Seafood Headlines February 27, 2017
Scientists discover underwater ‘pool’ of gas and claim it’s helping to cause catastrophic global warming
Experts from Queen Mary, University of London, found that microbes are generating a vast lake of methane in the tropical Pacific Ocean.
Sediment collected from the ocean floor, where there is very little oxygen, revealed how bugs are creating the largest region of marine methane on Earth.
Methane is a potent greenhouse gas with 30 times more heat-trapping power than carbon dioxide.
It follows the discovery of the terrifying “Jacuzzi of Despair” off the Gulf of Mexico which will kill anything that swims in it. To read the full article click here. Source The Sun.
Aquaculture investors sought for shellfish production property
A large chunk of land once identified to become the biggest commercial aquaculture plant in New Zealand has been placed on the market for sale.
The 7760 square metre industrial-zoned waterfront site at Awatoto just south of Napier fronts directly onto the Pacific Ocean. Part of the land previously housed burgeoning paua rearing and production plant Paua Fresh which burnt to the ground in 2014. To read the full article click here. Source VOXY.
The Ocean is Everybody’s Business
I love the ocean. I spoke at the World Ocean Summit earlier, and wanted to share my thoughts about why most people around the world love the ocean. That’s a good place to start, but it is not enough. We need to put our time, our energy, and our money where our hearts are and protect and restore our most precious natural asset, the blue in our blue planet. I am not talking about charity. This is business. And the Ocean is Everybody’s Business. To read the full article and watch the video click here. Source Virgin.
Fisheries inspectors probe farmed fish escape in Shelburne
Provincial fisheries inspectors are investigating the escape of possibly hundreds of market-ready salmon from an aquaculture pen at the mouth of Shelburne Harbour.
Employees at Cooke Aquaculture noticed a breach in one of the company's enclosures last Wednesday and notified the province. They discovered some fish had escaped two days later, said Krista Higdon, a spokeswoman for the Nova Scotia Department of Fisheries and Aquaculture. To read the full article click here. Source CBC News.
Melting polar ice, rising sea levels not only climate change dangers
"Discussions of climate change usually are focused on changes occurring in polar and temperate zones, but tropical regions also are expected to experience changes in regional precipitation," said Dr. Kirk Winemiller, AgriLife Research fisheries scientist and Regents Professor in the department of wildlife and fisheries sciences at College Station.
Winemiller and his Brazilian colleagues analyzed a long-term database, 1999-2014, of fish survey statistics and hydrology in the central Amazon and discovered a direct correlation between water quantity and quality with the types and number of fish species found. To read the full article click here. Source Science Daily.
Government of Canada is taking concrete actions to protect Canada's Pacific Coast
The Government of Canada is committed to protecting our oceans and marine life for future generations. During his visit to Vancouver this week, the Honourable Dominic LeBlanc, Minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard, announced a suite of initiatives to ensure that our Pacific Coast remains healthy, prosperous and safe for generations to come.
The Minister announced the establishment of the new Hecate Strait and Queen Charlotte Sound Glass Sponge Reefs Marine Protected Area, which will protect large colonies of unique glass sponges estimated to be 9000 years old. The reefs provide refuge, habitat and nursing grounds for many aquatic species such as rockfish, finfish and shellfish. The designation of this Marine Protected Area is a step forward in Canada's plan to protecting 5% of its marine and coastal areas by 2017 and 10% by 2020. To read the full article click here. Source Market Wired.
Fly farmer lands $10m deal
Using a high-tech blueprint developed with Christof Industries, AgriProtein plans to roll out 100 factories by 2024 and a further 100 by 2027. The $10 million partnership will help bring insect protein into the mainstream of feeds used in aquaculture, poultry farming and petfood.
AgriProtein rears fly larvae at an industrial scale on organic waste that would otherwise go to landfill and harvests the larvae to make natural, high-protein feed products as a sustainable alternative to fishmeal and soybean meal. To read the full article click here. Source Fish Farming Expert.
As China enjoys Pakistani seafood, India feels Beijing’s presence
The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is changing life in China’s Northwest Xinjiang Uyghur region, bringing something special to the region: seafood from Pakistan.
This little bonus is being shipped by container trucks through the corridor, which currently accounts for two percent of the total trade between the two countries; and more goods are expected to come through CPEC from the Middle East and Africa. To read the full article click here. Source The international News.
