Saving Seafood

Economic Impact

ANNIE TSELIKIS NAMED DIRECTOR OF MARKETING AND BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT AT SLADE GORTON

November 29, 2023 — The following was released by Cooke Aquaculture Inc:

Slade Gorton, America’s Original Seafood Family™, is pleased to announce the appointment of Annie Tselikis as its new Director of Marketing and Business Development. Tselikis has held positions throughout the seafood supply chain for over fifteen years, most recently serving as the Director of Marketing and Franchise Sales at Cousins Maine Lobster, a quick-service lobster roll concept with over 60 units nationwide.

“Annie is uniquely positioned to help us expand our engagement with chain operators, particularly within the commercial and non-commercial foodservice sector. She is passionate about the seafood industry and has a deep understanding of and appreciation for each step in the value chain – from the point of harvest to the end user,” said Kim Gorton, CEO, Slade Gorton and the fifth generation of her family to lead the company.

Tselikis is excited to have found a shared mission and vision with Slade Gorton. “Throughout my career, I have been driven to increase the customer and consumer understanding of seafood. As a category, seafood offers a diverse array of species and products, and in turn, we can provide consumers with an incredible culinary experience. My goal at Slade Gorton is to translate that diversity and mystique into accessibility and confidence for everyone who encounters our products,” explained Tselikis.

The Slade Gorton team is proud of its nearly hundred-year legacy and passionate about its role in connecting dedicated mariners around the world to hungry people everywhere.

‘Maybe we were too optimistic’: Ørsted executive talks about offshore wind struggles

November 28, 2023 — It has been a hard year for Ørsted. High interest rates and supply chain bottlenecks have rocked the world’s largest offshore wind developer.

Earlier this month, Ørsted wrote down the value of its U.S. portfolio by $4 billion after canceling two projects off New Jersey. The company’s stock price has lost more than half its value since the start of the year, and it recently announced a reshuffling of its management team, with the departure of the company’s chief financial officer and chief operations officer.

David Hardy is one executive who has weathered the storm. He has led the Danish-based company’s operations in the U.S. since 2020. Hardy sat down for an interview Monday with E&E News at a critical time for the company.

Ørsted is preparing to submit a new bid for Sunrise Wind in New York after regulators there rejected the company’s request to charge consumers more for the 924-megawatt project’s electricity. In New Jersey, the company is bracing for a fight over $300 million in performance guarantees related to its Ocean Wind I project. And its partner, Eversource Energy, is looking to sell its stake in three offshore wind projects.

If that wasn’t enough, Ørsted has also been in talks with the White House over implementation of the Inflation Reduction Act. Hardy has called on the administration to revise its rules governing a domestic content bonus in a bid to make it easier for offshore wind developers to qualify for tax credits.

Last week, Ørsted announced the installation of the first turbine for South Fork Wind, a 132-MW project serving New York. Hardy said it could begin generating power by the end of this week. Ørsted has also begun work for Revolution Wind, a 704-MW project serving Connecticut and Rhode Island.

The conversation has been lightly edited for clarity.

It’s obviously been a difficult year. What lessons do you take from South Fork and Revolution moving forward — not just for Ørsted but for offshore wind in the U.S.?

Well, first off, these to me are bright spots in the industry right now. It’s easy to kind of be focused on the negatives. But here’s two projects that are in construction and moving along and, between the two of them, are over 800 megawatts of offshore wind, which will be powering over 400,000 homes in New England and New York with clean power. They’re also projects that are the foundation for the supply chain, the foundation for the operation and maintenance hub, the foundation for current and future union jobs, and all kinds of other things that the industry promised. And so I think our perseverance and commitment to getting these projects built says a lot. They’re still not amazing financial return projects, but we’ve been able to work through all the challenges in the industry … to take a positive final investment decision and progress these projects.

Read the full article at E&E News

Opening up the world of canned seafood

November 27, 2023 — To the casual observer, canned seafood, or “tinned fish,” appears to be having a moment.

Stacks of tins, filled with everything from mackerel to octopus, have been filling social media feeds, complete with intricate, colorful, and Instagram-friendly packaging. Brands like Fishwife, founded in 2020, tout “responsibly sourced tinned fish” for “heavenly hors d’oeuvres” and “charming charcuterie.”

In August, a colorful shop that specializes in canned seafood called The Fantastic World of the Portuguese Sardine opened in New York City’s Times Square.

“The theme is kind of this magical library,” says Joanna Quaresma, the project manager for the shop. The Fantastic World of the Portuguese Sardine is packed with floor-to-ceiling shelves of tinned fish, known as “conservas” in Portuguese culture.

“It’s something that is very, very cherished in our culture,” Quaresma tells ABC Audio.

Read the full article at ABC News

In Real Life: Mining the Deep Sea

November 27, 2023 — Norway could become the first country in the world to mine the deep sea, but many scientists and environmentalists fear that this might blow open the door for a new frontier of extraction, with companies and governments from the Arctic to the Pacific in a race to reap the riches of the ocean floor.

The Norwegian parliament will soon decide whether to open up a section of the Arctic Sea to deep-sea mining, starting with exploration.

But why mine the deep sea? Access to minerals like cobalt is critical for the green transition because they’re used to make things like batteries for electric vehicles and solar panels.

Some people think mining different parts of the deep sea—all the way down to 21,000 feet below—holds a solution and profits. Hydrothermal vents spew out magma-heated water, leaving mineral deposits.

Read the full article at KIVTV

Cost barriers keeping RAS out of emerging markets

November 27, 2023 — The high capital expenditure and energy consumption of recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS) is hampering uptake of the fish-farming technology in many emerging markets.

BioMar Group Global Marketing Director Katherine Bryar told SeafoodSource that RAS technology remains expensive venture that also requires advanced knowledge of complex systems for it to be viable. The significant upfront costs and cutting-edge nature of much of the technology makes it a poor choice for most developing markets like those in Africa, she told SeafoodSource.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Global shrimp prices stabilizing at “unfavorably low levels”

November 25, 2023 — Global shrimp prices are stabilizing at “unfavorably low levels,” pushing many farmers into loss-making situations.

Raw vannamei exports from India were pulling in an average of USD 6.32 (EUR 5.80) per kilo in September, down from USD 7.54 (EUR 6.92) in September 2022 and from USD 6.55 (EUR 6.01) in July 2023 – but up slightly from the USD 6.29 (EUR 5.77) it pulled in in August 2023, according to Shrimp Insights Founder Willem van der Pijl.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Canned seafood moves beyond tuna sandwiches in a pandemic trend that stuck

November 20, 2023 — The country’s canned seafood industry is moving well beyond tuna sandwiches, a pandemic-era trend that began with Americans in lockdown demanding more of their cupboard staples.

Since then, the U.S. market has only expanded, fueled by social media influencers touting the benefits of the high-powered protein food in brightly colored metal containers. On the TikTok channel Tinned — Fishionado, Kris Wilson posts recipes for quick meals, including one mixing leftover rice, soy sauce, avocado and a runny egg with a tin of smoked mussels from the Danish company Fangst.

Tinned fish, as it’s called in Europe, is now a regular offering on menus at wine bars from San Francisco to Houston to New York, where patrons scoop the contents straight out of the can. There are even tinned fish clubs that mimic wine clubs by sending members monthly shipments of various seafood packed in various combinations of spices, oils and sauces. Videos on tinned fish, from tastings to how-to tips on cleaning the fishy smell from cans, have generated more than 30 million views on TikTok.

U.S. canned seafood industry sales have grown from $2.3 billion in 2018 to more than $2.7 billion so far this year, according to market research firm Circana.

Read the full article at the Associated Press

Finite supply fuels US market for king and snow crab, defying seafood category dip

November 15, 2023 — Limited availability of king crab and snow crab has boosted U.S. buyer interest, in defiance of a downward sales trend across the seafood category.

On 15 October, the red king crab fishery in Alaska’s Bristol Bay officially opened with a 2.2-million-pound quota, following a two-year closure. As recently as 2016, the total allowable harvest was set at 8.47 million pounds; in 1980, it was 130 million pounds.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource