A new international marine co-operative is building its headquarters in the tiny Lower North Shore village of St. Paul's River, where it hopes to bring jobs as it seeks to make the fishing industry more sustainable.  

The International Blue Co-operative was founded earlier this month, and is made up of community leaders, researchers, policy makers and businesses from around the world, including Mexico, France and Australia.

Its goal is to promote sustainable marine practices, especially in remote communities. "We could be the hub of this and lead it," said president Kimberly Buffett.

Source: CBC

Lucy Hughes, 24, a graduate in product design from the University of Sussex, has been awarded the prestigious James Dyson award for her biodegradable and compostable material known as MarinaTex.

The annual award scheme is run by the James Dyson Foundation, and is an international design award, that “inspires, encourages and celebrates budding inventors’ new, problem-solving ideas – and provides a platform to launch them.”

Sir James Dyson said in regards to this year’s winner: “Young engineers have the passion, awareness and intelligence to solve some of the world’s biggest problems. MarinaTex elegantly solves two problems: the ubiquity of single-use plastic and fish waste.”

Source: Euro Weekly News

Critics of hatchery-raised fish claim the hatchery-rearing process affects fish genetics negatively, but Pahsimeroi Fish Hatchery Manager Doug Engemann said it’s more complicated.

At an Oct. 22 2019 panel discussion, Trout Unlimited scientist Helen Neville said raising fish in hatcheries isn’t a viable option to replace decreasing numbers of salmon in the Salmon River. She said the domestication process affects the DNA of fish because being raised in a tank adds natural selection pressures not seen in a natural environment.

Engemann, who has been with the Idaho Department of Fish and Game for 32 years, said these pressures can affect fish, but they affect some fish more than others.

Source: Post Register

The North America Aquaculture market is accounted to US$ 6,432.8 Mn in 2018 and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 4.8% during the forecast period 2019 – 2027, to account to US$ 9,685.1 Mn by 2027.

The US is dominating the North America aquaculture market, followed by Canada. The demand for aquaculture is growing in the US, owing to increased consumer awareness related to health benefits associated with the seafood. Aquaculture has high protein content due to which it is gaining more acceptance by a larger customer base. The shift in consumer lifestyle along with inclination towards healthy food products, is also expected the growth of the market across the US. The manufacturers in the region are focusing more towards innovation and development to boost the growth of North America aquaculture market.

Source: Markets Gazette

In October 2019, imports of frozen squid(tube) amounted to about 2,767 tons, up 12 percent from about 2,480 tons a year earlier. 

The cumulative import volume in October came to about 21,281 tons, down about 16 percent from about 25,351 tons a year earlier.

From 2014 to 2019, the average import volume reached 2,108 tons in October, up 31 percent from 2,767 tons in 2019. 

The main importers of frozen squid(tube) are China, Peru, Chile, Indonesia, and Philippines.

About 40 percent (8,500 tons) of the total goods were imported from China, and about 35 percent (7,483 tons) from Peru and 25 percent (5,244 tons) from Chile.

Source: Union Forsea Corp.

Food safety and marine health organisations in Norway and Iceland are this week battling with suspected salmon related diseases on at least three fronts.

They involve ISA or infectious salmon anaemia at two sites in Norway and a confirmed case of IPA or the viral disease known as infectious pancreatic necrosis in Iceland.

This is thought to be the first time that IPA has been found at a salmon farm in Iceland, although it has affected halibut in the past.

The virus, which can be fatal to fish, was reported at a Laxa freshwater aquaculture site in Reydarfjordur.

Source: Fish Farmer Magazine

The Pacific Fishing Company has today clarified that operations in Levuka have been reduced to a four-day working week with the challenge of albacore tuna supply affecting operations.

PAFCO’s Chair Ikbal Jannif says there is a worldwide shortage of albacore tuna which has seen their supply go from 23 thousand metric tons down to only 16 point five thousand metric tons this year.

As a result, PAFCO’s 600 full-time staff have over the last two months been earning only eighty percent of what they would normally take home because of the reduced working week.

Source: FBC News

Lower catches for halibut appear to be in the forecast for 2020 and beyond.

At the International Pacific Halibut Commission meeting on Monday in Seattle, lead scientist Ian Stewart summarized the outlook for commercial fisheries from Northern California and British Columbia to the Bering Sea.

“In short, the model survey trends as you’ve seen from the previous presentations are down both in numbers and weight per unit of effort. And what we’ve seen from the commercial fishery’s CPUE (catch per unit of effort) is we have mixed trends, however relatively flat at the coast wide levels with some brighter spots and some not so good spots across the coast.”  

Source: Alaska Fish Radio

The head of news at BBC Radio 5 Live, Jonathan Crawford, issued an apology after the Scottish Salmon Producers Organisation (SSPO) complained about Campbell’s broadcast earlier in November 2019.

In two programmes, Your Call, which he presented on November 6, and then on 5 Live Breakfast the following day, he claimed the Scottish salmon sector was ‘highly polluting and unregulated’. He also claimed farms were ‘terrible for the environment’.

The SSPO refuted the claims by Campbell as wrong, misleading and factually inaccurate, and argued that he had breached the BBC’s editorial guidelines, both in terms of accuracy and impartiality.

Source: Fish Farmer Magazine

Northern Fisheries Ltd. of Little Compton, RI, has expanded their voluntary recall of frozen, wild-caught yellowfin Tuna Medallions (product of Vietnam) to include product sold directly to consumers. This recall is due to potentially elevated levels of histamine. Elevated levels of histamines can produce an allergic reaction called scombroid fish poisoning that may result in symptoms that can generally appear within minutes to several hours after eating the affected fish.