Saving Seafood

Why Does Halibut Cost So Much?

January 4, 2019 — Dishes fly across the galley. Water gushes through the scuppers and onto the deck. Five crew members on the 17.5-meter commercial halibut boat Borealis Iwalk like drunkards, holding onto anything stable. “We’re going to get bounced around a bit,” Dave Boyes, the boat’s captain and owner, deadpans.

My day started at first light, about six hours ago, watching the crew let out 2,200 galvanized circle hooks laced with chunks of pollock, squid, and pink salmon to soak across 13 kilometers of ocean bottom. Then, we ate breakfast and rested in cramped, cluttered bunks while the boat bounced on 1.5-meter waves and—below, in the cold unseen depths—the hooks sunk deep into the lips of the predatory halibut.

Now, the crew readies for battle, cinching rubber rain gear and running crude gutting knives across electric sharpeners—a portent of the bloodshed to come. When Boyes toots the boat’s horn, it’s game on.

My love of halibut got me here—in Hecate Strait, off northern British Columbia—as did my disdain for the price. Salmon are held up as the iconic symbol of the Pacific Northwest, but the way I see it, halibut is king, offering superior flavor and texture. When I can afford it, I serve the white fish baked with a glaze of butter, mayonnaise, and whole grain Dijon mustard.

During a summer visit to my local fish shop—Mad Dog Crabs in the Cowichan Valley of Vancouver Island—fresh halibut fillets sold for CAN $6.38 per 100 grams, compared with $5.28 for sablefish and $3.74 for sockeye salmon. “It’s the prime rib of the sea,” explained fishmonger Scott Mahon, who fished commercially for over 20 years. “Better taste, better quality, and better shelf life.” Unlike the farmed salmon industry, halibut aquaculture remains a relatively nascent enterprise and does not offer a less-expensive alternative to consumers.

Read the full story at Hakai Magazine

AquaBounty and Intrexon Developing Gene Edited Tilapia; Receive GMO Exemption

December 21, 2018 — SEAFOOD NEWS — AquaBounty and Intrexon announced this week that their jointly developed gene edited line of tilapia is “exempt from GM regulation” according to Argentina’s National Advisory Commission on Agricultural Biotechnology (CONABIA).

Intrexon is a leader in the engineering and industrialization of biology to improve the quality of life and health of the planet. GM salmon farmer AquaBounty is a majority-owned subsidiary of Intrexon.

According to a press release, the engineered tilapia was developed using gene editing techniques and do not contain any foreign DNA or a new combination of genetic material. Because of this, the tilapia is not considered a genetically modified product in Argentina.

“We are focused on developing animal biotechnology for aquaculture and livestock through our subsidiaries to support sustainable food production in the U.S. and abroad,” LTG Thomas Bostick, PhD, PE, Chief Operating Officer of Intrexon, said in a statement. “We are pleased with Argentina’s leadership in establishing a transparent and predictable process for the advancement of products developed with gene editing techniques and see this as a critical development for companies seeking to bring highly innovative solutions to the global market using powerful and highly precise genetic tools. Moreover, enhancing regulatory certainty for products derived from biotechnology is critical to the future of agricultural innovation.”

The engineered tilapia has an improved fillet yield of 70%, a growth rate improvement of 16%, and a feed conversion rate improvement of 14%. The tilapia has a shortened time to harvest, which not only reduces input costs, but increases production output and reduces risk of disease.

AquaBounty CEO Ronald Stotish added that the company is “committed to advancing novel technologies into the marketplace to improve sustainability in aquaculture.” Stotish said that it’s through their collaboration with Intrexon that the company has been able to make “significant progress.”

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

With prices low, US grocers push shrimp for the holidays

December 20, 2018 — Cheaper farmed shrimp prices are benefitting American retailers and consumers this holiday season.

Prices for imported farmed shrimp have dropped significantly since the summer, and fallen an additional USD 0.30 to 0.40 (EUR 0.26 to 0.35) per pound over the last month.

There are a variety of reasons for the steep drop in prices. Overproduction, heavy inventory in United States’ cold storage, rejections of imported shrimp by the U.S.A., and close competition for vannamei from other suppliers are all impacting shrimp pricing. Shrimp from India, which is the largest supplier to the United States, is especially impacted according to Haroon Chaudhri, director of sales for importer CleanWaterFish.

Delivered duty-paid New York prices on Indian shrimp are as low as USD 3.20 (EUR 2.80) per pound for 30/40s headless, shell-on, and USD 3.65 (EUR 3.19) per pound for 50/60s, Chaudhri said.

“These are much lower than a few months ago, and I see them falling further,” Chaudhri told SeafoodSource.

Shrimp imports to the U.S. rose 8.7 percent in October compared to the same month in 2017, according to National Marine Fisheries Service data, while Indian imports soared 17.2 percent in October compared to last year.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Portland Press-Herald: Aquaculture wrong target for protests

December 17, 2018 — Forty years ago, Belfast was probably best known for poultry processing. Rendered chicken fat slicked the water in the harbor, and feathers flying in the wind were jokingly called “snowstorms in July.”

The industry collapsed in the 1980s, and the city has since remade itself as a community that takes environmental sustainability seriously.

So, it’s no surprise that Belfast is the preferred site for a Norwegian company looking to build a state-of-the art, land-based aquaculture facility, which requires clean, cold water to raise salmon from eggs to adulthood. And it’s also no surprise that the project is under fire by some local activists who say that it’s too big and would destroy an unspoiled wooded area.

Read the full story at The Portland Press Herald

Benchmark says salmon industry needs multiple tools for sea lice, no ‘silver bullet’

December 14, 2018 — UK aquaculture biotechnology company Benchmark is working on a series of tools to combat the salmon industry’s growing sea lice problem, said CEO Malcolm Pye.

No single solution will work in isolation, he said, in an interview with Undercurrent News.

There are some signs that Norwegian salmon farmers are beginning to manage a sea lice problem that escalated this year, fisheries minister Harald Nesvik said last month. Sea lice levels have dropped on a combination of cold weather and methods that farmers are using, including delousing baths, cleaner-fish that feed off sea lice and even laser treatment.

Sea lice costs the Norwegian industry more than NOK 4.5 billion ($524.7 million) a year without even taking into the account reduced harvest weights, according to Norwegian seafood research institute Nofima. In a particularly bad year for Norway, farmers harvested fish below an average of 5 kilograms, compared with Chile that harvested an average of 5.5 kilograms. Larger fish command a premium in some markets such as China and Russia.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

 

US commercial fishermen take their aquaculture concerns to Capitol Hill

December 14, 2018 — Commercial fishermen and their supporters let Congress know where they stand on a bill that would grant NOAA Fisheries the ability to regulate aquaculture operations in federal waters.

The letter, signed by 100 fishermen and supporters and sent to elected officials last week, claims each fish farm in the exclusive enterprise zone would restrict access to “hundreds of acres of marine space” to commercial fishermen. They also believe fish farms would produce lower-cost and lower-quality fish, which they believe would deter consumers from paying more for wild fish. Further, the letter raises concerns about the impact that farmed fish escapes and pollution stemming from fish feed and antibiotics might have on fishing stocks.

“Simply put, industrial seafood farms threaten the integrity of the wild fish populations that are key to our industry’s success, and the coastal communities we support,” the letter states.

In July, U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Mississippi) filed the Advancing the Quality and Understanding of American Aquaculture (AQUAA) Act to give NOAA Fisheries power to permit aquaculture activities within the country’s exclusive enterprise zone. In September, U.S. Reps. Steven Palazzo (R-Mississippi) and Collin Peterson (D-Minnesota) introduced a companion bill in the House.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

 

Canadian Government Announces Aquaculture Management Initiatives

December 12, 2018 — SEAFOOD NEWS — The Canadian government announced on Monday that they will be moving forward with initiatives that will ensure that the aquaculture sector is “economically successful and environmentally sustainable.” The initiative is part of Canada’s efforts to not only protect wild salmon, but meet the growing global demand for seafood.

“The Government of Canada is committed to making aquaculture more effective, efficient and environmentally sustainable,” the Honourable Jonathan Wilkinson, Minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard, said in a press release.”

Key initiatives include:

-A study on the alternative technologies for aquaculture, including land and sea-based closed containment technology.

-Moving towards an area-based approach to aquaculture management.

