Saving Seafood

No-deal Brexit could reignite ‘cod wars’, fishermen warn

November 18, 2020 — A no-deal Brexit could lead to a repeat of the “cod wars” between Britian and Iceland across the EU, an Irish fishing group has warned.

Seán O’Donoghue, chief executive of the Killybegs Fishermen’s Organisation, said he was hopeful that “common sense” would prevail and Britain and the EU would reach an agreement on fisheries in the coming days.

“We’ve had the Icelandic Cod Wars in the past,” he told The Times. A no-deal Brexit “would be similar to that”.

Mr O’Donoghue said that there could be disputes in the Irish Sea, around the northwest Irish coast near Scotland, in the English Channel where waters are shared with France, and the North Sea, where some waters are shared with Denmark.

Read the full story at The Times

UK and Iceland sign fisheries agreement, stepping up cooperation

November 13, 2020 — The United Kingdom and Iceland are to increase their collaborative efforts on fisheries matters through a new memorandum of understanding (MOU) that has been signed by U.K. Fisheries Minister Victoria Prentis and Icelandic Minister of Fisheries Kristján Þór Júlíusson. It is the first fisheries agreement ever made between the two countries.

According to the U.K. government, the MOU, which will come into effect on 1 January, 2021, will establish a U.K.-Iceland Fisheries Dialogue, whereby both countries share best-practice and cooperate on a range of issues, including product innovation and food waste reduction. It will also provide a platform for businesses to exchange knowledge on the adoption of new technologies, and ways to enhance the value, traceability and marketing of seafood products.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Indigenous people in Nova Scotia exercised their right to catch lobster. Now they’re under attack.

October 27, 2020 — When Mike Sack handed out lobster licenses to Indigenous fishers in Nova Scotia last month, he expected some pushback from commercial fishers. But the Sipekne’katik First Nation chief did not foresee the violence to come.

Mi’kmaq fishers say non-Indigenous commercial fishers in the Maritime province have threatened them, cut their lines, pulled their traps from the water and formed flotillas to intimidate them on the waters of St. Mary’s Bay.

Read the full story at The Washington Post

Northeast Atlantic herring fisheries at risk of losing MSC eco-label

October 6, 2020 — A lack of international agreement between Northeast Atlantic coastal states on the management of catch levels have left four Atlanto-Scandian herring fisheries with “a high risk” of losing their Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certificates on 30 December, the eco-label program has warned.

The MSC-certified fisheries in question are: ISF Norwegian and Icelandic herring trawl and seine (Iceland); SPSG, DPPO, PDFA, SPFPO, and KFO Atlanto-Scandian purse-seine and pelagic trawl herring (E.U. and United Kingdom); Faroese pelagic organization Atlanto-Scandian herring (Faroe); and Norway spring spawning herring (Norway).

Read the full story at Seafood Source

SCEMFIS Research Provides New Insights on Gray Seals; Suggests Alternatives to Current Management

September 28, 2020 — The following was released by the Science Center for Marine Fisheries:

Decades of strict conservation and management have led to a rebound of gray seals in the North Atlantic. Now, research from the Science Center for Marine Fisheries (SCEMFIS) is providing new insights into this population, how local fisheries interact with them, and better options to manage them.

The study, led by Drs. Doug DeMaster, Paula Moreno, Andre Punt, and John Brandon of the Independent Advisory Team for Marine Mammal Assessments, is evaluating how interactions with regional fisheries, specifically the New England sink gillnet and bottom trawl fisheries, affect the gray seal population. Revising estimates for key parameters such as abundance, levels of bycatch, and the proportion of seals crossing between the U.S. and Canada, the study is providing alternative approaches for the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) to estimate Potential Biological Removal (PBR) levels. PBR determines the number of gray seals that can be removed annually by human activities without threatening the conservation status of the stock.

Preliminary results from the study find that calculations made by NMFS to determine the PBR threshold are likely too conservative. Specifically, it finds that NOAA’s estimate of gray seal productivity, a key metric in determining PBR, is too low by approximately 17 percent. It also finds that NOAA is likely being overly conservative in how it classifies at least one fishery, based on productivity, bycatch levels and assumptions regarding transboundary movements of gray seals between the U.S. and Canada.

Under the U.S. Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA), bycatch is strictly managed based on PBR levels, and fisheries are often required to adopt burdensome mitigation strategies as a result. Having an accurate estimate of the seal population that is interacting with commercial fisheries, and setting an appropriately precautionary estimate of PBR, is critical not just for seals, but for the fisheries that interact with them.

“With the gray seal population continuing to grow, the fishing industry is increasingly concerned about bycatch and other issues that come from seal interactions,” said Greg DiDomenico, a member of SCEMFIS’ Industry Advisory Board. “The results of this study will provide options for managing gray seals that are both consistent with federal conservation goals and may be helpful in avoiding unnecessarily burdensome regulations on fishermen.”

Read the full release here

Finders keepers: New trawl technology helps fleets fish smarter and managers track biomass, despite covid disruptions

September 15, 2020 — In trawl fisheries, vessels usually spend costly amounts of time and fuel searching for fish. Even with advanced technology, the cost of finding fish comes with the price of investment. To increase efficiency, Kongsberg Maritime of Norway has developed an unmanned surface vehicle that can hunt for fish at a fraction of the cost of a fully manned fishing vessel.

