March 26, 2024 โ Cooke Chile, the Chilean aquaculture branch of Canadian seafood firm Cooke, has begun to harvest what it says is the countryโs first organically farmed Atlantic salmon.
The organic salmon has been certified under regulations from the European Commission and Great Britain for sale in the European Union. The company said production will initially make up a quarter of Cookeโs total salmon production in Chile.
March 12, 2024 โ โChase the fish, boy. Yer down to the backinโ. Chase the fish,โ shouted my guide.
The Medalist reel sang as the 9-weight line wound off the spool with authority. The tip of the Sage fly rod pulsated as the 18-pound Atlantic salmon lived up to its reputation, leaping and twisting above the frothing waters of the Upsalquitch River.
The dance of this powerful silver game fish took my breath away. My heart pounded. As instructed, I chased the fighting fish downriver stumbling and banging my knees on the slippery stream-side stones.
August 14, 2023 โ A seal attack is being blamed for the loss of 50,000 juvenile Atlantic salmon at two fish farming sites near Cutler, Maine.
Cooke Aquaculture spokesperson Joel Richardson said that divers discovered on Aug. 7 that seals had chewed through two cage nets near Cross Island. Each normally holds about 25,000 juvenile salmon, but were empty when workers found them.
The company said that the โunusually aggressive seal behaviorโ is result of a significant increase in the seal population across the Gulf of Maine, and particularly in Machias Bay.
โThis is actually the first time that weโve ever experienced such an attack by seals, who quite voraciously went after two of our salmon cages to feed,โ Richardson said.
April 20, 2023 โ The federal Northern Gulf of Maine scallop management area will close one minute after midnight April 21, with projections now that 100 percent of the 380,855-pound quota set-aside will have been caught in little more than two weeks.
The closure announced late Wednesday by the National Marine Fisheries Service means no scallop vessels fishing under federal scallop regulations may fish for, possess, or land scallops in or from the Northern Gulf of Maine Scallop area until the end of the current fishing year on March 31, 2024.
April 10, 2023 โ A New Hampshire group wants to be the first to bring offshore fish farming to the waters off New England by raising salmon and trout in open-ocean pens miles from land, but critics fear the plan could harm the environment.
The vast majority of U.S. aquaculture, the practice of raising and harvesting fish in controlled settings, takes place in coastal waters or on land, in tanks and ponds. But New Hampshire-based Blue Water Fisheries wants to place 40 submersible fish pens in water about 7.5 miles (12 kilometers) off Newburyport, Massachusetts, on two sites that total nearly a square mile, according to federal documents reviewed by The Associated Press.
The farm would grow millions of pounds of Atlantic salmon and steelhead trout, two popular seafood species, documents state. The proposal needs a battery of approvals, and would be the first of its kind off the East Coast.
April 3, 2023 โ 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).
March 21, 2023 โ A coalition of local and national conservation groups is criticizing a new opinion from NOAA fisheries that finds endangered Atlantic salmon arenโt jeopardized by four hydropower dams on the Kennebec River.
NOAA said the operator of the dams, Brookfield Renewable, has an acceptable plan to make improvements that will benefit salmon and other species. In a press release on Monday, NOAA said the plan to make significant structural and operational changes to the dams would allow salmon to swim up the Kennebec to freshwater habitat for the first time since the dams were constructed in the 1800s.
Read the full article at Maine Public
March 8, 2023 โ Environmental groups and a Native American tribe accused the operator of a Maine dam on Monday of not fulfilling its obligation to protect the countryโs last remaining Atlantic salmon river run.
The last wild Atlantic salmon live in a group of rivers in Maine and have been listed under the Endangered Species Act since 2000. The Penobscot River, a 109-mile (175-kilometer) river in the eastern part of the state is one of the most important habitats for the fish.
The Penobscot is also the site of the Milford Dam, which is owned by renewable energy giant Brookfield Renewable. The company is required under the Endangered Species Act to maintain fish passages that allow 95% of adult salmon to pass the dam within 48 hours.
According to the Natural Resources Council of Maine, Atlantic Salmon Federation and Penobscot Indian Nation, documents obtained using the Maine Freedom of Access Act show that Brookfield isnโt living up to that obligation and that data compiled by the Maine Department of Marine Resources last fall show that only about 21% of salmon pass the dam in the required timeframe.
February 10, 2023 โ Restoration of the critically endangered Atlantic salmon is an important issue in the rivers of Maine. Dams on Maine rivers have long been known to impact fish populations, but a new study led by the University of Maine quantifying the time and energy lost by Atlantic salmon stopped by dams indicate that the structures might have even more of an impact than once thought.
Atlantic salmon return to the rivers of Maine from the ocean every spring to make the long, arduous swim upstream to spawn in freshwater. When the fish are stopped by dams, they are stuck in warmer waters for longer than expected, which can deplete the fat they have stored up to power their journey. The stored energy isnโt just used for migration, but also producing gametes, developing secondary sexual traits and spawning.
โSalmon limit the food they eat in freshwater, so excess energy lost during their migration doesnโt get replaced,โ says Sarah Rubenstein, who completed her masters of science in wildlife ecology at the University of Maine in 2021. โHowever, spawning takes a lot of energy, so the more energy reserves salmon have left after migrating and during spawning, the more likely they will be at successfully reproducing. This is particularly important here in Maine where Atlantic salmon populations have been on the decline since the 1800s.โ
January 19, 2023 โ The U.S. Department of Agriculture is continuing its purchase of U.S. seafood products this year, awarding salmon contracts worth more than USD 8 million (EUR 7.4 million) in early January 2023.
Seattle, Washington, U.S.A.-based OBI Seafoods will supply the USDA with nearly USD 6.4 million (EUR 6.9 million) in canned pink salmon and frozen salmon fillets, while Sitka, Alaska, U.S.A.-based Silver Bay Seafoods will supply nearly USD 1.7 million (EUR 1.6 million) the USDA said in a notice.
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