Saving Seafood

New tool enables Nova Scotia lobster fishery to address impacts of climate change

October 15, 2019 — U.S. and Canadian researchers have developed a tool that incorporates projected changes in ocean climate onto a geographic fishery management area. Now fishermen, resource managers, and policy-makers can use it to plan for the future sustainability of the lobster fishery in Nova Scotia and Canadian waters of the Gulf of Maine.

“Climate change has socio- on coastal communities and the seafood market, but integrating that information into planning and decision-making has been a challenge,” said Vincent Saba, a fishery biologist at the Northeast Fisheries Science Center and a co-author of the study. “Ocean warming is leading to an accelerated redistribution of marine species. Knowing how animals will shift distribution, and what to do about shifts across management borders both regional and international, will be critical to planning on how to adapt to those changes.”

American  is Canada’s most valuable fishery, contributing 44 percent of the total commercial value of all fisheries in Atlantic Canada in 2016. Lobster landings have been trending upward in recent decades, and many small rural communities in Atlantic Canada rely heavily on lobster for their economic well-being. Changing climate could have a significant impact on the fishery and on those communities.

Read the full story at PHYS.org

Canadian Conservative Party’s fisheries plan more gentle on net-pen aquaculture

October 8, 2019 — Canada’s Conservatives have a few plans for their country’s fisheries and net-pen aquaculture industry that they would like to execute if successful in the Oct. 21 election, but none as dramatic as those promised by the incumbent Liberals.

The party led by Andrew Scheer, a challenger for prime minister, on Sunday unveiled the part of its platform that deals with fisheries and aquaculture issues, promising to, among other things, create advisory panels to consult with the federal government on stock-rebuilding efforts and “increase pathogen testing for open pen aquaculture sites”.

“Unfortunately, Justin Trudeau has failed to appreciate the knowledge of those closest to our fisheries,” the Conservatives said in a brief press release announcing their views and opposition to the positions staked out by the Liberal Party and its leader.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

British Columbia group self-suspends MSC certification for wild salmon

October 7, 2019 — The Canadian Pacific Sustainable Fisheries Society (CPSFS) has self-suspended its Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certification for the sockeye, pink and chum salmon fisheries in British Columbia, effective Nov. 27, the organization has announced.

Its members represent most processors and exporters of wild salmon.

“Everyone who cares about wild salmon in British Columbia should be worried,” said the CPSFS’s Christina Burridge, who is also executive director of the BC Seafood Alliance, adding in a statement that the decision means “there will now be no independent oversight of how Fisheries and Oceans Canada Pacific Region (DFO) manages these fisheries”.

“Though we are disappointed, saddened and frustrated to be forced out of the program,” she said, “we believe the fishery is sustainable and we are working on a plan to have these difficulties addressed in order to have the fishery evaluated and re-certified by the MSC at a future date.”

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

AquaBounty planning to label GM salmon in the US

October 7, 2019 — AquaBounty is planning to preemptively label its genetically modified salmon in the United States in 2020, a company spokesperson told SeafoodSource soon after Canadian seafood industry executives and NGOs spoke out against the fish.

At the Canadian Seafood Show in Montreal, Quebec, in September, a panel of seafood industry executives and environmental groups said that they do not plan to sell or support AquaBounty’s AquAdvantage salmon in Canada.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

US to get a little more fish in catch pact with Canada

October 3, 2019 — American fishermen are expected to get a little more fishing quota under terms of an agreement with Canada.

The countries are home to fisheries for economically important species that cross international boundaries, such as cod and haddock. They reach agreement every year about how to divide catch on eastern Georges Bank, a critical fishing area off New England and Canada.

The New England Fishery Management Council says the U.S is scheduled to get 29% of the 1.4 million pound total allowable catch of cod on eastern Georges Bank in 2020. It’s also slated for 54% of the 66 million pound total allowable catch of haddock in the area.

Read the full story at the Associated Press

Caught by surprise, Canadian salmon farming group sees closed containment push as limiting

October 2, 2019 — A promise from Canada’s Liberal Party that if they’re elected they’ll introduce legislation to move net-pen salmon farming in the province of British Columbia to closed-containment systems by 2025 caught many in the salmon farming sector by surprise.

Timothy Kennedy, president and CEO of the Canadian Aquaculture Industry Alliance (CAIA), said that’s because industry representatives had long been engaged with the government and other stakeholders to discuss technological improvements to salmon farming that would have satisfied many concerns.

