Saving Seafood

Record year for China M&A sees little investment in seafood deals

April 1, 2019 — Seafood seems to be way down the list of sectors attracting investors in China, as agriculture and fisheries investments accounted for just 1 percent of the USD 377 billion (EUR 335.5 billion) invested in 1,866 deals monitored by leading international mergers and acquisitions watchers Mergermarket and Merrill DatasiteOne.

Industries and chemicals accounted for 19 percent of deals in value and 24 percent in volume, topping the list of categories for deals in 2018 in a new ranking compiled by the two financial firms. The technology, media, and telecommunications [TMT] category accounted for 19 percent of value and 10 percent of volume, followed by financial services, with 13 percent and 7 percent, respectively.

Despite the U.S.-China trade war, foreign investors accounted for a record USD 49.1 billion (EUR 43.7 billion) – up 51 percent on 2017 – or 13 percent of the deals done, with nearly half that cash coming from the United States. Foreign investors appeared to be cheered by China’s pledge to lower restrictions on foreign investment into various sectors, a pledge necessitated in part by the gradual slowdown of China’s economic growth.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Fish 2.0 to host free workshop for seafood entrepreneurs and investors

March 27, 2019 — Aquaculture entrepreneurs and researchers seeking capital for ventures and technologies supporting sustainable seafood or the marine environment are encouraged to join a Fish 2.0 workshop at the University of North Carolina Wilmington’s Marine Campus on 23-24 April.

The event is part of the Fish 2.0 initiative and established businesses from the US South Atlantic coast (Maryland, DC, Virginia, North and South Carolina, Georgia, and the Atlantic coast of Florida) involved in seafood supply chains, climate resilience technologies, or seafood production, including aquaculture, wild harvesting or trade are eligible to apply at no cost.

“If you know of technologies being commercialised at universities or ventures getting started in your state, please forward this message. We want to help those entrepreneurs meet investors that can fund these important ventures,” say Fish 2.0’s organisers.

Fish 2.0 is a year-long global programme that connects entrepreneurs with business-building resources and a network of investors and innovators that are shaping the future of fisheries, aquaculture, and the marine ecosystem.

Read the full story at The Fish Site

Baby Eel Fishermen Hope for Year Free of Poaching, Shutdowns

March 25, 2019 — Maine fishermen began several weeks of taking to rivers and streams to fish for baby eels Friday, which marked the start of a high-stakes season harvesters hope isn’t interrupted by poaching concerns as it was a year ago.

Fishermen in Maine use nets to harvest baby eels, called elvers, to feed demand from Asian aquaculture companies, who use them as seed stock.

The tiny eels are the source of one of the most valuable fisheries in the country on a per-pound basis, and they were worth a record of more than $2,300 per pound last year. Maine’s home to the only significant elver fishery in the country.

Last year’s season was shut down two weeks early by state regulators after investigators found that illegal sales had caused Maine to blow past its quota for the eels. New controls on the fishery are expected to clamp down on clandestine sales, and the use of a swipe card system to record transactions remains in effect.

Darrell Young, co-director of the Maine Elver Fishermen Association, said the health of the fishery also depends on members of the industry “behaving themselves” this time around.

“Buyers wanted to find their way around the swipe cards. They just made it harder for everybody else,” Young said.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at The New York Times

Seafood import, export guidance issued for “no deal” Brexit

March 23, 2019 — Seafood importers and exporters in the United Kingdom have been told how catch certificates and export health certificates (EHCs) would operate if the country leaves the European Union without a withdrawal agreement in place.

Compiled by U.K trade body Seafish in response to enquiries from the industry, the advice relates to how catch certificates and EHCs will operate in the event of the so-called “no deal” scenario.

According to Seafish, the new catch certificate advice and changes to the EHC system may provide some flexibility for seafood imported to the United Kingdom from the E.U. and also for products exported to the bloc.

