Saving Seafood

Breakthrough in omega-3 understanding could revolutionize feed industry

May 31, 2018 — A new study, led by the University of Stirling in Scotland, has led to a major discovery about the way in which omega-3 long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids are produced in the ocean.

According to lead scientist Oscar Monroig from the university’s Institute of Aquaculture, the breakthrough challenges the generally held principle that marine microbes, such as microalgae and bacteria, are responsible for virtually all primary production of omega-3 fatty acids, which are essential for human health, and have been proven to be particularly useful in combating and preventing cardiovascular and inflammatory diseases.

Instead, an international team of scientists from the United Kingdom, Portugal, Spain, Japan, and Australia found that omega-3s can be created by many marine invertebrates.

“Our study provides a paradigm shift in understanding, as it demonstrates that a large variety of invertebrate animals, including corals, rotifers, molluscs, polychaetes and crustaceans, possess enzymes called ‘desaturases’ of a type that enable them to produce omega-3, an ability thought previously to exist almost exclusively in marine microbes,” Monroig said.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

 

California: Offshore wind farms coming to California — but the Navy says no to large sections of the coast

May 7, 2018 — Fans of renewable energy anticipate a bonanza blowing off the coast of California.

But a map released by the U.S. Navy puts large swaths of the state off limits to future offshore wind farms — including all of San Diego and Los Angeles, extending up to the Central Coast.

The military does not have the final say in the matter, as federal and state officials — as well as wind energy companies and at least one member of Congress — are working with the U.S. Department of Defense to develop a more flexible plan.

But the back-and-forth adds an extra layer of complexity to the nascent industry on the West Coast, where geographic features make it harder to construct wind farms in the Pacific than those on the East Coast.

“There’s a lot at stake here” for California to meet its ambitious clean energy goals, said Robert Collier, a policy analyst at the Green Energy Program at the UC Berkeley Center for Labor Research and Education. “California is going to need a lot more renewable energy from all sources. Offshore wind is not the only potential solution, but it is part of a multi-pronged strategy.”

Why offshore wind must float on the West Coast

The sight of wind turbines anchored into the ground, their blades turning like giant pinwheels, has become more common in recent years.

But it’s rare to see a wind farm looming over open water — at least in the United States. European companies with projects in places like Denmark and Scotland have taken the early lead in offshore wind energy.

Read the full story at the San Diego Union-Tribune

 

Divers uncover ‘illegal scallop dredging’ in Scottish marine protected area

February 7, 2018 — A team of divers claims to have uncovered evidence of illegal scallop dredging in a protected area on the west coast of Scotland, reports the BBC.

Broken shells, dislodged boulders and fresh scallop meat were all filmed on the seabed in the Firth of Lorn.

Environmental group Open Seas said it showed that marine protected areas (MPAs), where fishing with gear is banned, are not effectively policed.

“Illegal dredging is unfortunately not a rare event, fisheries sources have told us they have had multiple reports of illegal activity in this site over the past year,” said Phil Taylor, head of policy for Open Seas.

“Meanwhile, supply chain traceability only goes as far as to a vessel in port, meaning customers and businesses within the supply chain are not able to determine where their scallops are coming from – including whether that is inside an MPA or not,” said Taylor.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

 

Slavery risk warning over UK’s scallop fisheries

Register singles out industry with retailers told to check suppliers are clear of any link to bonded labour

February 2, 2018 — Marine conservation campaigners have warned there is a critical risk that slaves are being used on British scallop fishing boats, and urged retailers to be on their guard.

A new slavery risk register published in the US on Thursday has singled out the UK’s queen and giant scallops fisheries as the most at risk of modern slavery after a Guardian investigation found allegations of bonded labour in the industry.

Nine African and Asian crew were taken off a pair of British scallop trawlers in Portsmouth in December as suspected victims of modern slavery, and two skippers, one from Scotland and the second from Merseyside, were detained by police.

