Saving Seafood

Canada PM Justin Trudeau outlines goals for increasing MPAs, moving to land-based aquaculture

December 16, 2019 — Canada Prime Minister Justin Trudeau released a slate of ministerial mandate letters on 13 December, outlining the priorities he wants his Cabinet to pursue.

In his letter to the Minister of Fisheries, Oceans, and the Canadian Coast Guard Bernadette Jordan, Trudeau called for an increase in the country’s marine protected areas to cover 25 percent of Canada’s oceans by 2025, and a further increase to 30 percent coverage by 2030. Currently, just under 14 percent of Canada’s waters are designated MPAs.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

The small change that meant big losses for lobstermen

December 13, 2019 — A sixteenth of an inch doesn’t seem like much. But it added up to a whole lot for Nova Scotia lobstermen in December 1989.

A new law had been passed in the United States that increased the minimum allowable size of lobsters for import, by that seemingly insignificant margin.

The CBC camera showed a live lobster being measured using a specialized device.

But as Halifax reporter Paul Barr explained, the difference was anything but insignificant.

“That might not sound like much of a change to a non-fisherman,” he explained. “But in reality, it means as much as a quarter-pound increase in weight.”

That meant that fishermen were spending time catching lobsters they couldn’t export.

Read the full story at CBC News

Cooke opens new AC Covert seafood distribution centre and retail outlet in Nova Scotia

December 3, 2019 — The following was released by AC Covert:

AC Covert, one of Canada’s largest seafood suppliers, is hosting an open house for the local community on Dec. 4th from 2-6pm at it’s new distribution centre and retail outlet at 390 Higney Avenue, located in the Burnside Business Park, Dartmouth, NS.

Since 1938, AC Covert has been the fishmonger supplier of choice for the finest retailers and food service professionals in Atlantic Canada. AC Covert delivers the freshest responsibly sourced and prepared fish to fine dining restaurants, hotels, gastro pubs, professional caterers and retailers locally and across North America.

AC Covert distributors was purchased by the Cooke family in 2008 and now offers over 400 different fresh and frozen seafood products to customers including smoked salmon, lobster, halibut, scallops and much more. The open house on Dec. 4th will feature seafood product samples, special offers and prizes.

“AC Covert now employs 30 people and Cooke spent $5.2 million constructing this new two-story, 26,000 square foot distribution centre and retail outlet where 6 delivery trucks operate from six days a week,” said Glenn Cooke, CEO of Cooke Inc. “This expansion is an integral part of our growth plan and we are part way through investing $112 million in Nova Scotia.”

“Nova Scotia is Canada’s number one seafood supplier and we now export to 80 international markets,” said Keith Colwell, Nova Scotia’s Minister of Fisheries and Aquaculture. “We’re home to a diverse range of premium quality seafood and value-added products and it’s wonderful that AC Covert has expanded in our province to distribute products from over 30 Nova Scotia seafood companies.”

“Burnside is the largest industrial park north of Boston and east of Montreal, with almost 2,000 enterprises and approximately 30,000 employees,” said Mayor Mike Savage of Halifax Regional Municipality. “Cooke’s investment in AC Covert shows how our growing community is a beacon for attracting business investment creating local jobs.”

AC Covert is open Monday-Saturday from 8:00 am – 4:00 pm.

Study: Technological creep doubles commercial fishing capacity every 35 years, pressuring stocks

November 25, 2019 — A recent study undertaken by researchers from the University of British Columbia’s (UBC) Sea Around Us initiative showed that new technology has allowed commercial fishing fleets to double their fishing capacity every 35 years, which in turn increases the pressure on dwindling fish stocks.

The researchers examined more than 50 studies related to an increase in catching power, and concluded that the introduction of, for example, GPS, fish finders, echo-sounders, and acoustic cameras has led to an average 2 percent yearly increase in vessels’ capacity to capture fish.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Canadian fishery health declining, hamstrung by lack of rebuilding plans, new audit says

November 22, 2019 — The prospect for Canadian fish populations is dim, a new audit says, with fewer stocks healthy today than two years ago and plans in place to rebuild just six of the country’s 33 depleted stocks.

