Seafood Headlines April 19, 2017

Panel hears bribery rife in fish industry 

The Command Centre for Combating Illegal Fishing (CCCIF) has set up a panel to look into complaints accusing some officials of demanding bribes from trawler operators. Centre deputy head Vice Admiral Wannapol Glormgeao said Tuesday the centre recently received a number of complaints from anchovy trawler operators. The operators say they had to pay around 5,000 to 300,000 baht per month per trawler to some officials at the centre to allow them to send vessels of less than 30 tons on a fishing voyage. To read the full article click here. Source Bangkok Post.

Bering Sea Tanner crab harvest strategy to be revisited in May

A special meeting in May will take a closer look at the harvest strategy for bairdi Tanner crab in the Bering Sea. The fishery produced a 20 million pound harvest in 2015 –  the region’s biggest – but was abruptly closed last year when surveys showed low numbers of female Tanners. The crabbers believe lots are out there; they’re just not showing up in the surveys. To read the full article click here. Source Alaska Fish Radio.

Russian Scientists Help Mexican Farmers Cure Deadly Shrimp Virus

A team of scientists at the Tomsk Polytechnic University (TPU) came up with a remedy for a highly lethal and contagious shrimp disease that could save millions for farmers. Injections of silver nanoparticles were successfully tested in Mexico, where the shrimp epidemic has been a huge problem for several years.

The drug developed by Russian chemists was used to treat white spot syndrome virus (WSSV) in shrimps, the university press service reported. Throughout the world, outbreaks of this disease have wiped out entire populations at many shrimp farms within days, and the epidemic has been raging in Mexico for several years. There have been several attempts to cure the disease, but until now nothing has worked. To read the full article click here. Source sputniknews.com.

Herring updates for Kodiak, Togiak, further west

Kodiak’s herring season, which began on April 15, is much different than any other Alaska region. Whereas fisheries at places like Sitka Sound and Togiak can wrap up after a few short openers, Kodiak’s herring openers can occur at up to 80 different places around the Island and last into June. This year’s herring stock is strong but made up of mostly smaller, 3-5 year old fish. That prompted managers to reduce the harvest slightly to 1,645 tons. To read the full article click here. Source Alaska Fish Radio.

Changes Coming to Management of East Coast Scallop Fishery

Fishing regulators have started changing the way the East Coast scallop fishery is managed, with an eye toward avoiding more conflicts between small- and big-boat fishermen.

The New England Fishery Management Council decided to initiate changes Tuesday. Government fishing regulators use different rules for different classes of boats that work the same areas. Recently, a class mostly made up of smaller boats has been in conflict with bigger boats in the northern Gulf of Maine. To read the full article click here. Source US News.

P.E.I. fishermen want federal officials to slow down carapace size increases

Buster Boulter, a lobster fisherman for 35 years, said the five-millimetre increase will impact fishermen.

“We did a one millimetre increase last year and now they want two more this year and two more the next,” said Boulter.

“We’re trying to slow it down to one and one.”

The province of New Brunswick has been trying to get this increase for the last four years. The decision will affect Lobster Fishing Area (LFA) 25, from Victoria to Tignish. To read the full article click here. Source The Guardian.

Jackson County home to nation's first indoor Atlantic salmon farm

On the hilltop above the I-94 exit to Northfield sits a high-tech building that houses Superior Fresh, the first indoor Atlantic salmon farm in the U.S.

Chief operating officer Brandon Gottsacker touts the cutting-edge nature of the aquaculture facility.

“We are using the best technologies known today in aquaculture. In this facility, we are able to recirculate about 99.5 percent of our water in this facility alone, but, because we are re-purposing our water in the greenhouse, for the project as a whole, we are able to recirculate 99.9 percent of our water,” Gottsacker said. To read the full article click here. Source La Crosse Tribune.

Completion of Standards Review, GSSI Benchmark Process Among Recent Developments at ASC

In late March, the ASC entered the Global Sustainable Seafood Initiative (GSSI) Benchmark Process. The GSSI benchmark is based on United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (UN FAO) Guidelines for the Ecolabelling of Fish and Fishery Products. GSSI offers the market a pre-competitive approach to provide clarity on seafood certification and ensure consumer confidence. Programmes are benchmarked through performance indicators for governance, operational management, supply chain traceability and auditing, and were developed in consultation with many stakeholders including environmental NGOs, independent experts and intergovernmental organisations. To read the full article click here. Source ASC.