The register, compiled by Monterey Bay Aquarium – one of the most prominent conservation campaigns in the US – the anti-slavery group Liberty Asia and the Sustainable Fisheries Partnership, also cites other alleged cases of suspected slavery involving migrant labour in Scotland and southern England in 2017, 2014 and 2012.

Read the full story at the Guardian

 

MSC certifies North Sea cod, signaling fishery’s recovery

July 19, 2017 — The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) announced its certification of cod caught by Scottish and English boats in the North Sea on Tuesday, 18 July, saying shoppers and diners “can finally buy the popular fish with a clear conscience.”

Cod stocks in the North Sea cratered around 10 years ago, with the annual catch dropping from historical highs around 270,000 metric tons (MT) in the 1970s to 44,000 MT in 2006. However, MSC said in its announcement that the fishery was brought back from the brink of collapse with the creation and implementation of a recovery plan formed between industry and the Scottish and E.U. governments.

“This is a huge accomplishment and the perfect example of what the MSC aims to achieve,” MSC Nort East Program Director Toby Middleton said in the release. “Thanks to a collaborative, cross-industry effort, one of our most iconic fish has been brought back from the brink. Modified fishing gear, catch controls, well-managed fishing practices – all these steps have come together to revive a species that was in severe decline.”

The “Cod Recovery Plan” closed spawning areas to fishing and introduced a system of fishing limits, with the goal of decreasing cod catches by 25 percent in 2009 and 10 percent every year thereafter, according to MSC. It also encouraged the development of better nets and the introduction of remote electronic monitoring using CCTV cameras onboard fishing boats. As a result, cod populations in the North Sea have risen fourfold since 2006.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Queen’s Speech confirms UK plans to control access to waters, set own quotas

June 22, 2017 — The UK will take control of access to its waters and setting quotas once it has left the European Union, according to the Queen’s Speech.

In the speech, delivered by Queen Elizabeth II in parliament on June 21, beleaguered prime minister Theresa May outlined a fisheries bill as part of legislation she plans to push through a hung parliament.

The aim of the fisheries bill is to “protect access to UK waters which are so important to Scottish fishermen” as it comes out of the EU’s Common Fisheries Policy (CFP), according to the document.

It will be “complemented by legislation to ensure that the United Kingdom makes a success of Brexit, establishing new national policies on […] fisheries”.

This will “enable the UK to set our own quotas once we have left the EU, which will both help ensure prosperity for a new generation of fishermen as well as preserve and increase fish stocks”.

There has been concern from the fisheries sector that access to UK waters could be “traded away” in negotiations.

Barrie Deas, chief executive of the National Federation of Fishermen’s Organizations, said the fisheries bill is no guarantee this won’t happen.

“This [the bill] provides for a legal framework for UK fisheries post-Brexit. It is not the negotiations, where all that needs to be said on fisheries is that the UK will, by default, no longer be subject to the provisions of the CFP, including the principle of equal access to a common resource,” he told Undercurrent News.

“There will be subsequent discussions on the form of international agreements between the UK and the EU on the management of shared stocks, access arrangements and quota shares and it will be important that the commitments made by ministers to the UK industry are secured in full,” he said.

Responding to the detail of the speech, Bertie Armstrong, chief executive of the Scottish Fishermen’s Federation, welcomed the direct mention of its fishermen.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

Scottish Conservatives Want Fishing Protected as Part of Brexit

June 14, 2017 — Scotland’s Conservatives want the fishing industry to be protected in any deal that Britain negotiates to leave the European Union after winning seats in fishing areas in last week’s national election.

Scottish party leader Ruth Davidson made this clear at a meeting with Conservative Prime Minister Theresa May, who lost her parliamentary majority in Britain’s June 8 vote, a spokesman for the party said on Wednesday.

“Fishing is something that Ruth has talked about specifically, we are simply emphasising that this is something of huge importance to us,” a spokesman said, when asked whether fishing constituted a “red line” in Davidson’s wish list for Scotland within a new UK government.

May is under pressure from factions within her party to change her stance on Brexit, having lost her majority just as talks with the EU are due to start.