Oceana Canada’s 2019 fishery audit of 194 stocks relied on data from Canada’s Department of Fisheries and Oceans. It suggests that Canadian fishery managers aren’t working with the speed and urgency necessary to rebuild stocks, as required by amendments to the country’s fisheries act that were passed this summer. The proportion of stocks in a critical state rose from 13 percent two years ago to 17 percent today, while the proportion of healthy stocks fell from 35 percent to 29 percent today.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Unique challenges await Trudeau’s newly-appointed Canadian fisheries minister

November 21, 2019 — Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has chosen Nova Scotia’s Bernadette Jordan to head up the country’s Department of Fisheries and Oceans, and to oversee its Coast Guard.

This marks the second time that Jordan has held a cabinet seat in Canada – Trudeau initially brought her aboard in January 2019 as the minister of rural economic development. Jordan, who was first elected in 2015 to represent South Shore-St. Margarets, takes over the fisheries minister role from British Columbia’s Jonathan Wilkinson, who will serve as the minister of environment and climate change in Trudeau’s updated cabinet.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Why Atlantic Canada’s lucrative seafood industry is concerned about Elizabeth Warren

November 21, 2019 — Canada is defending measures it has taken to protect critically endangered North Atlantic right whales, as political pressure — and blame — mounts from the United States in the wake of a rash of whale deaths in Canadian waters in 2019.

“We’re very confident that our measures are world-class in nature and stand up extremely well to those in the United States,” said Adam Burns, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans’ director of resource management.

Burns was responding to the latest salvo from Massachusetts senators Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey, who are threatening a ban of some Atlantic Canadian seafood products.

The senators blame a Canadian “roll back” of whale protection measures in 2019. Canada had 12 right whale deaths in its waters in 2017, then none in 2018.

Read the full story at CBC News

Ropeless Science Advances, Aiming to Save Right Whales

November 1, 2019 — With the North Atlantic right whale population inching ever closer to extinction, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association has awarded $350,000 in grants to help reduce large mammal bycatch in the heavily fished waters off the coasts of New England and Canada. The grants, which will go to the New England Aquarium and a research-based nonprofit called the Sea Mammal Education Learning Technology Society (SMELTS), were awarded last week to develop and study ropeless or breakable rope fishing technology for lobstermen and other trap fishermen. Although the technology has been in development for some time, a slew of money and research has been poured into making ropeless gear a commercial reality — especially as right whale mortalities continue to climb and many lobstermen have to halt their fishing operations due to federally-mandated area closures.

“We’re cranking on this,” said Richard Riels, an engineer with SMELTS who invented his organization’s ropeless fishing technology after seeing one too many entangled sea mammals. “I’m hoping to do more testing in the next couple of days with the grant money.”

With 30 deaths in the last three years, there are now approximately 400 right whales left in the Atlantic Ocean. According to data from NOAA, seven of the 21 deaths in Canadian waters showed evidence of gear entanglement. So did five of the nine in American waters—- meaning that nearly half of all mortalities in recent years resulted from fishing gear.

Read the full story at The Vineyard Gazette 

In wake of Canada election, report of BC net pen industry demise may be exaggerated

October 23, 2019 — Following the Justin Trudeau-led Liberal Party’s victory in Canada’s election Monday night, the Atlantic salmon aquaculture industry in the province of British Columbia (BC) might like to quote the celebrated American author Mark Twain.

“The report of my death was an exaggeration,” Twain quipped in 1879, at age 44, when cabled about rumors that persisted while he was traveling in London. He lived another 31 years.

The results are still being tallied but the Liberal Party seems poised to make several big changes to the Canadian seafood industry after taking a projected 157 of the legislature’s 338 seats, compared to the Progressive Conservative Party’s 121 seats, Bloc Quebecois’ 32 seats, National Democratic Party’s 24 seats and Green Party’s seven seats.

To pass any legislation in the House, the Liberals will need a full 170 votes, but many of the seafood-related pledges they made in their 85-page platform announced on Sept. 29 are a match with those made by the NDPs.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

Trudeau, Liberals returning to power, with uncertain consequences for Canadian aquaculture, fisheries

October 22, 2019 — Canada’s Liberal Party and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau have won national elections that saw them lose their majority, but retain enough support to return to power with a minority government.

The outcome may have significant repercussions for Canada’s fishing and aquaculture sectors, as the Liberal Party platform called for both more marine protected areas and a shift away from net-pen farming to land-based systems.

Read the full story at Seafood Source