Undercurrent News
June 25, 2014

Cermaq Norway has detected infectious salmon anemia (ISA) virus in two pens at its  farming site Langoyhovden in Nordland, northern Norway. 

Although mortality at the site is low and there are no clinical signs of outbreak, Cermaq is considering culling the fish in the two affected pens to prevent the spread of infection to the remaining fish at the site.

The Langoyfjord site contains approximately 660,000 fish of an average live weight of 2.6 kilograms. Out of these, 173,000 fish will be culled.

The culling of these fish is expected to have only limited financial impact, said Cermaq. The firm has notified the Food Authority.

Following an ISA outbreak at other farming operators’ sites in the region, Cermaq has monitored its operations with regular testing, said the company.

Read the full article in Undercurrent News.

Read related article:

• FIS; June 25, 2014; ISA virus detected at Cermaq’s sea centre

Vancouver Sun
June 24, 2014

An internal federal memo recommended last year that the Harper government lobby the B.C. government to lift its 2008 moratorium on new fish farms off the north coast.

The document was prepared in May 2013 by top departmental officials advising Keith Ashfield, then the federal fisheries minister. It was titled the “post-Cohen aquaculture business resumption plan” — a plan to encourage the expansion of B.C.’s fish farming industry after the $26-million Cohen Commission report on missing wild salmon.

However, both the B.C. and federal governments said Thursday that no high-level discussions have taken place on the matter.

The memo suggested that the federal government “initiate … engagement with the province of B.C. to explore potential expansion of salmon aquaculture in the North Coast, including removal of the current moratorium on salmon farms” along B.C.’s north coast.

It also proposed that Ottawa allow multi-year rather than single-year licences to improve long-term business certainty for industry. And it called for “robust” consultation about the expected provincewide industry expansion with the public, industry officials, environmental groups and First Nations.

“This approach will help mitigate potential legal risk (for example, First Nations litigation), as well as help address potential concerns related to environmental and disease impacts which may be heightened by a transition to multi-year licences and/or expansion of marine finfish aquaculture in the North Coast.”

The report also elaborated on the government’s commitment to expand research into the effect of fish farms on the health of wild salmon.

That pledge was made after Justice Bruce Cohen’s 2012 Fraser River sockeye report, which didn’t blame fish farming for the wild fishery’s problems but expressed concern about the potential for harm from the spread of disease and sea lice.

Among his recommendations was a continued freeze on expansion of the industry in the fish farm-heavy Broughton Archipelago. He also called on the Department of Fisheries and Oceans to stop promoting the fish farm sector since it potentially conflicted with the department’s obligation to protect wild fisheries.

While the government didn’t end the department’s role as an industry advocate, it did launch a plan to produce a peer-reviewed scientific report assessing the potential transfer of disease from farmed to wild fish.

The results of the study, which is underway, could “if required” result in changes to the federal aquaculture management regime on the West Coast, particularly relating to the Discover Islands area and the Fraser River sockeye fishery, according to the briefing note.

The internal document was obtained by the environmental group Watershed Watch, which has argued that the federal government has ignored Cohen’s findings on fish farming.

A spokesman for the organization said if Ottawa knocks on Victoria’s door asking for the moratorium to be lifted, that door should be slammed shut.

“The province needs to stand up to Ottawa and protect B.C. from salmon farm expansions in the North and elsewhere,” said Stan Proboszcz. “It makes no economic sense given the risks open nets put on the economies of the sport and commercial wild fisheries.”

Read the full article in the Vancouver Sun.

Undercurrent News
June 20, 2014

Forget salmon prices – Norway’s salmon farmers are losing out NOK 3.5 billion in market valuation because of excessive sanitary costs, which have risen by over NOK 4 per kilo over the past four years, said two salmon share analysts at Nordea.

In their most recent report on Oslo-listed salmon farmers, the analysts advised companies to change gear and focus on lower production costs, instead of price trends.

While sale prices per kilogram have started dropping of late, due to an up to 20% rise in harvest volumes in June, the biggest impact on the sector’s value is the costs, said analysts Kolbjorn Giskeodegard and Line Tonnessen.

They estimate the companies have lost out on at least NOK 3.5bn in market valuation because of excessive sanitary costs. The result is, they say, a 30% lower valuation than it should be trading at.

“In the last four years, the fish farming cost in Norway has increased by an estimated NOK 4 per kg, mainly attributable to increased costs of sea lice management and disease handling,” wrote Giskeodegard and Tonnessen.

The analysts said the average cost has escalated to NOK 27 – NOK 28 per kilo for the whole industry.

This has been largely driven by farms in southern Norway, where average costs per kilo have risen to levels close to those in Chile, said the analysts. In the north of Norway, costs have stayed relatively flat at NOK 24 -25.

The analysts said investors should watch cost performance during the next 12 to 24 months, to assess more accurate prices.

Read the full article in Undercurrent News.

Fish Farmer Magazine
June 19, 2014

Through a collaborative project with national and international research institutions, AquaGen has identified the exact positions of the gene that codes for IPN resistance in salmon.

The identification of the gene responsible for IPN resistance in salmon enables a great accuracy in the selection of broodstock, ensuring the offspring to be resistant to IPN.

This gene is found to have two mutations that prevent the IPN virus from infecting salmon cells.

On 10-12 June 2014 the second international conference on integrated salmon biology was held in Vancouver, Canada.  

This conference marked the completion of the salmon genome project. This work started in 2010 as a collaborative project between academia, industry and government funding agencies in Chile, Canada and Norway.

It is expected that the reference genome for salmon will provide important information of great benefit to the salmon farming in the future.

One example of the use of genetic information that has already brought significant improvements for farmed fish are genetic markers for resistance to infectious pancreatic necrosis (IPN) in salmon.  

At the conference, senior scientist Thomas Moen from AquaGen presented the work done to discover the actual gene and reveal the mechanism behind IPN resistance in salmon.

IPN is a very common viral disease, and is one that has been responsible for ​​significant losses in salmon farming.  

Read the full article in Fish Farmer Magazine.

Globe and Mail
June 16, 2014

The federal government is hampering scientific research on fish diseases by refusing to release all of the data gathered from salmon farms on the West Coast, a new report by the University of Victoria has concluded.

“The basic issue is that government fails to disclose exactly where diseases have broken out, and only releases such extremely generalized information when it’s too late to be useful,” the report says. “This needs to change.”

B.C. has about 114 salmon farming sites, and they are required to report disease incidents. But while the Canadian Food Inspection Agency makes some of that data public, it withholds the specific locations of reports, and the data are released too slowly, the report states. “Public reporting of even the most serious reportable diseases is routinely delayed – and does not identify where the disease took place, other than to generally identify that it took place at some unspecified location in a named province,” states the report by Sam Harrison, a law student, and Calvin Sandborn, legal director of UVic’s Environmental Law Centre.

“Canadian independent scientists who want to research a disease outbreak get no useful information from these public reports,” the study says. “The lack of site specificity and the delayed nature of the reporting make the information in the reports virtually useless to independent parties. … Unfortunately, this seriously limits society’s ability to identify and contain disease outbreaks originating on fish farms.”

Mr. Sandborn called it another example of how bad Canada’s environmental laws are compared to those of other countries. “The Norwegian companies that run B.C. fish farms face full disclosure of disease outbreaks at their Norwegian operations – but in Canada, the government keeps such outbreaks secret,” he said.

He called on Ottawa to match the data release standards in major fish farming countries such as Norway and Scotland.

Read the full article in the Globe and Mail.

Big Picture Agriculture
June 12, 2014

The June 2014 issue of National Geographic includes a feature story on fish farming. The article is rich with information about the challenges of aquaculture, and is part of their “Future of Food” Series.

The following is an excerpt, and the full article, “How to Farm a Better Fish,” can be read by following this link.

In a dark, dank warehouse in the Blue Ridge foothills of Virginia, Bill Martin picks up a bucket of brown pellets and slings them into a long concrete tank. Fat, white tilapia the size of dinner plates boil to the surface. Martin, president of Blue Ridge Aquaculture, one of the world’s largest indoor fish farms, smiles at the feeding frenzy.

“This is St. Peter’s fish, the fish Jesus fed the multitudes,” he says, his raspy voice resonating like a preacher’s. Unlike Jesus, however, Martin does not give his fish away. Each day he sells 12,000 pounds of live tilapia to Asian markets from Washington, D.C., to Toronto, and he’s planning another farm on the West Coast. “My model is the poultry industry,” he says. “The difference is, our fish are perfectly happy.”

