Chile’s National Fisheries and Aquaculture Service (Sernapesca) has activated contingency plans after salmon-farming firm Invermar reported mass mortality at one of its farms.

The microalgae cochlodinium was detected at Invermar’s Tepun production center in Quellón, which was holding a total population of 937,257 coho salmon weighing approximately 780 grams each, according to a release from Sernapesca. The exact number of deaths at the facility has yet to be confirmed.

Upon learning of the mortalities, Sernapesca officials immediately visited the farming center to confirm that the dead fish were “being withdrawn with the logistics available," according to the release. Officials have submitted a report to the national inter-institutional committee on environmental contingencies. To date, no other cultivation centers have been detected with abnormal mortality rates due to algae or other causes, according to Sernapesca In the meantime, the agency has reinforced its surveillance strategy to monitor mortality reports by companies in the area.

Author: Christian Molinari / SeafoodSource | Read the full article here

Alaska Fish and Game aerial surveys Sunday and today showed continued herring spawning activity on Kruzof, Krestof and the Magoun Islands, bringing cumulative spawning mileage to 30.3 nautical miles.

Dive surveys started this weekend on southern and southwest Kruzof Island.

Aerial surveys were conducted Sunday and Monday from Crawfish Inlet to Salisbury Sound.

F&G Area Management Biologist Aaron Dupuis said in his report today that a total of 8.4 nautical miles of active herring spawn was seen Sunday on Kruzof Island south of Shelikof Bay, Fred’s Creek, from Inner Point to Point Brown, on Krestof Island from Rob Point to Eastern Bay, and in the Magoun and Siginaka islands.

Spawn also was observed Sunday near West Crawfish Inlet between the first and second narrows. Smaller areas of spawn were observed closer to Sitka north of Watson Point and near Crescent Harbor. He noted good conditions for the Sunday’s aerial survey.

Source: Daily Sitka Sentinel | Read full article here

Giant American seafood restaurant chain encourages Norwegian salmon farmers to use the current situation to fly more salmon to the US and gain market value.

“We are trying to push the US government for more landings, to use this opportunity for seafood to make enrol over other proteins,” says CEO of Legal Sea Foods, Roger Berkowitz to SalmonBusiness.

Boston-founded Legal Sea Foods has been serving Americans nationwide seafood with 33 restaurants. Since the late ’60s the restaurant chain has been active, but as all restaurants are closed at the moment the company has had to let go of 3,100 of their 4,000 employees. The company has an annual revenue of US$ 220 million per year, and

The restaurant chain usually serves several kinds of fresh salmon at their restaurants from both the Faroe Islands, Norway and Canada. But for now, the company is working on a new product line of fresh seafood to introduce to the foodservice industry.

The CEO believes that to survive this pandemic the company has to bet on quality seafood in supermarkets. Is this to happen Roger Berkowitz is hoping more Norwegian fresh salmon can be flown to the US at a cheaper price, so the salmon can compete.

Author: Katrina Poulsen / SalmonBusiness | Read the full article here

Primex Norway is working on restructuring operations.

On March 29, Primex Norway applied for a grant of NOK 149,000 from Øksnes municipality's corporate development fund for the project "mapping salmon production". In total, the project has a cost limit of NOK 298,000.

“The board is working on a restructuring plan for the company. This plan includes a number of key assessments, one of which is the possibility of producing salmon in the modern factory located at Myre. The market / opportunities for such products are present and this will be taken care of by the parent company Primex International SA, ”writes Chairman Eirik Sørdahl of Primex Norway in the application.

According to the application, the mapping work will be performed partly by internal personnel and partly by external resources.

In an e-mail in the work on the application, Sørdahl explains to the municipality why the factory at Myre in Nordland also wants to invest in salmon.

Author: Stian Olsen / iLaks.no | Read the full article here

Former SalMar chief executive Trond Williksen has been appointed as the new CEO of UK-based aquaculture genetics, health and advanced nutrition company Benchmark Holdings.

He will begin his new role on June 1, taking over from executive chairman Peter George, who will revert to his former position as non-executive chairman.

Williksen is highly experienced in the international aquaculture and seafood industries, having held senior executive positions in the sector for over 20 years.

Most recently he was CEO of SalMar, co-owner of Scottish Sea Farms and one of the world's largest producers of farmed salmon.

Prior to that role he was chief executive of aquaculture technology and service provider AKVA group ASA for six years. He previously held a number of senior roles in Aker ASA’s Seafoods, Ocean Harvest and BioMarine divisions.

Source: fishfarmingexpert | Read the full article here

The impact of the coronavirus is reshuffling the old order of the seafood industry in China, according to executives at numerous seafood firms interviewed by SeafoodSource.

