Saving Seafood

DON CUDDY: Seafood comes in many forms — how fresh is yours?

November 27, 2018 — We live, as we are often reminded, in the top grossing fishing port in the United States and have some of the planet’s most productive fishing grounds right off our shores. So for those among us who enjoy and appreciate the harvest of the sea, and its clean, healthy, wild-caught protein, there is no better place to live than New Bedford. Lately however I have begun to wonder just how many people around the SouthCoast are fish eaters and include our excellent seafood as a regular part of their diet? Apart from perhaps ordering fish and chips or fried scallops in a restaurant on a Friday night that is. That counts certainly but what I have in mind is selecting some seafood at the market and bringing it home.

I regularly enjoy eating all kinds of great seafood at my house. In the past couple of weeks, I have bought, prepared and eaten swordfish, yellowfin tuna, haddock, scallops and oysters, all of it fresh and of surpassing excellence. On the other hand I have read that the vast majority of seafood consumed in the USA is confined to just three varieties — shrimp, salmon and canned tuna. I’m not a fan of shrimp nowadays as most of it is imported, farmed in Southeast Asia under dubious conditions, and I find the end product to be devoid of flavor. Decades ago when I lived in Miami, I would catch shrimp, one at a time, using a dip net and lantern as they entered Biscayne Bay via Government Cut so I know what wild shrimp tastes like.

Salmon fares a little better chez moi although wild salmon runs have all but disappeared on the East Coast and the commonly used marketing term ‘Atlantic salmon’ means that it is raised in pens, predominantly in the Canadian Maritimes and Norway. Both of these items enjoy great popularity in the restaurant trade and you will frequently find salmon and shrimp on seafood menus where even such New England staples such as cod and haddock are absent. But even at the local fish counter there is a high probability that the cod and haddock on offer, while fresh, is not caught or landed here.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

NOAA Fisheries Seeking Nominations for Committee

November 26, 2018 — HYANNIS, MASS. – NOAA Fisheries is accepting nominations to fill vacant positions on the Marine Fisheries Advisory Committee (MAFAC).

The committee advises the Secretary of Commerce and NOAA on developing and implementing regulations, policies and programs critical to the mission and goals of the NOAA Fisheries Service.

Committee members represent commercial, recreational, subsistence, and aquaculture fisheries interests; tribes; seafood industry; protected resources and habitat interests; environmental organizations; academic institutions; consumer groups; and other living marine resource interest groups.

Read the full story at CapeCod.com

UK commits £5.1m to aquaculture research

November 23, 2018 — The UK’s Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) and Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) have committed £5.1 million towards UK Aquaculture Initiative, a joint project to further scientific research in aquaculture.

The money will go towards 12 projects, from research into vaccines made using algae to innovation in genetics and breeding.

Other projects include looking at how shellfish can be more sustainable; immunizing trout against kidney disease; and examining how susceptible salmon are to disease at sea.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

 

Hurricane Florence crippled the seafood industry. Farmers must decide whether to rebuild.

November 21, 2018 — After Hurricane Florence, bags of dead oysters hung in the trees near Jimmy Morris’ oyster farm and hatchery.

Florence ransacked his Morris Family Shellfish Farms in Sealevel, north of Beaufort and Morehead City. Pummeling winds, historic flooding and power outages killed a year’s worth of shellfish seed, the early stage for 10 million oysters and 5 million clams, plus the better part of 1,000 cages of market oysters.

“There were oysters everywhere,” Morris said after the storm.

Florence hit North Carolina in September as a Category 1 hurricane, then stopped and stalled for days on the coast as it dumped trillions of gallons of rain. The rush of freshwater chased off fish, killed millions of oysters and crippled an industry still taking stock of its losses.

Read the full story at the Raleigh News and Observer

MAINE: Fishermen speak out against proposed oyster farm in Maquoit Bay

November 21, 2018 — A local group of commercial fishermen asked the Maine Department of Marine Resources to throw out Mere Point Oyster Co.’s application for a 10-year, 40-acre lease in the middle of Maquoit Bay on the grounds that they are “rightfully entitled to use this space for fishing.”

“Why should we go away so a couple of people can use it exclusively?” Tom Santaguida asked the department at a public hearing Monday night.

The meeting marked the second night of the hearing over the company’s proposed expansion, which would increase its annual oyster harvest from about 60,000 this year to more than 1.5 million within three years. The department will evaluate the lease on factors like navigation, fishing and other uses, as well as noise and visual impact. The hearing will stretch into a third night, which has not yet been scheduled. The Concerned Citizens of Maquoit Bay, who began their testimony on Thursday, will resume at the next hearing.

The commercial fishermen, represented by Santaguida and John Powers, argued that the proposed 40-acre site is one that is fished often and at different times can be extremely lucrative.

Read the full story at The Portland Press Herald

 

Climate Change Looms as a Long-Term Threat to Aquaculture

November 16, 2018 — Aquaculture is on the rise in Massachusetts.  For many entering the business, shellfish farming seems like a more secure option than the marine fisheries.  But climate change looms as a long-term threat over the industry.

Paul Wittenstein always wanted to be a commercial fisherman.

Growing up in Harwich, he worked summer jobs at fish markets and on chartered fishing boats. In college, he started out studying fisheries technology, but it was a bad time for the industry. “All the while I was in school, I was watching the fishing industry struggling,” he said.  “I watched the cod disappear. I watched small boats battling big boats. At the same time, I saw this tiny little shellfish industry start to take hold.”