“The vessel is equipped with high-definition SX95 omnidirectional sonar,” says Richard Mills, head of marine robotics sales at Kongsberg. “Then there is a moon pool in which we can put other equipment. We just put an EK80 echosounder in one for a company we can’t name, and we are hoping to demonstrate it next year for NOAA.” According to Mills, the USV can search large expanses of ocean and transmit data to land-based receivers and fishing vessels. “We sit down with our customers and look at cost benefits,” says Mills, noting that the USV could operate for as little as 15 percent of a manned vessel’s crew costs and fuel costs.

The 26.5-foot USV has a 7.3-foot beam and draws 2.3 feet. For receiving commands and transmitting data, the vessel has a mast that reaches 14.4 feet above the sea surface. The vessel can run autonomously or be operated from a laptop PC or radio control with data telemetry via a Kongsberg’s K-MATE control system, with communication through Maritime Broadband Radio and Iridium satellite (VSAT optional).

Read the full story at National Fisherman

Norway Rediscovers Taste For Whale Meat As Local Demand Rises

September 4, 2020 — Following several years of decline, the demand for whale meat in Norway is rising. A distribution deal with a national supermarket chain and an increase in domestic tourism due to the coronavirus pandemic are believed to be responsible for the uptick.

Supply has also increased. To address a shrinking fleet, the Norwegian government eased the requirements on whaling vessels this year, a move that has angered conservationists.

Vacationing Norwegians trying out whale

Parts of northern Norway including the Lofoten islands benefited from this year’s travel restrictions that saw Norwegians more accustomed to Mediterranean resorts forced to vacation in their own country. “More and more Norwegians are opening their eyes to whale meat,” reported trade publication Fiskeribladet.

Hopen Fisk in Kabelvåg sold out of their whale meat supply earlier this year. General manager Ernst Iseli said sales “exceeded all expectations”, adding that the demand could be linked to a rising national interest in local cuisine.

While not commonplace elsewhere in the country, whale meat is a speciality in many northern restaurants. The meat is also available in selected Rema 1000 supermarkets across the country.

Read the full story at Forbes

New Online Tool Launched to Track Ship Speeds in Areas Frequented by Right Whales

July 22, 2020 — Oceana has released a new online tool that allows anyone to track ship speeds in speed zones designed to protect North Atlantic Right Whales along the east coast of the U.S. and Canada.

Using Global Fishing Watch data, which is a component of the new tool called Ship Speed Watch, Oceana Canada tracked ship speeds in the Cabot Strait from April 28 to June 15, 2020.

During the 49-day period, Transport Canada asked vessels longer than 13 meters to slow down to 10 knots.

Only a few complied, with 67 percent of the ships (464 out of 697) traveling faster than the 10-knot limit, and some traveling 20 knots or faster.

Read the full story at CapeCod.com

Pollock Survey Begins in Eastern Bering Sea

July 16, 2020 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

For the past four decades, a team of scientists have conducted an acoustic trawl survey from a NOAA research vessel in the eastern Bering Sea. They collect acoustic measurements of fish abundance and distribution. They also sample fish by capturing them with trawl nets to groundtruth the acoustic signals to confirm the species. They also are able to learn more about the fish themselves—for example, their age, length, weight, and reproductive state.

Scientists believe using acoustic technology on saildrones to survey in the eastern Bering Sea will provide a reliable estimate of pollock abundance, based on past experience comparing the technology to ship-based surveys. It also helps that pollock are the dominant fish species in this area, minimizing the need to further sample with a trawl net to confirm species.

Since the standard surveys were cancelled this year due to COVID-19, data collected by the saildrones will fill a gap in the survey time series. Scientists use these survey data along with other data to assess pollock population abundance and trends (whether the stock is increasing or decreasing in size). The saildrone survey is expected to take two months to complete.

In late June, after some 40 days at sea, the three saildrones arrived at Unimak Pass, a 20-nautical-mile gap between Unimak Island and Ugamak Island that separates the North Pacific Ocean from the Bering Sea. At this point the saildrones separated. Each saildrone will cover a third of the 600-nautical-mile-wide survey area, which is bordered by Alaska’s Aleutian Islands to the south and the edge of the eastern Bering Sea shelf to the west.

The saildrones will complete a series of north-south transects moving from east to west; the mission is designed to mimic a typical ship survey as closely as possible in the amount of time available. Each vehicle is equipped with a Simrad EK80 high-precision split-beam echo sounder to map fish abundance.

Read the full release here

Blockchain Will Let You Track Salmon From Sea to Dinner Plate

June 26, 2020 — Consumers around the world will soon be able to know intricate life details of the salmon they eat with a new blockchain initiative from top exporter Norway.

The Norwegian Seafood Association has partnered with International Business Machines Corp. and technology provider Atea ASA to gather data on how salmon is bred, stored and shipped, information that consumers will eventually access by scanning a QR code. That will help Norway’s suppliers differentiate their premium products from other exporters, curb origin fraud and cut waste.

“Blockchain lets us share the fish’s journey from the ocean to the dinner table,” said Alf-Goran Knutsen, chief executive officer of Kvaroy Arctic, a supplier that’s part of the initiative. “This is now more timely than ever.”

Read the full story at Bloomberg