“How do you know they’re happy?” I ask, noting that the mat of tilapia in the tank looks thick enough for St. Peter to walk on.

“Generally they show they’re not happy by dying,” Martin says. “I haven’t lost a tank of fish yet.” 

Read the full article in Big Picture Agriculture.

Read the National Geographic article here:

• National Geographic; June 2014; How to Farm a Better Fish

Undercurrent News
June 9, 2014

The latest aggregated sea lice data, published by the Scottish Salmon Producers Organisation (SSPO), shows that in the first quarter of 2014 sea lice numbers on farmed salmon were still “out of control” in a number of regions.

The second quarter of every year is when the main migrations to sea of juvenile wild salmon and sea-trout occur; a cause for concern, said the Salmon and Trout Association of Scotland.

During this period they are apparently at their most vulnerable to damaging and often fatal infestations of sea lice emanating from fish farms.

The latest SSPO quarterly sea lice report (for January to March 2014) reveals that average lice numbers were over thresholds, often very considerably over, in 14 out of 30 regions for which data is reported by the industry.

Particular hotspots, for the fifth quarterly report in a row, include ‘Kennart to Gruinard’ in Wester Ross where there are seven farms operated by two companies, Wester Ross Fisheries Limited and Scottish Sea Farms Limited.

Read the full article in Undercurrent News.

Read related articles:

• Fish & Fly Magazine; June 9, 2014; Decisive Action on Sea Lice Called For
• Fish News EU; June 8, 2014; Wester Ross Lice Hotspot

Vancouver Sun
June 9, 2014

Scientists have successfully mapped the whole genome sequence of the Atlantic salmon, a breakthrough that should accelerate selective breeding programs for farmed salmon and reduce the aquaculture industry’s impact on wild salmon stocks.

“This has the potential to improve the sustainability of aquaculture, to reduce feed demand and increase feed efficiency and it might lead to reduced susceptibility to disease in fish farms,” said Brian Riddell, president and CEO of the Pacific Salmon Foundation, a non-governmental conservation organization. “If we can improve the performance of aquaculture it will translate into less risk for the Pacific salmon.”

An international consortium of scientists and funding bodies — including Genome BC — based in Norway, Canada and Chile spent four-and-a-half years and $10 million to map the entire DNA sequence of about 3 billion characters, essentially the genetic instruction set required to grow and operate an Atlantic salmon. The sequence will be made available at no charge to researchers.

The announcement is to be made Tuesday at the International Conference on Integrative Salmonid Biology in Vancouver.

Understanding and targeting heritable traits in the genome will help speed breeding programs for Atlantic salmon aimed at improving resistance to viruses and sea lice, problems that have created considerable controversy for the aquaculture industry in B.C. and in Norway, according to Steinar Bergseth, Chair of the International Steering Committee for the consortium.

“Eliminating the sea lice problem in net pens would eliminate the risk of transfer between wild and farmed salmon,” he said.

Even without the luxury of a full genome to work from, a Norwegian firm has produced Atlantic salmon resistant to a pathogen that once plagued salmon farms in that country.

Read the full article in the Vancouver Sun.

Read related articles:

• Phys.org; June 10, 2014; Salmon genome sequenced
• FIS; June 11, 2014; Atlantic salmon genome sequenced
• Voice of America; June 10, 2014; Mapping of Salmon Genome Could Aid Conservation Efforts
• Canada.com; June 10, 2014; Scientists make salmon breakthrough
• Yahoo Finance; June 10, 2014; Scientific Breakthrough: International Collaboration Has Sequenced the Atlantic Salmon Genome

CTV News
June 5, 2014

A Chinese-registered vessel accused in an illegal fishery in the north Pacific Ocean has been seized as part of an international operation that included Canadian military and fisheries' personnel.

Fisheries and Oceans Canada says Chinese authorities captured the vessel in an area of the ocean where salmon fishing is banned, and that up to 540 kilograms of the species was found onboard.

The department says the vessel is suspected of violating international fishing laws with its use of an illegal driftnet and is on its way back to China, where authorities are expected to conduct an investigation.

The seizure was part of a two-week Canadian-led operation.

Read the full article on CTV News.

The Fish Site
June 4, 2014

The use of shellfish and seaweed to consume waste produced by fish farms, particularly in farms attached to other ocean structures is being researched as a means for improving and protecting the marine environment.

In some research, mussels have been found to consume sea lice and they can also take up bacteria in the water.

Research at the department of Applied Marine and Fishery Ecology at Aberdeen University is looking at the susceptibility of blue mussels to amoebic gill disease and the biosecurity of integrated multi-trophic aquaculture.

In a presentation at the recent Aquaculture UK conference and exhibition in Aviemore Scotland, doctorate student Christine Rolin said that Amoebic Gill Disease caused by Neoparamoeba perurans can produce mortality of 10 to 20m per cent in salmon farms and the death rate can rise to 70 per cent.

“The disease has now spread across the world,” said Ms Rolin.

The research carried out by Aberdeen University investigated the potential for the disease in salmon cages and mussel beds by taking samples from sites across the waters around Scotland.

Read the full article on The Fish Site.

Star Pheonix
June 4, 2014

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is updating its advice for pregnant women on the appropriate levels of mercury in seafood. Commissioner Margaret Hamburg says the agency won't require mercury labels on seafood packages.

In a wide-ranging interview last week with The Associated Press, Hamburg said the agency will update guidance on mercury in different varieties of seafood and what that means, a long awaited move aimed at helping women better understand what to eat when they're pregnant.

"It's an advisory, not an effort to mandate labelling," Hamburg said. "Different seafood products do contain different levels of mercury, and so different seafood products can be rated in terms of levels of mercury."

Eating fish is part of a heart-healthy diet, and many types are good sources of omega-3 fatty acids that are important for brain development.

But fish also can absorb small amounts of mercury, a neurotoxin, from streams and oceans - and a small number of varieties harbour higher levels.

For most people, accumulating mercury from eating seafood isn't a health risk. But for a decade, the FDA has warned that pregnant women, those who may become pregnant, and young children avoid certain types of highmercury fish because of concern that too much could harm a developing brain.

Consumer groups have sued the agency, saying the warnings weren't clear enough about what to avoid, and seeking labeling to help so that shoppers wouldn't have to remember which products are OK during pregnancy or for youngsters.

"We can't ask consumers to memorize two different lists of fish," said Caroline Smith DeWaal of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, one of the groups that sued.

Read the full article in the Star Pheonix.

Read related articles:

• Vancouver Sun; June 4, 2014; FDA issues new advice on mercury levels in seafood
• Food Safety News; June 3, 2014; FDA to Update Mercury in Seafood Guidance for Pregnant Women
• Seattle PI; June 1, 2014; FDA taking another look at mercury in seafood
• Washington Post; May 31, 2014; FDA taking another look at mercury in seafood
• Yahoo News; May 31, 2014; Highlights from AP interview with FDA's Hamburg

Fish & Fly Magazine
June 3, 2014

The test system, the first NASF is aware of in the country, is a 40m diameter enclosed system containing 22,000m3 of water and holding 200,000 fish.

Originally Marine Harvest had planned to use the system to raise smolt to the 70-40g size before putting them out into open water pens, but the results were so encouraging that they decided to keep the fish until 600-800g. However, when the young fish had reached that size the results were still so good that they decided to keep the fish for the complete cycle until slaughtering, which will take place next year.

The fish at the time of NASFG’s visit weighed about 1kg, looked very healthy with no, or very little, sign of wear on their fins and no wounds or scars. Indeed it was noted by the visitors that the fish looked very similar to wild salmon. 

The results so far have been very good, exceeding all of Marine Harvest’s expectations, and NASF were pleased to note that everyone involved in the operation and monitoring of the test station was very enthusiastic. In terms of commercial viability it appears as if, to date, Marine Harvest can report less mortality than with comparable fish in open pens and could expect a better price in the market as the fish are ‘greener’  - having spent their entire lifetime in a closed system.

This type of system may set the standard for the future of salmon farming and, if replicated, could mean the beginning of the end of the lice problems seen today. It is still early days but hopefully it could be a very important milestone towards a major breakthrough for salmon farming.

Read the full article in Fish & Fly.

Undercurrent News
June 2, 2014

Norway’s farmed production of so-called cleaner fish, used to eat lice off salmon in farms, nearly tripled to more than 2 million fish in 2013.

