Seafood Headlines November 13, 2017
On the North Coast, Dungeness crab season under way
The commercial crabbing season will start on time off the Sonoma Coast this fall for the first time in three years, putting fresh Dungeness crab in local markets by week’s end and restoring long-held autumn and holiday traditions. To read the full article click here. Source Press Democrat.
WFC Files Citizen Suit Against Cooke Aquaculture Under CWA
Wild Fish Conservancy (WFC) announces today its filing of a citizen suit against Cooke Aquaculture Pacific, LLC, under section 505 of the Clean Water Act, with the goal of holding the company responsible for the negligent release of over 100,000 farmed Atlantic salmon into public waters. To read the full article click here. Source WFC.
Fishermen's union wants draggers out of vulnerable south coast cod fishery
The union representing the province's fish harvesters is calling for the Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) to close the south coast cod fishery to offshore vessels. Keith Sullivan, president of the Fish, Food and Allied Workers (FFAW) union, said the cod stock in the 3PS fishing area along Newfoundland's south coast is too fragile to handle the pressure. To read the full article click here. Source CBC News.
Maine lobster industry flourishes from China demand
Portland (People's Daily)-“When you take flight from Boston to China, probably there are Maine lobsters in the cargo,” Annie Tselikis told People’s Daily. As the executive director of the Maine Lobster Dealers' Association, Tselikis has focused company efforts on meeting lobster demand from China’s emerging middle-class market. It’s a decision that has yielded positive results. To read the full article click here. Source en.people.cn.
Nations press panel to raise annual Bluefin tuna quotas
Nations fishing the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea have started assessing how much more prized Bluefin tuna can be caught in the next few years amid signs that stocks of the iconic fish are recovering. The 50-nation International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas opened its year-end meeting Tuesday in Marrakech, Morocco, facing pressure from nations to allow more Bluefin to be caught after years of cuts. To read the full article click here. Source Midland Daily News.
AK Fish meetings galore: IPHC, BOF, NPFMC — tune in online!
The final months of the year are when Alaska fishermen learn how much they’ll be able to catch in the coming year and other new rules by fishery managers. Stakeholders not able to make the various meetings can tune in, get documents and interact on line. To read the full article click here. Source Alaska Fish Radio.
Rhode Island Commercial Summer Flounder Fishery Closure
Effective 0001 hours November 14, 2017, fishing vessels issued a Federal moratorium permit for the summer flounder fishery may no longer land summer flounder in Rhode Island for the remainder of the 2017 calendar year. To read the full article click here. Source NOAA.
Kodiak fishermen may soon be able to sell fish from their boats
At its last regular meeting, the Kodiak city council advanced an ordinance, that would allow fishermen to sell their catch to customers directly from their vessels, to its second reading. If passed the ordinance would allow the harbormaster to issue permits to fishermen that’d let them sell seafood in a certain section of the harbor. To read the full article click here. Source kmxt.org.
NORWAY ROYAL SALMON ASA: SUSPICION OF INFECTIOUS SALMON ANEMIA (ISA) AT THE STORE KVALFJORD SITE IN REGION NORTH
The NRS's farming operations in Region North has suspicion of the fish disease ISA at the Store Kvalfjord site in Finnmark. The site contains 0.43 million fish with an average weight of 2.2 kilograms. NRS is awaiting confirmation of the analyzes from the analysis company for a final ascertainment of ISA. The consequences of a possible disease detection are therefore difficult to estimate at this point in time. NRS continues to work to identify the extent of the infection and will come back to the consequences in an updated stock exchange notice. To view the original article click here. Source Nasdaq.
Omega Protein stockholders to vote on Cooke merger
Omega Protein Corporation (NYSE: OME) (the "Company") announced today that Company stockholders of record at the close of business on November 24, 2017 will be entitled to receive notice of and to vote at a special meeting of Company stockholders (the "Special Meeting"), which will be held for the purpose of voting on: (i) a proposal (the "Merger Proposal") to approve and adopt the merger agreement for the proposed merger with Cooke Inc. ("Cooke") and the other transactions contemplated by the merger agreement; (ii) an advisory, non-binding proposal to approve compensation that will or may become payable to our named executive officers in connection with the merger; and (iii) a proposal to approve the adjournment or postponement of the special meeting, if necessary or appropriate, to solicit additional proxies if there are insufficient votes at the time of the special meeting to approve the Merger Proposal ((i), (ii) and (iii) collectively, the "Proposed Transaction"). To read the full article click here. Source CNBC.
