Saving Seafood

Federal aquaculture push faces uphill battle in Alaska

July 2, 2019 — With a hard push being made by the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump to up aquaculture production in the United States in order to reduce the country’s seafood trade deficit, many are wondering where Alaska fits into that plan.

While certain types of aquaculture such as shellfish farming are permitted in Alaska, finfish farming is banned under Alaskan statute 16.40.210, which was passed by the state legislature in 1990.

Before that door closed, in 1985, there was a legislative push to authorize aquaculture in the state, which remains, to-date, the closest the state has ever come to legalizing salmon farming.

Richard Harris was, at that time, a member of a group of individuals in a loosely-structured association cooperating to promote mariculture, The group included Sealaska Corporation, the Washington Fish and Oyster Company, and Ocean Beauty Seafoods. Their efforts resulted in the first proposed complete legislation to permit fish farming in Alaska.

Reflecting on his own efforts 30 years ago, Harris said that was likely the best opportunity the state had to permit finfish aquaculture, but said in those early days of commercial aquaculture, the Alaskan public had a “large number of concerns” with salmon farming.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Scottish salmon expansion set to strain wild catch fisheries, study suggests

July 2, 2019 — The UK’s plans to expand Scotland’s salmon farming industry is set to place immense strain on wild-catch fisheries, reports The Scotsman.

According to a report from the environmental NGO Feedback, the decision by the Scottish government to double the output of salmon from its farms by 2030 will require a corresponding increase in fishmeal volumes by two thirds.

In short, Scotland will require an additional 310,000 metric tons of wild-caught fish for fishmeal purposes, on top of the 460,000t already used to feed farmed Scottish salmon each year.

Feedback said the planned expansion would have severe impacts on wild fish stocks, ecosystems, and other communities that rely on wild-caught fish for food.

However, the Scottish Salmon Producers Organisation (SSPO) responded that it was working to reduce the amount of fish oil and fishmeal required in a farmed salmon’s diet, as the industry turns increasingly to alternative sources of protein, “particularly plant extracts”.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

University researchers square off over proof that Canadian aquaculture is sustainable

June 26, 2019 — A couple researchers who focus on finfish aquaculture at the same prestigious Canadian university are squaring off this week over an eight-page paper from one of them that suggests “there is virtually no evidence to support decades-long narratives” about its sustainability in Canada.

That’s what it says in the summary of the study, which was published recently in the online journal Marine Policy. The article, written by Inka Milewski, a research associate in the biology department of Dalhousie University, in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and Ruth Smith, a community research partner, is also to be included in the September print edition of the publication, though it is already getting attention in the Canadian press.

Milewski and Smith say, for their research, they examined the progress Canada has made towards translating sustainable aquaculture policy goals into measurable outcomes using the 11 potential environmental, social and economic sustainability indicators identified by the country’s Department of Fisheries and Oceans in 2012.

Their conclusion: Little progress has been made.

“Sustainability indicators should provide the public with concrete measures of government accountability on policy narratives and goals,” Milewski is quoted as saying. “In the absence of meaningful measures of sustainability, Canada’s declared aquaculture policy goals risk being reduced to mere political catchphrases.”

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

Farmed salmon spot prices drop further, but tight supply predicted

June 25, 2019 — Spot prices for Norwegian farmed salmon continue to come down, according to the latest update from SpareBank 1 Markets’ Tore Tonseth, though he is more bullish on the longer-term outlook.

For this week coming — week 26 of 2019 — should see average prices come down to NOK 54-57 per kilogram, from NOK 59-62/kg, he wrote.

“Spot prices going into a new week seem to have fallen further, and we are currently talking about prices in the NOK mid-50s. The large volatility in price seen over the past few weeks has probably created some uncertainty in the market, and combined with higher volumes, the spot price has been pushed further down.”

Predicting salmon prices from one week to the next is difficult at the moment, he said, but biomass numbers in Norway show very little harvest growth potential in the coming few months.

“Our base case continues to be spot prices in the low-mid NOK 60s in the next two or three months, which means that we expect prices to recover relatively soon.”

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

Restaurants could be 1st to get genetically modified salmon

June 21, 2019 — Inside an Indiana aquafarming complex, thousands of salmon eggs genetically modified to grow faster than normal are hatching into tiny fish. After growing to roughly 10 pounds (4.5 kilograms) in indoor tanks, they could be served in restaurants by late next year.

The salmon produced by AquaBounty are the first genetically modified animals approved for human consumption in the U.S. They represent one way companies are pushing to transform the plants and animals we eat, even as consumer advocacy groups call for greater caution.

AquaBounty hasn’t sold any fish in the U.S. yet, but it says its salmon may first turn up in places like restaurants or university cafeterias, which would decide whether to tell diners that the fish are genetically modified.

“It’s their customer, not ours,” said Sylvia Wulf, AquaBounty’s CEO.

To produce its fish, Aquabounty injected Atlantic salmon with DNA from other fish species that make them grow to full size in about 18 months, which could be about twice as fast as regular salmon. The company says that’s more efficient since less feed is required. The eggs were shipped to the U.S. from the company’s Canadian location last month after clearing final regulatory hurdles.

As AquaBounty worked through years of government approvals, several grocers including Kroger and Whole Foods responded to a campaign by consumer groups with a vow to not sell the fish.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at The Washington Post

Iceland to vote on changes to aquaculture policy

June 19, 2019 — The Icelandic parliament is set to vote on proposed amendments to the country’s aquaculture act, coinciding with a major public effort to curb the use of open cages in salmon farming nations, reports Visir.

The US outdoor clothing brand Patagonia, in collaboration with the wild salmon stocks fund and the North Atlantic Salmon Fund, has received 140,000 signatures for its challenge to open pen salmon farming in Iceland, Norway, Scotland, and Ireland.

The signatures are set to be handed to parliament ahead of the vote on the bill proposed by the minister of fisheries and aquaculture. A second debate on the bill was postponed on June 13.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

Beijing backs green aquaculture revolution

June 18, 2019 — The announcement has racked up 30,000 views on a Chinese industry website and sources in the country have described it as “huge”. The head of China’s Ministry of Agriculture Fisheries Department, Zhang Xianliang, said it is “unprecedented” and that it would be “very important” for China’s aquaculture sector “over the next two-to-three years”.

Wang Songlin, president of the Qingdao Marine Conservation Society, told Undercurrent News there would be clear winners and losers. Many of China’s legion of shrimp farmers using low-tech, intensive farming systems in coastal areas potentially face increased regulatory pressure, he said.

The document innocuously titled Ideas on Accelerating the Green Development of China’s Aquaculture Sector does not immediately stand out.

But it is the stamp of China’s State Council, the chief administrative body of the Chinese government, comprising a select group of 35 officials and chaired by China’s premier, Li Keqiang, that has generated excitement among industry executives, farmers, and academics within China’s massive aquaculture sector.

Read the full story at the Undercurrent News

The Beyond Meat of Fish Is Coming

June 13, 2019 — Salmon has become the guinea pig of the seas when it comes to using technology to supplement falling fish populations. Now it’s moved onto land—and into the laboratory.

The fatty orange fish was the second-most-consumed seafood in the U.S. in 2017, after shrimp, and per capita consumption increased 11 percent, to 2.41 pounds per person, from the prior year, according to the National Fisheries Institute, an industry group. Globally, demand for salmon has skyrocketed, along with that for all fish, fueling overfishing and threatening supply.

Industrial-scale salmon farming, once seen as a solution, has its own problems. Massive stocks of smaller fish are depleted to feed farmed salmon, and parasites flourish in salmon pens where farmers use pesticides, contributing to pollution and ecosystem destruction. Sea lice have infested farms in Norway and Scotland in recent years, and a deadly algae bloom killed salmon in Chile, a top farmed-salmon producer. Farmed fish sometimes escape, too, contaminating nearby wild salmon.

Read the full story at Bloomberg

Canadian Farmed Salmon Will Face Additional Tests for Viruses

June 10, 2019 — SEAFOOD NEWS — Fisheries and Oceans Canada will test for two foreign strains of piscine orthoreovirus in young Atlantic salmon before they are transferred to ocean-based salmon farms after being told by the Federal Court to tighten its policy.

