Saving Seafood

US senators take aim at Canadian mines’ impact on salmon

June 17, 2019 — A bipartisan group of US senators has written to the premier of Canada’s British Columbia province, airing concerns about the effects the country’s mines are having on salmon populations in four US states.

The eight senators, from Alaska, Idaho, Washington and Montana, asked John Horgan, the province’s premier, to undertake “dedicated efforts to monitor transboundary water quality”.

“While we appreciate Canada’s engagement to date, we remain concerned about the lack of oversight of Canadian mining projects near multiple transboundary rives that originate in B.C. and flow into our four US states,” the senators wrote.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

As right whales surge north, one death too many

June 17, 2019 — Before the leviathan was dragged to shore, before it was found floating at sea trailing a slick of blood, the massive creature had had its run-ins with its greatest nemesis: human beings.

This North Atlantic right whale — among the most endangered species on the planet — was known by researchers as Wolverine, for three propeller cuts on its tailstock that reminded them of the trio of blades used by the comic book character of the same name. In its short life of nine years, journeying through thousands of miles of dense fishing grounds, the whale had endured at least one vessel strike and three entanglements in fishing gear.

Now, Wolverine was decomposing on a grassy beach at the northernmost tip of New Brunswick’s Acadian peninsula, its large, black fins inert in the salty air, its wide fluke tangled in red rope that the Canadian Coast Guard used to haul its carcass in from the frigid waters of the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

The death of even one of the mammals poses a grave threat to the species, given how few remain. But almost as notable is that Wolverine was here at all.

Until recently, right whales were seldom seen this far north. Now about a third of the species regularly comes to feed in these frigid waters. It has proved to be a very dangerous migration.

Read the full story at The Boston Globe

Canadian Farmed Salmon Will Face Additional Tests for Viruses

June 10, 2019 — SEAFOOD NEWS — Fisheries and Oceans Canada will test for two foreign strains of piscine orthoreovirus in young Atlantic salmon before they are transferred to ocean-based salmon farms after being told by the Federal Court to tighten its policy.

Salmon farms will also be required to test salmon in net-pen farms for jaundice and heart and skeletal muscle inflammation, which some scientists believe is associated with a native strain of piscine orthoreovirus, also known as PRV.

“These are two key measures that reflect precaution where there is some debate about the science,” said Fisheries Minister Jonathan Wilkinson.

The Icelandic strain of PRV was found in a Washington state hatchery last year, leading to the destruction of 800,000 smolts. The Norwegian strain has caused harm to farmed and wild Atlantic salmon in Norway, leading to significant production losses.

“We are going to require testing (in hatcheries) for both of those strains because we are concerned about them,” said Wilkinson.

Earlier this year, a federal scientific advisory panel found that the native strain of PRV is widely distributed in B.C.’s coastal waters, but poses a minimal threat to Fraser River sockeye. B.C. PRV is commonly found in farmed Atlantic salmon and wild Chinook salmon, but in laboratory testing its presence is not predictive of disease, they said.

Nonetheless, testing for heart and skeletal muscle inflammation and jaundice will address concerns raised by independent biologist Alexandra Morton that the native strain of PRV is affecting farmed salmon, Wilkinson said.

The Namgis First Nation went to court last year seeking an injunction to prevent salmon from being transferred to farms in their traditional territory without having been tested for PRV. Ecojustice – acting for Morton – sued the federal government for an order to test for the virus.

In February, the Federal Court gave Ottawa four months to come up with a testing regimen, ruling that failure to test for PRV did not comply with the precautionary principle.

“This is absolutely amazing and wonderful news,” said Morton.

“While I am waiting to see who will conduct the tests and what the protocol will be when they find the virus, I recognize this as a bold and important step that no other minister of Fisheries and Oceans has taken.”

These interim measures will be in place while the federal government seeks public input on a pair of policy proposals aimed at reducing the risks of salmon farming.

“Salmon farmers already test for several known pathogens and these new tests will become part of that process,” said B.C. Salmon Farmers Association spokesman Shawn Hall.

“It’s our understanding that the native strain of PRV is in the water naturally and that is it benign.”

Failing to test for B.C. PRV is a missed opportunity to fill in gaps in the science about that strain, said David Suzuki Foundation science adviser John Werring.

“It is heartening to hear that the minister for Fisheries and Oceans Canada acknowledges that there is a great deal of uncertainty concerning PRV and the potential impacts this virus may have on both wild and farmed fish,” Werring said.

The Fisheries Department has also struck three working groups comprised of government scientists, First Nations, environmental groups and the farm industry to provide input on permanent changes to the department’s risk-management policy, specifically the switch to area-based management of aquaculture, land-and oceanbased farm design and fish health.

Results of a study on new and emerging aquaculture technologies – including ocean-based closed-containment systems and land-based farms – are due later this month.

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

First dead endangered right whale of 2019 spotted in Canada waters

June 6, 2019 — The first dead critically endangered North Atlantic right whale of 2019 has been spotted in Canada’s Gulf of Saint Lawrence, the fisheries and oceans department said Wednesday.

The ministry said in a release that the animal carcass had been spotted drifting in the channel during an aerial surveillance flight on June 4.

“We are currently assessing the recovery and necropsy options,” it said.

The Canadian government stepped up tracking of right whales after more than a dozen were found dead in 2017 in the busy seaway and off the coast of New England in the United States, which had prompted concern from marine biologists.

Read the full story at PHYS.org

How ocean mapping changed the way a seafood giant fishes

June 5, 2019 — North America’s largest shellfish company showcased some of its advanced ocean-mapping technology Tuesday at an Oceans Week conference in Dartmouth, N.S., illustrating how it is making the industry more efficient and sustainable.