A potential 3 win story: RAS Technology brings exotic fast grower fish like Yellowtail Kingfish from South Pacific close to the European market!

As long as detailed environmental impact assessment, health management and responsible management principles are adopted this could be a Three win case (win-win-win): European Aquaculture technology combined to fast growing excellent quality fish species produced around the corner of a mature European Sushi / Sashimi market. To read the full article click here. Source Panos Christofilogiannis via LinkedIn.

Icelandic Cod Stock in Good Shape

The cod stock in Icelandic waters is larger than at any time since the Marine Research Institute started monitoring stocks of pelagic fish around Iceland in 1985.

A new report released by the MRI covers fish population statistics taken in February and March this year. The average weight of cod older than seven years is heavier than last year, but the average weight of younger fish has dropped between years. The overall cod stock has grown almost constantly since 2007 and is now the highest since records began in the mid-80s. Cod is Iceland’s most important commercial fishery. To read the full article click here. Source Iceland Review.

FDA Recognizes Australia as Having a Comparable Food Safety System to the U.S.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has signed an arrangement with the Australian Department of Agriculture and Water Resources recognizing each other’s food safety systems as comparable to each other. This is the third time that the FDA has recognized a foreign food safety system as comparable, the first being New Zealand in 2012 and Canada in 2016.  

 By recognizing each other’s systems, the FDA and Australian Department of Agriculture and Water Resources have confidence that they can leverage each other’s science-based regulatory systems to help ensure food safety. For example, each partner intends to consider the oversight of the other when prioritizing inspection activities, but the benefits go beyond inspection and admissibility. Systems recognition establishes a framework for regulatory cooperation in a variety of areas that range from scientific collaboration to outbreak response. To read the full article click here. Source FDA.

Researchers identify widespread parasite in Alaska scallops

In response to increasing reports of infected scallops, Fish and Game observers on board scallop fishing vessels began collecting samples for evaluation. The observers took samples primarily from one area in 2014 and then spread to statewide sampling in 2015 to get an idea of how widespread the infection is.

Fish and Game’s pathology labs identified about 82.2 percent of the scallops with the presence of the parasite, called an apicomplexan parasite. The condition doesn’t seem to be harmful to humans, only to scallop meat quality, and not all scallops infected show the symptoms — it depends on the intensity of the infection, according to the pathology report. To read the full article click here. Source Peninsula Clarion.

Why Canada’s seafood market is so bad, and costs so much

So if a Canadian fisherman can sell his haddock or coho at US$10, he’ll demand $13.30 here or sell it over the border instead. As the supply of fish is limited more often than not, he’ll sell them the lot. And if not to the Americans, then to Asia.

This is where the new piscine economics get interesting—especially in the way we get to lose. Take, for example, lobster. Four years ago Canada—and Maine—produced a glut. The slumping price drew attention from the Chinese, who suddenly tuned in to how much cheaper our commodity was than, say, cheaper-to-ship “sea bugs” (flathead lobsters) from Australia. And once hooked, the Chinese have stayed that way, regardless of the rising price. In 2011, they bought just $27 million worth of Canadian lobster; in 2016, it was $161 million—a nearly 500 per cent increase in five years. To read the full article click here. Source MACLEANS.

Will the N.C. General Assembly support oyster farmers?

The state’s shellfish growers could receive a boost from Raleigh if the Marine Aquaculture Development Act becomes law, experts said.

If passed, the bill would create a permitting process for aquaculture activities such as shellfish growing, while also requesting the N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries ask the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Fishery Management Councils to allow the work in the federal waters off the state’s coast. To read the full article click here. Source Star News Online.

 National Shrimp Council Forms Extended Partnership With Blogger Chungah Rhee 

The National Fisheries Institute’s Shrimp Council today announced it has formed an extended partnership with prominent online influencer and cookbook author Chungah Rhee, creator of the popular food blog Damn Delicious.

Under the agreement, which took effect at the beginning of March, Rhee will create and publish through Damn Delicious a series of shrimp-focused blog posts and recipe videos encouraging consumers to eat more shrimp at home and in restaurants. To read the full article click here. Source Perishable News.