UN Campaigns to ‘Turn the Tide’ on Ocean Plastics
An unprecedented global campaign to eliminate major sources of marine litter within five years was launched this week by UN Environment, the United Nations agency formerly known as UNEP. The campaign is targeting microplastics in cosmetics and single-use plastics such as straws, bags and packaging materials.
“It is past time that we tackle the plastic problem that blights our oceans, said Erik Solheim of Norway, the former Norwegian environment and development minister who now heads UN Environment. “Plastic pollution is surfing onto Indonesian beaches, settling onto the ocean floor at the North Pole, and rising through the food chain onto our dinner tables. We’ve stood by too long as the problem has gotten worse. It must stop.” To read the full article click here. Source Environment News Service.
Alaska herring run looks stronger for 2017
The Togiak herring run arrived about 10 days early last April, and the fishery opened on the 17th, the earliest ever for Alaska’s primary producing herring fishery. Strong biomass in the Togiak fishery warranted a purse seine quota of 28,782 short tons and a gillnet quota of 8,365 tons.
The fish showing up on the grounds well ahead of schedule left 17 seine fishermen and four processing companies scrambling to make the long haul to the grounds in hopes of catching the fish before they spawned out. It didn’t help that first week of the fishery the fleet faced tough weather, which made for poor aerial spotting and meager catches. In the end, the seine fleet managed to harvest 15,171 tons. Interest among the gillnet sector of the fleet was limited to just three boats last year. During the heyday of the fishery, the fleet consisted of more than 150 gillnetters and 200 seiners. To read the full article click here. Source National Fisherman.
ISSF 2017-02: Status of the World Fisheries for Tuna. Feb. 2017*
This report is an update of ISSF 2016-05B: Status of the World Fisheries for Tuna. Nov. 2016. It summarizes and rates the status and management of 23 major commercial tuna stocks, based on the most recent scientific assessments as well as management measures adopted by the RFMOs. To download the report click here. Source ISSF.
Green light for ￡93m fish feed plant on Skye
Highland councillors have approved ￡93 million plans for a fish feed factory on Skye.
Fish farming company Marine Harvest’s development on the site of an old quarry at Kyleakin could create 55 full-time permanent jobs.
The plant will produce food for the firm’s Scottish fish farms as well as those in Norway, Ireland and the Faroe Islands. To read the full article click here. Source Scottish Construction Now.
Mussel production dropped, Northern scallops up
Chilean mollusc producers harvested a total of 282,900 tonnes last year, 2.6 per cent less than in 2015. This volume is equivalent to 29.1 per cent of Chilean aquaculture harvests accumulated over the past year. To read the full article click here. Source FIS.
State cuts bring changes to SE commercial fisheries
Commercial fisheries in Southeast Alaska have survived two years of state budget cuts but not without some changes. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game’s Division of Commercial Fisheries has cut some positions, ended some monitoring programs, and found some new funding sources. KFSK’s Angela Denning reports:
When the state cuts are listed on a spread sheet, the individual amounts don’t seem that staggering–$20,000 here, $50,000 there. But it totals about $1.75 million over the last two years. The cuts include laying off a part-time front desk person in Petersburg, not replacing a retired analyst programmer and eliminating a position in the golden king crab fishery. To read the full article click here. Source KFSK.
Environmental and fishing groups sue to save salmon
Environmental and fishing groups sued the federal government on Thursday as they seek cooler water for salmon in the Columbia River system.
The lawsuit was filed in federal court in Seattle against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Scott Pruitt, President Donald Trump’s choice to lead the agency. To reads the full article click here. Source The Everett Herald.
Immigration Crackdown Worries Maryland’s Crab Industry
The Trump Administration’s immigration crackdown is causing concern on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. Crab processors fear the heated climate over immigration could impact a legal visa program that brings in crab pickers from Mexico.
Bill Seiling is the executive director of the Chesapeake Bay Seafood Industry Association, “we may get lumped in with this whole immigration issue and sort of get tarred with the same brush.”
Processors say H2-B visas are essential to fill the crab picking jobs, that there are not enough Marylanders who are trained or want to do them. To read the full article click here. Source CBS Baltimore.