Geographic information systems, or GIS, has transformed the way Clearwater Seafoods fishes, said Jim Mosher, the company’s director of harvest science.

Ocean mapping reduced the fuel bill in its offshore lobster fishery by shaving nearly 10,000 kilometres a year in vessel transiting, or movement in the fishing ground, he said.

In the scallop fishery, this technology reveals areas that should be closed because scallops are too young to harvest.

Read the full story at CBC

Tally of endangered right whale calves spotted so far this year increases to seven

May 28, 2019 — Seven North Atlantic right whale calves have been spotted off the coast of the United States so far in 2019 – a positive development for the critically endangered species, according to a recent report from CBC News.

Last year, no new North Atlantic right whale calves were born, and the overall population for the species was estimated to be just 411 individuals. The increased presence of calves this year is encouraging for research scientists like Garry Stenson, who heads the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) marine mammal division in Canada.

“It’s really nice to start seeing that we’re getting more calves,” Stenson told CBC News. “It’s gonna take a lot more before we’re gonna be feeling at all comfortable, but it does help to have some. It’s a much better view than what we had last year.”

Plane surveillance carried out this month revealed that North Atlantic right whales have returned to Canadian waters earlier than usual this year, arriving in late May instead of the typical June, the DFO said.

One of the world’s three right whale populations, North Atlantic right whales usually spend their winters in warmer waters nearby Florida and Georgia before migrating to New England and the Canadian Maritimes for the summer. In years past during this migration, entanglements in fishing lines deployed by lobster and crab fishing operations and ship strikes have resulted in several whale deaths. In 2017, 17 right whales died from ship strikes or entanglements in fishing gear, and in 2018, an additional three right whales died from similar causes.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Salmon studies: North Pacific project trawls for data, funding

May 24, 2019 — “I like to say to people that after 100 years of research, we know a lot about salmon. But what we need to know most, we mostly don’t know,” said fisheries scientist Richard Beamish following the first International Year of the Salmon expedition this year. “We can’t forecast how a changing ocean ecosystem is going to affect salmon.”

Beamish, who organized the expedition and is an emeritus scientist at Fisheries and Oceans Canada’s Pacific Biological Station in Nanaimo, British Columbia, is seeking $1.5 million from governments, the private sector and nonprofit organizations for a 2020 expansion. The program’s researchers would like to carry the program into 2021 to continue their work on North Pacific salmon stocks and climate change.

The 2019 expedition, which was a signature project of the program, kicked off in February with an international winter salmon study in the deepest regions of the Gulf of Alaska. The 2020 expedition would put two Russian trawlers on the water to expand the work of a pilot 25-day single-vessel survey that ran early this year in the Gulf of Alaska.

A bigger survey is in the works for 2021. It would involve five ships surveying the entire North Pacific Ocean. The cost of that project is estimated at $10 million.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

McDonald’s rolls out Canada-wide product featuring MSC-certified haddock

May 14, 2019 — After a successful pilot in Atlantic Canada last summer, McDonald’s Canada is rolling out a new Fish & Chips meal at its restaurants throughout the country.

The fish used in the meals is Marine Stewardship Council-certified haddock, supplied by High Liner Foods in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, Canada. McDonald’s restaurants expect to use around 260,000 pounds of Atlantic haddock for the Fish & Chips during the limited-time offer, McDonald’s Canada said in a press release.

The haddock is caught off of Nova Scotia and packed in Atlantic Canada.

The new limited-time meal includes two pieces of fish coated with a crunchy batter and served with French fries and tartar dipping sauce.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Atlantic Canadian herring fisheries lose sustainability label

May 7, 2019 — All three Marine Stewardship Council-certified herring fisheries in Atlantic Canada have lost their MSC-sustainability certification as the forage fish continues to struggle.

Last week, the Seafood Producers Association of Nova Scotia voluntarily suspended its MSC certification on behalf of the 10 companies that operate an 11-vessel fleet of herring purse seiners primarily out of southwestern Nova Scotia.

The suspension means product can no longer be sold with the MSC blue check mark, which assures consumers the fisheries are sustainably managed.

The Seafood Producers Association did not respond to a request for comment on its decision to suspend its MSC certification.

In 2015, herring fisheries in P.E.I. and Nova Scotia were the first gillnet herring fisheries in the world to achieve the certification.

Read the full story at Yahoo News

A daunting task begins: Reducing lobster gear to save whales

April 30, 2019 — Fishing managers on the East Coast began the daunting process Monday of implementing new restrictions on lobster fishing that are designed to protect a vanishing species of whale.

A team organized by the federal government recommended last week that the number of vertical trap lines in the water be reduced by about half. The lines have entrapped and drowned the North Atlantic right whale, which number a little more than 400 and have declined by dozens this decade.

The interstate Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission met Monday outside Washington to discuss the implementation of the new rules, which are designed to reduce serious injuries and deaths among whales by 60 percent.

The rules will be developed in the coming months and could have a huge effect on the lucrative fishery. Some individual lobstermen place several miles of trap lines in the water, meaning hundreds of miles will have to be removed in total to meet the goal.

“States are committed to taking on the reductions,” said Toni Kerns, interstate fisheries management program director for the commission, after the meeting. “This is a very complex issue, and it will be challenging, but they will find a way to make it work.”

Exactly how long it will take to implement the new rules is unclear at the moment, Kerns said. It also remains to be seen whether the commission or states will take the lead in implementing the rules, she said.

Colleen Coogan, who coordinates the federal government team designed to protect the whales, said during the meeting that cooperating with Canadian authorities is also going to be very important. Canadian fishermen harvest the same species of lobster, and the endangered whales also swim in Canadian waters.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at The Washington Post