Steven Li, CEO of Zhejiang-based Blue Snow Food Co. Ltd., which specializes in processing, trading, cold storage, and logistics, supplying seafood to around 8,000 supermarket outlets.

“The coronavirus did affect the transportation and shipment and delayed some shipments, but we are still receiving containers on schedule,” Li said. “Cold-chain logistics are still not sufficient in China. There are no big players in this area, and the service level is low and not in a good order.”

Yushu Huang, the chairman of Shanghai-headquartered Huamer Foods Ltd., which claims to be China’s “leading aquatic fresh brand operator” and counts “French toothfish” as its star product, said he wants to improve his company’s procurement management to ensure enough stocks That one of many challenges he said his company faced as a result of the coronavirus outbreak.

Author: Mark Godfrey / SeafoodSource | Read the full article here

ICELAND’S fish  famers enjoyed one of their best export periods during the month of February, the latest statistics show.

The value of overseas sales, mainly salmon, totalled 2,927 million Icelandic kroner (ISK) – or around £16.6-million sterling. This is the second highest month since figures for farmed fish exports were issued. It also represents a 50 per cent increase in value and a 45 per cent increase in volume.
While the figures show that Iceland’s aquaculture industry is  continuing to gather pace, they should be treated with caution as the Coronavirus crisis had still not fully impacted on the industry when they were compiled. SFS, the Icelandic Fisheries Federation, says the picture should become clearer when the March figures become available later this month.
A number of fish farms in Iceland were badly damaged by severe storms during February which will also have had an adverse effect on production.

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

Haute cuisine has come to the rescue of the fishing sector, which is witnessing between powerless and astonished and completely baffled a collapse in demand and prices. Just as the prices in the fish markets continue on a roller coaster, with rises, plains and descents, the clientele of the fishmongers has not just settled, not even in the abnormal influx caused by the confinement. Although it seems that the market tends to regulate itself and the setback is, but not so much as the supply decreases due to the mooring of boats and the reduction of imports, the fishing sector has found influencers in the chefs for its product.

The chefs advise "to consume peixe these days that it is essential to cook our food". In addition to remembering all the properties that fish has and its contribution to strengthening the immune system, stove experts recall its low calorie content, which at times like today, when confinement leads to sedentary lifestyle and boredom encourages walks to the fridge, is of utmost interest.

Author: E. Abuin S. Serantes / La Voz de Galicia | Read the article here

During the past week, Blumar received confirmation of five positive cases of covid-19, three in the maintenance area and two in the process line of the Talcahuano plant.

Salmones Blumar SA, which is the salmon-farming subsidiary of the aquaculture-fishing company Blumar, provided new information on the situation experienced by covid-19 (coronavirus), especially in its process plant located in the commune of Talcahuano, Biobío region .

In effect, assured the general manager of the company, Gerardo Balbontín, in a fact delivered to the Commission for the Financial Market (CMF), “the subsidiary has developed and implemented numerous contingency measures, among which the hiring of nurses stands out. , paramedics and risk preventionists to support the implementation of protocols for the emergency; and the authorization of the free telephone line 800 800 708, which is open 24 hours a day, to answer questions to collaborators and whose answers are issued by medical personnel ”.

In turn, added the executive, the sanitation procedures of the infrastructure have been extreme, and work has been done in educating the personnel in sanitary measures to prevent contagion, in addition to the delivery of protection and sanitation supplies, temperature measurement upon entry and monitoring of health personnel, implementation of transfers of employees in private buses, distancing in the workplace, casino, locker room and food handling.

Source: aqua.cl | Read the article here

The Spanish longline fleet has come together to carry out a joint diagnosis of the impact that the COVID19 crisis is going to have on its activity and, at the same time, establish the mechanisms it would need to face the coming uncertainty.

Prepared by Opromar, Orpagu, OPP Lugo, OPPC3 (Arvi) and the trading companies grouped in Anecteam, the report focuses on the economic difficulties posed by the closure of the Italian market for this segment of the fleet, the destination of much of its export, as well as the blocking of the Horeca channel. The document has been sent to both the General Secretariat of Fisheries and the Consellería do Mar.

One of the key data provided by the fleet is the volume of merchandise it has unplaced. At the moment, the fleet is pending to commercialize a total of 11 687 tons of the three main species: blue shark (5277 tons); sword (6049 tons) and shortfin mako (360 tons), whose price is being affected by the market situation.

In the first two months of the year, the value of the blue shark has fallen 20%; and 7% in the case of sword. The decrease of these two species in the month of March was much more pronounced, reaching 38 in the case of blue shark and 19% in the sword. As a result, in the first quarter of the year, the average price of blue shark fell 29%, 13% in the case of sword.

Source: Fishing Industries | Read the article here