With the global population of sharks now depleted by 90 per cent following decades of overfishing, the federal Liberal government is poised to ban shark fin imports in Canada.

Although shark finning in domestic waters was outlawed in 1994, Canada is the third largest importer of shark fins outside of Asia. The top importers of shark fins globally are mainland China and Hong Kong, where shark fin soup is a popular delicacy among the wealthy.

In 2018 alone, Canada imported over 148,000 kilograms of shark fins, a product worth in excess of CAD 3.2 million, according to data compiled by Statistics Canada.

Source: CBC

LISBON - Police seized over a tonne of cocaine worth some $49 million and arrested seven people aboard a Brazilian fishing boat in a drug bust on the high seas off Portugal backed up by international crime agencies, officials said on Tuesday.

Portuguese police discovered 50 cloth sacks full of cocaine, apparently destined for the continental European market, inside a specially designed, hard-to-access compartment of the fishing vessel, a police statement said. The suspects arrested were all foreign nationals aged between 36 and 64, it added.

Codenamed “White Sand”, the anti-drug operation began following an exchange of information between Portuguese and Brazilian authorities, and was assisted by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and Britain’s National Crime Agency.

Source: Reuters

TRÀ VINH – The C?u Long (Mekong) Delta province of Trà Vinh is entering the mud crab harvest season and its Fisheries Sub-department expects the output to increase sharply this since the farming area has expanded.ç

In the province, one of the delta’s largest mud crab producers, farmers breed the crustacean mostly in Châu Thành, C?u Ngang, Duyên H?i, and Trà Cú districts and Duyên H?i Town.

Authorities have told farmers that the period for releasing shrimp and mud crab fry for breeding in the 2018 – 19 season was from December last year to September this year.

Source: Viet Nam News

These notices are a courtesy to Atlantic tuna fishery interests to keep you informed about the fishery. Official notice of federal fishery actions is made through a filing with the Office of the Federal Register.

These reports should not be considered useful for real-time catch monitoring purposes. It only includes landings reported to NOAA Fisheries to date. The numbers are considered preliminary and are subject to change. Catch statistics from previous months are available below or by contacting Brad McHale at 978-281-9260.

Source: NOAA Fisheries

Yet there are many areas in this industry that are in dire need of innovation. Today, I will focus on my top 5: disease prevention, vaccine delivery, fish meal replacement, sustainability solutions (including closed-loop farming) and supply chain management.

Tremendous opportunity exists right now for those interested in investing in the solutions to these issues. Let’s take a look at the five key areas mentioned, and how several forward-thinking companies are meeting them head on.

Disease prevention
Disease prevention is a critical aspect of aquaculture. Changing ocean temperatures and water quality make animals and plants more stressed and susceptible to disease, yet innovation is lacking in prevention compared to land-based agriculture. Terrestrial food animal farmers can easily deploy dozens of vaccines and preventative solutions, while aquaculture has less choice and significant delivery challenges (more on this below). Vaccines are still administered by hand, and there simply aren’t good preventive measures for many infestations.

Source: Techaccel

According to FAO, aquaculture, also known as aquafarming, is defined as the farming of aquatic organisms such as fish, mollusks, crustaceans, and aquatic plants. Farming implies intervention in the rearing process to enhance production, such as regular stocking, feeding, and protection from predators. It also implies individual or corporate ownership of the stock being cultivated. In 2015, the global aquaculture market was valued at USD 169 billion and is anticipated to expand at a CAGR of 5.3% to reach USD 242 billion by 2022, as per Publisher.

The global food supply security issue due to increasing in global population drives the aquaculture market. New technological advancement in the rearing of fish and cultivation of sea plants also lead to market growth. Increase in the global protein demand, and zooplankton being a major source of proteins, drives the market for aquaculture companies. A rise in concern towards climate change and global warming are the major restraints in the global aquaculture market, as they increase the risk of diseases in water bodies. Evolution of inland fish farming poses a huge opportunity for this industry, and to utilize technology to rear high-quality fish is a major challenge to this industry.

Source: Open PR

CEO Jotun Morten Foyn last week revealed the company’s plan to develop its second paint factory worth of USD 100 million in the southern part of Ho Chi Minh City in the next two years. Its first factory was set up in Binh Duong province some 25 years ago.

At the meeting with Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc during his working visit to Norway last week, Foyn has expressed Jotun’s keen interest in injecting more capital into Vietnam, given appropriate efforts to be made by the local government in ensuring a fair playground for foreign investors like the Norwegian paint company itself.

Geir Haoy, CEO of Norway’s technology group Kongsberg, meanwhile, has also paid his attention on the cooperation with Vietnamese firms, seeking to promote aquaculture technologies and fostering ocean economic collaboration between the two nations.

Source: The Leader

In the winter of 2015, rare toxic algal blooms began spreading across Hong Kong waters.

Lee Muk-kam’s floating fish farm in the sheltered bay off Tai Po’s Sam Mun Tsai was one of the mariculture zones hardest hit by the onslaught.

By spring of the following year, 8,000 Sabah groupers, which he had raised from fry, had been wiped out by the oxygen-depleting blooms, also known as “red tides”.

“That was almost a million dollars in losses,” he said, pointing to a lone grouper frolicking in one of his sea cages. “Only one survived and, surprisingly, it is still alive.”

Source: SCMP

Government will soon supply suitable and appropriate fishing nets at a reduced price to fishermen in the country, the Minister of Fisheries and Aquaculture, Mrs Elizabeth Afoley Quaye, has announced.

She said there was the need to support the fisheries sector, which provided economic livelihood to a large number of Ghanaians, particularly those in the coastal and inland enclaves, estimated to be about 10 per cent of the total population, as envisaged by the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 8.

Mrs Quaye disclosed these at the Sixth National Policy Summit, which opened in the Central Regional Capital, Cape Coast, on Sunday.

Source: All Africa

HÀ N?I - Thousands of fishing boats have been grounded due to new of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) regulations.

According to Decision No 1481 of MARD, vessels less than 15 metres in length are not allowed to fish offshore, Ti?n Phong (Vanguard) newspaper reported.

Furthermore, coastal provinces must also catch fish in accordance with licences issued by the central Government.

Source: Viet Nam News