Norwegian fish farmer Norcod has been granted permission to establish a new production location in Nesna municipality, in the Nordland region.

It has been allocated a total maximum allowed biomass (MAB) of 3,599 tonnes for a new cod farm.

It is the company’s second location in Nesna and, together with a site at Labukta, it forms a production cluster with a total capacity of 7,200 tonnes.

Source: FishFarmer | read the full article here

Ambassador Einar Gunnarsson of Iceland, chair of the fisheries subsidies negotiations, has noted that WTO members have expressed broad support for the use of the draft text on reducing subsidies that contribute to overcapacity and overfishing, distributed at the beginning of the month, as a starting point for negotiations based. He added that he intended to dedicate the next debate, which will take place in October, to a joint reading of the text so that members can propose concrete modifications to the draft.

Source: EuropaAzul | Read the full article here

Only one in six forage fish populations in the Northeast Atlantic is both sustainably exploited and in a healthy state, according to a report published by Oceana. The marine conservation organisation is urging Northeast Atlantic countries to improve their management of these small fish, in advance of negotiations on fishing limits later this year.

Many marine species – from marine mammals and seabirds to commercially important fish – depend on forage fish such as sandeel, sprat, and herring as a primary source of food.

Source: FishFocus | read the full article here

Executives at New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S.A.-based Prime Shrimp are on a mission to popularize at-home shrimp consumption across America by emphasizing their products’ convenience, high quality, and flavor.

Fresh off the launch of six frozen shrimp products 18 months ago, the shrimp processor and packager recently rolled out its newest flavor: New Orleans-style BBQ. The company is attempting to coax consumers who prioritize convenience away from meat and toward seafood.

Author: Christine Blank / SeafoodSource | read the full article here

Egyptian fisheries must be better managed to secure the overall health of the Mediterranean Sea's marine living resources, new research has found.

In a new paper in the journal Ocean and Coastal Management, researchers with the Sea Around Us initiative at the University of British Columbia and the Arab Academy for Science, Technology and Maritime Transport reconstructed Egypt's marine fisheries' catches from the Mediterranean in the last 100 years and found strong evidence of resource overexploitation. Such overexploitation has pushed fishers to go farther and deeper, increasingly resorting to species lower in the food chain.

"The Egyptian Mediterranean marine fisheries consist of a century-old, predominantly trawl fishery as well as other fisheries, such as longlining, purse-seining and multi-gear traditional fisheries," said Dr. Myriam Khalfallah, who led the study as a post-doctoral fellow with the Sea Around Us. "From 1920 to 2019, 3.8 million tons of fish and invertebrates were removed from Egypt's Mediterranean waters. We identified major peaks in catches followed by drastic declines caused by various external events and increased fishing pressure." [...]

Source: phys.org

Sponsored by the Spanish Technological Platform for Fishing and Aquaculture (PTEPA), the main agents of the fishing value chain (CEPESCA, FNCP, FEDEPESCA, APROMAR, Association of Wholesale Fish Entrepreneurs of Madrid, Rula de Avilés) and technological agents of the fishing sector (Biolan Microbiosensores and Sinerxia Plus ) have developed this strategy within the framework of the PESCAZUL project, which has had the support of the Next Generation funds and the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan promoted by the Government of Spain, specifically, through the call for projects of blue growth for Knowledge Spaces, of which the PTEPA is a part.

Its result, the “Spanish Strategy from Sea to Table”, aims to The objective is to transfer the proposed objectives from the sector entities that have participated in the project, to configure broad lines of action to help public authorities design the lines of work to achieve the objective of achieving a fishing and fishing value chain. sustainable, resilient and innovative aquaculture.

A strategy to achieve a more sustainable and resilient sector after COVID-19 and to respond to the incomplete nature of the European Strategy “From farm to fork”.

The Spanish strategy from sea to table arises as a response to the recent approval by the European Union of the “From farm to fork” strategy, one of the axes of the European Green Deal, with the aim of responding to the challenges in the food sector European. A European strategy, which has not met the expectations of the Spanish fishing and aquaculture value chain, which expected from the document, a greater presence of fishing and aquaculture activity.

Source: www.pescazul.es

Mussel farmers say they have suffered "unfathomable" losses due to an intense plankton bloom off Thailand's east coast. This was reported by the South China Morning Post.

An unusually dense plankton bloom has created a "dead zone" off Thailand's east coast, threatening mussel production in those waters. According to experts, in some areas of the Gulf of Thailand the amount of plankton is more than 10 times higher than normal. Because of this, the water turned bright green, and the animals living in it died. At the same time, more than 80% of the 300 mussel farms located there were damaged along the coast of Chonburi.

As the publication writes , plankton usually blooms 1 or 2 times a year for 2–3 days. This depletes oxygen in the water and blocks the flow of sunlight, which negatively affects the lives of marine life.

Although the reason for the intense plankton bloom remains unclear, scientists have speculated that pollution and extreme heat associated with climate change are to blame.

The Directorate of Fisheries has today given permission for the establishment of the first Norwegian location for aquaculture in the open sea.

SalMar Aker Ocean AS has received clearance for the site "Frøya" in the Norwegian Sea. The location is approx. 45 nautical miles outside the baseline. The site clearance has been granted for 19,000 tonnes of maximum permitted biomass of salmon.

The background to the case is that in 2019 the SalMar company Mariculture received eight development permits for testing the technology in the Smart Fish Farm concept. It is this facility that is planned to be established in the Norwegian Sea.

Source: fiskeridir.no

Benchmark Genetics Chile is pleased to announce that effective September 18, 2023, Berta Contreras Mutis has assumed the role of General Manager, succeeding Pablo Mazo, who has transitioned to the position of Performance and Documentation Manager at Benchmark Genetics in Norway.

Berta Contreras Mutis, a marine chemist from the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile with an MBA from Universidad del Desarrollo, has a long history within the Chilean salmon industry. Her previous roles encompass Technical Manager and Corporate Affairs Manager at Marine Harvest Chile (now Mowi Chile), Managing Partner at Conecta Spa, and, more recently, Technical Manager and Research and Development at Cermaq Chile.

Bertha Contreras is taking over the responsibility from Pablo Mazo who is now starting a new career path in Norway as Performance and Documentation Manager in the global salmon production team.[...]

Source: Benchmark

The Galician multinational Nueva Pescanova and unions begin this Tuesday the negotiation of the employment regulation file (ERE), which seeks the dismissal of about one hundred employees from its offices in Chapela, in Redondela (Pontevedra) and Madrid.

As union sources have reported, the meetings began at 11:30 a.m. and will take place in the Mar de Vigo Auditorium.

It was on September 6 when Nueva Pescanova informed the company committees and union delegates of its intention to start this ERE, which it justifies "for economic and organizational reasons" and which will be limited to the support areas of Chapela and Madrid.

Source: LaVozdeGalicia | Read the full article here