An advisory panel recommended Thursday that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approve expanding the use of a fish-oil derived drug to reduce the likelihood of heart attacks and strokes in high-risk patients.

The panel of outside advisers voted 16-to-0 to enlarge the approved use of the drug, named Vascepa, from Amarin PLC. The FDA isn’t bound to follow the advice of its advisory committees, but it usually does.

Source: The Wall Street Journal

Two important aquaculture studies on New York’s marine waters will be administered at Stony Brook University through New York Sea Grant (NYSG). These projects are part of a national suite of 42 research projects and collaborative programs supported by USD 16 million in federal funding by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to advance sustainable aquaculture in the United States.

SBU’s Bassem Allam is the lead PI on a study of hard clams (photo by Bassem Allam); Inset photo: A worker at Norm Bloom & Son Oysters offloads shellfish harvested from the company’s beds in Norwalk, CT (photo by Judy Benson, Connecticut Sea Grant).

“Aquaculture as a source of sustainable food, healthy habitat and clean water, and economic opportunity has gained considerable, and growing, national and global attention in the past several years. However, there is still much to learn. New York Sea Grant is pleased to be able to participate with diverse partners on a suite of grants supporting collaborative research aimed at understanding and informing the potential of shellfish, finfish, and seaweed aquaculture across the state,” said NYSG Director Dr. Rebecca Shuford.

Source: Stony Brook University

KIÊN GIANG - An island commune in the C?u Long (Mekong) Delta province of Kiên Giang is expanding marine aquaculture in combination with tourism and other services to further the incomes of local farmers.

Hòn Ngh? commune in the province's Kiên Luong District aims to have 1,000ha of marine aquaculture next year.  

Located about 15 kilometres off the mainland, the island commune has 619 households that live mostly on fishing and marine aquaculture.

Source: Viet Nam News

Fish permeate the culture of the Pacific Northwest (PNW). In particular, the iconic salmon has been an important part of the region for thousands of years, from ancient Native American trade routes and legends to modern fishing and sporting. In the area of the Salish Sea—inland waterways including Puget Sound, the Strait of Georgia, and the Strait of Juan de Fuca—the cultures, economies, and technologies there are all impacted and influenced by salmon. It is no wonder, then, that salmon are of high conservation interest and constitute a large proportion of hatchery-raised fish in the region.

A recent study in the Ecological Society of America's journal Ecosphere examines hatchery practices in regard to how the Chinook salmon that are released back into the natural waterways in the PNW are affecting wild populations.

Source: Phys

ISLAMABAD - The government was determined to take the export of fish up to three billion dollars, from USD 400 million, said Parliamentary Secretary for Maritime Affairs Jamil Ahmed Khan in the National Assembly.

Responding to a supplementary question during question hour on Thursday, he said, “Pakistan fishing market has the capacity to export about USD 2 to 3 billion fish, while we are earning only 400 million dollars through exporting fish."

He said : “The government is determined to achieve the target by following the international standards."

Source: Brecorder

The salmon sector used 1,011.3 kilograms in 2018, a decrease based primarily on a reduction in the number of treatments required in the seawater phase of production.

This overall use equated to 6.5 mg/kg of production, slightly higher than the ambitious target of 5mg/kg established by RUMA’s Targets Task Force in 2017, but antibiotic treatments are still relatively infrequent in the salmon farming sector. The figure for 2017 was 16.1 mg/kg.

The report noted that as poikilotherms (cold blooded fish), salmon can see their health compromised by variations in the quality and composition of the water, including the presence of potentially harmful organisms such as algae and plankton.

Source: Fish Farmer Magazine

With reference to the previously announced European Commission inspection which concerned possible collusion between Norwegian producers of farmed Norwegian Atlantic salmon and class action complaints in the USA related to the same matter.

Further to this Mowi has been informed that we will receive a subpoena from the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice in the USA where they are opening a criminal investigation involving allegations of similar conduct.   

Mowi considers that there are no basis for the EU inspection and that the class action complaints clearly lack merit and are entirely unsubstantiated. This equally applies to any criminal investigation in the US.  

Mowi will fully cooperate with the Department of Justice and will provide as requested all information in relation to our US subsidiaries.

There is no new information regarding the European Commission’s case handling.

This information is subject to the disclosure requirements pursuant to section 5-12 of the Norwegian Securities Trading Act.

A proposal presented by Norway with support from Russia at the annual NEAFC meeting this week takes aim at the use of collecting bags to gather catches of fish filtered from shrimp trawls.

The Norwegian proposal would lead to the use of combination shrimp trawl gear being outlawed in ICES sub areas I and II, and re-opens discussion on a subject that has been pursued within NEAFC since 2015.

Norway tabled similar proposals in 2017 and 2018 on banning the use of collecting bag in shrimp fisheries with a reference to sustainability and emphasis on protection of juvenile fish. In 2017 the Norwegian NEAFC delegation announced, during a plenary session at the annual meeting, that they would carry out own study on the selectivity of collecting bags.

Source: Fisker Forum

Some salmon processing plants in Chile were closed again earlier this week during a one-day general strike against widening levels of inequality in the country.

Salmon plants in Quellón, the processing hub on the island of Chiloé, and in the port town of Calbuco on the mainland, have been closed intermittently because of civil unrest, but appeared to be getting back to normal on November 2019.

On Tuesday, however, managers at several plants in Quellón decided to suspend operations ahead of a protest march in the commune.

Source: Fish Farmer Expert

Shanghai Kaichuang Marine International Co Ltd:

* SAYS UNIT PLANS TO ACQUIRE SPAIN'S HIJOSDE CARLOS ALBO

* SAYS ALBO PLANS TO SET UP A TRADING FIRM WITH REGISTERED CAPITAL OF EUR 30 MILLION

Source text in Chinese.

Source: Yahoo! News