The We'koqma'q First Nation in Cape Breton is partnering with fish farming giant Cooke Aquaculture to help with the sales and marketing of the reserve's Bras d'Or Lakes steelhead trout.

Since 2011, a trout farm has been in operation at the reserve. Chief Rod Googoo said it has grown to have more than 50 people work at the fish farm, hatchery and processing plant. The operation has about 60 cages in the Bras d'Or Lakes.

"We started off small and we gradually built up steam and we got bigger and we got better at what we do, and we did it over a short period of time," said Googoo, who estimates they will harvest between CAD 10-12 million of fish in 2019.

Source: CBC

SRINAGAR - Advisor to Governor, K Skandan, today said that a massive fisheries and aquaculture programme has been undertaken by the Government to boost the fishing industry in the State.

The Advisor stated this while speaking at a two-day National Conference on Fisheries and Climate Change at Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology Kashmir (SKUAST-K) here.

Advisor Skandan delved into detail as to how climate change has affected food systems. He said that the fisheries and aquaculture sector is a crucial resource in terms of ensuring food and nutrition security. He called for collective efforts to create a balance between developmental needs and environmental sustainability. He said universities, scientists and people together can make strategies to tackle the important issue of climate change which is affecting ecosystem, adding if things go unchecked oceans will also undergo multiple woes.

Source: Daily Excelsior

Canada has the longest coastline in the world, yet it has long been a lax outlier in fisheries management. But with an overhaul of the federal Fisheries Act now complete, the sense among advocates and fisheries experts is that the tide is about to turn.

The passage of Bill C-68 on June 21 means that for the first time since the Fisheries Act was enacted in 1868, Fisheries and Oceans Canada is required to manage fish stocks sustainably and put rebuilding plans in place for those that are depleted.

Josh Laughren, executive director of the non-profit advocacy organization Oceana Canada, says that in 20 years we may look back and see the new criteria around sustainable management and rebuilding stocks as a transformational change.

Source: The Tyee

Sharing data may be a vital element in ending illegal fishing—a crime currently robbing nations of approximately USD 23 billion annually while also undermining legal fisheries management and industry practices. A perpetrator of human trafficking, smuggling, human rights violations and environmental degradation, illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing poses a serious threat to the economies, environment and security of nations. A new paper examines how data sharing between countries committed to Sustainable Development Goal 14 (SDG 14), which entails ending IUU fishing by 2020, can be successfully implemented globally.

"The paper is really about creating a pathway to better implement the UN Port State Measures Agreement (PSMA) globally. This work is all about making fisheries more sustainable, marine ecosystems more resilient, and coastal nation economies healthier," said Annie Brett, André Hoffman Fellow at the Stanford Center for Ocean Solutions and World Economic Forum Center for the 4th Industrial Revolution.

Source: Phys

The Alligator Head Foundation, that has successfully established a fish sanctuary in east Portland, is reaping huge success in its quest to restore marine life.

Founded six years ago by Franscesca Thyssen-Bornemisza, the foundation has been integrally involved in communities across east Portland while creating job opportunities for some residents.

Speaking at the foundation’s open-day event last Friday, Thyssen-Bornemisza pointed out that it has been difficult to achieve success at the fish sanctuary as it is challenging for some fisherfolk to adapt to the necessary changes.

Source: The Gleaner

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued new information for women on eating fish. The document updates advice issued jointly by FDA and the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in 2017.

The advice categorizing fish based on their mercury levels has not changed but the update further promotes science-based recommendations in Dietary Guidelines for Americans on the importance of fish in healthy eating patterns. FDA/EPA advice has been expanded and fish and shellfish now are referred to collectively as “fish” in text and a chart that highlight:

The nutritional value of fish;
The potential health benefits of eating fish; and
Recommendations from the 2015-2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans.

Source: Contemporary OB GYN

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. - A former executive accused of defrauding investors in a scheme to build an USD 11 million fish farm in South Dakota has been sentenced to nine years in federal prison.

U.S. District Judge Karen Schreier on Monday also ordered Tobias Ritesman to pay USD 680,000 in restitution.

The 42-year-old Ritesman, who had nicknamed himself “The Tiger,” earlier pleaded guilty to 18 felonies in connection with the Global Aquaponics project near Brookings.

Source: AP News

ASC welcomes constructive feedback from all its varied stakeholders, and notes that SeaChoice continues to consider ASC’s standards more rigorous than other aquaculture certifications. However, SeaChoice’s criticism of the latest changes to the ASC Salmon Standard includes misleading inaccuracies and seeks to pre-emptively undermine the progress that will be made in addressing sealice with the new approach. The original PTI methodology was created amidst a lack of information about the actual performance of salmon farms and their use of parasiticides and as such was essentially untested.

ASC strongly believes in the importance of regularly monitoring and assessing its standards and is proud to be able to do so in this case by using data that would not be publicly available without the ASC programme. This update is based on several years of analysis of information collected through our programme and other performance data generated by governments and salmon producers across the world. We found that while PTI was an innovative solution at the time, advances in technology and knowledge since then have left it less effective.

Source: ASC

Fishing is the economic lifeline for villages in northern Sri Lanka. But after a decades-long civil war, fishers returned to find their fish stocks depleted — and they pointed a finger squarely at neighboring India.

As people in India developed methods to increase hauls, and crossed a maritime border that was more permeable during the war, they depleted the fish stock for both sides. Now the Sri Lankan Navy is retaliating with force, making the relationship between the two communities that rely on these waters worse.

This is the latest episode of Vox Borders: India. In this episode, Vox Borders looks at how the drawing of a maritime border and lack of access to fish caused a conflict between two communities that used to live in harmony.

Source: Vox

On the shores of Lake Malawi, a crowd eagerly awaits the arrival of a white and yellow cedarwood boat carrying its haul.

The crew of six deliver a single net of chambo, sardine and tiny usipa fish from the boat, just one of 72 vessels that land their catch every day on the beach at Senga Bay.

But overfishing and climate change have taken their toll.

Hundreds of local traders gather each morning and afternoon at Senga only to find that fish populations are falling in Lake Malawi, Africa’s third-largest body of freshwater.

Source: The Globe Post