Saving Seafood

Bluefin tuna in focus as Japan seeks boost to catch limits

October 6, 2020 — Countries involved in managing bluefin tuna fisheries are set to face-off over a Japanese proposal to raise its catch quotas for the fish, highly prized for sushi and sashimi.

At an online meeting that began Tuesday, Japan is seeking to raise its catch limits for both smaller and larger bluefin tuna by 20%.

A slight improvement in the spawning population for the fish has raised confidence that it can recover from decades of overfishing. But conservation experts worry that the capture of small fish used for farming bluefin tuna is may be putting the recovery of the species in peril.

The Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission includes more than two dozen countries that collaborate to manage fisheries on the high seas and curb illegal and unauthorized fishing and other activities that endanger highly migratory species such as the Pacific bluefin.

Read the full story at the Associated Press

Through a big play in Japan, Warren Buffett is now one of the world’s biggest seafood investors

September 18, 2020 — On 31 August, Berkshire Hathaway announced it had acquired slightly more than a five percent stake in each of the five major Japanese general trading companies: Itochu, Marubeni, Mitsubishi, Mitsui, and Sumitomo – all based in Tokyo – through regular purchases on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

Collectively, the investments have a combined value of USD 6.7 billion (EUR 5.6 billion)

Read the full story at Seafood Source

NOAA Fisheries Closes Office in U.S. Embassy Tokyo After 33 years

August 4, 2020 — NOAA Fisheries closed the representative office in the U.S. Embassy Tokyo on July 31 after 33 years due to a sharp budget cut of Silver Spring, according to the leaving official’s announcement in Tokyo.

NOAA Fisheries opened its office in 1987 in the Commercial Service of the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo after establishing the U.S. EEZ and phasing out of international fleets. The mission of NOAA Tokyo was to develop the Japanese market for U.S. fishery products, such as Alaskan salmon and bottom fish. At that time Japan was the largest market for U.S. seafood, and the NOAA Tokyo office assisted many American small exporters of American lobster and sea urchin, the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute’s triumphant entry into the market. It supported the Tokyo offices of American Seafood Company, Ocean Beauty Seafoods, and Trident Seafoods. It assisted seafood trade missions to Japan from U.S. states and native Americans. It negotiated with the Japanese government to permit the import of live oysters from Washington, Oregon, New York, and Connecticut.

Read the full story at Seafood News

Japanese studies advance use of eDNA in estimating fish populations

July 17, 2020 — A recent test in Japan using environmental DNA (eDNA) to survey eel populations in rivers achieved similar detection rates to electro-shock fishing – without killing eels – and another test, on jack mackerel, improved estimation accuracy.

Molecular analysis of DNA left in the environment has proven to be an effective tool for detecting the presence of species, and is being applied more frequently in place of traditional survey fishing. It usually uses the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) process – a process also used in the COVID-19 antibody test – to rapidly duplicate genetic material to a quantity that can be effectively detected and identified. It has the advantage that it does not disturb or kill the fish – important for endangered species.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

This New App Uses AI To Grade Tuna Freshness

July 10, 2020 — Sushi is only as good as the fish wrapped inside its barrel of rice and seaweed. If the tuna, yellowtail, or salmon isn’t fresh, it not only looks gross, but renders the whole roll underwhelming in flavor and texture.

To keep things from getting fishy, a Japanese company has developed a new mobile app that uses artificial intelligence to grade the freshness of cuts of tuna on sight. Aptly named Tuna Scope, the system uses thousands of cross-sectional images of tuna tails as training data to learn what good quality tuna looks like.

According to the Tuna Scope website, trained fishmongers use the tuna tail as a “road map” detailing the fish’s flavor, texture, freshness, and overall excellence. Traditionally, master tuna merchants look at things like color and sheen, firmness, and the layering of fat to set fish prices. The silkier the meat looks, the better it probably tastes.

“The goal behind the development of this system was to pass down skills in the field of tuna evaluation, an area with a serious shortage of successors,” Dentsu, the Tokyo-based digital marketing company that led development of the app, said in a press release.

Read the full story at Popular Mechanics

Toyosu sales figures reveal crippling effect of COVID-19 on Japan’s seafood market

May 4, 2020 — Tokyo’s Toyosu Market is experiencing a drastic financial fallout as Japan reels from the economic shock of COVID-19.

From March to April, both the volume of seafood Japan’s largest seafood market handled and the prices it received had nosedived. But the crash has been uneven, reflecting a shift by Japanese consumers from eating out to cooking at home. Sales of luxury items like tuna have dropped significantly, while sales of fish more commonly cooked inside the home in Japan, such as salmon and hamachi, have not seen a significant falloff.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Coronavirus Traps Fishing Crew of Japanese Long-Distance Tuna Vessels

March 30, 2020 — The global spread of the novel coronavirus is beginning to significantly affect the activity of pelagic tuna fisheries, according to the Suisan Keizai Shimbun, a Japanese fisheries industry newspaper. The number of countries that regulate boarding and disembarking of crewmembers at major supply ports overseas has increased. In the current situation, where boats are moored at overseas ports, crewmembers are unable to return to Japan by air. Some vessels are having trouble deciding whether to hurry to return to Japan or continue fishing until the initially planned fishing season and wait for a turnaround of the virus situation.

Restrictions on immigration have been gaining momentum since World Health Organization Director-General Tedros said on March 11 that the new coronavirus was a pandemic. Countries with essential ports for the Japanese long-distance fleet, such as Las Palmas, Spain, and Cape Town, South Africa, have also begun banning foreign crew members from getting on and off and entering the countries.

Read the full story at Seafood News

COVID-19 hits seafood markets in Australia, Japan, US

March 17, 2020 — The full financial effects of the coronavirus outbreak are starting to become apparent in seafood markets across the globe, reports American Shipper.

In Australia, for instance, a fisheries and aquaculture sector very dependent on Chinese seafood demand is likely to see a decline in earnings of $389 million due to the excess product that traders are unable to send to the country.

It’s a similar issue in Canada, where the previously booming trade of live Atlantic lobsters to China has ground to a halt after both China and other nearby Asian countries stopped accepting deliveries from seafood shipping companies.

Likewise, the trade of baby eels, or elvers, from Maine in the US to China is also at a standstill — bad news for a $168m industry nearly entirely dependent on the trade route for its custom.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

Maine to let new people into lucrative baby eel fishing biz

January 16, 2020 — The state of Maine is allowing nine new people to participate in the fishing industry that harvests baby eels, which are among the most valuable natural resources in the state.

Baby eels, called elvers, are harvested so they can be used as seed stock by Asian aquaculture companies. They are typically eventually used in Japanese food. The eels were worth more than $2,300 per pound in Maine in 2018.

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

‘Tuna King’ buys 608-pound fish for $1.8 million at Sunday auction in Japan

January 7, 2020 — One fish, two fish, red fish… million-dollar tuna fish.

Japanese businessman Kiyoshi Kimura, who has dubbed himself the “Tuna King,” purchased a 608-pound fish for $1.8 million at a Sunday auction.

The blue fin fetched the second-highest price in history at auction Sunday, Japanese Broadcasting Corporation NHK reported.

Caught in Aomori, a political region of Japan, the giant fish sold for 193 million yen — equivalent to nearly $1.8 million.

“Yes, this is expensive, isn’t it? I want our customers to eat very tasty ones this year, too,” Kimura said after the auction, as reported by Agence France-Presse.

Read the full story at the New York Daily News