Saving Seafood

Fisheries Matter: Fishackathon Problem Statements Offer Diverse Issues for Coders

April 19, 2016 — Globally, the demand for fish is growing due to a combination of population growth, urbanization, and increasing wealth. Fish supply-demand research suggests that aquaculture production will need to double by 2030 to meet the world’s growing demand and needs. Fisheries are currently in serious danger, and the issues mentioned above need our utmost attention. Given that these issues do not always make headlines, Fishackathon aims to provide a bigger platform to remind the public that fisheries matter.

But these issues are everyday topics of conversation, research, and collaboration among dozens of government agencies and hundreds of scientific and conservation organizations. The Secretary’s Office of Global Partnerships (S/GP) received over 50 problem statement submissions this year, representing a diverse set of organizations and topics. The problem statements were solicited far and wide from NGOs, universities, think tanks, and individuals passionate about fisheries issues across the globe. We set up a panel of expert judges from across sectors to review each submission against specified criteria, including relevance, feasibility, and willingness to follow up with teams after the hackathon to develop the solutions for real-world use.

Read the full story at The Daily Catch

NOAA Fisheries offering industry-related loans

March 30, 2016 — NOAA Fisheries is accepting applications from commercial fishermen and those in the aquaculture industry looking for a share of NOAA’s $100 million in lending authority designated for fiscal 2016.

The loans, which run from five to 25 years, have market-competitive interest rates.

Eligible applicants include those working in aquaculture, mariculture, shoreside fisheries facilities and commercial fishermen.

Potential uses for the funds among applicants from aquaculture, mariculture and shoreside fisheries facilities include purchasing an existing facility, improvements to an existing facility, new construction and reconstruction.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times

Shift to plant-based fish feed could hurt health, environment

March 25, 2016 — In an effort to make fish farming more sustainable, the aquaculture industry has been cutting back on feed made of other fish and replacing it with plant-based alternatives. But a new study warns that may make the fish less healthy to eat and have negative impacts on the environment.

Many fish species that are farmed, including Atlantic salmon, the most farmed fish in Canada, are carnivores that eat feed traditionally based on fish meal and fish oil. Environmental advocates such as Greenpeace have criticized the practice as unsustainable, as wild fish that could be used to feed people or maintain wild populations need to be caught in order to produce the fish food.

“They realized that we’re grinding up a lot of fish to feed the fish,” said Jillian Fry, director of the Public Health and Sustainable Aquaculture Project at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Md.

The price of fish meal and fish oil has also increased with demand.

Omega-3 concerns

The study said the use of plant-based ingredients could reduce the amount of healthy omega-3 fatty acids in fish – one of the things that makes fish like salmon attractive and tasty to consumers.

While this is something salmon farmers are aware of and trying to avoid, Fry says, omnivorous fish that already eat more plant material and have less omega-3s, such as tilapia, may end up with even lower levels.

“Anywhere it’s decreasing in our diet, we need to pay attention.”

Read the full story at CBC News

Maine’s 2015 Commercial Marine Resources Top $600 Million for the First Time

March 5, 2016 — The following was released by the Maine Department of Marine Resources: 

Maine’s commercially harvested marine resources topped $600 million in overall value in 2015, according to preliminary data from the Maine Department of Marine Resources. The total,$631,768,531,  reflects an all-time high and an increase of more than $33 million over the previous record set in 2014.

The largest single increase in value was in Maine’s lobster fishery. The fishery saw the overall landed value jump by more than $37 million and the average per pound value increase by more than 10 percent, going from $3.70 per pound in 2014 to $4.09 per pound in 2015.

The overall value of Maine’s lobster fishery was again by far the highest at $495,433,635. When factoring in bonuses paid to harvesters as reported by 11 of Maine’s 19 lobster co-ops, the overall landed value of Maine’s lobster fishery reached $510,680,048.

2015 marked the fourth year in a row and the fourth year ever in which Maine lobster harvesters landed over 120 million pounds, with landings totaling 121,083,418 pounds. “Maine’s lobster fishery continues to be a major engine for our coastal economy,” said Maine Department of Marine Resources Commissioner Patrick Keliher.

“This past year saw a continuation of steady and historic lobster landings throughout the season. The increase in value reflects growing demand for Maine lobster.

