Saving Seafood

Brasil’s Swift Launches Latin America’s First Certified Sustainable Seafood Product Line

May 4, 2017 — SAO PAULO, Brazil — The following was released by the Aquaculture Stewardship Council and the Marine Stewardship Council:

JBS, through 54 Swift shops in the Sao Paulo region of Brasil, have launched the first Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC) and Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certified retail seafood product line in Latin America.

The initial product line includes a variety of ASC certified salmon products from Chile as well as tilapia from Brasil.

Further ASC certified products are planned, including trout and bivalves. Shrimp, either from Brasil or from Ecuador, is a priority.

The ASC is also planning to introduce Brazilian native species standards next year that will make it possible to have certified tambaqui, pirarucu, pintado and pacu available.

For the MSC, Alaskan pollock and chum salmon are part of the launch. Alaskan Pacific cod will soon be added and Atlantic cod products are at planning stage.

Paulo Christofani, the project Manager at JBS, said “we are extremely proud to be the first retailer in Latin America to launch an ASC/MSC product line. Sustainability is a priority for JBS and we aim to engage with our customers with marketing materials to inform and promote this initiative”.

Laurent Viguie, Latin American Manager for the ASC: “JBS/Swift have showed real initiative to launch this product range in Brasil. They are being very pro-active in encouraging their suppliers to achieve ASC certification. We hope that this will encourage more retailers in the region to follow their example”.

Brian Perkins, America Regional Director for the MSC said: “When people purchase MSC certified seafood, their choice supports fishermen around the world who are working hard to meet the world’s most rigorous standard for environmental sustainability of wild-capture fishing.”

The tide is changing for offshore aquaculture

May 4, 2017 — Harlon Pearce walks muck-booted past processors gutting wild drum and red snapper to showcase a half-full new 5,000-square-foot freezer he hopes someday will house a fresh boom of marine fish. Harlon’s LA Fish sits just across the railroad tracks from the Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport, perfectly positioned to ship fish out of Louisiana.

As president of the New Orleans–based Gulf Seafood Institute, seafood supplier Pearce is a big fish himself in these parts, connected to fishermen, federal agencies, restaurateurs and even the oil industry. He knows better than anyone that wild fisheries alone can’t supply U.S. consumers’ growing demand for fish. Which is why he’s doing his best to bring everyone to the table to achieve one goal: farming the Gulf of Mexico.

No commercial finfish operations are in U.S. federal waters, between 3 and 200 miles offshore. Pearce and others are convinced that jumping into the rapidly growing open ocean aquaculture industry expanding into offshore waters globally is the future of sustainable seafood.

In 2015, per capita fish consumption in the United States was 15.5 pounds (PDF), up from 12.5 pounds (PDF) in 1980. Globally, however, the amount of all wild-caught fish has stayed relatively stagnant — at around 90–100 million tons — for the past two decades.

Globally, in total, around 160 million metric tons of fish — wild, farmed, marine and freshwater — are produced to satisfy annual demand.

The Gulf of Mexico annually yields a catch of about 32,000 tons of wild-caught finfish, which are bony fish such as snapper or grouper. Given regional demand, Pearce said, “our wild marine fish don’t go too far.” To his point, a seafood restaurant is on practically every block of New Orleans’ French Quarter.

Read the full story at GreenBiz

IKEA’s best kept secret? Its affordable, sustainable salmon.

May 2, 2017 — Salty, silky and rich, salmon is truly a versatile protein. Smoked salmon shines when placed upon a bagel with schmear or stirred into an omelet. Grilling, poaching or broiling salmon results in a delectable entree. Ah, this fish.

But eating sustainable salmon can burn a hole in your wallet. Responsibly farmed salmon or wild caught salmon often come with a hefty price tag — salmon at Whole Foods, for example, can cost up to $25 a pound.

The good news: One national chain is a low-key secret, affordable salmon purveyor. IKEA, that Swedish furniture factory and veritable maze of a store, sells salmon that’s sustainable both for the planet and your bank account. . Three different smoked salmon packs are priced at $8 for a pack of 7 ounces, meaning they’re all under $16 a pound.

Beyond its Malm dressers, you may know IKEA for its Swedish meatballs, but the furniture store made headlines in 2015 for becoming one of the largest sellers of sustainable seafood. IKEA, which sells fish in 47 countries, only sources seafood that is certified by the Marine Stewardship Council and the Aquaculture Stewardship Council.

Read the full story at Mic.com

ASC, MSC predict bright future for seafood certification programs

May 1, 2017 — The Seafood Futures Forum, hosted by the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) and the Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC) at the 2017 Seafood Expo Global last week, proved to be a powerful forum for a discussion on how to safeguard seafood for future generations.