The country farmed 2.049m cleaner fish, of which 95% consisted of lumpfish, last year, said Norway’s fisheries directorate.

This compares to 703,000 the previous year.

Cleaner fish are fish that eat parasites off other fish, and are one of the solutions explored by salmon farmers to eat lice off salmon and rainbow trout in farms.

Species include lumpfish, as well as Ballan wrasse.

In addition to farmed cleaner fish, producers also use cleaner fish from the wild. In total, 15.38m cleaner fish were realesed into pens last year.

Read the full article in Undercurrent News.

Read related article:

• Bowen Island Undercurrent; May 9, 2014; A lumpy little sucker

Chronicle Herald
June 2, 2014

Canada’s aquaculture industry is suffering from legislation envy. It wants its own Aquaculture Act.

Apparently, the existing laws and regulations that govern the industry don’t have a central theme or vision and lack consistency and coherency. According to the industry, it is burdened by too many regulations.

The Senate Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans is holding hearings and studying the regulation of aquaculture in Canada. Representatives of the aquaculture industry alliance have appeared before the committee twice. Their message is consistent. The industry is on the cusp of greatness if only it could get out from under all those regulations and get its own Aquaculture Act.

The industry has a knack for portraying the sector as a victim of too many regulations. Yet, like every other food and livestock industry in Canada, it is subject to the same Health Canada and Canadian Food Inspection Agency regulations designed to protect public health.

And, like every other industrial activity that takes place in marine waters, the aquaculture industry has to follow Transport Canada, Environment Canada, and Fisheries and Oceans regulations designed to protect habitat, wild fisheries and species.

Apparently, dealing with these departments and their regulations is a problem for the industry. Having to deal with provincial labour, safety and environmental regulations also sticks in their craw.

It’s surprising that no one on the Senate committee has called them out on their claim of over-regulation. Every industrial enterprise in Canada, whether in the agriculture, chemical, food-processing, mining, oil and gas, or forestry sector is, rightly, subject to regulatory scrutiny and control equal to or greater than the aquaculture industry.

The industry been successful in perpetuating the myth of over-regulation because it has bundled in a decade-long stagnation in the industry with a phantom regulatory gridlock. Plus, advocates have blown smoke as to the growth potential in their industry and the need for protein to feed the hungry of the world.

The claims of industry and their key promoter, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, about Canada’s aquaculture and its economic, food and job potential nationally and in the world rings hollow once data are examined.

Read the full article in the Chronicle Herald.

Read related article:

• Newfoundland News Now; May 30, 2014; Cutting Red Tape
• Chronicle Herald; May 29, 2014; Fishing for aquacultural policy
• Undercurrent News; May 27, 2014; Salmon farmers fish for federal legislation

FIS
June 2, 2014

Aquaculture company Landcatch has announced that it will begin selling salmon eggs with improved resistance to sea lice, which will be made available later this year.

The Scottish company and its scientific partners have applied a technique known as genomic selection - a method of screening the DNA of individual fish - to identify those that are most resistant to sea lice infection, one of the biggest problems facing the aquaculture industry.

On Friday, the company announced to the UK industry’s annual conference Aquaculture UK in Aviemore that several million selected eggs will be commercially available by December, in Landcatch’s next spawning, to improve the resistance of the next generation of Atlantic salmon.

The firm, which has its headquarters in Ormsary in Argyll, and a genetics team based in Stirling, is pioneering work in the development of genetic and genomic selection tools for improving farmed salmon.

The latest development is seen as a significant step in a long road that aims to reduce sea lice numbers to such an extent that they will no longer be a problem.

Read the full article in FIS.

Read related article

• Fish Update; May 29, 2014; Sea lice breakthrough announced at Aviemore
• Undercurrent News; May 30, 2014; Landcatch promises salmon eggs with high resistance against sea lice

The Telegram
May 31, 2014

Newfoundland and Labrador’s outfitters say the province’s aquaculture industry is decimating its industry.

“There’s a number of issues,” said Tony Tuck, chairman of the Outfitters Association’s fishing committee, who presented his concerns at a senate hearing on aquaculture earlier this week in Gander. “Probably the one that’s escalating the most here lately is escapees. They’re showing up a lot in a lot of our south coast rivers, and probably going to show up farther away as time goes on, because obviously they’re not restricted. They can swim wherever they like.”

Tuck’s concerned about what interbreeding between wild and farmed salmon will do to the strength of wild stock, as well as the effect of the competition for food.

“Then there’s an issue with disease in sea cages, which can be passed through to the wild fish as they swim past the cages,” he said. “That seems to be increasing at an alarming rate. … There’s huge numbers of fish that have to be destroyed.”

Aquaculture producers are compensated for fish that need to be destroyed, said Tuck. As previously reported by The Telegram, the federal government has paid $33.1 million to two companies, Gray Aqua and Cooke Aquaculture, for five outbreaks dating back to July 2012.

“That should be everybody’s concern, not just people who are concerned about wild fish, but just the waste of taxpayers’ money.”

Tuck says the provincial government isn’t doing enough to protect wild salmon stocks.

Read the full article in The Telegram.

Sit News
May 30, 2014

If genetically modified salmon gets a green light by the federal government, it will be labeled as such if U.S. Senators on both sides of the aisle have their way. The Senate Appropriations Committee last week passed the bipartisan Murkowski-Begich amendment requiring that consumers be advised of what they are buying.

During testimony, Senator Murkowski questioned if the so called Frankenfish can even be called a real salmon.

“This takes a transgenic Atlantic salmon egg, which has genes from an ocean pout that is somewhat akin to an eel, and it combines with the genes of a Chinook salmon. I have questioned time and time again, why we would want to be messing with Mother Nature like this,” Murkowski said. “We are trying to invent a species that would grow quicker to out-compete our wild stocks. This experiment puts at risk the health of our fisheries not only in Alaska, but throughout the Pacific Northwest.”

“We’re not talking about GM corn or something else that is grown. We are talking about a species that moves, migrates, and breeds,” the Senator stressed. “This is an experiment that if it went wrong could be devastating to the wild, healthy stocks that our farmers of the sea depend upon.”

The “AquaAdvantage” Frankenfish, created by a company called AquaBounty based in the US and Panama, has been vying for Food & Drug Administration approval for two decades. The company has spent nearly $80 million on what would be the first genetically engineered animal ever to be approved for human consumption. Because the gene tweaking is considered a “veterinary procedure,” the fish will not be required to use any labeling identifying it as a man-made product.

Read the full article in Sit News.

FIS
May 29, 2014

Insect meal may become an important ingredient of feed for farmed salmon, while making fish feed more sustainable, according to research carried out by the National Institute of Nutrition and Seafood Research (NIFES).

“Insect meal could be a future source of protein in the diet of Atlantic salmon. Insect meal is extremely rich in proteins, and its amino acid make-up is similar to that of fishmeal,” says NIFES scientist Erik-Jan Lock.

Insect meal is produced by separation of proteins and fats followed by drying of insect larvae.

Lock points out that insect larvae are important components of the diet of wild fish, which means that insect meal is one of the most natural things to use for fish-feed. Besides, using insect-meal has important benefits for the environment as insects can transform all sorts of organic material, such as food waste. 

His views are supported by NIFES director of research Bente Torstensen: “Insect meal contains all the amino acids that salmon need. Insects can transform carbohydrates, for example from food waste, to nutrients that the fish need, in a form that they can utilise,” says Torstensen, who also emphasises that a thorough survey of potential risks need to be part of future research efforts.

“We need more knowledge about which substances, and how much of them, we are talking about in order to be sure that fish-feed based on insects would be safe for the fish themselves and for consumers,” he adds.

Feed for farmed fish should provide all the nutrients that fish need, and these may come from fish oil and fish meal or from other non-traditional ingredients. 

Read the full article in FIS.

Read related article:

• All About Feed; May 28, 2014; First salmon trials with insect meal

Globe and Mail
May 28, 2014

Frustration and anger are growing in native communities along the Fraser River because Ottawa has failed to implement recommendations on how to bring back the sockeye salmon fisheries.

After spending $26-million and almost three years inquiring into the state of sockeye stocks in the Fraser, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Bruce Cohen handed in his final report in October, 2012. The document recommended ways for Ottawa to restore and protect salmon runs, but in written responses to questions in the House recently, federal ministers indicated only eight of the proposals have been acted on.

“In the communities up here, we raise it in our meetings all the time,” Gord Sterritt, executive director of the Upper Fraser Fisheries Conservation Alliance, said on Wednesday.