“While this year’s value and landings are great news for our coastal economy, we also recognize that lobster represents more than 81 percent of the overall value of our commercial fisheries,” said Commissioner Keliher.  “It shows that we all must be working hard to build and sustain our commercial fisheries and to create more diverse opportunity, be it with traditional commercial fisheries or an expanding the role of aquaculture. This work is critical to ensure we can adapt to changes in landings and value in future years.”  

Maine’s softshell clam industry retained its second place standing in overall value at $22,536,086, a record for the fishery.  The jump in value came on the strength of a 47 cent per pound increase over 2014. At $2.46 per pound, 2015 landings netted harvesters a 23 percent increase in per pound value over 2014 despite a drop in landings of one million pounds.

At $2,171 per pound, Maine’s elver fishery was by-far the most lucrative of Maine’s commercial fisheries on a per pound basis. Despite a season in which landings were well below the state quota due to a cold, dry spring that slowed elver migration and challenged harvesting, overall value increased by nearly $3 million. At $11,422,381, the elver fishery was Maine’s fourth most lucrative behind herring at $13 million.

DMR officials consider 2015 a continuation of the successful rebuilding effort for Maine’s scallop fishery despite a decline in value and meat pounds landed. “We expected 2015 to be lean in terms of landings,” said Commissioner Keliher. “But considering that Maine scallop harvesters landed more than ten times the amount harvested in 2005, this fishery is on the right track.” 

More landings data can be found at http://www.maine.gov/dmr/comfish.htm.

LOUISIANA: Gulf of Mexico Reef Fish Shareholders’ Alliance fights NOAA over aqua farms

NEW ORLEANS, La. — February 25, 2016 — The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA)  decision to approve industrial offshore fish farming last month in federally protected waters in the Gulf of Mexico is a strong concern in a “delicate and restricted estuarine system,” according to a leading non-profit fisherman’s organization.

Eric Brazer, deputy director at the Gulf of Mexico Reef Fish Shareholders’ Alliance, told the Louisiana Record that there are strong concerns with constructing an aquaculture facility of unprecedented size.

“We’ve already seen the catastrophic damage of the Deepwater Horizon disaster in this sensitive ecosystem,” Brazer said. “It will likely take generations to understand the true ecological and economic cost, the latter of which is already on the order of billions of dollars.”

Finalized in January, the plan for the aqua farms will permit up to 20 industrial facilities, which will see approximately 64 million pounds of fish produced every year in the Gulf of Mexico. This is the same amount of wild fish currently caught in the Gulf of Mexico annually, meaning that farmed fish would double offerings and flood the market.

Brazer said that it will be future generations who suffer as a result.

“It is our commercial fishing and charter businesses in the Gulf of Mexico, and those of the next generation, that will be the ones carrying the entire burden of risk that comes out of this new aquaculture industry,” he said.

A suit was filed against NOAA by a number of Gulf fishing groups, including Brazer’s organization, in the U.S. Eastern District Court of Louisiana on Feb. 12. The suit alleges that NOAA has no authority to undertake the offshore fish farming, and that allowing aqua farms is a threat to native and endangered species, the ecosystem, and the fish we eat.

Read the full story from the Louisiana Record

Maine may extend fishing season for eels prized as sushi

February 21, 2016 — PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — Fishermen are making money on sushi in Maine, the only state in the country with a significant baby eel fishery, and lawmakers are looking to make it possible for them to make more.

Maine’s baby eels are wriggling gold, sometimes worth more than $2,000 per pound at the dock. The baby eels, called elvers, are sold to Asian aquaculture companies who raise them to maturity for use them as food, and they frequently end up in sushi and sashimi. Some end up back on plates in the U.S.

But fishermen must abide by a strict quota system that limits the state fishery to 9,688 pounds per year, and they caught only 5,242 pounds of elvers last year. Fishermen attributed the slow season to a cold spring, which state regulators said slowed the migration of elvers in the rivers and streams where they are caught.

Lawmakers are looking to change the restrictions on the elver fishery to give fishermen a better chance to catch the entire quota. A legislative committee recently approved a plan to extend the season by a week and allow weekend fishing, as opposed to the current limitation to five days per week.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the Boston Globe

Maine May Adjust In-Season Fishing Days for Elvers

SEAFOODNEWS.COM (AP) — January 27, 2016 — Maine fishing regulators are considering changes to the rules governing fishing for baby eels.

