Saving Seafood

International & Trade

New Brunswick’s first land-based Atlantic salmon post-smolt aquaculture facility achieves environmental approval

April 3, 2023 — The following was released by Cooke Aquaculture Inc:

Kelly Cove Salmon Ltd. (KCS), of the Cooke family of companies, has received a Certification of Determination to Proceed from the New Brunswick Department of Environment and Local Government for the construction of its proposed $72 million land-based Atlantic salmon post-smolt aquaculture facility in Bayside, N.B. This approval is an important step achieved upon successful completion of an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA).

Located in the Champlain Industrial Park alongside the Passamaquoddy Bay, the new facility will be a world-class recirculating aquaculture system (RAS). KCS began planning the high-tech project in 2017 and received EIA approval earlier this year for ground source wells to supply the facility with water. Associated with this facility are two water pipeline corridors and a marine loading facility.

Squid Fishing on the High Seas Has Exploded Since 2017

March 13, 2023 — Global squid fishing increased by 68% between 2017 and 2020, according to our international analysis, prompting concerns that much of the international fishing fleet is sidestepping necessary conservation and management.

Our study, carried out with colleagues in Australia, Japan, the United States, Chile and Canada, and published today in Science Advances, reveals that almost all of the increase in squid fishing has occurred in unregulated areas, with 86% of squid fishing now occurring in places with little or no scrutiny of catch sizes.

Unregulated fishing poses a significant challenge to fishery sustainability and raises substantial equity concerns. While attention has tended to focus on illegal fishing, the growth in legal but unregulated fishing may pose an even bigger threat, particularly to species such as squid, whose fisheries can cover entire oceans.

To estimate the scale of global squid fishing, we analysed satellite imagery and vessel tracking data to see how many vessels are fishing for squid, and where and how often they operate.

Squid fishing vessels are typically outfitted with powerful lamps to attract squid to the surface. These lamps are so powerful that they are visible from space. This means we can use satellite data to spot these lights at night, along with data from the ships’ Automatic Identification System (AIS), which allows authorities to monitor the location and course of registered vessels.

Read the full article at The Maritime Executive

Arctic Ocean fisheries agreement on fragile ground as global tensions mount

March 11, 2023 — In early 2018, nine nations and the European Union signed the Central Arctic Ocean Fisheries Agreement – officially known as Agreement to Prevent Unregulated High Seas Fisheries in the Central Arctic Ocean – which limits fishing in the high seas area of the Arctic to research. After ratification, the agreement went into effect on 25 June, 2021.

In addition to the countries that border the Arctic Ocean – the U.S., Canada, Norway, Denmark (Greenland) and Russia – signatories to the agreement include Iceland, Japan, South Korea, and China, which has signaled its intention to play a significant role in the region as a “near-Arctic state.”

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

 

Countries agree on historic oceans treaty to protect the high seas

March 6, 2o23 — Nearly 200 countries have agreed to a legally-binding “high seas treaty” to protect marine life in international waters, which cover around half of the planet’s surface, but have long been essentially lawless.

The agreement was signed on Saturday evening after two weeks of negotiations at the United Nations headquarters in New York ended in a mammoth final session of more than 36 hours – but it has been two decades in the making.

The treaty provides legal tools to establish and manage marine protected areas – sanctuaries to protect the ocean’s biodiversity. It also covers environmental assessments to evaluate the potential damage of commercial activities, such as deep sea mining, before they start and a pledge by signatories to share ocean resources.

“This is a historic day for conservation and a sign that in a divided world, protecting nature and people can triumph over geopolitics,” Laura Meller, Oceans Campaigner at Greenpeace Nordic, said in a statement.

The high seas are sometimes called the world’s last true wilderness. This huge stretch of water – everything that lies 200 nautical miles beyond countries’ territorial waters – makes up more than 60% of the world’s oceans by surface area.