Hosted by MSC CEO Rupert Howes ASC CEO Chris Ninnes, the event included a panel forum featuring Mars Petcare, Sanford, Simplot and Aqua Spark. Panelists discussed how producing and sourcing certified seafood was beneficial to their businesses, and why collaboration is essential if the seafood industry wants to provide increasingly sustainable seafood.

The participating panellists also outlined their own commitments to sustainability – Mars Petcare has committed to using only fish from sustainable sources for its pet food by 2020, while 97 percent of Simplot’s John West Australia tuna products contain MSC-certified tuna, representing 43 percent of all canned tuna in Australia, and the company has just launched the first ever MSC-certified canned tuna in New Zealand.

Judith Kontny, international corporate social responsibility manager at Lidl, set the scene with her keynote speech, explaining the retailer’s strategy on responsible and sustainable seafood. Lidl was one of the first large retailers to build sustainability into its procurement process and continues to seek ways to improve its performance, she said.

In Germany for example, from January 2017, Lidl has only sold MSC certified products in its permanent, own-brand, fresh- and frozen-fish range, and from January 2018, will only sell farmed seafood products certified by either ASC or certified organic.

However, Kontny said this still leaves challenges in meeting consumer demand. She urged MSC and ASC to actively encourage certification of a greater range of species.

“We are eager to sell more certified species, notably octopus and squid,” she said.

Kontny also called on the ASC and MSC to engage more with consumers in Eastern and Southern Europe to help them understand the need for responsible and sustainable seafood.

“We noted considerable success in Portugal using a flyer campaign and in-store tastings and talks,” she said. “This was a new area for us, but consumers reacted favorably and left with a greater understanding of the need to choose sustainable seafood.”

Read the full story at SeafoodSource.com

Forced labor declarations included in latest MSC review consultation

March 20, 2017 — The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) has launched its 2017 policy development round, opening up six areas of its program to consultation from stakeholders.

Topics included in the review range from harmonizing fisheries assessment outcomes and ensuring traceability of certified product within fisheries, to a new standard to manage the mixing of MSC certified and non-certified fish feed ingredients.

The non-profit seafood sustainability organization is also asking for stakeholder input on the development of a new standard for seaweed that is being developed jointly with the Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC), a new program to recognize fisheries that are “in transition to MSC,” and an update for how to confirm the absence of forced labor in certified fisheries and supply chain organizations.

With MSC extending the requirements for labor practices across its program, it is proposing a self-declaration by certificate holders and those in assessment confirming the absence of forced and child labor in their operations.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Sustainable Fisheries Partnership Trains 15,000 Shrimp and Tilapia Farmers Asia, South Pacific

March 7, 2017 — SEAFOOD NEWS — The Sustainable Fisheries Partnership wrapped up a major aquaculture training program in Indonesia, Thailand, and China that instructed thousands of shrimp and tilapia farmers with modern training designed to improve the industry in these regions.

Organizers initially expected the project to attract 12,500 farmers. But by the December 31, 2016 finishing date, more than 15,000 farmers in all three countries had participated in the training.

“This project has exceeded expectations because of the hard work of many committed partners to deliver improvements based on a detailed, local understanding of what farmers want,” said Anton Immink, SFP’s Aquaculture Director. “We recognize there is still a long way to go for many of these farmers, but we encourage others to actively engage in the improvements needed.”

The program, funded with the support of Walmart Foundation and IDH – the Sustainable Trade Initiative – has led to improvements in environmental and disease management across shrimp and tilapia farms in all three countries.

Ir. Rizal, head of the aquaculture unit of the Provincial Office of Marine and Fishery Affairs in Indonesia’s West Kalimantan province, said, “This training helped us improve the knowledge of traditional farmers in West Kalimantan to practice better farming. With better farming we hope that farmers can improve their shrimp and fish harvest.”

Training topics included: Better aquaculture practices; better post-harvest practices; better business management; group formation and management; value of zonal management; Code of Good Practice in Aquaculture; ecological farming, health management, and market outlook.

Sally Ananya, Director of The Food School, one of the partners in Thailand, said “The focus on smaller-scale producers and the specific inclusion of women in the training has been particularly valuable, as the contribution of these groups is often overlooked in projects aiming at improvements in shrimp farming.”

For some farmers, including Chareon Yongstar of Thailand, the training served as an eye-opener.

“I have learned so many practical best practices that I can apply at my farms,” he said. “But more importantly, the experience has raised more questions and made me realize how much more I don’t know. I hope there is a continuation of this program.”

SFP will continue to work closely with the international buyers to understand how these producers fit into existing supplies or how some of them can continue the improvements they have started to become part of the international supply chain.

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

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