“Justice Cohen didn’t find a smoking gun, but he did make 75 recommendations that could support sustaining the salmon resources that we rely on in the upper Fraser.”

Mr. Sterritt, who is based in Williams Lake, said several rivers in his region have such poor runs of salmon no fishing is allowed.

“There is frustration. … Some of the First Nations have been forced to go fish in other areas in order to acquire their [food fish],” he said.

“Yes, there’s frustration, bordering on anger, and it’s leading to people moving away from the collaborative approach,” said Jordan Point, executive director of the First Nations Fisheries Council. “I think the underlying feeling is we are very frustrated with the process. People are angry with the lack of movement.”

Read the full article in the Globe and Mail.

Read related article:

• Business in Vancouver; May 29, 2014; B.C. First Nations urge federal government to implement Cohen recommendations
• Common Sense Canadian; June 2, 2014; Salmon Inquiry: First Nations angry at Harper’s lack of action

May 23, 2104
Courier Islander

The first land-based, closed containment, commercial Atlantic salmon farm in North America is showing it's green in other ways.

The Kuterra facility's power use will be about 1,000 megawatt hours lower each year thanks to the energy efficiency measures brought about from a $143,000 Power Smart incentive from B.C. Hydro.

It is owned and operated by the 'Namgis First Nation on North Vancouver Island.

The savings are enough to power 100 homes annually. The new design will also lower the facility's annual electricity bill by more than 70 per cent.

Some of the measures include from the incentive include: -technology that captures and reuses heat from the ground and the air, and the heat generated by operating equipment, -new equipment like heat pumps and a radiant coil system that efficiently maintains tank temperatures, and highgrade insulation. Kuterra was developed to offer a sustainable alternative to conventionally farmed salmon.

The facility employs up to six workers year-round.

Power Smart programs for BC Hydro's industrial customers offer a range of financial incentives to help companies reduce operating costs by taking control of their energy use. "We are delighted that BC Hydro's Power Smart program recognizes our energy-efficient operation," said Chief Bill Cranmer of 'Namgis First Nation. "Our mission for the Kuterra farm is to show there's a strong business case for growing Atlantic salmon on land. Energy efficiency with low energy cost is an important part of the business case."  

Read in the Courier Islander.

Read related stories.

Peter O'Neil
May 22, 2014
Vancouver Sun

A Montreal body set up under the North American Free Trade Agreement to monitor environmental stewardship in Canada, the U.S. and Mexico is calling for an investigation into federal enforcement of the Fisheries Act in relation to B.C. fish farms.

The decision, announced Thursday, is in response to a formal complaint from a small U.S.-Canada coalition of environmentalists, fishermen and a West Coast First Nation.

At issue is whether the Canadian government, by allowing fish farms to release chemicals and waste in the ocean, is violating a Fisheries Act prohibition against the dumping of “deleterious” substances in water “frequented by fish. 

Approval from two of the three NAFTA signatories is needed by August 12 before the investigation can proceed.

“Central questions remain open about Canada’s effective enforcement of (the act’s pollution prohibition) in relation to salmon aquaculture operations in British Columbia,” the Commission on Environmental Cooperation said in its notice to the parties involved.

The investigation’s results would provide the public with a “better understanding” of the regulatory system that sometimes allows the use of polluting substances in spite of the general prohibition, it said.

However, the commission has no authority to force member states to change policy direction. 

The complaint was filed in 2012 by the San Francisco-based Center for Biological Diversity, the University of Denver’s environmental law clinic, Chief Bob Chamberlain of the Kwikwasu’tinuxw Haxwa’mis First Nation near Alert Bay, the San Francisco-based Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations, and Alexandra Morton of the Pacific Coast Wild Salmon Society in B.C.

The commission, in its letter to the parties, noted that the Harper government has never responded to the actual criticisms of its lack of enforcement of Fisheries Act sections aimed at prohibiting pollution and protecting fish habitat. 

Read the full story in the Vancouver Sun. 

Read related stories:

• Fish Update; May 26, 2014; NAFTA urges Regulation of Canadian fish farms
• FIS; May 23, 2014; NAFTA body recommends investigation of Canada's regulation of salmon farms
• Straight.com; May 22, 2014; NAFTA environmental body recommends probe of Canada’s regulation of fish farms
• WC Native News; May 21, 2014; NAFTA Body Recommends Full Investigation of Canada’s Failure to Protect Wild Salmon From Industrial Fish Farms
• Center for Biological Diversity; May 21, 2014; NAFTA Body Recommends Full Investigation of Canada's Failure to Protect Wild Salmon From Industrial Fish Farms

The Fish Site
May 22, 2014

A panel of experts on genetically modified organisms (GMOs) gathered Sunday, April 27 at the Food Book Fair in Williamsburg, New York City, US, to debate the risks and benefits of genetically modified food. The debate, sponsored by the Museum of Food and Drink (MOFAD), was one of the fair’s major draws, writes Garret Higgins and Øistein Thorsen.

Forming the panel were Amy Harmon, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist from the New York Times, Cathleen Enright PhD, of the Biotechnology Industry Organization (an industry trade group), Margaret Mellon PhD, formerly of the Union of Concerned Scientists, and Michael Hansen PhD, from Consumers Union. The debate was moderated by Dave Arnold, Founder and President of the Museum of Food and Drink.

Read the full article on The Fish Site.

Mark Hume
May 21, 2014
Vancouver Sun

Almost none of the 75 recommendations B.C. Supreme Court Justice Bruce Cohen made on how to restore sockeye stocks in the Fraser River have been acted on by Ottawa, two federal ministers indicate.

Critics have long accused the government of failing to follow up on the $26-million Cohen Commission report in a meaningful way.

But it wasn’t until Liberal MP Lawrence MacAulay recently asked detailed questions about which recommendations were adopted that the government verified the extent of its actions.

In written replies earlier this month, Environment Minister Leona Aglukkaq states most of the Cohen recommendations “are directed solely” at the department of Fisheries and Oceans and only 10 were aimed at her ministry. Of those, seven were accepted and three, dealing with marine spills and pollution monitoring responsibilities, were rejected.

Fisheries Minister Gail Shea also states in writing that DFO “has and will continue to implement Cohen recommendations as part of our day-to-day operations.” But she gives only one example of a recommendation (related to restrictions on salmon-farm expansion) that has been followed.

She does list four “new investments,” which “highlight support for Cohen recommendations,” but none of those programs, such as $54-million promised over five years for aquaculture sustainability, were requested in the Cohen report.

Mr. MacAulay, vice-chair of Parliament’s Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans, said “Mr. Cohen is probably the most knowledgeable person in Canada” on B.C.’s sockeye problem, and he is perplexed by the government’s failure to follow his advice.

“It’s impossible for me to understand why a government would put a Cohen Commission together, spend that amount of money and then not adhere to anything they had to say, and not even have the man come before the fisheries committee,” said Mr. MacAulay. “It would look to me like they do not want to hear what he has to say.”

In his questions, Mr. MacAulay also asked for “all briefing documents prepared for all departmental officials” related to Mr. Cohen’s recommendations, but DFO blanked out the titles of 17 of the 19 reports it listed, indicating the documents were under cabinet confidence.

“Has conservation become a secret in this country?” asked Mr. MacAulay.

“This is very disappointing,” said Craig Orr, executive director of the Watershed Watch Salmon Society. “All of this would be laughable, if tears weren’t rolling out so much.”

Dr. Orr said the Cohen Commission provided the government with a blueprint for restoring the Fraser River’s sockeye run, but the government ignored it.

“Shea is just promoting aquaculture. She’s not protecting wild fish, which is what Cohen called for,” said Dr. Orr. “It’s just a PR thing [for her] to say DFO is consistent with the Cohen recommendations. Nobody sees that happening in the Pacific Region.”

Read the full story in the Vancouver Sun. 

Read related items:

• Media release Union of BC Indian Chiefs; May 23, 2014; "$26 Million and 2 Years Later: DFO must respond and implement the Cohen Recommendations"

Jeanine Steward
May 20, 2014
UnderCurrentNews

US yellow perch farmer Bell Aquaculture debuted its closed-containment-aquaculture-reared red trout, one of the only commercial closed containment aquaculture products to hit the North American market ever, at the NRA show in Chicago on May 19.

