Saving Seafood

Eel farming coming closer to reality in Japan

March 6, 2017 — At the 14th annual Seafood Show Osaka, held 22 to 23 February at ATC Hall, the Japan Fisheries Research and Education Agency operated a booth highlighting its work in closed-cycle breeding of Japanese eel.

Osamu Tamaru, a researcher at the research Center for Fisheries System Engineering, of the National Research Institute of Fisheries Engineering, said that his group has achieved survival rates of 10 percent, but estimates that this figure needs to be doubled to be commercially viable. Asked what the difficult point was, he said, “The feed, the tank, everything…”

That is to say, it often hard to discover the cause of mortality. However, as commercialization of closed-cycle breeding of bluefin tuna is advancing in Japan, there is hope that pressure on threatened eel populations can be relieved through the research.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Researchers help salmon farmers confront threat to their industry

February 3, 2017 — It’s a mystery that has puzzled University of Maine assistant professor of marine biology and aquaculture Heather Hamlin and the salmon farming industry in New England: the decline in egg survival.

The survival rate of fertilized salmon eggs had been as high as 80 percent. But beginning in 2000, salmon embryos began dying in large numbers and the average survival rate fell to around 50 percent.

Previous studies have shown that a range of factors can negatively impact egg quality and production, including nutrition, stress, temperature and the endocrine status of the female. Until recently, businesses such as New Brunswick-based Cooke Aquaculture, which runs farming operations at several sites in Maine, knew little about why some of its eggs were dying and others were surviving, despite having come from same strain females, cultured under similar conditions.

Now a UMaine study has found that two hormones may play significant roles in achieving an 80 percent embryo survival rate. Hamlin and LeeAnne Thayer, a UMaine Ph.D. candidate in marine sciences, wrote about their findings in the journal Aquaculture Research.

Read the full story at Phys.org

5 surprising benefits of U.S. farm-raised seafood

February 2, 2017 — You’re shopping for tonight’s dinner and decide fish sounds delicious. You visit the seafood section of your local market and are suddenly overwhelmed with choices. Salmon, tilapia, clams or shrimp? Imported or U.S. farm raised?

It can feel like there are endless options when shopping at the grocery store. Knowing what’s best for you and your family is difficult enough, yet alone weighing environmental concerns and other impacts of food choices.

When selecting seafood, there are various things to consider before deciding what to put in your cart. For many people, U.S. farm-raised options are their seafood of choice for a variety of reasons.

Low-calorie protein

U.S. farm-raised fish and shellfish are an amazingly nutrient dense food and are excellent sources of high quality, easily digestible protein. What’s more, they are packed with important vitamins and minerals including essential B-complex, A and D vitamins as well as selenium, iron and zinc. An average serving has less than 200 calories. Some of the leaner varieties like tilapia, clams, oysters, mussels and shrimp have less than 100 calories.

Read the full story at The Baltimore Sun

MAINE: South Portland considers pier improvements to support anticipated aquaculture boom

January 30, 2017 — PORTLAND, Maine — It’s not easy to find the Portland Street Pier, but it’s there, right off Front Street, wedged among the Sunset Marina, the Saltwater Grille restaurant and a couple of massive green fuel tanks owned by the Portland Pipe Line Corp.

There’s no sign trumpeting its location, even though it’s one of South Portland’s prime waterfront assets. The weathered gray structure at the edge of Portland Harbor is empty and icy quiet this time of year, when the docks have been pulled from the water and the nine lobstermen who use the facility from spring through fall keep their fishing boats elsewhere.

City officials are trying to change that. They’re taking steps to improve and expand the long-neglected municipal pier in the hope of turning it into an incubator for aquaculture enterprises in Casco Bay. To prove that they’re heading in the right direction, they point to the ongoing development of about 10 new aquaculture leases in the region, which could double the number of commercial operations growing mussels, oysters, scallops or seaweed in the nutrient-rich waters off Maine’s largest metropolitan center.

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

Alaska mariculture task force get closer to industry plan

January 24, 2017 — Gov. Bill Walker signed an administrative order in early 2015, creating a mariculture task force in hopes of boosting aquatic farming and fisheries. The task force has been examining all areas of the mariculture industry and will present a comprehensive plan to Walker in 2018.

The 11-member panel has split its resources into five advisory committees over the past year.

Among the many issues the committees have taken on are investment, infrastructure, regulatory, environmental and marketing.

Task force member Heather McCarty explained that the committees’ recommendations will be presented to Walker in spring 2018.

“The advisory committees have some of the task force on them, but they also have people from outside the task force, people who have specialties in various areas,” she said. “We’ve tried to bring in communities, travel groups, academia (and) regulatory groups.”

She said some pieces of the plan are already in action such as SB 172 and HB 300. Both are shellfish hatchery bills that were proposed last year and would allow Alaskans to establish nonprofit shellfish hatcheries.

Read the full story at KTOO

Sen. Whitehouse Mentions RI Fishermen During Pruitt Hearings

January 19, 2017 — WASHINGTON — U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse quizzed President-elect Trump’s nominee for Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency about his support for Rhode Island fishermen.

During Senate hearins today, Whitehouse asked Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt if “he would support the fishing and aquaculture industries in the face of climate change, and whether he would protect Rhode Islanders from out-of-state polluters.”

“As we discussed when you and I met, the oceans off our Ocean State are warming due to fossil fuel-driven climate change,” said Whitehouse. “It is crashing our fisheries, like lobster and winter flounder, and making earning a living harder for our fishermen. I see nothing in your career to give those fishermen any confidence that you will care one bit for their well-being, and not just the well-being of the fossil fuel industry.”

