New Bedford Fish Auction Volume Off 45% this Year Due to Ice and Storms

SEAFOODNEWS.COM [New York Times] By Katharine Q. Seelye - March 2, 2015 - 

NEW BEDFORD, Mass.,  Mark Abraham, who has fished the New England coast for decades, kept a sharp eye on his catch as the slimy haddock spilled onto a dockside conveyor belt. He had just returned from 10 frigid days at sea, among the most brutal he has spent...

Louisbourg Seafoods To Expand Nova Scotia Lobster Pound Operations With $3 Million Investment

SEAFOODNEWS.COM [The Chronicle Herald] March 2, 2015

A local seafood company is investing $3 million this year to modernize and expand its operations, conduct applied research and demonstrate its belief that the industry’s future is bright.

One-third of the funding will go into equipping a new lobster pound in the former National Sea Products building that the company recently purchased.

“Our weather is changing so much,” said Dannie Hansen, a senior team leader with Louisbourg Seafoods. “The water is getting warmer and it’s so uncertain, and the demand for high-quality product in our lobsters, and the Nova Scotia high-quality brand, requires the right type of housing for that species...

The Editors View: Alaska Salmon, Who’s Brand Is It?

SEAFOODNEWS.COM [The Editor's View] by John Sackton March 2, 2015

Atlantic Scallop Season Opens March 1st with Temporary Rules; Projected Landings are 47 Million Lbs

SEAFOODNEWS.COM [SeafoodNews]  March 2, 2015

Tropical Aquaculture's Ecuadorian Shrimp Producer Santa Priscila Gets ASC Certification

SEAFOODNEWS.COM [SeafoodNews] March 2, 2015

Tropical Aquaculture's shrimp producing partner Industrial Pesquera Santa Priscila has received Aquaculture Stewardship Council for its Chanduy shrimp farming operations in the Ecuadorian province of Santa Elena.

The certification will officially be given Santa Priscila's farm this week. The Chanduy farm was visited by two auditors from the Control Union Peru SAC certification body at the end of 2014 with the aim to meet with several members of the workforce and verify each one of the ASC standard's criteria. 

The site produces shrimp for Tropical's Blue Foot White Shrimp brand...

SEAFOODNEWS.COM [Urner Barry] by Jamie Chadwick - March 02, 2015

Cermaq Canada Testing Liquid Oxygen Diffuser to Control Sea Lice

SEAFOODNEWS.COM [Techno Press] March 2, 2015

Cermaq Canada is testing a liquid oxygen diffuser designed to reduce the risk of sea lice in salmon farming operations.

The Keepex technology will be installed in 21 salmon fattening centers in Cermaq's farms located across Canada. Keepex's diffusing gas systems automatically disperses liquid oxygen throughout a salmon farming pen. The practice reduces the risk of sea lice spreading into the operation.

Unlike pesticides' used to control sea lice the automated system has less impact on surrounding environment.

"This system can be automated and keeps large biomass. The main advantage is that farming center is protected for all types of events, such as low blooms, therapeutic baths or crops, among others. Currently we have installed over 40 feedlots with our system," said Keepex executive Christopher Zanetta...

N.S. Lobster Buyers Worry About Transfer of Green Crab Parasites to Lobster in Crates

SEAFOODNEWS.COM [Chronicle Herald] By Tom Ayers  - March 2, 2015 -

SYDNEY, A parasite found in green crab is causing some concern among Nova Scotia lobster buyers after research showed the parasite can be transferred to live lobsters caught in traps using green crab as bait.

A green crab bait fishery has been under consideration for several years around Cape Breton, but no licences have been issued.

Researchers published a study last week showing the parasite Profilicollis botulus, normally found only in green crabs, was found in significant numbers of lobsters caught with green crab bait.

Anecdotal evidence suggests the parasite causes lobsters to die earlier while being held in a live pound.

