Bangkok - The Asia-Pacific region is taking important preparatory steps to strengthen the governance of aquaculture for sustainable development and future food security, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) announced today.

Following four decades of advancements, aquaculture has surpassed capture fisheries to become the major source of fish for human consumption in Asia. Total production of aquaculture reached 103 million tonnes in 2017, and that fish supplied some 60 percent of food fish for human consumption. In 2017, the average per capita fish consumption in Asia reached 24 kg, contributing 23 percent of animal protein in Asian diets.

Asian aquaculture also provides an important source of livelihoods for rural communities as well as creating job opportunities in related supporting sectors, such as input manufacture, construction, processing, trade and other service sectors. It has engaged over 18 million fish farmers in primary production and nearly equal numbers of job opportunities in related supporting sectors.

Source: Scoop

Defense counsel representing Bumble Bee Foods' former CEO Christopher Lischewski hammered one of his former lieutenants before a California federal jury Tuesday, asking the tearful witness whether he took a guilty plea and then lied about Lischewski's involvement in tuna industry price-fixing to avoid jail.

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SAO PAULO/ATHENS - The manager of an oil tanker being probed by Brazilian authorities in connection with an oil spill off the country’s coast has found “no proof” of the vessel conducting activities that may have led to leaks on a journey between Venezuela and Malaysia.

In a statement sent to Reuters on Saturday, Delta Tankers Ltd, who manages the Greek-flagged Bouboulina ship, said a full search of the material from the cameras and sensors that all their vessels carry revealed no evidence of the tanker “having stopped, conducted any kind of ship-to-ship operation, leaked, slowed down or veered off course, on its passage from Venezuela to Melaka, Malaysia.”

Source: Reuters

Environmental groups are calling for the immediate closure of the herring fishery in the Strait of Georgia, citing steep declines in the herring population between 2016 and 2019.

But industry watchers can’t quite figure out their math.

Action is necessary to protect endangered chinook salmon populations and southern resident killer whales, said Ian McAllister, executive director of Pacific Wild. “Shutting the herring fishery down to let stocks recover should be the first course of action.”

He argues that the baseline for abundance set by Fisheries and Oceans Canada was set after local stocks had been substantially depleted by a decades-long industrial-scale fishery. The Pacific herring fishery was shut down for several years, beginning in 1967, after populations collapsed due to overfishing.

Source: Vancouver Sun

In an Appeal Court judgment issued today, it was determined that regional councils are precluded from undertaking actions for Fisheries Act purposes.

Such purposes include conserving, using, enhancing, developing or allocating fisheries resources, and also any actions to avoid, remedy or mitigate the effects of fishing on the wider aquatic environment.

Fisheries Inshore New Zealand chief executive, Dr Jeremy Helson, said: "We are pleased the Court has confirmed that fisheries management remains the concern of the Fisheries Act.

Source: Voxy

The Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition is calling for urgent action from global leaders to protect Antarctic waters. This week, Members of the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) were unable to reach consensus on marine protections in the Southern Ocean at their annual meeting in Hobart.

"We urgently need global leadership to reflect the importance of protecting the Southern Ocean surrounding Antarctica. The science is settled. It is only political will preventing the creation of new marine protections in the world’s last great wilderness," said Claire Christian, executive director of the Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition.

CCAMLR was the first opportunity for action and political leadership following the release of the U.N.’s IPCC Special Report, which warns of the damaging impact climate change is having on the world’s oceans and polar regions. Despite this, some countries arrived at the meeting with no mandate to take action on the findings of this report by urgently supporting the designation of MPAs.

Source: Voxy

To wake up in the Northeastern United States—as California blazes and Japan digs itself out of typhoon damage—is to experience an uneasy gratitude for all that is not burning, battered or underwater. Seven years out from Superstorm Sandy, we know not to get cocky, but there’s a relief in being able to worry about work and more pedestrian finances instead of evacuation plans, or ordering the right kind of smoke mask. It’s a small luxury in climate-didn’t-come-for-me-today compartmentalization.

But deep down, we know better. And if the national discussion hasn’t moved to climate change in the Northeast yet, it soon will. The effects are already profound—they just happen to be underwater.

Fourth-generation fisherman Al Cottone holds no illusions of being spared climate impacts in 2019.  He captains one of the 15 fishing boats still active in the waters around Gloucester, Massachusetts. Not a decade ago, there were 50. To fish in the Gulf of Maine—the ocean inlet spanning from Cape Cod up to the southern tip of Nova Scotia—is to navigate one of the fastest-warming bodies of water on the planet. “It’s not something you see with your naked eye,” Cottone told me. “But fish are definitely reacting differently, and I’m attributing it to climate change. We’re seeing them in deeper water—they’re trying to get the right temperature at depth.”

Source: The New Republic

Ocean Venture II (S121) is an Irish registered and licensed stern trawler owned and operated by Cornelius and Ross Minihane, the directors of the Irish company Ocean Venture II Fishing Limited.

The court heard how the vessel departed Castletownbere on 17 May 2019 and Michael Harrington was master for the trip. The vessel was using two trawls, each with double codends, and during the trip fished in areas forming the Hake Recovery Zone, the Biologically Sensitive Area and the Celtic Sea Square Mesh Panel Area.

On 22 May 2019 the vessel was boarded by MMO marine enforcement officers from Ocean Osprey. The subsequent inspection found seven offences relating to inaccurate catch recording and the codends used. The master also failed to produce a stowage plan.

Source: Gov UK

The Board of Directors of AKVA group ASA (AKVA) announce that Hallvard Muri resigns from his position, with effect as of today. Mr. Muri has held the position since 4 November 2016.

Mr. Muri states: “After serving as CEO for three years, I believe it is time to pass on the leadership of AKVA, and let others take on the challenge developing AKVA further. AKVA is a great company with a strong position, and potential for the future. I would like to thank the Board of Directors, the management team and all the employees for the time I have had in the company, and I wish them all the best for the future”.

The Board of Directors further announce that the Chairperson of the Board, Knut Nesse, is appointed as interim CEO, with immediate effect. To allow for this, Mr. Nesse will resign from the Board of Directors. The Board of Directors has elected Hans Kristian Mong as the new Chairperson, also with effect from today.

Mr. Mong states: “AKVA has grown strongly and gone through a positive development the last three years, and on behalf of the Board of Directors, I would like to thank Mr. Muri for his continued dedication and hard work in this period”

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With fish stocks declining in the Mediterranean, struggling Moroccan fishermen are hoping to turn to aquaculture as a way to secure their future.

"We don't get anything from the sea anymore, we're paying for the mistakes of our fathers," said Mohamed Bouajra, a fisherman in Ras Kebdana, a port town near Morocco's eastern border with Algeria.

But aquaculture offers a "glimmer of hope for escaping poverty", he said.

In Ras Kebdana, the Al Amal cooperative for independent fishermen is banking on the development of an offshore mussel farm to maintain future livelihoods.

Source: Phys