Chinese shrimp imports may surpass 1 million metric tons (MT) this year, defying global purchasing trends and achieving growth that no other market has gotten close to reaching in 2023, according to Shrimp Insights Founder Willem van der Pijl.

Between the second half of 2022 and June of this year, China imported around 1 million MT of shrimp, split nearly evenly through every six months. 

Author: Toan Dao / SeafoodSource | read the full article here

• Almost 150 changes to fishing practices since 2001 – driven by Marine Stewardship Council’s ecolabel – the world leader for sustainable seafood
• MSC urge UK government to seize once in a generation moment to ensure sustainability is embedded across all aspects of fisheries management

Consumer demand has been a key driver of sustainability in the UK fishing industry over the last 20 years, a major report reveals today.

Source: FishFocus | read the full article here

Atlantic Sapphire has successfully raised a further US $65 million (NOK 702m/ £52.7m ) with a new share issue, the Florida land-based salmon farmer has announced.

The move involves the private placement of 501,428,571 new shares, at a price per new share of NOK 1.40.

The Oslo Stock Market announcement said: “The private placement was carried out on the basis of an accelerated book building process managed by Arctic Securities AS and DNB Markets, a part of DNB Bank ASA as joint book runners after close of markets on 19 September 2023.

Author: Vince McDonagh / FishFarmer | read the full article here

Vigo receives international delegations from all the countries that make up the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization (NAFO), with the aim of holding the meeting in which the fishing quotas for said fishing ground will be set. Specifically, this organization is made up of the European Union and 12 other countries –Canada, South Korea, Cuba, Denmark, the United States, France, Greenland, Iceland, Japan, Norway, Russia and Ukraine–, which will decide the distribution for the next year of species of great importance for the Galician fleet such as cod or halibut.

The Minister of Agriculture Dmitry Patrushev made a working trip to the Kamchatka Territory. Together with Governor Vladimir Solodov, he visited one of the largest fishing enterprises in the region and inspected a modern seiner trawler catching fish in the Bering and Okhotsk Seas. 

On the vessel "Komandor", the head of the Ministry of Agriculture assessed the accommodation and work conditions of the crew, and also took part in the pollock fishery. 

The technologically advanced trawler can operate in almost any weather conditions. One of its features is the ability to store catch in tanks with cooled sea water. This allows you to preserve and deliver fresh fish to the shore from almost any fishing point in the Far East. 

During one trip to sea, the ship can catch up to 500 tons of fish, and up to 15 thousand tons per year. These are mainly pollock and Pacific herring. “Komandor” is one of three seiner built as part of the investment quota program at the Yantar shipyard in the Kaliningrad region.

Source: agroxxi.ru (translated from original in russian)

The 2023-2024 shrimp catching season for riverside fishermen in Sinaloa began, with a starting signal from the Secretary of Fisheries and Aquaculture in Sinaloa, who announced the end of the ban and wished luck to more than 10 thousand fishermen in the state.

The event took place at the Paredones Fishing Field, in the Topolobampo Municipality, in the Municipality of Ahome, and began promptly at 00:00 on September 18, 2023.

The Secretary of Fisheries and Aquaculture of the State of Sinaloa, Flor Emilia Guerra Mena, in the company of prominent leaders of the local fishing industry, gave the flag for the start of the shrimp fishing season, accompanied by a blessing ceremony to seek to guarantee the security and abundance in activity.

Shrimp fishing is essential

The shrimp catching season is crucial for fishermen and their families, given that it is the main fishery on which thousands of families in the State of Sinaloa depend and it is the most productive season of the year for them.

In Paredones, the authorities were accompanying the fishermen of the Eustaquio Urias cooperative at the beginning of the shrimp fishing season, which has more than 301 members and is considered one of the largest organizations in the state.

Source: Luznoticias.mx

Isabel Laguna I Tarifa (Cádiz), (EFE).- “One man, one hook, one bluefin tuna” is the law of JC Mackintosh, a family business based in Tarifa (Cádiz) that has become the first Spanish fishery of this precious species that achieves the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) sustainability certificate, an “eco-label” with which it travels to the most demanding and aware international markets.

Born in 2015, the fishery, the third tuna fishery to achieve this qualification in the world, is also the first Andalusian to obtain this blue seal that accredits its respect for the sea. A parameter increasingly demanded by consumers.

One by one, by hand

With three boats (“Barbara and Sandra”, “Daserbe” and “María Inmaculada”), the company fishes, sows to order. In the waters of the Strait of Gibraltar, one by one and with artisanal processes such as the hand line, the 'greenstick' and the hand rod.

Unlike almadrabas, which catch tuna weighing about 300 kilos in spring, the time when they arrive from the Atlantic to spawn in the Mediterranean, when they are most juicy, this fishery works all year round. With smaller tuna, with the minimum of 30 kilos established by legislation.

Attracted by bait thrown into the sea from boats, tuna bite a hook from a fishing line. After which they receive an electric shock that stuns them.

Then two men, with hooks, lift them by hand from the sea to place them on some mats in the boat.

Source: EFE

China's imports of Japanese seafood fell by two-thirds in August from the same month last year, as Beijing halted all such imports following the release of treated and diluted water from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

Chinese customs authorities said on Monday the value of such imports in August was 149 million yuan, or about 20.4 million dollars.

That was down by more than 67 percent from the same month a year ago. The fall was much sharper than the roughly 30 percent drop in July.

The Chinese government suspended imports of Japanese seafood in response to the start of the water discharge on August 24.

Japan's ministry of agriculture and fisheries says China is the world's top importer of Japanese seafood. Imports last year were worth about 590 million dollars.

Source: NHK

Related news:

• Imports of Japanese seafood dip for 5th month in August

• IN BRIEF - Japan Minister Vows to Support Fisheries Industry

The NAFO meeting, in Vigo, has been launched with the paradox that the marine areas to be protected are opened to oil companies while they are closed to fishermen. From the Vigo Shipowners' Cooperative, Edelmiro Ulloa, said that "the expectations are to have a meeting without many surprises, I hope it is fulfilled, you see that we set simple objectives."

Regarding the reopening of closed areas, "it does not seem feasible," said Ulloa; once zone 14 was reopened a few years ago, but it was due to a formal defect in the wording that at the time established it as a AMP Marine Protected Area.

Source: EuropaAzul | Read the full article here

Emissions from European shipping reached an all-time high last year, shows new analysis by Transport & Environment (T&E) which calls for stricter measures to encourage shipping companies to invest in efficiency and green fuels. In this sense, the environmental organization explains that "with more than 135 million tons, European ships are emitting more carbon than before the pandemic disrupted international trade."

Source: IndustriasPesqueras | Read the full article here