Delayed Skrei Cod Season Pushes Norway's Overall Cod Export Values Down 14% in January

SEAFOODNEWS.COM [SeafoodNews] March 2, 2015

A delayed start to Norway's skrei cod season contributed  to a decline in its overall cod exporting values in January. Still, strong Brazilian demand for salted and dried clipfish did send export values to record highs to start the year.

According to the Norwegian Seafood Export Council, the overall value of January seafood shipments to overseas markets was down 8 percent to around US$702 million when compared to the same time last year.  

A notable decline in Norwegian fresh cod export values carried the overall decline in export values. The late start to this year's skrei cod season contributed to the 14 percent drop in Norway's exported fresh cod value. For the month Norwegian fresh cod shipments totaled $26 million.

Like Lobster, Clam Prices Spike in Late February as Winter Weather Cuts Supply

SEAFOODNEWS.COM by Michael Ramsingh - February 27, 2015

Clams have become the latest seafood item to fall victim to February's icy conditions and cold temperatures. Traders have reported short supplies with fishermen unable to harvest and prices are up sharply since the start of the month. 

Urner Barry's Fulton Market prices for 400 count littleneck out of Long Island are up 31 percent to $115 per pound. This a $27.5 per pound increase since the first week of February.

Traders report short supplies with fishermen have been unable to harvest in iced over clamming grounds. Earlier this week lobster traders reported similar situations in Maine and Canada. New England's lobstermen--with their boats frozen in harbors--have been unable to fish for three weeks. In Canada, lobster pounds are also iced over and fishing in Nova Scotia has been minimal. The lack of fishing has led to lower lobster supplies and record high live prices in February.

So for now, winter weather impacts to the the clam market are trending quite similar to what's happening with lobster. Reduced fishing efforts have pinched clam supplies in late February and prices are up sharply heading into March.

Bainbridge Island NET Systems Expanding into Purse Seines with MARCO Acquisition

SEAFOODNEWS.COM [Kitsap Sun] By Tad Sooter - March 2, 2015 - 

BAINBRIDGE ISLAND, Before they begin scooping fish out of the ocean, many trawl nets are born at a factory off Day Road.

Inside the clattering warehouse automated looms run day and night, meticulously braiding thin, synthetic fibers into vast sheets of white netting.

“We’ll load this machine up with this material, and it will run for 10 days, because it’s so fine,” NET Systems President Dan Oliver said.

The Bainbridge Island company is the only manufacturer in North American with the looms needed to produce this knotless, polyethylene netting, a product it unabashedly calls the “world’s strongest.”

Squares in the netting are formed with braids instead of the traditional knots, making it less likely to lose its shape or break, according to its makers.<

Russia Might Lift Import Bans in Exchange for Investment in Processing in Russia

SEAFOODNEWS.COM [PNA] - March 2, 2015 -   

MOSCOW, Russia could potentially allow imports of agricultural raw materials if western countries agree to invest in processing facilities on the Russian territory, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said when responding to Greece's request to continue fruits import to Russia.

'There are quite straightforward rues of the World Trade Organization. And Russia, as a WTO member, cannot choose: we cannot impose sanctions against EU member states and selectively lift sanctions on one of the countries. In this case it would be possible to develop a scheme of non-direct supplies, such as imports of raw materials with an investment into Russia-based food processing facilities,' Peskov said...

Invasive Blue Catfish the Greatest Environmental Threat Chesapeake Bay Has Ever Faced (Opinion)

SEAFOODNEWS.COM [SeafoodNews] By Tim Sughrue - March 2, 2015 -

(Tim Sughrue is V.P. Congressional Seafood, Jessup, MD)

Tim Sughrue, is on a mission to spread the word about the wild blue catfish currently threatening the health of the Chesapeake Bay. An aggressive species, the blue catfish are multiplying rapidly and eating everything in their path posing an environmental catastrophe to our local rivers and streams.