The only other known commercial entities doing closed containment aquaculture include the recently-launched Namgis’ First Nations tribe closed containment-reared salmon from British Columbia, Canada and Sweet Springs Aquaculture’s closed containment coho salmon in Washington state.

Although Cooke Aquaculture retains that closed containment aquaculture has yet to become a venture capable of making profits, Bell’s director of sales Gregoy Skotnicki contends the group is “totally self sustainable” and on track to reach profitability this summer.

The company, which has gone through the scourge of public comment period scrutiny for approval of its Indiana-based closed containment aquaculture systems, has been producing yellow perch for years but is seeing the beginnings of a robust retail market for its red trout and coho salmon now.

Marsh Supermarkets, based in Bell’s stomping grounds of Ohio, is now carrying the company’s red trout in 40 stores and plans to roll out a promotion on the product on June 12, Skotnicki told Undercurrent.

This marks one of several signs the company is beginning to take off, having begun a $30 million expansion project, which includes adding a feed mill, earlier this year. The project is being fully funded by Bell’s chairman and CEO Brian Baldwin, Skotnicki said.

Fortune Fish and Gourmet carried the product for six months prior and saw a positive reception from customers, largely due to its highly sustainable prowl.

The company says its products have all the talking points to appeal to the most rigorous of NGO’s: no antibiotics, no hormones and even no mixing with the marine environment, given that its products are raised on land in Indiana in closed containment recirculating aquaculture systems.

Read the full story in UnderCurrentNews.

Randy Shore
May 14, 2014
Vancouver Sun

The first Atlantic salmon grown entirely on land are now landing on grocery store shelves, marketed as a sustainable alternative to salmon grown in ocean-based net pens.

The land-based Atlantic salmon, branded under the name Kuterra, is being distributed by Albion Fisheries and sold at 140 Safeway stores in B.C. and Alberta.

Atlantic salmon grown in net pens is red-listed by sustainable seafood groups SeaChoice and Ocean Wise for its impact on wild salmon and the use of antibiotics and pesticides in production.

With the help of innovation grants from the federal government and matching funds provided by the conservation foundation Tides Canada and others totalling $9 million, the Namgis First Nation built the Kuterra closed-containment salmon farm near Port McNeill on Vancouver Island. The system — the first of five to be built on the site and the first commercial-scale land-based Atlantic salmon farm in North America — is designed to produce 470 tonnes of salmon annually.

Kuterra answers most of the concerns that people have about farmed salmon, said CEO Garry Ullstrom.

The Namgis facility recirculates 98 per cent of its water and the salmon never come in contact with wild salmon. Young fish from the hatchery are held in quarantine for four months before being moved to larger tanks to grow, so the facility can operate without pesticides or antibiotics.

“We make a certain promise with the Kuterra brand — it’s a taste promise and a purity promise,” said Ullstrom. “We will not treat our fish with pesticides or antibiotics and sell them under the Kuterra brand.”

As for consumer reaction to the Kuterra salmon, so far demand has exceeded supply, said Albion Fisheries vice-president Guy Dean.

“Although still very early, interest and positive feedback have been phenomenal,” Dean said in an email. “We are being contacted by potential distributors from all over North America … Sales have exceeded our initial expectations and we look forward to the day when available volume increases, since demand is currently exceeding availability.”

Dean also said the Kuterra salmon, though not yet sustainably ranked, are endorsed by both SeaChoice and Ocean Wise.

Read the full story in the Vancouver Sun. Also on Canada.com as "First Atlantic salmon raised in tanks attract 'phenomenal' interest - The first Atlantic salmon grown entirely on land are now landing on grocery store shelves, marketed as a sustainable alternative to salmon grown in ocean-based net pens." 

Read related stories:

• IntraFish; May 16, 2014; LETTER: Cooke wrong about land-based salmon farming
• Under Current News; May 15, 2014; Namgis’ land-grown salmon demand outstripping supply in Canada 
• IntraFish; May 15, 2014; First Nations' land-based salmon selling faster than expected - Volume is low but interest is high 
•  CBC; April 30, 2014; Atlantic salmon can be farmed on land, B.C. project shows
• CBC NB Radio; BC First Nation Opens Land-based Fish Farm 
• Telegraph-Journal; May 1, 2014; West Coast First Nation Rasises Salmon on Land
• CBC TV - NB; April 30, 2014; Atlantic salmon can be farmed on land, BC project shows
• Digital Journal; April 30, 2014; Land-Based Salmon "The Furture of Salmon Farming," Say Participants at ASF Closed-Containment Workshop 
• Fisheries Broadcast (as of 16 minutes), April 29, 2014; BC Company Brings First land-raised Salmon to Market
• Perishable News; May 2, 2014; Land-Based Salmon 'The Future Of Fish'
• Social Enterprise Canada; May 4, 2014; Land-based Atlantic salmon farm’s first harvest marks a milestone
• Axiom News; May 5, 2014; Land-based Atlantic Salmon Farm’s First Harvest Marks a Milestone 

Read more related articles here.

Salmon is the most popular fish on American dinner plates, but most of it is no longer fished out of the sea. Close to three quarters of our salmon is farmed - grown in cages suspended in the open ocean in places like South America, Europe and Canada. It's a multibillion dollar industry now, but many environmental organizations are concerned these farms could be spreading diseases into the wild. And they've issued a red-label warning for farmed salmon, urging consumers to avoid buying the product because of its potential environmental impact. Salmon farmers say the industry has improved over the years, and they're actually helping to save the last remaining wild salmon in the sea.

Watch video: 60 MInutes; May 12, 2014 "Saving the wild salmon"

Namgis First Nation Chief Bill Cranmer, environmentalist Alexandra Morton, and salmon farmer Ian Roberts talk about land-based salmon farms, where fish are raised in tanks instead of the ocean.

Watch vidoe: 60 MInutes; May 12, 2014 "Salmon farms of the future"

See all 60 Minutes footage related to salmon farming here.

Read related media coverage:

• Digital Journal; May 19, 2014; Review: ‘Salmon in the Sea’ — Is farmed salmon a threat to wild salmon? 
• BC LocalNews; May 13, 2014; Salmon farming controversy aired in U.S. homes
• Commonsense Canadian; May 12, 2014; 60 Minutes grills BC salmon farmers, government
• Media Release; May 12, 2014; Canadian eco-heroine and wild salmon advocate featured on CBS 60 Minutes
• Chek News; May 9, 2014; Salmon farms 60 minutes
• Media Release; May 7, 2014; BC's salmon farmers to be featured on 60 Minutes
• FishNewsEU; May 7, 2014; Golden Hour for BC Salmon
• Undercurrent News; May 7, 2014; Marine Harvest Canada to air on 60 minutes TV segment on salmon farming
• Comox Valley Echo; May 7, 2014; Campbell River, North Island aquaculture on 60 minutes Sunday

Fish Update
May 8, 2014

The Norwegian seafood industry continues to go from strength to strength, fuelled by a strong overseas demand for farmed salmon.

Exports in April increased by a bumper 27 per cent to NOK 5.7 billion. This is 1.2 billion kroners up on the same period in 2013. It means that fish exports for this year so far now exceed NOK 22 billion, an increase of 26 per cent.

The Norwegian Seafood Council says the demand for Norway farmed salmon remains strong on three continents, Asia, Europe and the United States.

This demand is also contributing to strong prices, which is the main reason for the growth in value, said Egil Ove Sundheim, marketing information director at the Council. Salmon exports totalled NOK 4-billion in April, an increase of 33 per cent or NOK 973 million.

More significantly, the price of fresh whole salmon increased from NOK 41.93 to NOK 45.59 per kilogram. Volume increased from 69,000 to 82,77 tons for all types of salmon, with Poland, Russia and France remaining the main importers.

Farmed trout exports increased by 26 per cent to NOK 239-million.

Read the full article in Fish Update.

CBC
May 8, 2014

Most aquaculture in this province is sea-based fish farming. But in British Columbia, the industry is having some success with land-based farming. Keith Cormier is president of SPAWN, the Salmon Preservation Association for the Waters of Newfoundland.

Hear radio interview on CBC.

International Science Times
May 8, 2014

Salmon farming has been found to be a serious environmental threat in the regions where it is practiced. For many years the harmful effects of this aquaculture production system were studied by visually analysing sediment samples collected at specific distances from spawning sites. But a new method of analyzing the sediments known as "DNA barcoding" has been developed by Swiss researchers that study impacts on micro-organisms found in the sediments and provides indicators for environmental changes that may be occurring as a result of salmon breeding.

The research published in the Molecular Ecology Resources journal was conducted by a team led by Jan Pawlowski, professor at the Faculty of Science of the University of Geneva (UNIGE), Switzerland. Salmon farming mainly threatens the environment in three ways. The waste feed and fish faeces released in the surrounding open waters, the toxicity caused by pesticides and chemicals that are used to clean salmon cages to prevent breeding of germs, and the excessive use of antibiotics on fish that have developed diseases.

The effects of these harmful practices can be gauged by monitoring different species of organisms living under the cages. But the traditional method of visually monitoring them under a microscope is both labor intensive and expensive. Further, only taxonomy specialists are qualified to accurately determine the species diversity. These reasons make the traditional method unsuitable for large scale examination. But the new research, says Pawlowski, eliminates this problem by "using sophisticated tools that analyse the DNA and RNA extracted from sediment samples."

Read the full article in the International Science Times.

Read related articles:

• Phys.Org; May 8, 2014; Using genetics to measure the environmental impact of salmon farming
• Science Codex; May 8, 2014; Using genetics to measure the environmental impact of salmon farming

Science Daily
May 6, 2014

Is a facility adequately anchored? Are the wet-well vessels in the right place at the right time? Do the net pens have weaknesses which can result in escapes? It's now possible, with the help of a couple of key strokes and techno assistance from above, literally to obtain an overview of all these issues. 

"The use of small unmanned aircraft, or drones, and "flying eyes" (cameras attached to remote-controlled helium balloons) opens the way for new opportunities linked to the documentation and inspection of both facilities and marine operations," explains SINTEF researcher Eirik Svendsen. "This is why we've started testing this technology," he says.

The project, named Sensodrone, has recently conducted experiments with these types of equipment at an aquaculture research facility, and the results are very pleasing. "The equipment has provided us with excellent and very detailed images," says Svendsen. "For example, we were able to see how the fish behaved when the nets were drawn in. Such observations make the equipment ideal as a decision support tool. The images obtained also provided us with good information about aspects such as HSE factors, combined with aerial views of the locations of vessels in use," he says.

Read the full article in Science Daily.

Chronicle Herald
May 6, 2014

The fisheries and aquaculture minister says an update of the province’s health regulations for fish farms will increase information for department staff as the industry develops.

A call for proposals was issued this month that would see an extensive, yearlong review and update with the aim of controlling disease pathogens of fish and establishing steps to prevent or control disease outbreaks.

“We’re trying to set a new standard for the industry and make sure we have the documentation to back it up,” said Keith Colwell.

Department staff suggested the update, the minister said.

It comes at a time when the province is already reviewing aquaculture in general. Colwell said he expects a preliminary report on that review, ordered by the previous New Democrat government, by the end of June, with a final report in the fall.

“This (tender call) has nothing to do with the review, but it gives us some time to sit back and do these administrative things that we need to have done as we move forward.”

While he is calling the work an update, it’s extensive enough to suggest the final product could be very different — and more stringent — than what is in place now.

Read the full article in the Chronicle Herald.

The Telegraph
May 6, 2014

An alleged whistleblower has raised a court case in the US claiming that tonnes of smoked salmon labelled as Scottish actually came from Norway and Chile.

Denise Chadwick, 60, former head buyer for St James Smokehouse, based in Annan in south-west Scotland and Miami, claims the company routinely passed off lower-priced imports as fish from Scottish salmon farms.

She has filed a lawsuit in the US District Court in Newark, alleging that she was sacked after warning the company's owner he could go to prison.

Ms Chadwick has given the court copies of emails she sent to Brendan Maher, owner of the firm, who strenuously denies her allegations.

According to Undercurrent, a news website for the seafood industry, one email states: "I think the last time I ordered a full truck from Scotland for smoking in Annan was in August last year and since then I have been buying Norwegian except for when I was instructed to buy Scottish when we had visitors - for example when the FDA (US Food and Drug Administration) came to inspect the factory in Scotland and I had to make sure there was only Scottish salmon on the premises."

Read the full article in The Telegraph.

Read related articles:

• Raw Story; May 4, 2014; Lawsuit: Whole Foods suppliers pressured to lie about the origin, quality of their fish
• NJ News; May 4, 2014; Was that salmon born in Chile or Scotland? Buyer says she was pressured to mislabel fish

Boston Business Journal
May 6, 2014

You can probably understand why the people at Maynard-based AquaBounty are not eager to talk lately.

The biotech company has been working to get a genetically-altered salmon that grows faster than conventional, Atlantic salmon approved for sale in the U.S. for more than two decades. But while the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has inspected the company’s farming sites in Panama and Prince Edward Island, convened committees to review how safe the fish is to eat, and consulted with environmental agencies, it has not said if or when it will ever approve the fish for sale.

The endless delays have given activist groups in just the last few months the chance to publicize a growing list of grocery store chains — including Kroger, Safeway, Meijer and Trader Joe’s — which they say have vowed not to sell the fish if it ever does get approved, cutting off the presumed eventual source of revenue for the beleaguered company.

I’ve tried to talk to someone at AquaBounty in recent weeks to no avail. Spokesman Dave Conley has told me that he can’t discuss the company’s business plan in light of the grocery store boycotts, and as far as the arguments for or against the breeding of the AquAdvantage salmon for human consumption, he told me in an email, “there is nothing that you will hear in person that we have not said countless times before.”

Read the full article in the Boston Business Journal.

Cowichan News Leader
May 5, 2014

The Stz’uminus (Chemainus) First Nation has pledged to prohibit boat traffic in a large chunk of coastal Cowichan waters.

The area affected includes everything north of Maple Bay, from Sansum Narrows right up to Dodds Narrows south of Nanaimo.

“Until further notice, Stz’uminus First Nation will prohibit access to its core territory in the Salish Sea by all vessels, including but not limited to, commercial fishing vessels, Fisheries and Oceans Canada vessels, and any non-Native civilians and government officials,” John Elliott, chief of the Ladysmith-area band said in a statement released Friday.

It is not clear at this time what steps the band may take in an attempt to enforce its declaration.

But it is clear the move stems from deep dissatisfaction about the way the federal government has dealt with fishing rights within the territory in question.

“The ongoing actions of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans have failed to follow federal Aboriginal consultation and accommodation laws, failed to appropriately manage or allow for co-management of fisheries within our territory and, ultimately, have failed to recognize Aboriginal Rights and Title,” Elliott writes.

“The DFO continues to favour existing commercial monopolies and continues to inadequately consult with Aboriginal groups when enacting policy,” he wrote. “Due to its gross mismanagement and failure to follow government mandates, we can no longer allow the Department of Fisheries and Oceans to manage fisheries within our territory. We cannot stand by while fish stocks within our territory continue to be depleted and our rights ignored.”

Elliott also sent a letter to B.C. fisheries sectoral groups, such as the Underwater Harvesters Association and the BC Shellfish Farmers.

“We understand that this [action] will create challenges for all parties, and we would like to firmly state that our fight is not with the commercial harvesters. Our fight is with the DFO alone, and our hope is to compel them to follow Canadian law when enacting new policy and change their existing policies surrounding aboriginal access accordingly.”

Ray Gauthier, CEO of Stz’uminus First Nation’s Coast Salish Development Corporation, says they have been trying to work with DFO for five years, particularly around geoduck harvesting.

“We’ve tried to work with them,” he said. “We don’t like sending out the kind of messages we sent out on Friday, but at the end of the day, we’re tired of being ignored.”

Read the full article in the Cowichan News Leader.

Delta Optimist
May 2, 2014

Two residents are organizing a meeting next week with the aim of starting a campaign to stop the sale of farmed Atlantic salmon in local stores.

Long-time Ladner fisherman John Stevens and social activist Bob Ages, who is part of the local chapter of the Council of Canadians, organized the meeting for next Wednesday after recently discovering that farmed Atlantic salmon is being sold at both the Safeway and Save-on-Foods in Ladner.

"This came as a shock to Mr. Ages and myself," Stevens said. "When we canvassed local stores a year ago to see if any were selling farmed salmon, not one store or restaurant carried farmed salmon, as it was not popular at all in Ladner."

Stevens said the pair discovered the farmed salmon on local store shelves last week.

"It offends a lot of people in this community," he said.

Read the full article in the Delta Optimist.

World Fishing & Aquaculture
May 1, 2014

Estonian company Marketex Marine has been awarded a contract by AKVA Group to build the biggest fish feeding steel barge in the world.

Marketex Marine will manufacture the 40x12m, 850 metric ton barge on a turnkey basis for the AKVA Group, and delivery is scheduled for September 2014. The barge will be delivered ready to put into operation following F.A.T. and function testing of all its systems at the yard before being towed and put into commission at the fish farm.

“We are committed to continuing our support to the fish farming industry and are excited about working with our customers to develop the next generation of steel fish feeding barges that offer greater efficiency through increased storage capacity and a high standard of accommodation for the crew working onboard”, said Darren Edwards, managing director of Marketex Marine.

Marketex Marine offers large and complex turnkey solutions from steel, stainless steel and aluminum for small shipbuilding, the fish farming industry and the renewable energy market.

Read the full article in World Fishing & Aquaculture.

Powell River Peak
April 30, 2014

An operation which started as a family business in the early 1970s has become one of the largest quality suppliers of steelhead salmon in the country.

West Coast Fish Culture (WCFC) at Lois Lake had a focus on sustainability and efficiency that was well ahead of its time. This directive, together with an innovative approach to research and development, have led the company to domination of the Canadian market. WCFC was recently acquired by AgriMarine Industries.

The company retains the WCFC name while operating under the larger umbrella. With the infusion of investment and technology, WCFC is poised for progress.

Its success earned the farm the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization’s Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries, and an Ocean Wise™ stamp of approval.

New perspectives and new proprietary technology are products of an ongoing foundation of progressive management and operations.

Ryk Mooring, hatchery manager at the farm, said WCFC is a first-generation farm with the fourth generation currently at the helm. “On average the farm raises 1,000,000 steelhead every year,” Mooring said. “This year that number is expected to jump to 1,700,000. The hatchery uses its own recirculation technology for incubation and fry rearing systems. The water drawn into the hatchery is heated in an oil-burner system also devised by staff and management.”

Read the full article in the Powell River Peak.

Examiner
May 1, 2014

Love fish? Hate Mercury? American consumers are becoming increasingly more interested in the toxicity of the seafood they are eating and taking steps to avoid mercury and contaminants.

According to the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA), mercury occurs naturally in the environment and can be emitted into the air by human activities, such as manufacturing or burning coal for fuel. When precipitated from the air, mercury can then reach and accumulate in bodies of water as methylmercury.

Nearly all fish and shellfish appear to contain traces of mercury from absorbing methylmercury in the water, yet larger fish like sharks, swordfish, tuna and king mackerel, typically contain more. Eating large amounts of these fish on a regular basis can put individuals at risk for mercury poisoning and low amounts are particularly toxic to the nervous system of unborn babies or young children.

So, which fish are safe for consumers to eat? The answer to this question varies depending on the frequency of consumption and the geographic source of the fish purchased. The routine consumption of any fish that are high in methylmercury can result in its accumulation within the bloodstream over time. The EPA and FDA therefore offer recommendations for limiting the quantity of fish per week. The Turtle Island Restoration Network also offers a Mercury Calculator for estimating exposure based on limited consumption.

Read the full article in the Examiner.

Vancouver Sun
April 30, 2014

The federal government quietly paid $4.1 million in compensation to two Norway-headquartered aquaculture companies operating in B.C. that had to destroy fish hit by a deadly virus in 2012.

The payments came from a program that has paid out $94 million since 2011 — mostly to East Coast fish farmers — to cover losses from exposure to disease.

The payments of $2.8 million to Cermaq Canada and $1.3 million to Grieg Seafoods are outlined in federal documents about the culls after fish farm exposure to infectious hematopoietic necrosis virus, also known as IHNv.

A government critic said Friday the disease outbreak, and the payments, should ring an alarm about the Harper government’s recently-announced steps to expand the B.C. industry after years of stalled growth due to environmental concerns.

“It’s another reason why expansion of the industry is reckless. If there are (more farms) Canadians can expect to pay more in compensations, too,” said Stan Proboszcz, a fisheries biologist at Watershed Watch.

Industry officials said the outbreaks were limited to three farms, of which two were compensated, and were isolated incidents involving a virus that is no danger to humans.

The B.C. Salmon Farmers Association said the industry has a legitimate claim to compensation.

“These funds are designed to help cushion all farmers (fish, chicken, pig, produce etc.) from that difficult impact, to encourage responsible management choices for the broader farming community, and to help provide security to the country’s food supply,” executive director Jeremy Dunn stated in an email.

The compensation is intended to cover the investment in the salmon up to the point of the cull, and not the full market value, he said.

It was the first outbreak of the disease in B.C. in nine years and there hasn’t been one since, according to the association.

A spokeswoman for the Canadian Food Inspection Agency said compensation is intended to be an incentive to ensure farmers in all sectors report disease outbreaks.

Read the full article in the Vancouver Sun.

Read related article:

• Ottawa Citizen; April 30, 2014; Farms in B.C. netted $4.1 million in compensation for diseased fish
• The Fish Site; May 1, 2014; Fish Farmers Receive Compensation for Diseased Fish
• Aquaculture Digest; May 2, 2014; $94 million for diseased salmon payouts in two years

Fish Farmer Magazine
April 29, 2014

Cermaq Norway has signed a contract with AKVA group for Polarcirkel EcoNets and plastic cages.

The contract – to supply a complete slmon farm in northern Norway, totals NOK 14.5 million. Delivery will be in 2Q/3Q 2014.

The companies have cooperated in testing and further development of the EcoNet concept since early 2012, when the first 120m circumference net was installed at Cermaq in Steigen, northern Norway.

It is the good production results from this testing that now have resulted in using EcoNet in full scale. The nets in this new complete salmon farm will be 160m circumference (51m diameter) and 34m deep.

Snorre Jonassen, Director at Cermaq Norway AS, confirmed the good productions results from the EcoNet testing: ‘We transferred 1,5kg salmon into the EcoNet cage in June 2012 and harvested 6,5kg salmon 7 months later, with a biological FCR (Feed Conversion Rate) of 1,09 and Economical FCR of 1,10.

‘I was uncertain how to handle this net during harvest and lice treatments, but we had no problems and used standard Cermaq net handling procedures.

‘Another advantage with EcoNet is also that we eliminate risk of breaking net meshes during lifting as we don't need to use steel hooks to pull up the net on the railing.’

When asked why he thinks they achieved this result, Jonassen replied: ‘It is most likely the good water flow through of the EcoNet that is the main factor.

Read the full article in Fish Farmer Magazine.

Read related articles:

• FIS; April 30, 2014; Cermaq Goes for AKVA EcoNet
• Fish Update; April 29, 2014; Cermaq opts for eco-solution

Undercurrent News
April 29, 2014

SCS Global Services (SCS), a global third-party certification body, has been accredited to conduct assessments under the Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC) standard for farmed salmon.

Successful completion of its April 2014 assessment of Tassal — the largest farmed Atlantic salmon producer in Australia — was SCS’ final step toward full accreditation under the ASC farmed salmon standard.

As a result, SCS is now authorized to offer full ASC assessments for farmed salmon production around the world.

Read the full article in Undercurrent News.

Read related article:

• World Fishing & Aquaculture; April 30, 2014; SCS accredited to for ASC assessments

Huffington Post
April 29, 2014

New regulations under the Fisheries Act allow Canada's fisheries and environment ministers to give blanket authorization to cause pollution in fish habitat in a range of circumstances, including pollution from fish farm companies seeking to control "pests" or invasive species. These regulations are the latest in a series of changes to Canada’s fish protection laws the government has made in the name of providing “certainty” to industry. 

In 2012, the omnibus “budget” bills C-38 and C-45 made a host changes to Canada’s environmental laws, from a shiny, new and much weakened environmental assessment law, to a new Navigation Protection Act that removed protection from 99 per cent of Canada’s navigable waters. 

Many of the most troubling changes were amendments to Canada’s Fisheries Act that replaced a blanket rule against harming fish habitat with a vague, and difficult to enforce, prohibition on causing “serious harm to fish.” Defined as including “permanent alteration and destruction” of fish habitat, this change has been widely criticized by scientists, lawyers and even former fisheries ministers for the lower standard of protection it provides.

Bill C-38 has also enabled the federal cabinet to allow the fisheries and environment ministers (who share responsibility for regulating pollution in fish-bearing waters) to give blanket approval to certain types of pollution.

For example, the ministers could exempt entire water bodies or species of fish from the protection of the Fisheries Act, or allow certain pollutants to be discharged, or certain polluters to pollute, without impediment by those pesky permitting processes or other forms of federal oversight.

