Norway’s cod farmers may be having a tough time financially of late, but what they produce is now attracting increased demand from buyers abroad.

The Norwegian Seafood Council reports that 408 tonnes worth NOK 26.7m (almost £2m) were exported last month. No farmed cod was sold overseas in August last year.

Seafood Council analyst Eivind Hestvik Brækkan said it is now looking likely that last month’s pattern will continue for the remainder of this year.

Author: Vince McDonagh / FishFarmer | Read the full article here

Biological challenges at farming sites hurt the operations of Shetland, Scotland-based Scottish Sea Farms in the second quarter of this year, negatively affecting harvest volume, average harvest size, and price achievement, according to reports from Lerøy Seafood Group, which operates the company as a joint venture with SalMar.

Lerøy CEO Henning Beltestad confirmed when presenting his firm’s Q2 2023 results that Scottish Sea Farms had experienced a “weak second quarter,” saying the company accrued high costs tending to sites with challenges stemming from the second half of 2022 that continued into this year.

Author: Jason Holland / SeafoodSource | Read the full article here

The Falkland Islands and the fishing industry agreed to an early closure of squid due to a critical level of biomass

The decision to close the campaign was made after scientific reports exposed a level of winter biomass that was the lowest since 2008, something like a total of 19,859 tons.

The fishing companies for their part have announced that they will try to recover a refund of the cost of the licences, but a member of the Falklands Legislative Assembly indicated that this possibility was unlikely.

 Source: EuropaAzul | Read the full article here

The Board of Directors of Nueva Pescanova has appointed Jorge Escudero Hurtado (Madrid, 1970) as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Group. The Executive Officer will join the company on 7 September.

Jorge Escudero joins the team of the multinational fishing company to lead and enhance the company’s growth and increase its profitability. The new CEO has forged a robust professional career in the realm of FMCG and has an extensive international track record.

Source: FishFocus | Read the full article here

Science advances in the confirmation that climate change affects the distribution and habits of fishing species. The latest confirmation comes from AZTI, which has verified how mackerel and horse mackerel react to temperature change: for each degree of warming of the sea, mackerel shifts its distribution at spawning time, moving north 370 km, while the horse mackerel advances the seasonal date of its reproductive spawning by around 12 days.

Source: IndustriasPesqueras | Read the full article here

South Africa's annual sardine migration attracts a host of eager predators, each perfectly adapted to take advantage of the bounty. Common dolphins use sonar to 'herd' sardines into more manageable baitballs – something that many creatures benefit from.

The growth of biofouling on aquaculture infrastructure is a universal challenge. Standard industry practices to remove biofouling in finfish aquaculture typically include in situ net cleaning via power washing.

Since those cleaning practices can be potentially harmful to fish-gill health and expensive, development of other non-toxic biofouling controls is an industry priority. 

Deposit-feeding sea cucumbers are potentially well suited for biofouling control due to their feeding mechanism, but remain relatively untested in this capacity. We examined the use of California sea cucumbers (Apostichopus californicus) to control biofouling on cages containing adult Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) at a commercial farming operation. 

Four cage types were established: cages with salmon and sea cucumbers, cages with salmon only, cages with sea cucumbers only, and cages without either species. Results showed that the sea cucumbers actively fed on biofouling when salmon were absent (~16% cleaner on average) but preferred to consume uneaten feed/faeces at the bottom of the cages, neglecting the biofouling, when the salmon were present.

It is hypothesized that biofouling control in cages with salmon may be possible with an increased density of sea cucumbers.[...]

Source: MDPI

There is little direct fishing for flatfish such as turbot, plaice and butter flounder in Norway. The exceptions are halibut and blue halibut. For some of the shrimp trawlers in the Skagerak, perhaps trawling for plaice and other flatfish can bring good income in periods.

The prices achieved for flatfish at Danish auctions are currently very good.

Norwegian boats show little interest in flatfish

The most important tools are trawls, seines and nets. Along with plaice, other flatfish are also caught. The bycatch is more valuable than ever before. Norwegian vessels do not fish directly for flatfish. Large catches are therefore low. But after that Fiskerimagasinet, something may change due to the crisis in shrimp fishing. Plaice and other flatfish can become important for Norwegian trawlers.

In several Danish fisheries, bycatch of cod is settled against quotas. Trawlers must therefore avoid catching cod. By having a low opening on bottom trawls in fishing for plaice, less cod is caught, but a greater proportion of other flatfish. Norwegian trawlers fishing in the Skagerrak have a small annual quota of cod. In addition, 2.5 per cent by-catch of cod is legal if trawling for flatfish.[...]

Author/Source: Terje Engø/Fiskerimagasinet (translated from original in Norwegian)

Norwegian salmon exports were up by value again during August, increasing month on month consistently for the past two and a half years.

Figures published by the Norwegian Seafood Council today reveal that the country’s salmon farmers sold 125,041 tonnes of fish worth NOK 10.7bn (£793m) last month.

This represents a value increase of 18%, and a volume rise of 6%, compared with August last year. Poland, the United States and the Netherlands were the biggest markets for salmon in August.

Author: Vince McDonagh / FishFarmer | read the full article here