She has yet to reach a deal with Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), which has 10 seats. And Davidson, who spearheaded the campaign to win 13 Conservative seats in Scotland, has considerable influence.

The EU’s policy allows all European boats access to EU waters and fishing grounds, which it says allows fishermen to compete fairly.

But that means that 60 percent of what would be Scottish fish is caught by other EU fishing nations, the Scottish Fisheries Federation says, arguing that the industry has been decimated by EU membership.

Read the full story at The New York Times

The gross reason your salmon is about to get (even more) expensive.

January 25, 2017 — The bad news is you may have to cut back on how much salmon you eat. The good news is when you find out the gross reason why, you might not have much of an appetite anyway.

Salmon farms in Norway and Scotland, two of the world’s largest exporters, have been decimated by sea lice, a parasite that has feasted on the blood and skin of salmon for millennia. Farther south in Chile, a toxic algae bloom has killed enough of the fish to fill several Olympic swimming pools.

As the salmon die by the millions, it’s causing a supply-and-demand ripple effect that’s reaching deep into American wallets.

Worldwide farmed salmon production fell by 8.7 percent in a year, according to the Financial Times. And the Nasdaq Salmon Index showed a nearly 15 percent jump in salmon prices in the last three months.

In the near future, it only promises to get worse. And the dying fish and rising prices could fan the debate about whether growing salmon in giant ocean farms is sustainable.

For fans of salmon nigiri or frozen fillets plucked from supermarket freezers for quick, heart-healthy protein, expect salmon portions to shrink — and prices to grow, experts say.

Read the full story at the Washington Post

The global chain that produces your fish

January 16, 2017 — PARIS — That smoked salmon you bought for the New Year’s festivities has a story to tell.

The salmon may have been raised in Scotland — but it probably began life as roe in Norway.

Harvested at a coastal farm, the fish may have been sent to Poland to be smoked.

It may even have travelled halfway around the world to China to be sliced.

It eventually arrived, wrapped in that tempting package, in your supermarket.

Globalisation has changed the world in many ways, but fish farming is one of the starkest examples of its benefits and hidden costs.

The nexus of the world fish-farming trade is China — the biggest exporter of fish products, the biggest producer of farmed fish and a major importer as well.

With battalions of lost-cost workers, linked to markets by a network of ocean-going refrigerated ships, China is the go-to place for labour-intensive fish processing.

In just a few clicks on Alibaba, the Chinese online trading hub, you can buy three tonnes of Norwegian filleted mackerel shipped from the port city of Qingdao for delivery within 45 days.

“There is a significant amount of bulk frozen fish sent to China just for filleting,” said a source from an association of importers in an EU country.

“The temperature of the fish is brought up to enable the filleting but the fish are not completely defrosted.”

The practice has helped transform the Chinese coastal provinces of Liaoning and Shandong into global centres for fish processing.

Read the full story at Yahoo

Squid may become favourite UK meal as seas become warmer

December 13th, 2016 — Squid and fish that thrive in warmer waters, such as sardines and anchovies, are flourishing around the North Sea, according to fisheries data.

Squid are now being caught at 60% of survey stations in the North Sea, compared with 20% in the 1980s.

But the likes of cod are heading north, away from British waters.

Dr John Pinnegar, of the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (Cefas), which has been monitoring North Sea fish populations for more than 100 years, said models for 2025 and beyond suggested that seawater temperatures off the UK may continue to rise.

Fishing boats are now catching species that have not been caught in the area before.

Mediterranean alternatives

“Twenty or 30 years ago we hardly saw squid in our surveys,” he told BBC News.

Dr Pinnegar, programme director for marine climate change at Cefas, said summer squid fisheries had expanded around the Moray Firth in north-east Scotland, as part of efforts to reduce over-fishing of more traditional species such as haddock and cod.

“A lot of the things we see increasing in abundance around the UK are marine animals that would probably originally [be] thought of as being Mediterranean or characteristic of the Bay of Biscay, or around Portugal or Spain,” he added.

Read the full story at BBC News