That process determined that “hybrid” technologies to grow larger smolts on land and reduce the time farmed salmon spend in the ocean as the medium and near-term solutions that were the most feasible, he said.

“There’s a lot of opportunity and a lot of investment going into that,” he said. “This sort of commitment within an artificial time frame is really challenging and very undermining of the process and the intent of those who were involved in the process.”

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

Canadian Aquaculture Industry Alliance CEO: Banning BC salmon farms will drive farming to other nations

October 1, 2019 — Representatives of Canada’s salmon farming industry are hitting back hard at plans unveiled in the recently released Liberal party platform headed by incumbent Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to transition salmon farming in British Columbia from ocean netpen farms to land-based operations.

The Liberal platform has potentially serious and far-reaching negative consequences for Canadian jobs and the environment, said the Canadian Aquaculture Industry Alliance (CAIA), which represents the interests of Canada’s aquaculture producers.

“This is a reckless policy, not grounded in science, and it will threaten good middle-class jobs across Canada,” says Timothy Kennedy, CAIA president and CEO.

If implemented, Kennedy added, farmed salmon production would simply be driven to other countries, undercutting efforts the industry has made to improve sustainability.

Read the full story at IntraFish

Liberal Policy Harmful to Canada’s Innovative Seafood Farming Community, Not Based in Science

September 30, 2019 — The following was released by the Canadian Aquaculture Industry Alliance:

The Canadian Aquaculture Industry Alliance, together with its regional counterparts, BC Salmon Farmers Association, Ontario Aquaculture Association, Atlantic Canada Fish Farmers Association, Aquaculture Association of Nova Scotia and Newfoundland Aquaculture Industry Association, today issued the following joint statement:

The Liberal platform commitment to moving all salmon production in British Columbia to “closed containment by 2025” is highly irresponsible with potentially serious and far-reaching negative consequences for Canadian jobs and the environment.

“This is a reckless policy, not grounded in science, and it will threaten good middle-class jobs across Canada,” says Timothy Kennedy, President & CEO of the Canadian Aquaculture Industry Alliance.

Salmon farming is the most environmentally sustainable large-scale farmed animal production in the world. It’s a solution to climate change. British Columbia farm-raised salmon production has been recognized as being a global top sustainable performer: the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s “Seafood Watch” recognized the provincial production as “a good alternative” last year, the only region so recognized in the world, and the FAIRR Global Index lists BC salmon producers as the top sustainable global producers of animal protein. It is a critical solution to the world’s growing demand for low impact, low-carbon emissions, high-protein food supply while alleviating pressure on threatened wild fish stocks.

Seafood farming provides 26,000 full-time jobs across Canada. It generates $5.4 Billion in economic activity in Canada. Salmon farming makes up close to 90% of this economic value.  This is a young, highly innovative sector that is providing full-time jobs across Canada where these jobs are needed most: in indigenous, remote, and coastal communities.

The Liberal party has consistently said it will base decisions on science. There is no evidence that B.C. salmon farms are harming wild salmon populations. While pilot projects to grow salmon to full size in closed containment are happening around the world, this work needs to continue in partnership and without any artificial mandates and timelines.

No other nation has proposed this requirement of their salmon production. If implemented, this requirement will only move local, top-quality production to other countries that may not have the high environmental standards Canada already employs.

“While we are already a top global performer, our sector is committed to constant improvement. Our farmers need support and confidence to continue to invest in Canada. This irresponsible policy platform seriously undermines this confidence,” Kennedy concluded.

Read the full release here

Congress could provide $50 million for right whales

September 13, 2019 — Legislation to provide $5 million in annual federal funding for reducing North Atlantic right whale deaths from ship strikes and fishing gear entanglement was introduced in the U.S. Senate Tuesday.

Sens. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) and Tom Carper (D-Del.) co-sponsor S-2453, dubbed the “Scientific Assistance for Very Endangered (SAVE) Right Whales Act.” The measure would authorize $5 million in annual grant funding over the next 10 years for cooperative projects between state governments, nongovernmental organizations and the shipping and commercial fishing industries.

With a surviving population of around 400 animals, the North Atlantic right whale is one of the world’s most endangered species. Ship strikes and fishing gear entanglement are major causes of mortality. Canada’s Gulf of St. Lawrence has been particularly deadly in recent summers and Canadian authorities have enforced vessel speed restrictions in an effort to reduce the risk, which has led to 28 deaths in the last two years, according to NOAA.

Read the full story at National Fisherman