We need to harvest at least 40 million pounds annually for the forseeable future  to control this infestation.  If you catch 40 million pounds of blue cats, you have to sell them.  That means we have to create 10 to 15 times the demand for this fish than is there now.  It is grillable and has a white flaky meat that tastes fabulous.  It doesn't taste like what you would expect a catfish to taste lie.  It tastes like rockfish because it eats everything a rockfish eats, including rockfish.

Walmart Launches Sustainability Leaders Program to Empower Customers to Reward Seafood Producers

SEAFOODNEWS.COM by John Sackton - February 27, 2015

Called Sustainability Leaders shop...

International Mussel Industry Forum Held on P.E.I. Hosted by Aquaculture Alliance

SEAFOODNEWS.COM [Journal Pioneer] - February 27, 2015 - 

A wide net hauled in a diverse group of mussel industry players to a new forum held in Charlottetown. Ann Worth, executive director of the P.E.I. Aquaculture Alliance, says the three-day P.E.I. Mussel Industry Innovation and Technical Forum focused on innovations that mussel-producing areas in the world have embraced to help move the industry forward.

P.E.I. accounts for 70 per cent of Canadian mussel production.

Mussel landings in the province for 2013 were just over 40 million pounds with a direct value in excess of $30 million, said Worth.

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Ancient Alaskan Cod Bones Show More Mercury in the Food Chain as Sea Levels Rise

SEAFOODNEWS.COM [Alaska Dispatch News] by Yereth Rosen - March 2, 2015

Ancient cod bones unearthed at an Alaska archaeological site carry a very modern warning for a world with a rapidly changing climate -- as sea levels rise, so do levels of mercury in the food chain.

The bones, discovered at a coastal site in Katmai National Park and Preserve, date back to the early and mid-Holocene, a time when a warming climate melted glaciers and expanded the oceans. The rising seas inundating the Bering Land Bridge and other stretches of terrain caused some of the naturally occurring mercury that was locked in dry or frozen land to get free and disperse in the expanded marine waters.

The high levels of mercury in the cod bones are described in a study published in the journal Frontiers in Environmental Science...

Maine Lobster Landings Reach 100 Million Pounds for Fourth Straight Year; Catch Most Valuable Ever

SEAFOODNEWS.COM by Michael Ramsingh - February 27, 2015
 

Maine lobster landings were 123.6 million pounds in 2014 making this the first time in more than 100 years of records that landings have exceeded 100 million pounds four years in a row.

The overall value of the catch also set new record, driven by big year-over-year rise in the per pound price.  The average boat price in Maine in 2014 was $3.69, vs. $2.90 in 2013.  Total value was a record $456.9 million.  Canadian catches also hit a record value, estimated to be $1.5 billion.   A portion of Maine production was exported to Canada for reprocessing. 

The 2014 Maine catch  of 123.6 million was about 4 million pounds shy of the 2013 haul. This marked the third straight year that the Maine lobster fishery produced over 120 million pounds of landed volume...

...

TUF Forecasts 250,000 ton Shrimp Export Volume in 2015 for Thailand

SEAFOODNEWS.COM  by John Sackton - February 27, 2015

NOAA Uses Acoustic Tags to Track "Ghost" Fishing Pots Killing Alaskan King Crabs (Fish Radio)

SEAFOODNEWS.COM [Fish Radio with Laine Welch] March 2, 2015 

This is Fish Radio. I’m Stephanie Mangini. Serial crab killers of the deep. Learn more after this 

Dive into Women’s Bay, an inlet located on the island of Kodiak and you will find a graveyard of lost or abandoned crab pots or as NOAA’s diving biologist Pete Cummiskey likes to call “Ghost Pots.” 

“The buoy connecting the pot to the surface is usually gone for one reason or another and the pot is on the bottom and is able to continue to ghost fish and can continue to fish for a long period of time.”

Cummiskey along with other divers have been tracking red king crab in the Women’s Bay area for around seventeen years...