Read the full story at Patch Narragansett

NOAA plans to open federal waters in Pacific to fish farming

January 6, 2017 — HONOLULU — As traditional commercial fishing is threatening fish populations worldwide, U.S. officials are working on a plan to expand fish farming into federal waters around the Pacific Ocean.

The government sees the move toward aquaculture as a promising solution to overfishing and feeding a hungry planet. But some environmentalists say the industrial-scale farms could do more harm than good to overall fish stocks and ocean health.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is creating a plan to manage commercial fish farms in federal waters, the area of ocean from three to 200 miles offshore, around Hawaii and other Pacific islands.

The program is similar to one recently implemented by NOAA in the Gulf of Mexico. The farms in the Gulf and the Pacific would be the only aquaculture operations in U.S. federal waters, though there are smaller operations in state waters close to shore.

Fish farming has been practiced for centuries in Hawaii and around the world. But modern aquaculture, some environmentalists say, carries pollution risks and the potential for non-native farmed fish to escape and enter the natural ecosystem.

Most shellfish consumed in America comes from farms, and their methods are widely considered sustainable. However, some farms that grow carnivorous fish such as salmon have raised concerns about sustainability because they use wild-caught fish to feed the captive species.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the Seattle Times

Aquaculture provides a timely opportunity

December 20th, 2016 — Canada: The world needs more fish and Canadian aquaculture could have the answer. Around the world, fish stocks are dropping. Government quotas are down.

Meanwhile, the world’s population continues to grow steadily. According to the United Nations, by 2030, an additional 27 million tonnes of fish would be needed to maintain per capita consumption at its current level.

On top of that, hundreds of Canadian communities rely on fishing for their livelihoods and traditions. As a proud Newfoundlander and Labradorian, I’ve seen this up close my whole life.

Unless we adapt now, we’re looking at a crisis that will only go from bad to worse.

But aquaculture — the cultivation and harvesting of aquatic organisms — presents a unique opportunity to fill this growing gap between the supply of fish and worldwide demand.

Aquaculture is already responsible for roughly 50 per cent of the fish and seafood consumed worldwide.

But despite Canada having the world’s longest marine coastline and the largest number of freshwater lakes, we lag behind the rest of the world in this booming industry — only 20 per cent of Canada’s fish and seafood is currently produced through aquaculture.

Read the full story at Aquaculture Magazine

Growth in global fish production slows, aquaculture increases

December 8th, 2016 — Growth in global fish production is expected to slow slightly this year, driven primarily by lower catches of major wild species such as Alaska pollock and anchoveta. Production solely from aquaculture continues to increase at a steady rate with a further 5 percent increase in total volume expected in 2016. Driven by higher incomes and urbanization, global consumption of fish is growing at a faster rate than global population, meaning that per capita consumption is rising each year by approximately 1 percent. In 2016, expected per capita consumption is 20.5 kg per year, compared with 20.3 kg in 2015 and 17.6 kg a decade ago in 2006. Another important figure is the proportion of fish produced by the aquaculture sector for human consumption, forecast to reach 53 percent this year, a trend that is only going up in the foreseeable future.

The total value of world trade in seafood products is expected to bounce back this year after a drop in 2015, to US$140 billion, representing a 4.4 percent increase, although this is still well below the 2014 total of US$148.4 billion. This return to growth in value terms is partly due to a stabilization of the US dollar after a sharp increase versus multiple currencies in 2015, but it is also a consequence of improved prices for a number of highly traded seafood commodities. Salmon prices, in particular, have been reaching extreme peaks in 2016, while tuna prices have also risen after a period of sustained lows. Supply constraints are part of the reason for the price gains, but demand growth is also a contributing factor.

Read the full story at Aquafeed.com

Three More Plead Guilty to Elver Trafficking as Part of DOJ’s Multi-State Investigation

December 1, 2016 — SEAFOOD NEWS — Harry Wertan, Jr., Mark Weihe and Jay James each pleaded guilty to selling or transporting elvers in interstate commerce, which they had harvested illegally, or knew had been harvested illegally, in South Carolina.  The offenses in the case are felonies under the Lacey Act, each carrying a maximum penalty of five years’ incarceration, a fine of up to $250,000 or up to twice the gross pecuniary gain or loss, or both.

The pleas were the result of “Operation Broken Glass,” a multi-ohurisdiction U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) investigation into the illegal trafficking of American eels.  To date, the investigation has resulted in guilty pleas for ten individuals whose combined conduct resulted in the illegal trafficking of more than $2.6 million worth of elvers.

“We will not allow the rivers of the United States to be the poaching grounds for international seafood markets,” said Assistant Attorney General Cruden. “The American eel is an important but limited natural and economic resource that must be protected.  Trafficking only undercuts the toil and honest efforts of those who obey the law.”

Elvers are exported for aquaculture in east Asia, where they are raised to adult size and sold for food.  Harvesters and exporters of American eels in the United States can sell elvers to east Asia for more than $2000 per pound.

Because of the threat of overfishing, elver harvesting is prohibited in the United States in all but three states: Maine, South Carolina and Florida.

“Today’s pleas in the illegal trade of American Eels are a tremendous step in preserving this important fishery,” said Colonel Chisolm Frampton for the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources, Law Enforcement Division.  “A multitude of state and federal agencies did outstanding work to bring this case to successful conclusion.”

This story originally appeared on Seafoodnews.com, a subscription site. It is reprinted with permission.