Maine’s the only state in the country with a significant fishery for baby eels, called elvers. The elvers are sold to Asian aquaculture companies that raise them and use them as food, including sushi. Maine’s elvers were worth about $875 per pound in 2014, when fishermen caught a little less than 10,000 pounds.

The state Legislature’s marine resources committee is considering changes in the designation of the closed period for elver fishing. It is currently illegal to fish for elvers from noon Friday to noon Sunday during fishing season. A bill would change the closed period to a weekly 48-hour timeframe established before the start of the season.

The committee will consider the bill on Wednesday.

This story from the Associated Press appeared on SeafoodNews.com, a subscription site. It has been reprinted with permission.

Peruvian Acuapesca Farmed Scallops Certified Sustainable

January 20, 2016 — PERU – The Peruvian company Acuacultura y Pesca Group (Acuapesca) has been confirmed Friend of the Sea certified for scallops from sustainable aquaculture.

After an independent assessment audit Acuapesca was found compliant with Friend of the Sea strict criteria of sustainability.

Acuapesca has been operating since 1989 in the remote and pristine areas of Guaynumá Bay and Nunura Beach with 5 farms and one processing plant.

Water parameters are checked periodically. The development of the facilities has not damaged critical ecosystems. The species (Argopecten purpuratus) is a native species, whose broodstocks are captured in the bay and induced to spawn in laboratory, for later reintroduction in the bay to continue the growth process. The scallops are grown in long line cages.

Read the full story at The Fish Site

 

Auto-aquaculture? Conference in Woods Hole explores possible uses for robots and automation to reduce costs

January 12, 2016 — WOODS HOLE, Mass. — Yogesh Girdhar wowed the room with a video of what looked like a small shoebox awkwardly paddling underwater.

What Girdhar, a post-doctoral scholar at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, called a “curious robot” had none of the cachet of the sleek autonomously operated torpedoes, high-tech miniaturized laboratories, or parasite-zapping lasers that had already been displayed at a conference held Monday at the institution’s Quissett Campus to explore the role of robots and automation in aquaculture.

But his clumsy looking creation filled a need in the minds of many at the conference. As it paddled along, its software played the favorite childhood learning game — one of these things is not like the others — picking out a small coral head sticking up from the sand and zeroing in on it. The program, Girdhar said, would help a free-swimming vehicle, patrolling inside a fish cage far out to sea, recognize and investigate anomalies such as dead fish, a hole in the net, even evidence of disease. It could then notify its owners that something was wrong, prompting additional investigation.

It’s the kind of innovation conference organizers hope will make offshore aquaculture more cost effective.

“Open-ocean aquaculture is a high-cost way of producing fish that hasn’t really taken hold yet,” said Hauke Kite-Powell, a WHOI researcher in marine policy. “The challenge is to make it cost-competitive with near-shore aquaculture.”

With the world population projected to climb from 7 billion in 2011 to 9 billion by 2040, the demand for food, especially protein, will also soar. A diminishing water supply, droughts and less arable land are squeezing agriculture and land-based meat production.

Unfortunately, the one resource people once believed was limitless, wild fish, has proven to be all too finite. Mismanagement, overfishing, climate change and other factors have depleted fish stocks worldwide.

Read the full story at Cape Cod Times

MASSACHUSETTS: Would-be mussel farmers fishing for project money

December 14, 2015 — The aquaculture project Salem State University marine research scientists hope might ultimately produce acres of mussels in a stretch of deep, open waters off the coast of Cape Ann has received the necessary permits to proceed.

Now all the project managers need is … what else? Money.

Mark R. Fregeau, a SSU marine biology professor, said the project he is managing with SSU colleague and collaborator Ted Maney has been green-lighted by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and will begin in earnest once they raise about $75,000 needed to begin laying the initial long lines upon which the mussels will grow.

The mussel aquaculture — or more simply, farm — will be located in federal waters, about 81/2 miles due east of Good Harbor Beach, at a site the researchers believe will provide the perfect environment for a deep-water mussel aquaculture that would be the first of its kind in the U.S.

“We’ve been authorized to put out a couple of (experimental) lines and see how they work and what issues might arise,” Fregeau said. “The reality is that until we actually get into the water, we don’t know exactly what we’ll be dealing with. So, it will be rolled out in phases, a couple lines at a time, and that will give us the opportunity to report back to the Army Corps of Engineers and NOAA.”

Read the full story at Gloucester Daily Times