Ottawa is establishing a research team to study the impact of seals on fish populations in Atlantic Canada.

Federal Fisheries Minister Jonathan Wilkinson today announced the creation of the Atlantic seal science task team.

A statement from the department said the work is meant to ensure management decisions for seals and sea lions are made with the best available science, in order to sustain “healthy and productive” ecosystems.

Source: Global News Canada

The federal government has taken action recently to reduce the amount of plastic waste found on land and in oceans, rivers and lakes.

In June, for example, it said it would ban single-use plastics by 2021. "It is tough to explain to your children why dead whales are washing up on our beaches with their stomachs jammed packed with plastic bags," Prime Minister Justin Trudeau commented at the time.

Despite this progress, one of the main plastic polluters—shellfish aquaculture—continues to threaten marine ecosystems.

Coastal British Columbia is rugged and jagged. Its drowned fjords are home to wild salmon and the ecosystems that depend on them. Tucked away between Vancouver and Denman islands is Baynes Sound, a serene inland sea, home to sea mammals, globally important duck and bird populations, and a biological diversity unmatched along our coast.

Source: Phys

“Our results indicate that crowding mackerel during purse seine capture may cause a severe stress reaction that has the potential to affect the quality of their fillets” concludes Neil Anders, PhD student at the Centre for Research-based Innovation in Sustainable fish capture and Processing technology (CRISP) at the IMR.

“The industry should take note of this because the price they receive at auction can depend on the quality of the fish they are selling. Buyers want fish with no gaping, a nice uniform pale colour to the flesh and a firm texture. We have found that crowding has the potential to affect these qualities and therefore, potentially, it could also reduce the profitability of the fish”.

Source: Institute of Marine Research

Kenya in conjunction with Canada is constructing fisheries infrastructure projects along the coast in order to boost the sector and attract more tourists.

Fisheries, Aquaculture and Blue Economy principal secretary Prof Micheni Ntiba said the project will also include building of more recreational parks.

“We are going to construct a marine park in Kenya in conjunction with Canada to add to tourism attraction sites as well as leisure and learning activities. We will also build more parks in Lamu,” said Prof Ntiba on Saturday when he inspected the Sh460 Mama Ngina Waterfront project.

“The Liwatoni Fisheries Complex is the first Kenyan fish port that has been gazetted.”

Source: Business Daily Africa

The Rhode Island aquaculture industry saw modest increases in sales and employment in 2018, according to the latest report from the state Coastal Resources Management Council.

The council, which oversees aquaculture in Rhode Island, reported that the number of oyster farms increased from 73 to 76. 

Oysters top the list of aquaculture products, with 8.5 million sold for consumption, but new crops have also been introduced. Those include sugar kelp, soft shell clams, surf clams, and bay scallops. The total value of aquaculture products sold during 2018 was USD 5.8 million.

Source: The Sun

THE Norwegian Seafood Council has revealed it is spending a lot of time and resources fighting fake news reports circulating around the safety of farmed salmon.

The battleground appears to be concentrated in Asia – and South Korea, in particular. Salmon exports to that country have increased by 172 per cent in volume and 300 per cent in value over the past five years.

In 2018, South Koreans bought 25,400 tonnes of salmon worth two billion kroner, most of it Norwegian.

But the Seafood Council has disclosed that in the past few months it has been forced to spend ‘a lot of resources on myth crushing and media handling’ after a blog at the beginning of this year came up with claims that salmon was a toxic food.

Source: Fish Farmer Magazine

Significant environmental concerns have been raised about plans to build a large salmon farm just off the coast of Canna, a tiny Hebridean island near Skye.

Mowi, the world’s largest salmon producer, has tabled outline plans to install eight fish farm cages to grow thousands of tonnes of organic salmon in one of the most environmentally protected areas of sea in the UK.

The cages would be 160 metres in circumference, the largest installed in the UK, after Scottish ministers relaxed rules in an effort to push salmon farms further offshore to reduce the pollution and welfare problems that dog the industry.

Source: The Guardian

New name for MMC Green Technology. MMC Green Technology AS will be renamed Norwegian Greentech AS.

In connection with the sale of MMC First Process, it was agreed that MMC Green Technology would change its name. The new name is Norwegian Greentech AS, and Havyard Group ASA is the company’s majority owner with 77.78% of the shares. The remaining shares are still owned by key employees who have been with the company since its formation.

Ballast water treatment system – a requirement

Ships built after 8 September 2017 are bound by the requirements of the IMO convention concerning treatment of ballast water, while existing ships must have a ballast water treatment system installed by 8 September 2024. Also, all ships are already required to have an approved ballast water management plan in place. These regulations will apply to all ships all over the world, not just in Norway, with effect from 8 September 2019.

Source: Fish Focus

Wrapping food in plastic does serve a purpose. A plastic-wrapped cucumber at a supermarket may seem egregious, but the vegetable lasts longer and is less likely to end up as food waste; throwing out food can have an even bigger impact on the environment than the plastic itself. But the system’s reliance on plastic in its current form can’t last. In a year, the world uses more than 160 million tons of plastic food packaging made from fossil fuels, little of which is recycled.

In a lab at a Scottish startup, researchers are turning waste from the seafood industry into a new kind of plastic wrap that can safely go in your compost bin. “We’re in the process of developing fully compostable, antimicrobial food packaging which looks and feels to the consumer like the petroleum plastic version—but the difference is that it will not add to the millions of tons of waste that comes from packaging that has ended up in the oceans,” says Cait Murray-Green, CEO of the startup, called CuanTec (“cuan” is the Gaelic word for sea). “The challenge is to create something that does the same job, but through a sustainable source,” she says.

Source: Fast Company

Mowi Scotland has exported 594 tonnes (gutted weight equivalent) of salmon directly from five pens at its Portnalong site on Skye to the port of Hirtshals in Denmark on the Hav Line processing boat Norwegian Gannet.

The move comes as salmon farmers face the increasing possibility of a no-deal Brexit, and the likelihood of huge delays at cross-Channel ports, but in this case Mowi said it was entirely about solving a problem of limited capacity at its Blar Mhor primary processing plant at Fort William.

Mowi Scotland spokesperson Ian Roberts said: “As Mowi has previously reported, current processing space is at capacity and doesn’t allow for additional fish volumes at our plant in Fort William during peak periods. We have been processing additional volumes in Ireland over the past months and are now processing and packaging some volume in Denmark. We continue to work with our employees to create a long-term solution for fish processing in Scotland that will accommodate all our requirements and future growth.”

Source: Fish Farming Expert