-Developing a framework fore aquaculture risk management

-Creating a single comprehensive set of regulations, the General Aquaculture Regulations.

“The development of aquaculture policies that include Indigenous, scientific and seafood producer perspectives are important steps to making sure the people working in our coastal communities have long-term opportunities in sustainable aquaculture production, and that our natural environment and wild species are not placed at risk,” added the Honourable Lana Popham, Minister of Agriculture of British Columbia. “I support the collaborative approach that is being adopted and the recognition that alternative technologies have a role to play in the growth of sustainable aquaculture in British Columbia.”

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

Why some Maine coastal communities are up in arms about aquaculture

December 10, 2018 — From oyster farms to cultivated seaweed and farm-raised salmon, aquaculture is often described as essential to the economic future of Maine’s fisheries in the face of a changing ecosystem. Warming waters from climate change are pushing lobster farther Down East and have shut down the shrimp fishery, and threats such as ocean acidification and invasive green crabs are harming Maine’s natural fisheries.

But opposition to several proposed projects suggests the hardest part of getting into aquaculture might be getting past the neighbors. All along the coast, neighbors argue that pending aquaculture ventures will create too much noise, use too much energy, attract too many birds and obstruct their opportunities for boating or lobstering. One questioned whether an oyster farm would make it hard for deer to swim from one point of land to another.

In Belfast, abutters to the land where Nordic Aquafarms hopes to put in a giant land-based farm to raise salmon have filed a lawsuit against the city, which they say hastily and secretly approved a zoning change the company needed to move forward.

In Brunswick, opponents of a proposed 40-acre oyster farm have hired not just attorneys, but a public relations expert, Crystal Canney, in the hopes of persuading the Department of Marine Resources not to approve the lease.

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

European industry targets doubling of aquaculture production by 2030

December 5, 2018 — The Federation of European Aquaculture Producers (FEAP) has set a production target of 4.5 million metric tons in seafood from EU aquaculture by 2030; nearly double the current volume of 2.3m metric tons.

Speaking at the FEAP conference in Brussels on Nov. 29, president Marco Gilmozzi said that a boost in global aquaculture production will be necessary to meet the growing demand for sustainably-sourced protein within Europe.

“We need to be ambitious,” Gilmozzi said. “Aquaculture, if well-managed, is a fully-sustainable, globally competitive sector.”

With the global population set to rise to 9.8 billion by 2050, and many of the world’s fisheries already at maximum sustainable yield, FEAP predicts that farmed seafood will grow to represent more than two-thirds of the world’s consumed seafood by this date.

According to Gilmozzi, who is also the general manager of COSA fish farm in Tuscany, Italy, this means there are opportunities for European aquaculture to significantly grow its market share, as it currently only accounts for 25% of all European seafood production.

“To achieve our targets, we just need institutions to reduce bureaucracy and licensing times, and to realize a fair level playing field,” the FEAP president said.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

Could California’s ocean ranches solve a global food shortage and fix the seafood trade deficit?

November 27, 2018 — The Pacific Ocean is mountain-spring clear here six miles off the coast of Huntington Beach, Calif., where Phil Cruver has been ranching for a few months now.

Dangling between buoys that rise on the occasional swell are sweeps of lines, some strung horizontally, others plunging vertically toward the sea plateau’s floor 150 feet below. The depth drops into oblivion about a mile to the west, and what rises are nutrients that make this prime farming territory. The proof is on the lines — the thick coils of mussel, Cruver’s livestock and his bet that deep-ocean ranching is the future of the world’s food supply.

This 100-acre patch of Pacific is the Catalina Sea Ranch, the first commercially viable aquaculture operation in federal waters. The first mussel harvest was this summer, and it is expanding to a planned 30 times its current size.

As it does, the ranch will take on the scope that the Trump administration envisions for an industry burdened for decades by a confused bureaucracy and a wary view that using the sea as a solution to future food shortages might do more environmental harm than good.

Diving along line No. 38 in the unseasonably warm water, it is easy to see the promise. The clumps of mussels are bulky along the length of the lines, which vanish into cobalt blue about 60 feet down. Schools of small fish swirl around the lines, and tiny scallops grow on the shells of the jet-black mussels.

Read the full story at The Washington Post