Saving Seafood

Deadly shrimp virus has farmers in China fearing the worst

April 28, 2020 — A virus that has plagued shrimp farmers in China since 2014 may be rebounding with a vengeance, this time in Guangdong Province, a crucial hub for aquaculture production in the country.

The South China Morning Post reported on 12 April that Decapod iridescent virus 1 (DIV1) had been detected once more in a number of shrimp farms in the southern province of Guangdong, along the Pearl River Delta, as of February 2020. According to the newspaper, about a quarter of shrimp farming operations in the province have been infected by the current outbreak, which previously struck stocks in China at the start of 2019 before summer temperatures prevailed.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Best Aquaculture Practices certifications up 15 percent in 2019

March 2, 2020 — The Global Aquaculture Alliance’s Best Aquaculture Practices (BAP) certification program continued to grow in 2019, with 2,681 BAP-certified processing plants, farms, hatcheries and feed mills worldwide by the end of the year. That’s up almost 15 percent from the program’s 2018 count, according to the GAA’s annual report.

Created by the GAA in 2008, BAP has the mission of providing quantitative guidelines for evaluations of best practices in aquaculture.

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“Wild vs. farmed” debate hurts seafood sales, GAA panel agrees

February 11, 2020 — With both aquaculture standards and fisheries management practices improving steadily, panelists at a roundtable discussion hosted by the Global Aquaculture Alliance said it is time for the seafood industry to call a cease-fire in the “wild versus farmed” debate and launch a joint effort to increase U.S. seafood consumption across the board.

The debate, titled “Come Together: Uniting the Wild and Farmed Seafood Sectors,” focused on how the U.S. seafood industry help land more seafood onto American dinner plates.

Read the full story at Seafood Source