A catch certificate and supporting documents will be required, which must be validated by the country of export, for most consignments of wild-caught seafood imported from the E.U. or elsewhere and for direct landings of non-U.K. caught fishery products.

If the seafood imported to the United Kingdom has been stored, then a storage document from the exporter will be required. And if the seafood has been processed, a processing statement from the exporter is required that must be filled in by the processor and endorsed by the authority in the country of processing.

To ensure efficient clearance of a consignment, the original paper catch certificate to the port of entry in advance or at the time of the consignment’s arrival should be provided. If this is not possible, the importer should check with the port of entry, with Seafish advising that some ports may agree to release consignments if they are supplied with electronic catch certificate documents, provided that hard copies of those documents follow.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

MAINE: Petition seeks moratorium on large aquaculture leases

March 22, 2019 — Save Maquoit Bay, a group formed to address issues with aquaculture, and lobstermen from around the state have submitted a petition to the Department of Marine Resources requesting an immediate moratorium on aquaculture leases greater than 10 acres in size.

The petition has 189 signatures, 39 more than required to open rulemaking around aquaculture leases, according to a news release.

The petition comes in the wake of an application by Mere Point Oyster Co. for a 40-acre lease in the bay, which is in the north end of Casco Bay, in between Freeport and Brunswick. The application, for a 10-year lease, is to cultivate Eastern oysters, bay scallops and sea scallops.

Mere Point Oyster Co. is owned by Dan Devereaux and Doug Niven.

Supporters of the petition spoke about it at a Tuesday news conference at the State House.

Read the full story at MaineBiz

MAINE: Group including lobstermen wants state to clamp down on aquaculture licenses

March 21, 2019 — Lobstermen are among the organizers of a citizen petition asking the state to limit where new aquaculture operations are sited in Maine’s coastal waters, claiming the surge in new licenses affects where they can drop traps.

A wave of aquaculture operations has swept along the coast in the last few years, sparking concerns from lobstermen and others about waterfront access, aesthetics and interference with commercial fisheries.

A 40-acre oyster farm proposed in Maquoit Bay in Brunswick by Mere Point Oyster Co. is a flashpoint in the debate. The hearing on its application prompted three days of prolonged, contentious discussion, involving landowners in the upscale neighborhood of Merepoint, members of the town’s fishing community and others.

“I’m here to let the Department of Marine Resources know that their system of granting aquaculture leases is broken or, even worse, non-existent, as far as it pertains to the commercial lobstermen in this state,” John Powers, a lobsterman who has fished around Brunswick for 40 years, said at a news conference in the State House on Wednesday.

Powers was among a handful of organizers who submitted a petition with 189 signatures to the Department of Marine Resources, almost 40 more signatures than needed to trigger the rule-making process.

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

Chilean salmon industry pledges 50 percent reduction in antibiotics usage

March 20, 2018 — At Seafood Expo North America on Monday, 18 March, companies representing about 80 percent of the total production of salmon in Chile vowed to reduce their use of antibiotics and seek a “Good Alternative” rating from the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch program by 2025.

Members of the Chilean Salmon Marketing Council, which include Cermaq Chile, MultiExport Foods, Australis, Salmones Camachaca, Blumar, Ventisqueros, Salmones Austral, Marine Farm, Salmones Magallanes, and AgroSuper (which owns Aquachile, Los Fiordos, and Verlasso), have all pledged to pursue a 50 percent reduction in their use of antibiotics by 2025.

The partnership between SalmonChile, the Chilean Salmon Marketing Council, and the Monterey Bay Aquarium will formally be known as the Chilean Salmon Antibiotic Reduction Program (CSARP). Norway-based Mowi’s Chilean operations will also participate in the initiative, SalmonChile CEO Arturo Clement told SeafoodSource at the event.

Griffin said the issue of antibiotic use has been a major one for the Chilean salmon industry for years, and that when he took over as head of the marketing council in December 2017, curbing antibiotic use was a top priority for him, as a means to achieve higher recognition in Seafood Watch’s seafood ranking system, which rates seafood as either a “Best Choice,” a “Good Alternative,” or as food to “Avoid.”