These waters provide the habitat for a wealth of unique species and ecosystems, support global fisheries on which billions of people rely and are a crucial buffer against the climate crisis – the ocean has absorbed more than 90% of the world’s excess heat over the last decades.

Read the full article at CNN

Countries gather to thrash out U.N. ocean protection treaty

February 21, 2023 — Delegations from hundreds of countries will meet in New York this week in an attempt to hammer out a new legally binding ocean protection treaty that green groups believe will decide whether efforts to safeguard global biodiversity can succeed.

Last August, an earlier round of talks on the new United Nations ocean conservation treaty were suspended, with countries unable to reach an agreement on financing. Sharing the proceeds of “marine genetic resources” and the establishment of ocean environmental impact assessment rules for development were also major sticking points.

Experts familiar with the negotiations said major parties have now moved closer together on key issues as new talks begin, though compromises were still being sought.

Read the full article at Reuters

Proximar nets JPY 8.8 billion loan for RAS salmon farm in Japan

February 13, 2023 — Bergen, Norway-based Proximar Seafood has secured JPY 8.8 billion (USD 66 million, EUR 61 million) in financing via a loan offer from a syndicate that includes two Japanese banks for the land-based salmon farm it’s building near Tokyo, Japan.

The offer consisted of a highly confident letter along with a term sheet – which the company said should be “considered a strong statement of comfort from the banks” on providing the financing the company needs for its salmon recirculating aquaculture system (RAS) facility, currently under construction in in Shizuoka Prefecture. The names of the banks were not released by Proximar. Proximar signed a contract with RAS specialist AquaMaof in early 2020 for a design and build of a facility with a 5,300 MT annual production capacity of gutted salmon in its first phase.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

MAC: EU’s Ukraine war response requires more top-level fisheries, aquaculture action

February 7, 2023 — When Russia first invaded Ukraine almost 12 months ago, the European Commission quickly provided appropriate measures and gave E.U. member-states new tools to mitigate the impacts of the conflict and the sanctions that were adopted across the bloc, according to the Market Advisory Council (MAC). However, E.U. member-states haven’t been as prompt in their implementations, it found in a newly-issued report.

Composed of organizations representing the entire value chain and other interested groups, and co-funded by the E.U., MAC provides advice to the E.C. and E.U. member-states on the global seafood market.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Price of Japan’s top tuna highlights country’s recovery from Covid-19

January 13, 2023 — The top bluefin tuna sold during the first auction of the year at Tokyo’s Central Wholesale Market in Toyosu reached JPY 36,040,000 (USD 274,120, EUR 256,785), carrying on a tradition started at the market’s former location in Tsukiji and signaling some recovery from the pandemic.

The high price has nothing to do with the actual value of tuna, nor with its relative scarcity. As in years past, it’s a PR stunt and a reasonably inexpensive way for the purchaser to get worldwide name recognition.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Debate heats up over sustainability of maximum sustainable yield policy for Ireland’s fisheries

December 28, 2022 — Ireland Fisheries Minister Charlie McConalogue said in an address to Ireland’s parliament that the country is making progress in achieving sustainability for its fish stocks.

In 2022, 38 stocks of interest to Ireland were fished below maximum sustainable yield, up from 20 stocks in 2013, McConalogue said.

“The number of stocks overfished is 15 in 2022, but it must be noted that this is down 22 in previous years,” he said, adding that he is in favor of fishing up to maximum sustainable yield. “We want to follow the scientific advice and I cannot accept going below the scientific advice except in exceptional situations where such a course of action is fully justified.”

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Pingtan Marine, Chinese government, NGOs respond to US sanctions

December 22, 2022 — A Chinese government spokesperson has assailed U.S. sanctions against two Chinese distant-water fishing firms as evidence of “double standards.”

Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Mao Ning, responding on 9 December to a question from TASS, the Russian news service, rejected allegations of human rights abuses onboard Chinese fishing vessels and China said punitive actions taken by the U.S. against Pingtan Marine and Dalian Ocean Fishing represented interference in the country’s internal affairs.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource