The seafood industry is being urged to make the most of a funding pot to drive innovation and technology, while improving port infrastructure and supporting jobs.

A GBP 37 million kitty has been opened by the Government for the fishing and processing sectors, with a further £1 million now available, allocated for lifesaving vessel safety measures.

The Maritime Fisheries Fund (MFF) is designed to ensure the fishing and seafood industry continues to thrive once the UK leaves the EU – potentially as soon as October 31.

Source: Business Live

The world’s leading sustainable seafood ecolabel, the MSC, has increased its Ocean Stewardship Fund to close to two million BP by redirecting a proportion of funds from the sale of products with the blue fish label into research and projects aimed at ending overfishing.

With world leaders convening this week in Oslo for Our Oceans 2019, the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) is increasing its commitment to global action to end overfishing. Its Ocean Stewardship Fund announced at last year’s Our Oceans summit, will receive an additional 5% of annual royalties earned from the sale of MSC labelled products. This ongoing commitment increases the Fund’s value by around GBP 950,000 per year in addition to the GBP 1 million seed funding announced in 2018. The Fund is now open to applications for research and work that will accelerate and maintain progress in sustainable fishing around the world, particularly in the Global South.

Source: Hydro International

U.S. enforcement of the prohibition against importing fish grown or caught in violation of the Marine Mammal Protection Act is slated to begin on Jan 1, 2022.

Scottish salmon worth GBP 200 million a year could be banned as early as January 2022 if producers don’t stop shooting or using acoustic deterrent devices, reports the Sunday Times.

The US has banned such acoustic deterrent devices (ADDs) and is set to outlaw any imports from producers that use them, it wrote.

Third-party countries have been handed a deadline of March 2021 to prove that their laws match up to the American Marine Mammal Protection Act. (MMPA).

Source: Salmon Bussines

A B.C. conservation group says the number of herring in the Strait of Georgia fell way short of DFO estimates.

“Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) has tallied the numbers and discovered that they far over-predicted the number of herring in the Strait of Georgia in 2019,” Pacific Wild said in a Facebook post.

“On January 28th, Jonathan Wilkinson, our federal Fisheries Minister stood up in the House of Commons and justified the commercial herring roe fishery ‘based on the abundance of the stock…’ Now, we’ve learned that this abundance estimate was extremely inaccurate.”

Source: My Powell River Now

The Clean Oceans Initiative, which commits financial bodies to provide long term investment in combating marine pollution, has exceeded targets in its first year.

Participants in the Clean Oceans Initiative, including the Agence Française de Développement (AFD), the European Investment Bank (EIB) and KfW Group on behalf of the German Federal Government, welcomed the entry into the initiative of the Spanish Promotional Bank (ICO) and reported on the progress of the initiative’s first year. Having set a target of financing €2bn in public and private sector projects aimed at reducing levels of waste and litter in the world’s oceans, the initiative has already resulting in the deployment of €700m in investment: around a third of its five-year goal.

EIB President Dr Werner Hoyer said: “We will not solve the global climate and environment crisis without protecting and cleaning up the world’s oceans. To achieve this, partnership is key. That is why we are working with KfW and AFD, as well as governments, cities and the private sector, to finance projects that support the health of our oceans. We are very pleased with the progress achieved during the first year of the Clean Oceans Initiative and welcome the commitment from the National Promotional Bank of Spain, ICO, to join the initiative. This is a real success story and sends the strong message that European development finance institutions are working effectively together to address global challenges and to strengthen Europe’s leadership on climate action around the world”.

Source: Government Europa

A huge new aquaculture breeding and hatchery centre has opened for business in the west of Iceland, on a remote fjord more than 250 miles from the capital Reykjavik.

The GBP 25 million (ISK 4 billion) Arctic Fish owned facility covers 10,000 square metres near the small fishing harbour of Tálknafjörður, where the company is currently engaged in a major expansion of its salmon farming operations.

It is also Iceland’s largest aquaculture centre and has been built with further expansion in mind.

It will bring dozens of new jobs to an area of the country that has lost much of its traditional fishing activities.

Source: Fish Farmer Magazine

A fishing vessel from Egypt has been fined EUR 8,500 after it was found fishing illegally in Cyprus’ EEZ waters on September 30 2019, authorities said on Tuesday.

The equipment found on the boat has been confiscated, along with 1,290 kilos of fishing catch worth EUR 25,000.

On September 30, the radar had picked up a vessel 20 nautical miles south of Zygi, in the Larnaca district. An operation was carried out by coastguard which found the boat fishing illegally.

The case was handled by the fisheries department of the agriculture ministry.

Source: Cyprus Mail

The country’s marine aquaculture sector has been growing by 20 percent every year since 2010 and produced 431,600 tonnes of fish and shellfish, from an area of 258,000 hectares, in 2018.

Despite this rapid growth the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has drafted a marine aquaculture strategy for the period up to 2030.

According to the Vietnam Plus website, the ministry aims to increase annual marine aquaculture production to 710,000 tonnes by 2020 – an increase of 65 percent compared to 2018 levels.

Source: The Fish Site

Hundreds of fishery stakeholders and scientists will gather in Anchorage next week as the state Board of Fisheries begins its annual meeting cycle with a two-day work session.

The seven-member BOF sets the rules for the state’s subsistence, commercial, sport and personal use fisheries. It meets four to six times each year in various communities on a three-year rotation; this year the focus is on Kodiak and Cook Inlet.

The fish board and the public also will learn the latest on how a changing climate and off-kilter ocean chemistry are affecting some of Alaska’s most popular seafood items at an Oct. 23 2019 “talk and Q&A” on ocean acidification (OA) in Alaska.

Source: The Cordova Times

RFNS Kikau recently returned from a Fisheries surveillance patrol as part of the regional operation Kurukuru 2019.

Kikau was delayed by several days due to other commitments, however, it managed to sight and board 6 offshore vessels during the six days of the patrol.

In harbor boardings and inspections were also conducted and a surveillance aircraft also conducted aerial surveillance of Fiji’s waters during the regional operation Kurukuru.

The Republic of the Fiji Navy will continue to work with relevant stakeholders in protecting our fishing ground from illegal fishing and ensuring that all Fijians are safe.

Source: FBC News