Nakuru county government has suspended the annual fishing ban at Lake Naivasha and instead introduced a restocking exercise to help improve fish production.

The ban which had been planned for between June and August 2019 had been proposed by the fisheries department as a way of addressing the dwindling fish stocks at the water resource.

But Governor Lee Kinyanjui said the lake was a critical resource to the economy of the county as it supports livelihoods of thousands of residents.

Source: Kenya News

KOCHI - Researchers have discovered yet another subterranean snakehead species from Kerala.

The newly discovered fish, a cousin of the well-known varaal and cher meen, is characterised by an elongate body, small size, a very large mouth, and most remarkably, the fin rays of the pectoral fin being greatly elongated as filamentous extensions. It is hypothesized that these extensions may be sensory in nature and used by the fish to find its way in the dark by touch. Resea-rchers at the Peninsular and Marine Fish Genetic Resources Centre of National Bureau of Fish Genetic Resources (NBFGR), Kochi have described the species as Aenigmachanna mahabali. The fish was collected by Arun Vishwanath, a native of Thiruvalla from the well in his house in April, 2018.

The discovery of this species comes on the heels of Aenigmachanna gollum, that was discovered earlier this year from Malappuram.  

Source: Deccan Chronicle

SEOUL - North Korea has released a Russian fishing boat held after being accused of violating entry regulations, the Russian embassy in North Korea said on Sunday, in an incident that prompted a Russian warning of a freezing of talks on fisheries cooperation.

North Korea detained the 15 Russian and two South Korean crew members of the fishing boat on July 17 2019 for violating entry rules, according to the embassy. Russia said the boat did not breach any law.

The two South Korean men were also freed, the embassy said in a Facebook post.

Russia’s RIA news agency had earlier cited Russia’s fisheries agency Rosrybolovstvo as saying shipping data showed North Korea’s action had been illegal and the fishing boat had not entered its waters.

Source: Reuters

A LEADING SNP official was made to squirm during a BBC grilling this morning, after the Scottish minister backed giving away control of its fisheries in exchange for EU membership.

The SNP could face a crisis over its EU position as Britain heads towards a no deal exit under Boris Johnson. In a shocking slip-up, the SNP’s Derek Mackay told the BBC this morning that an independent Scotland could give back control of its fisheries to Brussels in exchange for EU membership. After being pressed by the BBC’s Martha Kearney, the Finance Secretary of Scotland admitted that the Scottish fisheries were an acceptable trade-off.

Source: Express

A recent research now says eating fish regularly can reduce one’s risk of colorectal cancer, which affects both the colon and rectum.

Colorectal cancer killed Kibra MP Ken Okoth on Friday. He was 41 years.

Data from the latest Globocan report, which has separated the two cancers, shows only 30 per cent of those diagnosed with colon cancer survived.

Source: Standard Media

Two disaster-related bills proposed this week in Congress could offer relief for Louisiana communities affected by extreme weather. One would create a permanent safety net program for commercial fishers who have suffered losses due to environmental damage. Another would create a special fund meant to help cities and towns build more resiliently.

Environmental disasters can cause commercial fishers to lose money. This year, for example, Mississippi River flooding has dramatically reduced the catch of several kinds of seafood in both Mississippi and Louisiana.

The Commercial Fishing and Aquaculture Protection Act of 2019, S. 2209, would create a permanent safety net program that would pay commercial fishers for their losses if those losses were caused by environmental conditions.

Source: WRKF

We approved Framework Adjustment 58 to the Northeast Multispecies Fishery Management Plan and are announcing final quotas for fishing year 2019. 

The groundfish possession limits announced for May 1, 2019, are not changed by this action. 

These quotas are effective on July 18, 2019. 

We also changed the annual days-at-sea leasing deadline to April 30, implemented new rebuilding plans for five stocks, and revised an accountability measure for the scallop fishery. These measures are not included in this bulletin, but you can find more information about these in the final rule.

Source: Fisheries NOAA

A shock move in the UK seafood industry has seen Seachill’s Simon Smith appointed as head of Young’s.

The man who led the creation of The Saucy Fish Co in a decade with the company is travelling across Grimsby - where both are based - to the major rival after Bill Showalter decided to leave following the buy-out by CapVest-backed Karro Food Group .

Speculation had been rife about his future after the deal, which created a GBP 1.2 billion turnover group, with the former chief financial officer having seen through the protracted acquisition of the Ross House headquartered giant.

Source: Business Live

MANILA - Experts have warned that the South China Sea — one of the world’s vital marine ecosystems — is on the edge of a fisheries collapse as it faces serious threats of overfishing.

However, Malacañang on Tuesday ignored this caution, arguing that the resource-rich waters will never run out of fish.

“Aren’t those fishes that were caught suposed to reproduce? Those fishes reproduce every day and the sea is vast,” presidential spokesman Salvador Panelo said in response to Supreme Court Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio’s warning that Chinese fishermen could seize “all the fish” if given access to Philippine waters.

Source: Phil Star

Killing up to 200,000 people annually, schistosomiasis is one of the most deadly parasitic diseases in the world, second only to malaria. Soon, however, prawn aquaculture could be used to control the snails that spread it – and to provide revenue for people in developing nations.

Freshwater river prawns are already widely grown as food, starting out in hatcheries and then being transferred to pens in waterways as they mature. Additionally, scientists already know that the crustaceans feed ravenously on the snails which temporarily host the "blood fluke" parasites which cause schistosomiasis.

Recently, an international research project led by scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, looked at the relationship between these two factors. More specifically, the scientists wanted to know if local-scale prawn aquaculture could have an appreciable effect on snail populations. What they found was indeed promising.

Source: New Atlas