of the NB Aquaculture Containment Liaison Committee. Other members include the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, the NB Department of Agriculture, Aquaculture and Fisheries, salmon producers, the NB Conservation Council and the NB Salmon Council. The NB Aquaculture Containment Liaison Committee communicates regularly. This week, the group discussed adding other groups on a case-by-case basis that may wish to be informed of an escape for a specific reason.

ASF spokesperson Neville Crabbe stated in the media this week that: “When you have spawning that’s occurring between aquaculture escapees and wild fish, you are wiping away potentially 10,000 years of evolution in a single spawning event.”

We reject that hyperbole. ASF knows full well that farmed salmon are very poorly suited to survival in the wild or reproductive success. Fearmongering about potential evolutionary disaster after a small escape does a disservice to the collaborative efforts between salmon farmers and the members of the NB Aquaculture Containment Liaison Committee. Mr. Crabbe’s comments also conveniently ignore any potential impacts of over 100 years of Atlantic salmon enhancement efforts, including ASF’s own sea ranching project in the 1970s and 80s that saw large releases of a variety of salmon strains into rivers and estuaries.

Salmon farming began – with ASF as a partner – as a way to address the decline of the commercial and recreational fishery for Atlantic salmon. Salmon farming is a responsible, sustainable and innovative means to provide adequate food supply to meet the world’s population growth while helping to reduce the pressure on wild fish stocks. Our farming practices and technology continue to evolve. Fish containment will always be a top priority as will our wild salmon conservation and enhancement efforts. Farmers work with a wide variety of partners, including First Nations, as part of the innovative Fundy Salmon Recovery project that is now seeing inner Bay of Fundy salmon return to one river in Fundy National Park in unprecedented numbers. (fundysalmonrecovery.com)

Groups in Canada, US call for AquaBounty egg boycott

September 12, 2019 — Canadian and U.S. environmental groups are urging the aquaculture and seafood industry to boycott AquaBounty’s Atlantic salmon eggs to eliminate the risk of any accidental mix-ups.

Friend of the Earth U.S., Friends of the Earth Canada, the Canadian Biotechnology Action Network (CBAN), the Council of Canadians – PEI Chapter, Earth Action PEI, Ecology Action Centre (Nova Scotia), The MacKillop Centre for Social Justice (PEI), and Vigilance OGM all expressed concern that “human error could lead to the inadvertent production of GM (genetically modified) salmon in open net-pens and the resultant environmental risk,” they said in a CBAN press release.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Plan for fish farm off Florida’s Gulf Coast raises environmental concerns

September 10, 2019 — A Hawaiian fish farming company wants to expand into the Gulf of Mexico near Sarasota, Fla., prompting opposition from some fishing associations and environmental groups.

Although it’s only proposed as a demonstration project, such a plan pits the company’s desire to increase the local seafood supply against commercial fishing interests and some environmental groups, which believe industrial fish farms do more harm than good in the long run.

The proposed project comes as ocean fish-farming has been restricted to existing operations in Denmark and limited to native fish species in Washington state because of problems with pollution and escaping fish.

Read the full story at UPI

There’s an ocean of opportunity for startups targeting the seafood industry

September 6, 2019 — Seafood has blown past its iceberg lettuce stage and entered trendy greens territory, with eaters loading up on oceanic superfoods and falling in love with previously unknown species as fast as daters swipe right. Even inland-dwelling locavores can easily satisfy their seafood cravings. What once was waste is now a premium snack, or maybe a wallet. We get that farmed fish is good—in every sense of that word. Mystery fish are a thing of the past. Sustainability is a minimum standard, not a luxury.

Just two years ago, that’s what I thought the seafood world would look like in 2027. Back then, as I studied trends in consumer desires, seafood sustainability initiatives, technology and investment, I foresaw seven transformative changes happening within a decade.

At the time it seemed like I was surfing the edge of plausibility. But based on what I’ve learned from the 200 or so seafood innovators entering the Fish 2.0 network over this past year, it’s all happening—in many cases much faster than I expected. And it’s happening all over the world.

Read the full story at TechCrunch

JOHN FIORILLO: The US aquaculture industry is on life support

August 28, 2019 — We’ve been writing quite a bit lately about the fledgling land-based salmon farming sector in the United States, but before we rush into predictions about the coming of a golden new age in US aquaculture, let’s take a real assessment of where things are right now with aquaculture industry we currently have.

Spoiler alert: Things aren’t good.

US aquaculture production has been on a flat to decreasing trend since the early 2000s. There are spurts of growth in various species sectors, but nothing substantial. And the heavy lifter, catfish, has been in steep decline for more than a decade.

In 2008, for example, US catfish farmers produced 233,564 metric tons of fish. By 2016, production was down by nearly 38 percent to 145,230 metric tons, according to the most recent data from NOAA Fisheries.

Read the full story at IntraFish

Mowi faces difficult decision on conceptual “Egg” salmon cages

August 23, 2019 — Mowi is considering dropping plans for a futuristic method of salmon farming.

Along with Hauge Aqua, Mowi has developed an ovaloid-shaped conceptual design, termed “The Egg,” which floating, self-supported, and closed salmon-farming cage that is described as “escape-proof.” The enclosure is designed to limit interaction between the farmed salmon on the inside and the wild salmon on the outside, and would prevent sea lice because it pulls in ocean water from 26 meters, which is a depth where the parasites are unable to exist, according to Marine Harvest.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Latin America Reckons With a Fish-Farming Boom

August 22, 2019 — When he failed to ignite a continental uprising against South America’s 19th-century colonial masters, Simon Bolivar was crestfallen. “He who serves the revolution plows the seas,” he despaired. Happily, Bolivar got it backward.

From the Yucatan Peninsula to the Strait of Magellan, aquaculture is revolutionizing food production. Plowing the oceans and inland waters, Latin America and the Caribbean expanded more than five-fold their output of captive finfish, crustaceans and mollusks and, from 1995 to 2016, nearly doubled the regional share of global aquaculture. Chilean fish farms now supply about 30% of the world’s salmon and earn the country more revenue than any other export except minerals. Ecuador is the world’s fifth largest supplier of marine crustaceans, Mexico ranks seventh, and Peru’s fisheries are poised to export their aquaculture technology. That makes Central and South America the fastest growing flank of the world’s fastest growing food industry, a global haul now worth $243 billion a year, and on track to double output by 2030.

For a region plagued by stop-and-go growth, aquaculture is a boon.

Read the full story at Bloomberg

US plaintiffs claim Russian ban on Norwegian salmon prompted price collusion

August 21, 2019 — Norwegian salmon farmers cannot claim strong demand has brought spot prices up in recent years, given the size of the hole in the market left by Russia’s import ban, according to new claims from US plaintiffs filing a price-fixing suit.

A total of six US distributors are listed on the latest filing, made on Aug. 19, claiming that Norway’s farmers have colluded to charge higher prices for salmon.

Plaintiffs Euclid Fish Company, Euro USA, Schneider’s Fish and Sea Food Corporation, Beacon Fisheries, Cape Florida Seafood, The Fishing Line, and Hesh’s Seafood — “individually and on behalf of all others similarly situated” — have suit several salmon farmers alleging they were damaged by “price collusion”.

The full list of defendants in the US lawsuit are: Norway’s Mowi — and its North American subsidiaries Marine Harvest USA, Marine Harvest Canada and Ducktrap River of Maine; Norway-based Grieg and its British Columbia, Canada, arm, Grieg Seafood BC; Norway’s Bremnes Seashore as well as Ocean Quality, Ocean Quality North America, Ocean Quality USA and Ocean Quality Premium Brands, entities that are a partnership between Bremnes and Grieg; SalMar; Leroy and Leroy Seafood USA; and Scottish Sea Farms, a venture jointly owned by SalMar and Leroy.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

CleanTreat by Benchmark wins top aquaculture innovation prize at Aqua Nor

August 21, 2019 — United Kingdom-based Benchmark Animal Health took home the 2019 Innovation Award at this year’s Aqua Nor event for its CleanTreat technology, a water purification system for aquaculture.

Well boats, tankers, platforms, and onshore facilities could all potentially utilize the award-winning CleanTreat, which cleanses treatment water after delousing, according to Benchmark Animal Health. The company is showcasing CleanTreat at Aqua Nor, the world’s largest aquaculture technology exhibition, this week in Norway from 20 to 23 August.

Read the full story at Seafood Source