Salmon farms will also be required to test salmon in net-pen farms for jaundice and heart and skeletal muscle inflammation, which some scientists believe is associated with a native strain of piscine orthoreovirus, also known as PRV.

“These are two key measures that reflect precaution where there is some debate about the science,” said Fisheries Minister Jonathan Wilkinson.

The Icelandic strain of PRV was found in a Washington state hatchery last year, leading to the destruction of 800,000 smolts. The Norwegian strain has caused harm to farmed and wild Atlantic salmon in Norway, leading to significant production losses.

“We are going to require testing (in hatcheries) for both of those strains because we are concerned about them,” said Wilkinson.

Earlier this year, a federal scientific advisory panel found that the native strain of PRV is widely distributed in B.C.’s coastal waters, but poses a minimal threat to Fraser River sockeye. B.C. PRV is commonly found in farmed Atlantic salmon and wild Chinook salmon, but in laboratory testing its presence is not predictive of disease, they said.

Nonetheless, testing for heart and skeletal muscle inflammation and jaundice will address concerns raised by independent biologist Alexandra Morton that the native strain of PRV is affecting farmed salmon, Wilkinson said.

The Namgis First Nation went to court last year seeking an injunction to prevent salmon from being transferred to farms in their traditional territory without having been tested for PRV. Ecojustice – acting for Morton – sued the federal government for an order to test for the virus.

In February, the Federal Court gave Ottawa four months to come up with a testing regimen, ruling that failure to test for PRV did not comply with the precautionary principle.

“This is absolutely amazing and wonderful news,” said Morton.

“While I am waiting to see who will conduct the tests and what the protocol will be when they find the virus, I recognize this as a bold and important step that no other minister of Fisheries and Oceans has taken.”

These interim measures will be in place while the federal government seeks public input on a pair of policy proposals aimed at reducing the risks of salmon farming.

“Salmon farmers already test for several known pathogens and these new tests will become part of that process,” said B.C. Salmon Farmers Association spokesman Shawn Hall.

“It’s our understanding that the native strain of PRV is in the water naturally and that is it benign.”

Failing to test for B.C. PRV is a missed opportunity to fill in gaps in the science about that strain, said David Suzuki Foundation science adviser John Werring.

“It is heartening to hear that the minister for Fisheries and Oceans Canada acknowledges that there is a great deal of uncertainty concerning PRV and the potential impacts this virus may have on both wild and farmed fish,” Werring said.

The Fisheries Department has also struck three working groups comprised of government scientists, First Nations, environmental groups and the farm industry to provide input on permanent changes to the department’s risk-management policy, specifically the switch to area-based management of aquaculture, land-and oceanbased farm design and fish health.

Results of a study on new and emerging aquaculture technologies – including ocean-based closed-containment systems and land-based farms – are due later this month.

This story was originally published on SeafoodNews.com, a subscription site. It is reprinted with permission. 

Patchwork of policies holding back US aquaculture industry growth

June 7, 2019 — The 47th United States-Japan Natural Resources Scientific Symposium “Marine Aquaculture in a Changing Environment” will be held November 12 to 15, 2019, in Okinawa, Japan. It will be the last year for the three-year theme, “Marine Aquaculture in a Changing Environment.”

The symposium is part of a regular collaboration between NOAA Fisheries and the Japanese Fisheries Research and Education Agency, organized through the U.S.-Japan Natural Resources (UJNR) Aquaculture Panel. The panel is an annual meeting framework that allows scientists to share research results, new technology, and approaches to sustainable seafood farming. Last year’s meeting took place in Mystic, Connecticut, U.S.A.

Mike Rust, a NOAA Fisheries scientist and the U.S. chair of the UJNR Aquaculture Panel, told SeafoodSource the exchanges represented an important path to improving the state of U.S. domestic aquaculture.

“The learning opportunities are tremendous on a number of fronts. The United States is behind in both the scale of marine aquaculture and the science and technology effort to support a sustainable industry. This partnership gives U.S. researchers a chance to understand where Japan is going in aquaculture and learn from Japan’s experience,” Rust said. “The low-hanging fruit in some ways is to look around the world to see where other people are on the technical side.”

Read the full story at Seafood Source