To Be Viable West Coast Groundfish Fishery Needs Customers (Opinion)

SEAFOODNEWS.COM [Los Angeles Times] By Kelly Whitaker - March 2, 2015 - 

(Kelly Whittaker is the chef and owner of Basta and Cart-Driver in Boulder, Colo. He was formerly chef at the restaurant Providence in Los Angeles. He is a member of Chefs Collaborative.)

Today, virtually all West Coast groundfish are classified as “sustainable” seafood choices so what's the problem?

While the fishery may have recovered environmentally, it hasn't economically. Groundfish are distinctly undervalued, sometimes fetching well below $1 a pound at the dock. Quotas for certain species go unharvested because the demand is not yet strong enough. The fishermen need help from chefs and consumers to gain more market traction.

Unless fishermen can collect a price that reflects the expense of the new sustainable methods of catching groundfish, we won't be able to maintain the fishery's revived state. The challenge is to reintroduce these species to consumers, build demand and help secure a strong market that can support the fishermen and fishery in the long term.

Thai Union Hits Record $3.75 Billion Sales, Boosted by Lobster Business in North America

SEAFOODNEWS.COM by John Sackton - February 27, 2015

Alaska Must Decide on Cook Inlet Water Rights for Salmon or a Coal Mine (Fish Radio)

This is Fish Radio. I’m Laine Welch. Will it be water rights for salmon or a coal strip mine? How you can weigh in after this 

The state is getting ready to choose between giving water rights to sustain wild salmon or to Alaska’s largest coal mine proposed at Upper Cook Inlet. If it opts for the mine, the decision will set a troubling legal precedent – it means the same could soon be coming to a river near you.

"It would be the first time in Alaska’s state history that we would allow an Outside corporation to mine completely through a salmon stream. And the purpose is to ship coal to China. There would be no domestic use for this coal. And it’s really a very dangerous precedent because if they can do it here in Cook Inlet they will be able to do it anywhere in the state."

Pew Supports Shark Sanctuary Designation in Pacific Waters Off Micronesian State Coasts

SEAFOODNEWS.COM [SeafoodNews] March 2, 2015

In early February the Congress of the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) passed to create a shark sanctuary in the country’s full exclusive economic zone (EEZ), which covers nearly 3 million square kilometers (1.1 million square miles) in the western Pacific Ocean.  

President Manny Mori transmitted and assigned the legislation as Public Law No. 18-108. Tee law was passed on February 4 and marks the completion of the Micronesia Regional Shark Sanctuary. The Sanctuary already includes the waters of Palau, the Marshall Islands, and the U.S. territories of Guam and the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas Islands. In total, the area of protected shark habitat across the contiguous area is larger than the size of the European Union...

Japanese Trading Firm Buys Croatian Kali Tuna

SEAFOODNEWS.COM [Kyodo News] - March 2, 2015 - 

TOKYO, Japanese fishery trading house J-Trading Inc. and investment firm Integral Corp. have bought Croatian tuna-farming firm Kali Tuna for 4 billion yen (about $33.5 million).

Kali Tuna is known as the biggest cultivator of bluefin tuna in the Adriatic Sea. The Tokyo-based trading house intends to procure the fish for sushi and to sell in Europe and the United States, the sources said.

EU Squashes "Canadian Lobster" Label Approval
 

SEAFOODNEWS.COM [The Guardian] by Steve Sharratt - February 27,2015

Canadian lobster will have to masquerade as Americans once again if Maritime seafood is going to gain access into one of the most lucrative marketplaces in the world.

And all because of three European countries that say no and a language scarcely used by anyone but the Pope.

The fishing industry is anxious to gain access to the 28 countries of Europe, but the European Union requires that lobster must be identified by its Latin name — namely “Homarus Americanus” or American lobster...

CPF 4th Qtr Hit by Slow Shrimp Recovery, but for Year Profit up 49%

SEAFOODNEWS.COM [Reuters] - February 27, 2015 -