Read the full story at Seafood Source

 

Sustainable Fisheries Partnership announces new joint aquaculture improvement project in Indonesia

March 18, 2019 — The following was published by the Sustainable Fisheries Partnership:

Sustainable Fisheries Partnership (SFP) is pleased to announce the initiation of a new sustainable aquaculture improvement project in Indonesia.

The project, scheduled for two years in Banyuwangi, East Java, will focus on improving the sustainability of aquaculture in the region, as well as governance and management of ongoing shrimp farming.

“Effective management of the natural resource base and protection from disease is critical to ensure the long-term investability of the shrimp industry,” said SFP Aquaculture Director Anton Immink.

SFP is working to coordinate the project, together with Conservation International, IDH—the Sustainable Trade Initiative, and Longline Environment. The Indonesian Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries, the Indonesian Ministry of National Development Planning, and the Financial Service Authority of Indonesia will all be collaborating on the project as well.

“This program will support the ministry’s efforts to grow sustainable shrimp exports from Indonesia,” said Machmud, Directorate General of Product Competitiveness for the Indonesian Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries.

The approach is designed to address disease risks and environmental impacts across a politically and ecologically relevant location, to attract investment and insurance and create a scalable model that can be exported to other geographies.

“This project builds positively on the guidelines we jointly developed and creates the action needed to ensure a sustainable future for the shrimp industry in Indonesia,” said Dane Klinger, Aquaculture Innovation Fellow at CI.

The project is supported by the Walton Family Foundation and the Packard Foundation.

Taking the sea out of seafood

March 15, 2019 — Land-based aquaculture can sound like a mirage — shrimp farms in the desert, salmon swimming “upstream” in an alpine village tank, tilapia swishing over the plains. And for a long time, ample production of sea delicacies in recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS) has been more dream than reality. Yet the technology and its innovators steadily have gained momentum and finally may be hitting their tipping point.

The allure of fish grown on land is easy to understand: Like all aquaculture, it reduces demand for wild fish, but unlike with sea-based pens, closed-loop RAS farms (PDF) run no risk of fish escaping to dilute the native gene pool, spread diseases or discharge waste and antibiotics into the wild. RAS farmers have near-full control over growing conditions, so they can optimize for growth and quality. And with its amenability to unlikely locations, RAS can sit near major consumer markets, providing fresh local seafood even when the shore is hundreds of miles away.

So why aren’t we eating it already? RAS entrepreneurs face three big challenges: energy; contamination risks; and money. Mimicking a natural system within strictly regulated parameters is an energy-intensive endeavor, and sustainability (not to mention costs) demands locating RAS facilities next to cheap, abundant energy sources. A pathogen let loose in a closed system can be a disaster, so RAS farmers have to be extra scrupulous about avoiding contamination.

Money may be the biggest hurdle: RAS operations need high volumes and relatively long ramp-ups to reach profitability, and the pile of patient capital needed to build and grow large, high-tech facilities can be as elusive as Moby Dick.

Read the full op-ed at GreenBiz

High hopes to diversify US marine finfish aquaculture

March 13, 2019 — Spotted sea trout, wolffish, tripletail, California halibut, southern flounder, lumpfish and greater amberjack are amongst the prime candidate species that might allow for the US to diversify its marine finfish aquaculture sector.

So argued members of a distinguished panel of researchers during a special session of Aquaculture 2019 in New Orleans on 10 March – a session that offered some hope that diversification could help the country expand its marine finfish production and to reduce its $15 billion seafood deficit.

Eric Saillant from the University of Southern Mississippi’s Marine Aquaculture Centre, outlined the potential and pitfalls facing tripletail production, noting that “current data suggest that tripletail could become a successful species for commercial marine aquaculture, assuming that bottlenecks in the hatchery [phase] can be overcome.”

Read the full story at The Fish Site