Nantucket bay scalloping is a dying profession, town shellfish constable J.C. Johnson said this week, just days after commercial scalloping season came to a close.

Fishermen brought in 13,000 bushels of scallops last season. That number was down by 10,000 bushels this year to around 3,000, making the season’s harvest one of the lowest ever, Johnson said.

Along with the decreased harvest size, the fleet itself is aging, with only a handful of young scallopers now fishing.

Source: The Inquirer and the Mirror

“Not only was this the first oil intake; it was the first raw material intake to our site and therefore a significant step and achievement for our team,” the salmon farmer wrote.

Mowi Scotland wrote that over the course of the 26th and 27th, the Kyleakin team worked closely with the vessel crew to discharge a total of 1950MT, split between Rape Seed & Lecithin Oils. The teams assessed and monitored all systems and sections of the material flow during intake progressing to full rate discharge from the vessel, completing a successful intake.

The following day, Wednesday 27th of March, Mowi wrote that they continued the week with the intake of four truck loads of wheat to test their truck intake system and to use this product to move between silos. “During this day we simultaneously ran intake of both the wheat and oils requiring the site team to work very closely and coordinated to assess and monitor each stage of both processes,” the company wrote.

Source: Salmon Business

The Township of Manitouwadge is looking at opportunities to participate in Ontario's aquaculture industry, and shrimp farming is the preferred option.

Florence MacLean, the town's economic development officer, has been working on the concept for several months.

She said there are two basic types of systems that can be used in aquaculture: a water based (lake) system or a land based system that uses man made ponds or runs.

She said initially the town had thought about farming fish like walleye or trout in some of the area's many lakes.

Source: CBC

A roundtable dedicated to "Fisheries: The Social Dimension as a Factor for the Development of Territories" will be held as part of the 3rd Global Fishery Forum business programme. Fishery experts and representatives of industry-related agencies from Russia and major fishing nations will discuss the creation of modern fishing industry infrastructure and its role in regional development.

The social aspect of fisheries in coastal areas remains relevant: the fishing industry provides direct and indirect employment for at least 120 million people worldwide.

The fishing industry provides the foundation for developing cities and towns, where the necessary manufacturing, logistical, commercial, and social infrastructure is being created. Russian maritime regions account for more than 60% of the territories. Coastal areas contribute to the development of various types of sea-related economic activities, including: maritime transport, fishing, tourism, and recreation.

Source: Tass

The Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe has an application before Clallam County to resume shellfish aquaculture in Dungeness Bay. Unfortunately, misinformation has been circulated about the project. I write with the objective to correct the record.

Dungeness Bay is the ancestral home of the Jamestown S’Klallam people. By signing the Treaty at Point No Point, the S’Klallam people ceded millions of acres of land to the United States but reserved all rights to fishing and shell fishing within our “usual and accustomed” harvest area. The S’Klallam people have for centuries cultivated and harvested shellfish in Dungeness Bay, both before and after the State Department of Natural Resources began leasing this tideland site for commercial shellfish aquaculture in 1953.

Our tribe secured the lease in the 1990s when it purchased The Oyster House and continued operations until pollution of the inner bay, largely from upland development, forced a closure in 2005. In collaboration with many local partners, the tribe secured more than $2 million in grant funding for the express purpose of improving water quality for the Dungeness Bay to resume our oyster farm operations.

Source: Sequim Gazette

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, has validated the report on the review and analysis of the contribution of the National Fisheries and Aquaculture Policy on Tuesday April 2nd 2019.

The report includes strategies to food and nutritional security of the population of the Gambia.The two day validation meeting is said to be a logical continuation of the decision taken by the ECOWAS Commission to provide member States with a Regional Fisheries and Aquaculture Policy that will be oriented towards the food and nutritional security of West African populations.

Madam Serry Njie Sanyang on behalf of the FAO representative in the Gambia, said the event constitutes the important moments of the cooperation between FAO and the Government of the Gambia; that they reflect the dynamism and diversity of this cooperation in all sectors as well as the fisheries and aquaculture contribution to food and nutritional security in the country. “The program impacts on the resilience, sustainability and transformation for food and nutrition security and is a partnership program between FAO and the European Union,” she said; that it aims to provide political assistance mechanisms to improve food and nutrition security, with a view to contribute to the achievement of the FAO’s strategic objectives.

Source: Foroya

Following a recent televised BBC documentary which shows China’s fishing fleet taking advantage of weak and porous monitoring systems in Sierra Leone, the government of Sierra Leone has this week passed a moratorium on all industrial fishing along its waters.

The BBC documentary – ‘Is China’s fishing fleet taking all of West Africa’s fish’, shows the deplorable extent to which Chinese fishing trawlers are exploiting Sierra Leone’s inability to police its waters.

As  local fishermen struggle to make a living out of their meagre daily catch, there are serious concerns that the country’s fish stock may be in serious decline.

Source: The Sierra Leone Telegraph

GAZA - As their rickety motorboats puttered out into deep Mediterranean waters for the first time in almost two decades, the Palestinian fishermen prayed for deepwater mackerel and tuna to supplement Gaza’s usual shallows fare of sardines, shrimp and crab.

On April 2019, as part of Egyptian-mediated efforts to ease the plight of 2 million residents of the blockaded Gaza Strip, Israel has extended the area where it permits Palestinians to fish.

“Such a distance has been off-limits. And hopefully there are lots of fish to bring back,” said 69-year-old fisherman Ahmed al-Amoudi.

Israel keeps a naval cordon on Gaza, part of a blockade it and neighboring Egypt say is necessary to prevent arms smuggling by the Hamas Islamists that rule the coastal territory.

Israel has long limited Palestinian fishing waters, and has varied the size of the zone. It was tightened to just 6-9 miles (9-15 km) from the coast in recent years. But on Monday, Israel broadened the limit to 12-15 miles (19-24 km) out, its widest since 2000, before a Palestinian revolt erupted.

Source: Reuters

MANILA - The Philippines has filed a diplomatic protest over the presence of more than 200 Chinese boats near an island occupied by Manila in the disputed South China Sea, the president’s spokesman said on Monday.

President Rodrigo Duterte has pursued warmer ties with China since taking office in 2016 in exchange for billions of dollars of pledged loans and investment.

The Department of Foreign Affairs protested against the vessels near the Philippines-occupied Thitu island, presidential spokesman Salvador Panelo told a regular news conference, without describing the boats. The Chinese ambassador said they were fishing boats.

“The mere fact that they are there and just staying there for a week, why, what are they doing there?” Panelo said. It was unclear when and where the Philippines filed the protest.

Source: Reuters

Pakistan’s coastal belt that stretches over a thousand kilometres has a lot more to offer than scenic beauty and deep ports. Climatic conditions in the area are extremely suitable for modern aquaculture. Exploiting its potential will not only revolutionise the local economy but also contribute towards GDP growth.

Currently, aquaculture in the region is restricted to conventional farming of carp. Due to its very high bone-to-flesh ratio, carp is not a preferred fish and has almost no demand in high-paying markets. The Indian subcontinent and certain parts in Eastern Europe are the only regions where people still consume carp. Another disadvantage of carp is that it is one of the slowest-growing commercially farmed fish species.

Source: Dawn