Fishermen Who Break Kiribati Shark Ban To Face Severe Fine, Jail Time
Kiribati Ministry of Fisheries and Marine Resources Development has outlined the penalties for breaking the ban on shark fishing for commercial purposes.
The ministry last year announced sharks could only be fished for consumption and not for re-sale. To read the full article click here. Source Pacific Island Report.
Island fishermen implore state to protect squid
In an effort to protect squid, Nantucket fishermen have asked the state to prohibit fish draggers and scallopers that tow nets or metal dredges along the ocean bottom from state waters from May 1 through Oct. 31. To read the full article click here. Source Cape Cod Times.
Reining in China’s Aquafarming Sector: Interview With China Blue’s Han Han
Ten years ago, amateur tilapia farmers in China were able to dig a pond, fill it with fish, add antibiotics and chemicals, and a few months later sell the fish to numerous unregulated processors. In those early days, fish farming created a great economic boom for first-time aquaculture farmers.
Oversupplied and cheap, a majority of this tilapia landed in international markets – a notable 73 percent of the tilapia consumed in the United States is still sourced from Chinese suppliers. Today, however, with industry and consumer demand for safer and more sustainably sourced food, fish farmers are beginning to see the value in environmental protection as a cost-effective best practice. To read the full article click here. Source New Security Beat.
Eat a lot of junk food? Just 2 portions of oily fish each week can reverse the damage caused to your immune system
Researchers from Liverpool John Moores University tested two potential food supplements to see if they could reverse the changes of a junk food diet.
Omega-3 fatty acids, such as those found in oily fish and seaweed, as well as 2-hydroxyoleic acid, a synthetic substance derived from oleic acid, were assessed.
In the study, which was published in the journal Experimental Physiology, 32 mice were fed diets to ensure they became obese. To read the full article click here. Source Daily Mail.
iBAP Welcomes First Greek Facility
Please join Best Aquaculture Practices (BAP) in welcoming the first facility in Greece to engage in BAP third-party certification program.
IRIDA S.A., a fish feed manufacturer located in Evia, Greece, is currently participating in the iBAP program and is expected to transition to BAP certification soon. The company produces 48,000 metric tons of feed annually for sea bream, sea bass, meagre and trout, supplying high-quality feed to aquaculture producers worldwide. To read the full article click here. Source Global Aquaculture Alliance.
American Aquaculture’s Image Makeover is Good for Growth
US - In the USA the public perception of aquaculture has suffered from an image problem over the years. While the industry has taken huge steps to address this, consumers’ understanding of the provenance of farmed fish is still lagging behind, says Aaron Orlowski, writing for The Fish Site.
When large-scale commercial aquaculture started expanding in the United States several decades ago, it had problems. Overcrowded fish enclosures. Large amounts of excrement fouling waters. Excessive use of antibiotics.
Those environmentally harmful practices resulted in fish farmers suffering from an image problem. And even though practices have improved dramatically since then, the negative perception lingers. To read the full article click here. Source The Fish Site.
State senator criticizes governor's firing over crab limits
A state senator is criticizing the dismissal of a longtime official at the Department of Natural Resources.
Sen. Paul Pinsky addressed the firing of Brenda Davis on the Senate floor Friday.
Davis was a 28-year-employee and the crab program manager. She was fired Tuesday after Gov. Larry Hogan met last week with watermen who are unhappy about crab-size limits. To read the full article click here. Source Bristol Herald Courior.
XL Catlin announces Ocean Risk Grants for Early Career Scientists
XL Catlin today announced the launch of a new $500,000 fund to support Early Career Scientists undertaking research into the changing ocean environment.
The XL Catlin Ocean Risk Grants are the latest addition to XL Catlin's Ocean Risk programme. They will be awarded to scientists for final year BSc, Masters and PhD research.
The announcement demonstrates XL Catlin's commitment to working with scientists to promote a better understanding of the threats to ocean health, as well as their consequences for society, economies and ecosystems around the world. Previously, XL Catlin has partnered with researchers on a series of expeditions which investigated changes in the ocean, including the Catlin Arctic Survey, XL Catlin Seaview Survey and the XL Catlin Deep Ocean Survey. To read the full article click here. Source PR Newswire.
Ocean study: Expect starvation, extinction and more jellyfish
Anew report says that if we keep cooking the planet, there could be mass starvation on ocean floors.