Salmon-farming operations face protests, occupations in B.C., legislative scrutiny in Washington state
A showdown is brewing over Atlantic salmon net-pen farming on both sides of the U.S.-Canada border. Marine Harvest, a major producer of farmed Atlantic salmon in British Columbia, is seeking a court order to evict First Nations women who have occupied one of its fish farms, an order it intends to enforce by police action if necessary, said Ian Roberts, spokesman for the company. Marine Harvest operates 11 open-water Atlantic salmon net-pen farms in the Broughton Archipelago alone, at the northeast end of Vancouver Island. To read the full article click here. Source The Seattle Times.
Warming Oceans Continue to Pressure Our Fisheries, Squid Quota Even Lower that Last Year
#ClimateChange - Warming Oceans conditions continue to have strong effects on Salmon returns, Cod breeding, Jordani Shrimp (as mentioned in last week's episode) and also Squid. Climate change and seasonality of climate conditions are imperative to the viability of many stocks along our West Coast, the Commercial Fisheries are many people's livelihood, placing the utmost importance on fisheries management, explains Roger Griffis of NOAA Fisheries. To watch the video click here. Source Tradex.
Maine’s lobster marketing group is facing existential opposition from an unlikely source: the lobster industry.
With lobster prices down, both at the dock and the dealer’s office, some who make their living off the state’s signature crustacean are reluctant to approve another five years of funding to the Maine Lobster Marketing Collaborative, whose $2.2 million-a-year budget is funded by lobster license surcharges. To read the full article click here. Source Press Herald.
Why Is Fish Good for You? Because It Replaces Meat?
Articles often mention that eating any kind of fish (not just fatty fish) twice weekly reduces various health risks. Is this because it replaces red meat, or is there some other reason? To read the full article click here. Source New York Times.
Blob is gone, but not forgotten for scientists studying decline in B.C. fish stocks
The blob is the popular name for a huge patch of warm water that featured record temperatures — in some cases, three to four degrees Celsius above normal — in the Northeast Pacific starting in 2013 and running through late 2015 and early 2016. Scientists are now concerned that young fish feeding at sea during the blob’s presence did not have enough nutritious food to eat — and that could translate into reduced adult fish to harvest going forward. To read the full article click here. Source Vancouver Sun.
Atlantic Menhaden Management Board Meeting November 13, 2017 1:00 pm to consider approval of Amendment 3
The Board will meet to consider approval of Amendment 3 to the Interstate Fishery Management Plan for Atlantic Menhaden. The Commission's Business Session will meet immediately following the conclusion of the Atlantic Menhaden Board to consider final approval of Amendment 3. To read the full article click here. Source asmfc.org.
Africola chef harvests seaweed illegally to keep native ingredient on menu
A high-profile Adelaide chef is illegally harvesting native seaweed for his restaurant, because he says the permit application fees are too expensive. To read the full article click here. Source ABC News.
Onshore Abalone: The risks and rewards of onshore abalone farming
Taking a chance on a new aquaculture industry is paying off for the owners of Australia's largest onshore abalone operation. To watch the video click here. Source ABC News.
Statisticians have devised a new way to study the factors that impact bycatch during commercial fishing expeditions
Fishermen have no way of separating the fish they catch when they cast their nets at sea. Protected species and fish with no market value -- the hammerhead shark, for example -- end up being trapped and dying for no reason. In an attempt to minimize this incidental fishing, statisticians from the University of Geneva (UNIGE, Switzerland), Dalhousie University (Halifax, Canada) and the Australian National University (Canberra) have devised a new statistical method for predicting bycatches more accurately in the future. The technique, which is explained in full in the journal Annals of Applied Statistics, can also be applied to other research fields, including health economics, medicine and educational science. To read the full article click here. Source Science Daily.
Cleaning up aquatic pollution with mussels
When it comes to nutrients, like nitrogen and phosphorus, too much of a good thing can be bad. These nutrients end up in rivers and streams as the result of human activities and can cause algal blooms, loss of seagrass and low oxygen levels, which can lead to large numbers of fish and other organisms dying. To read the full article click here. Source Science Daily.