WELLFLEET - Hard on the heels of the town’s friendly taking of HDYLTA Trust flats and beach, Outer Cape shellfishermen met with state Rep. Sarah Peake, D-Provincetown, and state Sen. Julian Cyr, D-Truro, Friday to discuss threats to the future of the industry.

“We care about the industry, we know many of the people, and are willing to go to bat for you,” Cyr told a standing room only crowd in Preservation Hall.

The Wellfleet Shellfishermen’s Association hosted the meeting, which shellfishermen from other Cape towns were invited to attend and participate in.

Source: South Coast Today

PONTIAN - Fishermen who are found to intentionally leave behind their fishing nets in the sea and become ghost nets will face stern actions, said Agriculture and Agro-based Industry Minister Datuk Seri Salahuddin Ayub.

He said the irresponsible act of some fishermen could disturb and kill marine life.

"Ghost nets is not a new issue. Those who are found to violate the terms (of fishing), will face legal actions.

“I will use my discretion and existing regulations, but for repeat offenders, there is no forgiveness,” he told reporters after attending a session with fishermen at Kampung Sungai Chengkeh, some 35 minutes away from Pontian town, today.

Source: Bernama

GEORGE TOWN - Sea and beach pollution which have become an increasingly serious problem in the state is not only harmful to the marine ecosystem but may also threaten the lives of fishermen.

In addressing the problem, a river cleaning programme was held here aimed at educating people about keeping the environment clean.

Some 416 kilogrammes of garbage were collected along the coastal areas of Tanjung Bungah near here at the event which was participated by 50 people.

Fisherman Ismail Din said the rubbish which have been dumped into rivers and drains over the past 10 years would ultimately end up at sea posing a danger to fishermen.

Source: Bernama

Hawke's Bay will have better control over its local fisheries following a Court of Appeal ruling, a regional councillor has said.

The court of appeal has upheld an environment court decision on Monday, which allows regional councils to put in place fishing restrictions in order to protect an area's environment.

"The decision puts protecting the region's fish and marine ecosystem in the hands of people living in Hawke's Bay."

He said HBRC can now seriously consider controls and restrictions, such as not allowing juvenile snapper to be fished below 50m, and protecting snapper in the Wairoa Hard area.

Source: NZ Herald

A new report on seafood jobs in Alaska notes that fishery harvest employment declined by 4.9 percent in 2018, erasing most of the gains seen a year earlier.

That total decline of about 407 average annual jobs brought the state’s overall employment in harvesting down to 7,924 posts, wrote state labor economist Joshua Warren in the November edition of Alaska Economic Trends, a publication of the Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development.

Salmon fisheries statewide lost 7.2 percent, or 328 jobs, over a year earlier, the major exception being Bristol Bay, where employment approached a decade high of 1,148, Warren said. Groundfish harvesting employment, which spiked a year earlier, dropped back to its previous level of about 1,195. Despite the 9.1 percent, or 120 job drop in groundfish jobs, 2018 total employment for that sector remained high relative to past years.

Source: Cordova Times

The bid is not entirely unexpected as Bakkafrost CEO Regin Jacobsen suggested as much in September, when the sale to the Faroese salmon farmer was first announced. But it has probably come sooner than expected.

Initially, Bakkafrost purchased 68.6 per cent of the shares from the investment fund Northern Link, the then majority owners, for £517 million. Since then, the holding has been increased to just over 80 per cent.

At the weekend it declared that it will make a mandatory bid for all the shares it does not currently own.

Source: Fish Farmer Magazine

Alfa Laval – a world leader in heat transfer, centrifugal separation and fluid handling – opens an Innovation & Test center for decanters in Søborg, northwest of Copenhagen, Denmark, to strengthen the company's global position within food and water, which are two important growth areas for the company.

The purpose of the new Innovation & Test center is to develop, test and optimize the next generation of decanters and be a global knowledge hub for food and water applications. The center will be located at Alfa Laval’s site in Søborg – and as a first step, cover 2,000 square meters.

Global harvests of farmed Atlantic salmon are expected to grow by around 4–5 percent in 2019. Norway, the world’s leading producer, started the year strongly while the Scottish sector is recovering volumes following a steep decline last year. However, higher production forecasts for 2019 made earlier in the year now seem too optimistic given the dual impact of the loss of approximately 8 million fish due to a severe algal bloom in Norway and reports of new fish health issues at farms in Chile. The more recent figure is comparable to growth rates observed in 2017 and 2018, continuing a relatively steady growth trend that is bringing some stability to the market.

Production in Norway was up year-on-year after the first quarter of 2019 and accelerated significantly in May as the arrival of the algal bloom in the north of the country prompted mass harvesting by farmers looking to save marketable fish. Although blooms have occurred before in Norway, this was reportedly the worst the country has seen in decades. The phenomenon, which can cause fish mortality through asphyxiation, occurs only when conditions are optimal but can be triggered by warming water temperatures. Total lost production, in terms of lost biomass converted to average harvested weight, amounted to some 40 000 tonnes with financial losses estimated at around NOK 2.2 billion (USD 225 million). In response, the Norwegian government will allow affected salmon farmers to apply for a fiveyear exemption from the capacity limitations connected to their salmon licenses.

Source: FAO

A group of fisheries and wildlife advocates were in St. John’s court Wednesday 6th of November 2019 asking for stricter environmental assessment of Newfoundland and Labrador’s expanding aquaculture industry.

The applicants say the province’s former environment minister acted unlawfully when he determined a proposed salmon hatchery project did not require further environmental assessment.

The proposed Indian Head hatchery in Stephenville would see more than 2 million salmon released into existing sea cages owned by Northern Harvest Sea Farms.

James Gunvaldsen Klaassen of the environmental law group Ecojustice argued in provincial Supreme Court that the minister’s decision was invalid because he did not consider what happens after the newly hatched fish are released into the cages.

Source: Global News

Vietnam has good potential for the development of the seafood sector, he said. In 2018, the country’s seafood output totaled 7.7 million tons. Vietnam shipped USD 9 billion worth of seafood to foreign countries in 2019.

Between January and October 2019, Vietnam fetched USD 7.1 billion from seafood exports.

“With these results, Vietnam has become one of the world’s leading seafood exporters,” he said, adding that the strong growth of the seafood industry has driven up the country’s socioeconomic development and created a number of jobs for locals.

Source: Vietnam Net