Fishing Industry: Fish farms seek new feed to fend off 'peak salmon' problem - by Khalil Akhtar,

With increasing demand and flatlining production, technological solutions are needed to meet the growing market for seafood.
More and more fish sold for human consumption is farmed, and the UN has said 2014 will be the first year the consumption of farmed fish overtakes that of wild fish.

• Why farmed fish need more veggies in their diet​
• Farming salmon on land is viable, project suggests​

That reality is shaping the salmon industry in unique ways. But with demand rising five to 10 per cent annually over the past few years, traditional salmon production is hitting its limit.

A main issue is the growing demand and limited availability of fish oil and fish meal, ingredients needed to manufacture the food pellets fed to farmed salmon.

Read more: Fish farms seek new feed to fend off 'peak salmon' problem - Canada - CBC News

Norway: Fish Food for Thought - by Fangfei Shen

Some higher life forms find that doing sudoku or crossword puzzles helps them stay mentally nimble. Now scientists are beginning to think that a bit of entertaining, brain-stimulating “play” each day can sharpen the minds of fish and help them focus on their work: eating, reproducing, and avoiding predators.

In a study at Norway’s University of Bergen, hatchery-raised salmon whose tanks had been tricked out with pebbles, cobbles, and plastic fronds appeared to be markedly, well, smarter than salmon that had spent their days in plain, undecorated tanks. Researchers believe the decorations foster a useful survival skill by breaking up water currents and providing obstacles that the fish must negotiate—an activity that serves these fish well when they’re released into rivers, where water currents are highly dynamic and natural obstacles abound. By contrast, in the undecorated tanks, where the current flowed only one way, the salmon just swam around in endless circles.

To test salmon IQ, researchers sent fish from two groups through a maze. Those from the furnished tanks made fewer mistakes along their route and found their way out more quickly than those from the unfurnished tanks. (One poor guy from the latter group swam into the same dead end 15 times in a row.) Researchers also looked inside some of the fishes’ heads—literally—and found that the brains of salmon with playground privileges displayed increased development and plasticity.

Anne Gro Vea Salvanes, who led the study, hopes conservation hatcheries will put her team’s findings to good use. While the industry has noted these findings with interest, hatcheries have hesitated to furnish their fish tanks, citing labor and maintenance costs. Acknowledging such barriers, Salvanes and her colleagues are working to develop a set of fun, pedagogically approved, “easy-to-install, easy-to-maintain” fish-tank equipment: the piscine equivalent of the educational toys you might find in an elementary school gifted-and-talented program. We always knew our little Nemo was special!

Read more: Fish Food for Thought | OnEarth Magazine

Fishing Industry: Norway increases salmon exports to China

Norway’s exports of fresh salmon are growing at a strong double digit annual rate to China, reports David Hayes.

The current fashion among the growing middle class to eat Japanese food when dining out has had the unexpected side effect of boosting consumption of high priced imported fresh salmon which is popular served as sashimi and on sushi.

China has grown, during the past two decades, to become the world’s largest producer, consumer and exporter of fisheries products. At the same time the country has become one of the world’s fastest growing markets for imported fresh salmon.

Read more: World Fishing - Norway increases salmon exports to China

Pollution: Experts say another BP-style Gulf blowout all too possible - by Renee Schoof

Much more needs to be done to lower the risks of another offshore oil disaster like the BP blowout two years ago in the Gulf of Mexico, the presidential commission that investigated the disaster reported Tuesday in its first progress update.

The presidential oil spill commission disbanded after it finished its main report last year, but its seven members recently got together again to look back on whether their recommendations had been carried out. Many steps to prevent or sop up another oil blowout haven’t been taken.

“The risks will only increase as drilling moves into deeper waters with harsher, less familiar environmental conditions,” the report says. “Delays in taking the necessary precautions threaten new disasters, and their occurrence could, in turn, seriously threaten the nation’s energy security.”

Note EU-Digest: It's almost two years since BP's oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and according to an investigative report compiled by Al Jazeera, scientists are saying that they are finding deformities among seafood and a great decline in the numbers of marine life.

Dr. Darryl Felder, a biologist who has studied crustaceans for decades, says that populations of marine life have dropped in alarming rates.  "The species' richness, which means the number of different kinds of things that live there and the abundance of the individual ones that comprise the set, or the assemblage as we call it, are diminished," he said.

