Fish industry news

Mainstream Canada's Food Safety system helps to ensure its salmon is some of the safest seafood available on store shelves, reports www.megafishnet.com

An International Expert Consultation composed of 20 experts from academia, policy and NGOs, convened by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), agreed on the first international guidelines on responsible recreational fisheries. These Technical Guidelines, to be brought to the attention of the FAO Committee on Fisheries (COFI), support sustainable recreational fisheries in context of the implementation of the FAO Code of Conduct of Responsible Fisheries, were prepared following calls from FAO member states for guidance on recreational fisheries as a rapidly rising form of use of wild fish populations, reports http://www.megafishnet.com/

An entrepreneurial Scottish seafood firm is carrying out trials that could not only stop waste from its factory being dumped into the ground at a prohibitive cost but also turn the material into profitable product lines, reports http://www.megafishnet.com/

Oceana on Monday called on the U.S. government to ban the import of shark products, including fins, cartilage and meat, from countries with insufficient shark protections. Specifically, the group is urging the country to use its power under the Shark Conservation Act of 2010 to take action against countries with weaker shark conservation measures, including China, Japan and Indonesia, reports www.megafishnet.com

Supervalu seafood executives are pleased with the retailer's "head start" on sustainability, since around 44 percent of the top 20 wild species it sells are already certified sustainable by the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) or are in the full-assessment phase, reports www.megafishnet.com

HB Grandi's pelagic factory at Vopnafjördur will be running at full capacity this weekend freezing herring and mackerel, in spite of this being a Bank Holiday weekend in Iceland, and according to Magnus Robertsson, in charge of production, there is no slowing of the pace expected until the autumn when the mackerel and herring quotas are expected to be finished, reports www.megafishnet.com

As the sea temperature rises east of Iceland, so it seems that the mackerel are increasingly abundant. Arnthor Hjorleifsson, skipper of HB Grandi's pelagic vessel Lundey NS, says that there have been some significant changes in the last few days and the water temperature has risen by 2.5°C in a fairly short time, reports www.megafishnet.com

AgriMarine Holdings on Thursday announced that it signed an agreement making AgriMarine Norway (AgriNor) as its exclusive sales agent of its solid-wall containment technology in Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Iceland and Russia. AgriMarine is based in Vancouver, British Columbia, reports www.megafishnet.com

The second annual Asian Seafood Exposition is just around the corner, taking place from 6 to 8 September at the Hong Kong Convention & Exhibition Center in Hong Kong. The event is designed to connect retail and foodservice buyers as well as distributors with suppliers of live, fresh, frozen and packaged seafood products and services looking to access the growing Asia-Pacific and Hong Kong seafood market, reports www.megafishnet.com

Scotland's Loch Torridon langoustine (Nephrops) fishery has withdrawn from the MSC programme. At the Torridon Nephrops Management Group's (TNMG) request, independent certifier, Intertek Moody Marine, has withdrawn the fishery's MSC certification. The withdrawal follows the suspension of TNMGs MSC certificate in January this year, reports www.megafishnet.com

"Zeeuwse mosselen" - mussels from the Dutch province of Zeeland, a very popular and typical Dutch specialty seafood product - are now eligible to bear the MSC ecolabel: The Dutch Association of Suspended Culture Mussel Farmers (in Dutch: Zeeuwse Hangcultuurkwekers) has been certified to the Marine Stewardship Council standard for sustainable and well-managed fisheries. The association has been working towards MSC certification for almost one and a half years. The assessment was carried out by independent certifier SGS Nederland B.V., reports www.megafishnet.com

The independent certification body, Moody Marine Limited, has awarded Marine Stewardship Council certification to three British Columbia pink (Oncorhynchus gorbuscha) salmon fisheries that were entered into assessment by the Canadian Pacific Sustainable Fisheries Society. Certification to the MSC standard means the fisheries have been found to be sustainable and well-managed following a rigorous assessment that included an open, transparent process and scientific peer review. With certification, the fisheries are now eligible to display the MSC ecolabel, reports www.megafishnet.com

On 28 July 2011 Minister of Fisheries and Oceans of Canada Keith Ashfield issued a statement in response to redia reports concerning Pacific salmon, reports www.megafishnet.com

The Dutch Producers' Organisation Mussel Culture (in Dutch: PO Mosselcultuur) celebrate the 2011 mussel season with a special achievement: the fishery has been awarded MSC certification following an independent assessment against the MSC standard for sustainable fisheries. Mussels from this fishery may now bear the blue MSC ecolabel, which gives customers assurance that the product is traceable to a certified sustainable source, reports www.megafishnet.com

Science, the international weekly science journal, has published online Impacts of fishing low trophic level species on marine ecosystems, a ground breaking scientific analysis. The study was initiated and substantially funded by the Marine Stewardship Council with the aim of ensuring its guidance to certifiers on assessing low trophic level fisheries meets global best practice, reports www.megafishnet.com

New Brunswick-based Cooke Aquaculture on Friday announced that it agreed to acquire Culmarex S.A. - Spain's largest sea bass- and sea bream-farming operation -from Poland-based salmon-processing heavyweight Morpol ASA, reports http://www.megafishnet.com/

Associated Seafoods on Thursday announced that it acquired Scottish shellfish processor Moray Seafoods, reports www.megafishnet.com

AgriMarine on Thursday announced that it began to harvest its first crop of chinook salmon at its Chinese farm, reports http://www.megafishnet.com/

Vietnam's black tiger shrimp were struck by disease in April. Resulting short supply is now driving up prices in product's largest market, Japan, reports http://www.megafishnet.com/