May 27, 2020 — Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada-based AC Covert is rolling out new seafood boxes available for home delivery in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island.
The seafood distribution company, which is owned by Cooke Inc., caters to retailers, restaurants, and the tourism and hospitality sectors, but has pivoted its sales focus due to the coronavirus pandemic.
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.
April 26, 2019 — The following was released by Cooke Aquaculture:
Cooke Aquaculture has diverted three more boats and marine staff from its Charlotte County fish farming operations to help with flood relief efforts in Grand Bay-Westfield and the City of Saint John in New Brunswick.
This is in addition to the two boats the local, family-owned company already sent to the Village of Cambridge-Narrows on the Washademoak Lake this week. The motor boats are all 21-25 feet long, equipped with safety equipment and are run by trained Cooke Aquaculture operators accompanied by local first responders.
The New Brunswick Emergency Measures Organization (NBEMO) has advised the public that water levels have yet to reach their highest levels in a number of communities along the southern regions of the St. John River basin. And that residents living near the St. John River system should continue to exercise extreme caution and remain alert to rising water levels over the coming days.
“We encourage people to follow the Emergency Measures Organization advice to avoid boating, kayaking or other water activities this time of year as currents are strong and may carry debris,” said Joel Richardson, Vice President of Public Relations with Cooke Aquaculture. “In last years flood our boats retrieved everything from half-submerged building materials, gas cans, and tires to propane tanks from the water. People should stay away from the rivers and lakes until it is safer.”
March 22, 2019 — SEAFOOD NEWS — An eight-year study of lobsters living below a salmon farm off New Brunswick’s Grand Manan Island found the aquaculture operation had no impact on the crustaceans’ abundance, size or growth.
The peer-reviewed, industry-funded study was published this month in the Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences.
Its authors say it’s the most in-depth examination of its kind in Atlantic Canada.
“There isn’t anything like this. Any surveys that have been done have been sort of cursory,” said Jon Grant, the study’s lead author and a Dalhousie University oceanographer.
How the study worked
The study involved divers visiting a sample area under the Benson Aquaculture salmon farm at Cheney Head off Grand Manan in 2008, and returning every August and September.
To establish a baseline, surveying started before the fish farm opened. The study covered two production cycles at the farm, which uses pesticides to control sea lice and has been opposed by lobster fishermen.
It also included a fallow period and a farm expansion to 336,000 fish from 10,000 during the second production cycle.
An identical survey was conducted about a kilometre outside the farm.
By the time the project ended in 2015, divers had counted 1,255 lobsters inside the farm and 1,171 outside.
What the study found
“In both cases, whether it was on the farm or off the farm, over those eight years the abundance of lobsters went up. A lot. By 100 per cent or more. And there was no difference in those lobsters in any way — in their size, in their sex or their abundance, whether on or off the fish farm,” Grant told CBC News.
“We don’t detect any evidence that the fish farm affected behaviour, growth or abundance of those lobsters.”
He said the study proved one hypothesis: the population inside or adjacent to the farm matched growth seen elsewhere in lobster fishing areas.
“It reflects the fact that the fishery is ongoing and it’s thriving and that fish farming does not seem to have impacted it, at least in eastern New Brunswick,” said Grant, who is funded by New Brunswick-based Cooke Seafoods and holds the NSERC-Cooke industrial research chair in sustainable aquaculture.
Surveys ordered by government regulators
The surveys were a requirement of the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans and the New Brunswick government. The Atlantic Canada Fish Farmers Association funded the study.
The field work was carried out by SIMCorp, a New Brunswick-based marine environmental consulting firm that works for the aquaculture industry in Atlantic Canada and Maine.
SIMCorp is recognized as the standard for aquaculture, said Grant.
Tara Daggett, a SIMCorp biologist and co-author of the study, said the results are encouraging news for the aquaculture industry.
“We can fairly say aquaculture can coexist with fisheries and other species. It has a place,” she told CBC News.
However, Daggett cautioned the results only reflect what happened at one fish farm.
“The fish farm is typical of Grand Manan with sandy and cobbled bottom, but in science we don’t extrapolate. We need to test at other sites.”
This story was originally published on SeafoodNews.com, a subscription site. It is reprinted with permission.
December 3, 2018 — Glenn Cooke confirmed the Canada-based, global seafood group that carries his family name is close to a deal for a shrimp farmer in Latin America, which Undercurrent News has previously reported is Honduras’ Seajoy Group.
Speaking at a roundtable in Saint Andrews, New Brunswick, he said Cooke is in the final stages of acquiring “one of the largest” Latin American shrimp farming companies, the Telegraph-Journal reported.
“We are in the process of getting everything approved, but we have basically bought one of the world’s largest shrimp operations,” he said at the event, which was attended by the heads of other divisions from around the world and Karen Ludwig, a member of the Canadian Parliament representing the New Brunswick Southwest district.