The United States government says that seafood is safe to eat, but some scientists say that is not the only concern that people should have. One of the most important animals in the food chain is the killifish, but according to biologist Andrew Whitehead, they are exhibiting a lower heart rate than they should, they have a lower hatching success, and their hearts are not forming properly. 

The killifish is just one of the species affected. "We have some evidence of deformed shrimp, which is another developmental impact," said Scott Eustis of the Gulf Restoration Network. "That shrimp's grandmother was exposed to oil while the mother was developing, but it's' the grandchild of the shrimp that was exposed that grows up with no eyes."

For more: Experts: Another BP-style Gulf blowout all too possible - Gulf Oil Spill - MiamiHerald.com

EU/Morocco: Problem of Western Sahara hampers fisheries negotiations - by Anne Eckstein

Fisheries Commissioner Maria Damanaki is expected to present soon a request for a mandate to negotiate renewal of the fisheries agreement between the EU and Morocco, but limited to the Northern part of the country, excluding the maritime zones off the coast of the Western Sahara. If successful, this plan would oblige upwards of 100 European vessels to cease their activities in the fishing zones concerned. The draft mandate is in the inter-services consultation stage at the European Commission, expected to last until February.

The latest EU-Morocco fisheries agreement, signed in 2007, expires on 27 February 2011. It covers fishing licences for 110 European fishing vessels, of which 100 from Spain, and establishes rights of access to Moroccan waters at the cost of €36.1 million a year to the EU. Part of this amount goes to Morocco's fisheries sector and the remainder to development. Talks on renewal of the accord, under way for the last few months, have been hampered by the problem of the Western Sahara. After a European Parliament report concluded that the agreement infringes international law since the Western Saharan population does not receive its share of the EU contribution, the Commission asked the Moroccan authorities to prove that the agreement is also benefiting this population.

At a meeting with Morocco's Agriculture and Fisheries Minister, Aziz Akhannouch, on 21 October 2010, Damanaki demanded solid and clear information confirming that this population is sharing in the benefits of the agreement. "We cannot renew this agreement until the Moroccan authorities have transmitted this information," she said at the time. The commissioner has not yet obtained the required information.

For the complete reportgo to: Europolitics

TheFishSite: Integrated policy vital for sustainable marine-based sector

For the complete report from the FishSite click on this link

Integrated policy vital for sustainable marine-based sector

Global aquaculture is booming - a result of a strong seafood market, advanced public research and suitable climatic conditions, says EU Commissioner Joe Borg. However, the industry is only a part of a diverse maritime sector that warrants environmental protection and global to promote sustainability at all levels.

Speaking at the Shanghai Fishery University last week, Dr Borg said that aquaculture faced a number of challenges, such as limitations of space, environmental impacts and the difficulty of remaining competitive."I believe that this is a field where the EU and China stand to benefit enormously from co-operation and it is one where I encourage us to work closely together."

Caribbean Net News: Europe bans Suriname fishery products - by Ivan Cairo

Paramaribo, Suriname
For the complete report from the Caribbean Net News click on this link

Europe bans Suriname fishery products - by Ivan Cairo

The European Commission (EC) is imposing a ban on some fishery products from Suriname. Citing health and hygiene concerns, smoked fish and cultivated shrimps are banned from the European market. A recent EC inspection in Suriname found serious shortcomings and health hazards at shrimp farms and fish processing companies. It was discovered that some of the processing companies are smoking their products with wood containing carcinogenic substances. “Wood was being used for smoking that is not safe and which was linked with production of carcinogens, so there was a risk of cancer for humans,” said EC spokesman Philip Tott in an interview with Radio Netherlands.

Suriname exports approximately 390 tons smoked fish products to the Europe Union (EU) valued 1.6 million euros, mostly to the Netherlands and Great-Brittain.“In the pond shrimp sector the establishments that inspectors visited were in very bad condition and there was no proper authorisation procedure by the authorities. Establishments were not complying with our standards,” said Tott. “In the pond shrimp sector the establishments that inspectors visited were in very bad condition and there was no proper authorisation procedure by the authorities. Establishments were not complying with our standards,” said Tott.