Read the full story on WCAI

Maine Aquaculture Projects Dredge Up Memories Of Polluted, Industrial Waterways

November 8, 2018 —  At a recent hearing in Kittery, so many people showed up to weigh in on the proposed expansion of an oyster-growing operation in a local creek, Department of Marine Resources hearing officer Amanda Ellis had to make a choice.

“Based on the number that we’re seeing we’ve made the decision to postpone the hearing,” she said.

But opponents such as Mike Dowling were still plenty willing to talk.

“I have many concerns, there’s a whole group of us, introducing over 2,500 objects suspended or floating into the creek creates a pinch point, and everyone uses that little sandy beach to go swimming,” he said.

Such complaints do arise with aquaculture enterprises, with neighbors — sometimes including fishermen — worrying about water access, environmental effects and property values. Up the coast in Maquoit Bay, near Brunswick, a proposed 40-acre shellfish farm is meeting some stiff resistance.

And then there’s Belfast, where a proposal to site what would be one of the world’s largest indoor salmon farms is stirring talk of the darker days, when the city was dominated by chicken processors.

Read the full story at WBUR

New Hampshire ‘AquaFort’ among 22 projects earning NOAA Sea Grant

October 26, 2018 — Researchers in New Hampshire have received federal funding to create an offshore aquaculture program that will be used to recruit fishermen in northern New England interested in raising steelhead trout and blue mussels.

Officials from the University of New Hampshire – which manages the state’s Sea Grant program – along with the state’s federal leaders announced the USD 747,673 (EUR 655,574) award last week. The grant was given to UNH for its new aquaculture program called “AquaFort.” It involves the hatching of rainbow trout in freshwater, and after eight months of development, the fish are transferred to the sea and become known as steelheads.

The university already has permits for the AquaFort site, which will be located less than two miles south of the Isle of Shoals.

“Warming ocean temperatures and invasive species have caused a decline in sea creatures such as blue mussels and steelhead trout, which has negatively impacted New Hampshire fishermen and the seafood industry,” U.S. Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-New Hampshire) said in a statement. “By increasing seafood production through aquaculture training for fishermen and farmers, this federal grant to the University of New Hampshire will help expand economic opportunity on the Seacoast.”

The New Hampshire initiative was one of 22 projects that earned 2018 Aquaculture Research Awards grants by NOAA Sea Grant. All of the endeavors receiving a total of USD 11 million (EUR 9.6 million) will work on their projects over the next two to three years. Awardees must also receive a 50 percent match in funds from non-federal sources.

The Rhode Island Sea Grant program received USD 745,815 (EUR 654,052) to develop an online training initiative for entry-level workers that’s designed to improve worker safety and hone the skills necessary to get and keep a job in aquaculture. The training program will include a “train-the-trainer” aspect that could lead to a national deployment.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Turning an invasive problem into a bait solution

October 25, 2018 — With concerns growing over a likely bait shortage in the lobster industry in Maine and Canada due to a drastic cut in the upcoming season’s herring quota, Nova Scotia resident Patrick Swim has a possible solution. Swim thinks he can solve the bait shortage by harvesting an invasive species.

Silver carp is one of the four species of the invasive Asian carp (silver, bighead, grass, and black) that have placed the Great Lakes water system at risk. Carp were brought to North America in the 1970s as a biological control of algae, plants, and snails in aquaculture sites. Subsequent flooding allowed them to escape their pens, which created a new problem for the environment and marine life. A mature meter-long carp can weight 40 kilograms and consume up to 40 percent of their body weight each day, which puts stress on resources for native species. They also reproduce rapidly.

Swim was intrigued by reports that silver carp are so disturbed by noise and vibration caused by boat motors that they jump up to three meters out of the water. While looking at this flying fish phenomenon, Swim, whose family have long fished lobster on Canada’s Cape Sable Island, had an idea to harvest the carp, freeze it, cut it into pieces and sell it as a cheap bait to East Coast lobster fishermen.

In the past decades, Asian carp have replaced native fish species in areas of the Mississippi River and its tributaries. Their advance towards the Great Lakes has spurred the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Coast Guard, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency to spend tens of millions of dollars annually trying to contain them. So far, electro-magnetic fields and fish fences have prevented all but a few carp from entering the lakes.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Growing pains as companies try to move fish farms from ocean to land

October 23, 2018 — They are Ocean Wise recommended and a Seafood Watch green light best choice — a conservationist’s dream. The flesh is invitingly red, delicious and rich in omega-3s.

Land-based tanks are dimly lit to simulate winter light levels in order to trick the fish into growing faster, while delaying sexual maturity. It is one of many tricks needed to grow salmon outside the ocean, its natural environment.

Consider the difficulties of raising cattle underwater while keeping their living space and air pristine and you get a sense of the challenges faced by land-based fish farms growing coho, tilapia and especially Atlantic salmon.

Most Atlantic salmon are grown in net pens in the ocean, drawing criticism from First Nations and environmentalists. Washington state’s decision to end net-pen farming gave some hope that a breakthrough in B.C. could be at hand.

But fish farmers say a large-scale move is not commercially feasible.

“It’s a life-support system and it’s really hard to do,” said Don Read, president and owner of Willowfield Enterprises, which markets the Golden Eagle Aquaculture fish as West Creek Coho.

Because biological setbacks come often, you need deep pockets just to try. The Aquilini Investment Group bought the farm in Agassiz about six years ago.

“Last year, we grew out a cohort of fish and they all performed like you’d hope and the fish were a certain size,” said Read. “We did everything the same this year and 30 per cent of them didn’t mature.”

Read the full story at the Vancouver Sun