Saving Seafood

Special events featured throughout Seafood Expo North America 2019

March 12, 2019 — Thousands of seafood buyers, importers, distributors, and processors are expected to arrive in Boston, Massachusetts this weekend for the kick-off of Seafood Expo North America/Seafood Processing North America 2019, taking place from 17 to 19 March.

Considered to be the largest seafood industry event in North America, the expo features thousands of exhibitor booths stocked with products, solutions, and samples, as well as a wide array of live chef demonstrations, sponsored presentations, and other special events open to all attendees.

Topical presentations will begin on Sunday, 17 March, when keynote speaker Dr. Lindsey Piegza, the chief economist at Stifel Fixed Income, will offer an economic update to attendees covering the current pace of recovery in the United States and what it means for future growth, interest rates, and monetary policy. Piegza will also touch on macro-economic consumer behavior trends and the potential economic effects of new Federal Reserve policy initiatives.

A series of free sponsored presentations will take place on Monday (18 March) and Tuesday (19 March) in the morning. According to expo and conference organizer Diversified Communications, on Monday beginning at 9:15 a.m., attendees will be able to choose from two presentations: one on traceability standards, sponsored by the Global Dialogue on Seafood Traceability, and a second on utilizing ROVs for sustainable aquaculture, sponsored by Deep Trekker. The sponsored series will conclude on Tuesday with another sustainability-focused session, “Ocean Plastic Pollution: From the Garbage Patch to your Plate,” sponsored by Thai Union and running from 8:45 a.m. to 9:30 a.m.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Cooke Aquaculture One of Canada’s Best Managed Companies

March 8, 2019 — SEAFOOD NEWS — Cooke Aquaculture has reason to celebrate. For the 14th year in a row the family-owned and operated company has been named one of Canada’s Best Managed Companies.

“Serving our customers while focusing on environmental stewardship remains at the forefront of our sustainable growth strategy,” said Glenn Cooke, CEO of Cooke Aquaculture Inc. “Regardless of what country we operate in or sell to, we understand that our relationship with the environment is vital to our business and to producing top quality seafood. We view this as a significant component of our corporate social responsibility. There is always room for improvement – and we continue to try new techniques, implement new practices and test new equipment. We know the company depends on a healthy marine environment for growing and harvesting seafood.”

Applicants are evaluated by an independent judging panel that consists of representatives from program sponsors, as well as special guest judges. Winners of the Best Managed program award are “amongst the best-in-class of Canadian owned and managed companies with revenues over $15 million demonstrating strategy, capability and commitment to achieve sustainable growth.”

“Best Managed companies are elevating Canada’s place on the world-stage,” said Lorrie King, Partner, Deloitte Private and Co-Leader, Canada’s Best Managed Companies program. “By broadening their network, and thinking globally, the Best Managed program is honoring these winners for their achievements in Canadian business, and growing influence worldwide.”

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

Seafood sector urged to commit to gender equality

March 8, 2019 — A group of leading women from the seafood sector, including prominent figures in aquaculture, have called on more seafood businesses to actively promote gender equality.

An open letter, to mark International Women’s Day, was penned by nine women engaged in seafood communities and promoting gender equality: Marie Christine Monfort, president and founder of the International Association for Women in the Seafood Industry (WSI); Natalia Briceno-Lagos, project manager at WSI; Meryl Williams, chair of the gender in aquaculture and fisheries section of the Asian Fisheries Society; Jayne Gallagher, member of Women in Seafood Australasia (WISA); Leonie Noble, past president of WISA and Australian Seafood Hall Inductee; Editrudith Lukanga president of African Women Fish Processors and Traders Network (AWFISHNET); Tamara Espiñeira, coordinator at She4sea; Marja Bekendam, president of AKTEA; and Katia Framgoudes, spokesperson at AKTEA.

The letter states:

March 8, International Women’s Day, has become the day of the year to highlight what women do and review progress. Some workplaces have joined in celebrating this day, featuring heartening commitments to gender equality. But it is also frequent to see in the workplace the omission, forgetfulness or ignorance of what this day commemorates: the international day of women’s rights. We are living in a historic moment where the fact that women still participate in society and in the labour market on an unequal footing with men is more topical than ever. The seafood sector, in which at least 100 million women participate but wield little authority, is, like other male-dominated industry sectors, a fertile environment for reform.

Read the full story at The Fish Site

Maine fish farm foes ask legislators to let agriculture commissioner kill projects

March 1, 2019 — The debate over two land-based salmon farms in Penobscot Bay spilled inland to Augusta on Thursday during a public hearing on a proposed law that would affect the licensing of such projects.

The bill, sponsored by Rep. Jan Dodge, D-Belfast, would allow the commissioner of the Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry to refuse to issue or to revoke an existing license for a land-based aquaculture project if it alone or in combination with another project is found to present an unreasonable risk to native species or the environment.

Some of those who testified in favor of LD 620 are veterans of the fight over Nordic Aquafarms’ proposed land-based salmon farm in Belfast, which has consumed the community for more than a year. Another project, Whole Oceans, to be located in the former Verso paper mill in Bucksport, has received much less criticism locally, but has been challenged by some in Belfast and Waldo County.

Read the full story at the Bangor Daily News

ASMFC Seeks Proposals for Regional Pilot Projects in Support of Sustainable Aquaculture Proposals Due April 15, 2019

March 1, 2019 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (Commission), in partnership with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), is seeking proposals to develop regional pilot projects in support of sustainable aquaculture. Specifically, pilot programs should partner with industry to develop techniques and business models to grow domestic seafood production. A priority are projects that consider promising but less commercially developed technologies for species managed by the Commission or those species that contribute to healthy marine habitats, including finfish, shellfish and seaweed.

The NOAA Fisheries FY19 budget contains the “Regional Pilots in Sustainable Aquaculture” provision that authorizes the funding. In addition to this specific item, the budget also focuses renewed interest on maintaining and further developing existing aquaculture capabilities at NOAA Fisheries.

NOAA Fisheries, through the Commission, is making $525,000 available for the funding period of July 1, 2019 to June 30, 2020. Individual proposals should fall within a range from $50,000 to $200,000. Any investigator seeking support for this period must submit, as a single file, an electronic proposal by email no later than 5:00 p.m. EST on Monday, April 15, 2019. Awards and start dates for successful projects will be announced by May 20, 2019. Please see the Request for Proposals (RFP) for complete proposal details, qualifying requirements, and submission instructions. The RFP is available at http://www.asmfc.org/files/RFPs/ASMFCAquacultureRFP_March2019.pdf.

The Gulf and Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commissions have also issued similar RFPs seeking proposals relevant to their respective regions. For more information, please contact Dr. Louis Daniel at ldaniel@asmfc.org or 252.342.1478.

Cooke, Martha Stewart partner on value-added seafood range

February 26, 2019 — Diversified seafood group Cooke is partnering with US retail and lifestyle entrepreneur Martha Stewart on a new range of value-added seafood products using raw material from its global farmed and wild supply companies.

Cooke, under its True North Seafood sales arm, is teaming up on the range with Sequential Brands Group, which licenses a range of consumer brands, including Martha Stewart’s, the seafood company told Undercurrent News. The range will launch next month and will be on show at the upcoming Boston seafood show, held in the East Coast US city from March 17-19.

The product line offers a range of True North products accompanied by a Martha Stewart signature butter flavor or spice blend. Packaging will also include an easy to follow recipe created by Stewart’s “test kitchen” team, the company said. These include Atlantic salmon with lemon herb butter; sockeye salmon with miso butter; pollock with a southwest spice blend, and a seafood medley – using pollock, salmon, and bay scallops — with a herb spice blend.

“Knowing where my seafood comes from is very important to me, and I’ve enjoyed and served True North Seafood to family and friends for years,” said Stewart, in a statement.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

Top Canadian official considers moving salmon aquaculture sites for sake of wild fish

February 22, 2019 — Salmon aquaculture should be moved out of sensitive native salmon migratory habitats out of concern for the impact it may have on wild fish, according to Canadian Minister for Fisheries, Oceans, and the Canadian Coast Guard Jonathan Wilkinson.

In recent public comments, Wilkinson expressed alarm related to wild salmon stock declines.

“We need to move to area-based management, which means we are actually thinking about sitting these facilities in areas where you don’t run into issues around migration pathways, areas where communities are actually interested in the economic development that comes through [fish farming] rather than in areas where those communities are very much opposed,” Wilkinson told The Globe and Mail.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

European price-fixing investigation focused on Norwegian salmon industry

February 21, 2019 — A European Commission investigation – which was announced yesterday after E.C. officials raided Scottish and Dutch corporate offices of several seafood companies – is focused on anticompetitive practices in the Norwegian farmed salmon sector, according to SeafoodSource sources and public statements issued on Wednesday, 20 February.

European Commission investigators, along with U.K. and Dutch national competition authorities, took part in raids on Mowi’s facilities in Rosyth, Fife, Scotland and in Sterk, The Netherlands; at Grieg Seafood’s plant in Lerwick, in the Shetland Islands; and a facility in Stirling, Scotland that is operated by Scottish Sea Farms, which is jointly owned by SalMar and Lerøy Seafood.

On Tuesday, 19 February, Mowi, Grieg, and SalMar issued public statements responding to the raids; Lerøy Seafood issued its own on 20 February.

“E.U.’s competition authorities (European Commission Director General Competition) has conducted an inspection at the premises of Scottish Sea Farms Ltd. – a company owned 50 percent by Lerøy Seafood Group ASA (LSG). The purpose is, according to the competition authorities, to investigate accusations of anti-competitive cooperation in the salmon market,” the company said. “In connection with the inspection, the E.U. competition authorities [have] also requested for information from the shareholders in Scottish Sea Farms Ltd. LSG will assist the authorities in order to facilitate an efficient completion of the investigations.”

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Petition, gathering kick off new push for US federal aquaculture bills

February 19, 2019 — Another push for passage of a new US federal aquaculture law is in full swing with a petition to Congress signed by 122 professionals mostly from aquaculture or other seafood-related industries.

An informational gathering on Capitol Hill has been scheduled for lawmakers and their staff early next month.

Both the US Senate and House of Representatives’ versions of the Advancing the Quality and Understanding of American Aquaculture (AQUAA) Act that were introduced during the 115th Congress expired in December along with the session, but Margaret Henderson, campaign director for the Stronger American Through Seafood (SATS), told Undercurrent News Friday that she believes new bills will be introduced in both chambers within the next two months.

Senators Roger Wicker, a Mississippi Republican, and Marco Rubio, a Florida Republican, and representatives Collin Peterson, a Minnesota Democrat, and Steve Palazzo, another Mississippi Republican, all of whom championed the earlier bills, are back, and support is already being built.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

European Commission investigating potential price-fixing in European farmed salmon sector

February 19, 2019 — The European Commission has confirmed it carried out unannounced inspections on the morning of Tuesday, 19 February at the premises of several companies involved in the farmed Atlantic salmon sector in Europe.

In a statement, the E.C. said it “has concerns that the inspected companies may have violated E.U. antitrust rules that prohibit cartels and restrictive business practices.”

The E.C. did not say what sparked its investigation, nor did it identify which companies are being investigated or which sites its investigators visited. However, Mowi (formerly Marine Harvest) and Greig Seafood confirmed to SeafoodSource their facilities were among those visited on Tuesday. Additionally, a Scottish Sea Farms facility jointly owned by SalMar and Leroy Seafood was also inspected, SalMar CEO Olav-Andreas Ervik confirmed to Reuters.

“We have been informed that The European Commission DG (Director General) Competition is exploring potential anti-competitive behavior in the salmon industry. They have performed an inspection today at Grieg Seafood Shetland,” Grieg Seafood Global Communications Manager Kristina Furnes told SeafoodSource in an email. “The salmon market is very competitive and we are not aware of any anti-competitive behavior. We are co-operating with the European Commission DG Competition’s investigation.”

Furne referred further questions about the investigation to the European Commission DG Competition.

Read the full story at Seafood Source