August 23, 2018 — Whale researchers and fishermen are out at sea together on a two-week mission, combining efforts to help save the endangered north Atlantic right whale.
These two worlds have usually stayed far apart, but for the first time scientists are onboard a crab boat to do their field work.
It’s been a controversial fishing season in northern New Brunswick.
Whale protection efforts caused many fishing areas in the Gulf of St. Lawrence to be closed off, angering fishermen who saw it as an attack on their livelihood — some even taking to protest.
Crab fisherman Martin Noel, captain of the Jean-Denis Martin boat in Shippagan, agreed to take scientists out in the gulf to help them carry out their research this year.
“We don’t want to be called whale killers,” Noel said. “We want to be called fishermen that are implicated in the solution.”
All season, fishermen begged Ottawa to involve them in fisheries management. They felt the federal government was imposing overly strict measures without consultation with industry.
Read the full story at CBC News
July 9, 2018 — As tensions rise between the United States and Canada, there’s a new clash in the cool waters off the northeast tip of Maine, which are rich with lobster, scallops and cod.
For more than a decade, American and Canadian fishermen largely have had a friendly but competitive relationship in an oval-shaped region of the Bay of Fundy known as the gray zone. But this summer that camaraderie has been threatened, Canadian fishermen claim, as officers with the United States Border Patrol have started to wade into the area, pull up aside their vessels and ask about their citizenship.
“We don’t want this to be a great international incident, but it’s kind of curious,” said Laurence Cook, the chairman of the lobster committee at the Grand Manan Fishermen’s Association in New Brunswick. “They say it’s routine patrolling, but it is the first routine patrolling in 25 years.”
At least 10 Canadian fishing boats have been stopped by American immigration authorities within the past two weeks, Mr. Cook said, the latest escalation in a more than 300-year disagreement in the disputed waters off Machias Seal Island. Both countries claim the island, which is about 10 miles off Maine and home to two full-time residents (both Canadian), puffins, rocks and not much else, and say they have the right to patrol its boundaries.
June 12, 2018 — A group representing Gulf of St. Lawrence lobster fishermen says frustration is mounting after the federal government rejected its proposal for a shallow-water exemption to fishery closures aimed at protecting endangered North Atlantic right whales.
The Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) says it considered the proposal by the Maritime Fishermen’s Union and the Pecheurs professionnels du Sud de la Gaspesie, but will not exempt waters of up to 10 fathoms — or 18 metres — in depth.
“We felt staying in that depth of water, which is where most of our fishermen are now at this time of year anyways, was a really good compromise,” said Carl Allen, president of the Maritime Fishermen’s Union.
Last week, DFO issued temporary closures to six more grid areas due to the presence of right whales. The move came after six areas were closed to several fisheries as of May 22.
A static closure zone is in place along New Brunswick’s northern coast until June 30, while DFO has been enforcing what are called dynamic management closures that shut down fishing activities for 15 days once a right whale sighting is confirmed.
In an interview Monday, Allen said fishermen are having a hard time understanding DFO’s logic after they were willing to comply with any number of measures, including the use of tracking technology and observers.
April 11, 2018 — Cooke Aquaculture has secured a spot as a 2018 platinum-winning enterprise on Canada’s Best Managed Companies list, the New Brunswick, Canada-based firm announced on 10 April.
To qualify for the Best Managed Companies program, businesses must be based in Canada and generate a revenue of CAD 15 million (USD 11.8 million, EUR 9.6 million). Further, to achieve platinum status, a company must have been named to the prestigious list for seven or more years.
Each enterprise applicant is evaluated by a panel of judges in four areas for the program: strategy, as in the company’s vision and how that vision is communicated and managed; capability, with regards to whether the company has the ability – the people, processes, and systems – to execute; commitment, meaning does the applicant engage and align its culture effectively and appropriately; and financials, the numbers that prove the first three are driving results.
The program aims to reward well-run companies in Canada, including Cooke, which offer the country a healthy economic future, according to Lorrie King, who is a co-leader of the Best Managed Companies program.
Read the full story at Seafood Source
December 20, 2017 — New Brunswick seafood giant Cooke Aquaculture got even bigger on Tuesday, with its acquisition of a Houston, Texas company and its workforce of 1,000 people.
Cooke Aquaculture acquired Omega Protein Corp. in a $500 million USD deal — approximately $650 million (Canadian) — in one of the single largest foreign investment deals a New Brunswick company has ever done in the United States.
“It’s the single largest acquisition [our] company has ever made,” said Joel Richardson, vice-president of communications for Cooke.
“When a New Brunswick company reaches beyond our borders and acquires a company outside our province, it helps strengthen jobs back here and at home.”
Omega Protein, founded in the early 1900s, is a fishing company that sources omega oils and specialty protein products for both nutritional supplements and animal feeds.
They operate over 30 boats off the Atlantic and Gulf coasts, near Mississippi, Louisiana and Virginia, and catch a forage fish called menhaden, which is rich in omega fatty acids.
Read the full story at CBC News