The Pacific Fishing Company has today clarified that operations in Levuka have been reduced to a four-day working week with the challenge of albacore tuna supply affecting operations.

PAFCO’s Chair Ikbal Jannif says there is a worldwide shortage of albacore tuna which has seen their supply go from 23 thousand metric tons down to only 16 point five thousand metric tons this year.

As a result, PAFCO’s 600 full-time staff have over the last two months been earning only eighty percent of what they would normally take home because of the reduced working week.

Source: FBC News

The head of news at BBC Radio 5 Live, Jonathan Crawford, issued an apology after the Scottish Salmon Producers Organisation (SSPO) complained about Campbell’s broadcast earlier in November 2019.

In two programmes, Your Call, which he presented on November 6, and then on 5 Live Breakfast the following day, he claimed the Scottish salmon sector was ‘highly polluting and unregulated’. He also claimed farms were ‘terrible for the environment’.

The SSPO refuted the claims by Campbell as wrong, misleading and factually inaccurate, and argued that he had breached the BBC’s editorial guidelines, both in terms of accuracy and impartiality.

Source: Fish Farmer Magazine

Lower catches for halibut appear to be in the forecast for 2020 and beyond.

At the International Pacific Halibut Commission meeting on Monday in Seattle, lead scientist Ian Stewart summarized the outlook for commercial fisheries from Northern California and British Columbia to the Bering Sea.

“In short, the model survey trends as you’ve seen from the previous presentations are down both in numbers and weight per unit of effort. And what we’ve seen from the commercial fishery’s CPUE (catch per unit of effort) is we have mixed trends, however relatively flat at the coast wide levels with some brighter spots and some not so good spots across the coast.”  

Source: Alaska Fish Radio

Food safety and marine health organisations in Norway and Iceland are this week battling with suspected salmon related diseases on at least three fronts.

They involve ISA or infectious salmon anaemia at two sites in Norway and a confirmed case of IPA or the viral disease known as infectious pancreatic necrosis in Iceland.

This is thought to be the first time that IPA has been found at a salmon farm in Iceland, although it has affected halibut in the past.

The virus, which can be fatal to fish, was reported at a Laxa freshwater aquaculture site in Reydarfjordur.

Source: Fish Farmer Magazine

Northern Fisheries Ltd. of Little Compton, RI, has expanded their voluntary recall of frozen, wild-caught yellowfin Tuna Medallions (product of Vietnam) to include product sold directly to consumers. This recall is due to potentially elevated levels of histamine. Elevated levels of histamines can produce an allergic reaction called scombroid fish poisoning that may result in symptoms that can generally appear within minutes to several hours after eating the affected fish.

Beijing Shouhang Guoli Trading Co. has committed to sourcing seafood from Best Aquaculture Practices (BAP)-certified facilities for its Beijing-based supermarket chain, known as Sofly, as part of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Global Aquaculture Alliance (GAA).

Sofly, which has about 50 stores, agreed to start sourcing BAP seafood and to gradually expand the percentage of BAP seafood that it sources to strengthen its commitment to sustainable seafood. Sofly is a regional supermarket chain that focuses on fresh foods.

By the end of September 2019, the total export value of pangasius to Japan reached nearly US $ 25 million, up 2.6% compared to the same period in 2018. Particularly in September 2019, pangasius export to this market reached US $ 3 million, up 2%.

Vietnam Pangasius has begun to be noticed by Japanese customers so far. Consumers in this country also know more about pangasius products of Vietnam. In 2019, for the first time, Japan entered the top 10 largest pangasius importers of Vietnamese enterprises. In the first quarter of 2019, pangasius export value to this market grew very positively from 31.6 to 98.5% over the same period in 2018. However, in the second quarter, the export value decreased in several months, resulting in declining in the general growth. By the end of September 2019, export growth increased by only 2.6% and it was not as expected. But up to this point, it can be said that Japan is a new and potential market for Vietnamese pangasius.

Source: VASEP

International brands are pressing ahead with their expansion plans in Hong Kong even as consumer spending and tourists numbers have taken a hit from the social unrest in the city. And with the formal withdrawal of the extradition bill on Wednesday, there is a likelihood of the city returning to normality and boosting consumer confidence.

In November, American seafood chain Red Lobster will open its first restaurant in Hong Kong’s Causeway Bay, one of the city’s busiest shopping districts which has been hit by the months-long protests.

Cosmetic retailer Sephora opened a new store at the IFC Mall on Tuesday, after a nine-year absence in Hong Kong.

Source: South China Morning Post

More than 1,500 people represented by 20 small-scale fishing co-operatives were awarded subsistence and commercial fishing rights at a celebratory event in the Lilian Ngoyi Community Sports Centre in Kwazakhele, South Africa, at the weekend.

The 15-year rights, which give the holders access to a range of species from rock lobster and hake to squid and perlemoen, were issued by environment, forestry and fisheries minister Barbara Creecy on Saturday.

The ceremony was part of a series of events scheduled for rollout under the department’s new strategy that looks to allocate “a share of the economy” to SA coastal communities that have historically and traditionally relied on the sea.

Source: ICSF

Sweeping changes in West Coast groundfish fisheries adopted this week will reopen access for fishermen to productive fishing grounds where fish populations have rebounded. These changes will also protect sensitive deep-water habitat and deep-sea corals from bottom fishing.

The changes come in the form of an amendment to the Fishery Management Plan for groundfish off the West Coast. The Pacific Fishery Management Council (Council) recommended the amendment to NOAA Fisheries, which finalized it this week. The new provisions take effect January 1, 2020, and are widely supported by fishermen and other stakeholders.

The changes affect what is known as Essential Fish Habitat, or EFH, the habitat necessary to support sustainable fisheries. By law, the Council must minimize effects on EFH, and in 2005 did so for groundfish habitat. It established area closures that limited bottom trawling and other types of gear that contact the sea floor.

Source: NOAA Fisheries