The European Parliament has decided to press ahead with a potentially controversial change to the regulations around smoked salmon processing.

Objections had been raised by the processing sector but they were rejected by the Strasbourg based parliament last week.

The new regulations centre around part of the production system known as the “stiffening process”

The changes were first proposed by the European Commission and adopted by the parliament last week despite mounting concerns.

Author: Vince McDonagh / Fish Farmer l Read the full article here

Fishing with mobile bottom contact gear in European waters is spatially limited to “basic fishing grounds” that concentrate 90% of the catch value and cover 50% of European marine areas (Baltic Sea, the Great North Sea, the Celtic Sea and the Bay of Biscay and the Iberian coastal areas), taking into account data from the period 2017-2022. However, the spatial location of these fishing grounds – starting from a grid cell definition of 0.05º latitude × 0.05º longitude, from 25 km2 to 36ºN to less than 13 km2 to 66. ºN–, varies from year to year, has concluded the ICES (International Council for the Exploration of the Sea) in a new advisory carried out on behalf of the European Commission.

Source: Industrias Pesqueras l Read the full article here

When it comes to seafood purchasing, consumers generally require some level of prompting to choose sustainable products and certification schemes can offer that motivation, according to new research from the Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC).

The farmed seafood certification programme has completed its most comprehensive consumer research to date, through an independent market research agency, interviewing more than 15,000 consumers in 14 countries about their perception and consumption of seafood.

Source: Worldfishing l Read the full article here

The anchovy and white anchovy fishing season for Peru, which contributes significantly to global fishmeal production, has been opened, with the catch quota fixed at 2.475 million tonnes.

Announced by the Peruvian authorities, the commercial fishing season for anchovy and white anchovy is set to open today, 16 April 2024, with a fixed quota of 2.475 million tonnes, according to IFFO - an aquafeed ingredients organisation.

Source: The Fish SIte l Read the full article here

Three major players in the Scottish seafood sector – Denholm Seafoods, The Don Fishing Company and Seafood Ecosse – have collaborated to create a new fully integrated business focused on the processing of Scottish whitefish.

The new business, Trinity Seafoods Ltd, will utilise new state-of-the-art machinery and facilities to process smaller-sized and underutilised sustainable stocks of whitefish, including haddock.

Author: Oliver McBride / The Fishing Daily l Read the full article here

As part of the work carried out by the Argentine Naval Prefecture, as the national Maritime Authority, to monitor and control the country's maritime spaces, its coast guard GC-28 Prefecto Derbes, in collaboration with its Maritime Traffic and Coast Guard Vessel Services, achieved the detection of two ships that sailed from the Malvinas Islands without the corresponding Argentine authorization.

With this context, the Force warned that two vessels ("BEAGLE", Chilean flag, apparently towing the fishing vessel "AN FONG NO.136", Taiwan flag) were sailing at reduced speed within the country's Exclusive Economic Zone, through from the city of Comodoro Rivadavia, 245 nautical miles from the coast.

The aforementioned vessels have the particularity of having set sail from the Malvinas Islands simultaneously, with identical routes, which suggests that the tugboat could be providing assistance to the fishing vessel “AN FONG NO.136” (IMO 9777979).

It should be noted that, according to decree 256/10, consistent with Ordinance 01-10 of the Prefecture, any ship or naval device that intends to transit between ports located in the Argentine continental territory and ports located in the Malvinas Islands, Georgias del South and South Sandwich must request prior authorization issued by the competent national authority.

There’s still no movement with the standoff in the crab fishery, as both sides trade barbs in public.

Today, the Association of Seafood producers laid out their position, saying there will be negative impacts if the fishery doesn’t start soon.

NTV’s Becky Daley reports.

• Increased production from previous plan to 660 tons Iwate
  
• First shipment of farmed coho salmon “Kuji-raised Amber Salmon” this year Kuji City

Approximately 1,500 "Kuji-raised Amber Salmon" coho salmon farmed off the coast of Kuji City were shipped for the first time this year.

"Kuji Raised Amber Salmon'' is coho salmon raised through an aquaculture project that the Kuji City Fisheries Cooperative Association has been working on for the past three years.

They were raised in a cage set up in Kuji Bay, and at 6 a.m. at the fishing port, a boat returned from the cage and landed about 1,500 fish.

The landed coho salmon was about 40 centimeters in size, and because it was grown in a natural environment, it was full of fat, and was handed over to a seafood processing company for 900 yen per kilogram.

Fishing cooperatives in various regions are starting to farm salmon. The Kuji City Fisheries Association is also increasing production of this "Amber Salmon" and promoting branding, with the aim of shipping 660 tons by July this year.

Satoru Umanai, head of the private aquaculture section of the Kuji City Fisheries Cooperative Association, said, "We were worried about the effects of the continued rough weather and low seawater temperatures, but we are happy to see that they are growing well.''

Source: NHK

Alaska pollock A seasonal catch increased by 3%

Alaska pollock fishing (Season A) in the Sea of ??Okhotsk, Russia's largest fishing ground, ended on the 9th. According to the Pollock Catchers Association (PCA), Vladivostok), the catch for the A season from January 1 to April 9 was 830,000 tons, an increase of 3% from the same period last year. 87% of the total allowable catch (TAC) in the sea has been consumed. Surimi production increased by 40% to 30,000 tons. 

The total catch of pollock in all regions of the Far Eastern basin exceeded 1.05 million tons, an increase of 8.6% compared to last year.

According to PCA, the production of pollock products was carried out according to the “scenario” of last year. Thus, due to uncertainty in foreign markets, Russian fishermen stabilized the production volumes of fillet and minced meat: their output remained at last year’s level - a total of about 60 thousand tons. At the same time, enterprises continue to increase marine production of surimi: it increased by almost 40% - up to 30 thousand tons according to the results of the 2024 “A” season. The total production of frozen pollock increased by 7% to 397 thousand tons.

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• IN BRIEF - Russian fishermen complete the first pollock season with a positive mark: more than 1 million tons were harvested