"Abyssal ocean environments, which are over 3,000 m (1.9 mi) deep, are some of the most food-deprived regions on the planet," said Andrew Sweetman, a researcher at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh and lead author on the study. "These habitats currently rely on less carbon per meter-squared each year than is present in a single sugar cube. Large areas of the abyss will have this tiny amount of food halved and for a habitat that covers half the Earth, the impacts of this will be enormous." To read the full article click here. Source New Atlas.
Galicia allocates EUR 8 million to promote sustainable aquaculture
Mussel producers, guilds and aquaculture companies having an aquaculture concession in Galicia will be able to request contributions of EUR 8 million to make investments in this sector.
The call, published in the Official Gazette of Galicia (DOG), is for investment aid to promote sustainable aquaculture and respect for the environment, and will be co-financed by the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF). To read the full article click here. Source FIS.
Award for Good Fish app
Ross-on-Wye based charity, the Marine Conservation Society has picked up a prestigious Gold London Design Award for its Good Fish Guide app.
The Good Fish Guide app aims to help consumers make environmentally sound seafood choices by listing fish alongside their MCS Fish to Eat or Fish to Avoid rating – red, green or amber (eat only occasionally). To read the full article click here. Source The Ross Gazette.
A signature Hervey Bay seafood catch is going off the menu
HERVEY Bay is known to many for its seafood but one of its signature catches will soon no longer be available.
The State Government has permanently closed the two scallop replenishment areas in Hervey Bay.
That means the end to the world-wide famous Hervey Bay scallop. To read the full article click here. Source Sunshine Coast Daily.
Saving ocean requires global effort, cooperation
The opening panel of the World Ocean Summit on Thursday morning saw three ministers and a senior-ranking European Commission official acknowledge that harnessing the potential of the ocean and protecting it for the future generations are tasks too big and complex for any single country to deal with.
The panel, titled “The ocean economy—A whale of an opportunity?”, featured Indonesia’s Coordinating Maritime Affairs Minister Luhut Pandjaitan, Bangladesh’s Minister of Environment and Forests Anwar Hossain Manju, Portugal’s Minister of Sea Ana Paula Vitorino, and European Commission’s Commissioner for Environment, Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Karmenu Vella with The Economist’s Asia columnist, Dominic Ziegler, moderating.
Luhut used plastic debris as an example of the complexities of the ocean problem and the necessity to mount a concerted, global response. He pointed out during his visit to the western part of Indonesia he encountered plastic debris originating from Singapore. To read the full article click here. Source The Jakarta Post.
BioMar joint venture opens line of extruded feed
The joint venture formed by the Danish feed supplier, Biomar Group, and the Chinese Tongwei Group have just inaugurated a new production line for extruded feed and a new warehouse at the Haiwei plant, in Southern China.
Global Marketing Director of Biomar, Henrik Aarestrup said that the new extruder line is part of an upgrade of the factory where we have replaced older equipment with more efficient technology. To read the full article click here. Source FIS.
Prevention of Pollution by Garbage from Ships
Garbage from ships can be just as deadly to marine life as oil or chemicals.
The greatest danger comes from plastic, which can float for years. Fish and marine mammals can in some cases mistake plastics for food and they can also become trapped in plastic ropes, nets, bags and other items - even such innocuous items as the plastic rings used to hold cans of beer and drinks together. To read the full article click here. Source International Maritime Organization.
What happens when the seafloor runs out of breath?
With low-oxygen seafloor areas around the world on the rise, the EU-funded HYPOX project points to warning signs for marine ecosystems.
The environment at the sea bottom is crucial for the lifecycle of many animals. Not only do these animals rely on organic material for consumption, the subsequent waste is then recycled by seafloor life back into the ecosystem, producing new biomass. The rest becomes buried in the seafloor.
A recently published study in the journal ‘Science Advances’ by a team researchers from the HYPOX project, has found that when oxygen concentrations in the bottom-water environment are low, less organic matter can be remineralised and so more gets buried into the sea bed, having a faster and longer impact (lasting decades) than previously thought. The journal quotes Gerdhard Jessen from the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology, Germany, as summarising that, ‘The amount of organic matter ending up in the seafloor increases by half when the seafloor is periodically short of oxygen.’ Tor read the full article click here. Source European Commission.