As we feared, cabinet has taken the first step towards exempting certain polluters from federal laws regulating pollution in waters where fish occur. On April 11, it passed regulations that allow the ministers to develop rules authorizing the discharge of pollutants in fish-bearing waters, where that pollution is related to:

• Open net fish farms, where the toxins are intended to control aquatic invasive species or species that are considered pests to a fishery. This power could be used to remove the requirement that aquaculture facilities obtain prior approval to use drugs, aquatic pesticides and biochemical oxygen-demanding matter in waters where fish occur;
• Research. In the first draft of the regulations, this term wasn't defined, raising concerns that "research" could include industrial activities like tailings pond monitoring. Fortunately, in response to public complaints cabinet amended the regulations, specifying that such pollution must be for done for the purposes of the development of scientific knowledge -- a small but important victory for public input; and
• Pollution covered by other federal or provincial laws or guidelines. Essentially, this provision could allow the ministers to say that the Fisheries Act provisions governing pollution in fish-bearing waters do not apply where other laws or even non-binding guidelines cover the same types of pollution, whether or not they actually protect fish. At this stage it's not clear which industries, laws or guidelines might be covered.

These regulations raise a number of questions, largely about what DFO means by "certainty." What about fisheries laws that would provide certainty to Canadians that their wild fish and natural environment will be there for future generations? In our view, these regulations allow the ministers to authorize a broad range of pollution with few limits or checks and balances. It is natural to fear that the federal government is preparing to abdicate its responsibilities to protect fish from pollution.

Read the full article in the Huffington Post.

The Compass
April 28, 2014

The Miawpukek First Nation Band in Conne River was one of seven Newfoundland groups that received funding recently aimed at protecting wild salmon stocks in the province.

The grant of $45,691 was from the Atlantic Salmon Conservation Foundation and is aimed at conserving rivers and strengthening wild Atlantic salmon in the province.

Ross Hinks is an official with the Miawpukek Band.

Hinks said that "Miawpukek Aquaculture Escapee Monitoring" program has two main aims.

One of these aims is to determine the numbers of escaped farmed salmon that may be entering the river.

According to Hinks, the Band knows that escaped salmon have been in the river in the past.

Read the full article on The Compass.

Undercurrent News
April 25, 2014

Canadian on-land salmon aquaculture company Agrimarine said it will delist from the Toronto Stock Exchange Venture Exchange at the end of trading on Friday, April 26, as it will start trading on the Canadian Securities Exchange instead.

Trading on CSE will start on Monday, April 28, under the symbol HSF.

The transition between the exchanges should be seamless to shareholders, said the group.

Agrimarine also trades on the Frankfurt exchange (FFT) under the symbol A2G.

Read the full article in Undercurrent News.

The Fish Site
April 24, 2014

Phosphorus is a vital mineral that must be added to salmon feed to ensure that the fish grow normally and develop a healthy skeleton. Global reserves of phosphorus, however, are limited, and industries that depend on this mineral must increase their use of current sources. An unexploited gold mine of phosphorus for the aquaculture industry is available in filleting waste.

Filleting waste contains high levels of phosphorus, but a large fraction is bound in poorly soluble mineral complexes in fish bones. Salmon have a limited ability to digest phosphorus from fish bones, and most of this phosphorus in the feed is therefore excreted in an undigested state into the environment.

Biotechnology innovation

The food research institute Nofima has long been working to develop biotechnology solutions that can make the nutrients in fish bones more readily available for salmon.

Senior researcher Sissel Albrektsen and her colleagues at Nofima have worked on a project financed by the Norwegian Seafood Research Fund (FHF). They have managed to garner a large fraction of the phosphorus present in herring filleting waste.

“It’s difficult to obtain the phosphorus present in herring filleting waste, which has a lower content of bone than other raw materials that we have experience of using. But we managed it after careful adaptation of a method we use for other marine raw materials to process and acid treat filleting waste. Our results show that herring filleting waste may be a significant source of phosphorus with this technology,” said Ms Albrektsen.

As much as 90 per cent of the phosphorus in the herring bones can be obtained using this method. This is compatible with previous experience from other fish species, and salmon fry and smolt can use this source of phosphorus very efficiently.

Read the full article on The Fish Site.

Read related article:

• FIS; April 29, 2014; A gold mine of phosphorous for farmed salmon

CBC
April 24, 2014

Cooke Aquaculture, which had previously processed salmon in Harbour Breton, has found a new facility to process the fish on Newfoundland's south coast. 

The Barry Group, owner of the Harbour Breton plant, opted to not renew Cooke's lease this past January.

Nell Halse, a Cooke Aquaculture spokesperson, said they have negotiated a long-term lease with Gray Processing Inc. for its new processing facility in Hermitage.   

Commissioning of the plant will begin immediately with a projected opening date for early June.  

Under the lease agreement, Cooke will operate and manage the plant under the name of Hermitage Processing Inc.  

As part of the agreement, Hermitage Processing Inc. will also process salmon for Gray Aqua Group Ltd., when their fish reach market size.

Cooke expects to start recruitment in the next few weeks.

Read the full article on CBC.

The Cordova Times
April 23, 2014

A move to develop mariculture through the creation of partnerships and strategic planning, has been announced by the Alaska Fisheries Development Foundation, which envisions ocean farming as a future billion dollar industry for Alaska.

AFDF, perhaps best known for the annual Alaska Symphony of Seafood competition, feels that the economic effect of mariculture could literally double the current value of the Alaska seafood industry in 30 years, said Julie Decker, executive director.

Potential partners in the project have been identified as state and federal agencies, the University of Alaska, commercial fisheries associations, seafood processors, local communities and economic development groups, she said.

Funding of the initiative hinges in part on a federal Saltonstall-Kennedy grant of over $200,000, which would be issued in July, to work on the planning process. Saltonstall-Kennedy grant funds may be used for research and development projects to benefit U.S. fishing industry projects, in this case to build into the strategic plan how to find areas for aquatic farm sites. While the grant has not yet been approved, AFDF has been recommended for funding, Decker said.

Part of the AFDF initiative is to broaden the discussion and pull in the commercial fisheries to this aspect of farming, enhancement and restoration, the three overlapping categories of mariculture, she said.

Read the full article in The Cordova Times.

WSB-TV
April 23, 2014

Norwegian fish farmer SalMar has been working two years on creating oil-rig-like structures that can harvest salmon in more free-flowing waters, reducing disease and pollution concerns. 

See the full video: Fish Farming Explores Deeper, Cleaner Waters

Read related articles:

• Wall Street Journal [subscription needed]; April 18, 2014; Fish Farming Explores Deeper, Cleaner Waters
• Big Picture Agriculture; April 27, 2014; Norwegian Oil-Rig-Like-Platform for Salmon Farming

Business in Vancouver
April 22, 2014

Kuterra LP, located in Port McNeill on Vancouver Island, is bringing the first-ever land-raised Atlantic salmon to market, to be sold through Safeway stores in British Columbia and Alberta.

The company is owned by the ‘Namgis First Nation. Its mission is to offer an alternative to conventionally farmed salmon that is more environmentally sustainable.

“The effects of conventional farming on the marine environment are very real to us,” said ‘Namgis Chief Bill Cranmer.

“This enterprise shows the way forward for the industry.”

The company said that land-raised salmon will keep wild salmon and the waters they live in separate from fish farming. Kuterra’s fish are raised in a closed aquaculture system on land, with controlled temperatures, oxygen and water flow. No antibiotics or pesticides are used.

The result, Kuterra said, is happy, “stress-free fish.”

“Happy fish eat well, grow quickly to full size, develop good muscle tone, don’t lose scales and have normal social behaviour,” the company said on its website.

The salmon is being marketed by Albion Fisheries.

Read the full article in Business in Vancouver.

Read related articles:

• Courier Islander; May 23, 2014; Kuterra gets major incentive from Hydro- The new design will also lower the facility's annual electricity bill by more than 70 per cent
• Hatch Magazine; April 24, 2014; First Land-Raised Farmed Atlantic Salmon On Its Way to Market
• Intrafish [subscription needed]; April 23, 2014; Safeway to sell Canada’s first land-raised salmon
• Perishable News; April 23, 2014; Canada’s First Land-Raised Salmon Enters the Retail market
• Undercurrent News; April 23, 2014; Onshore-raised salmon makes its way to Safeway in Canada 
• Seafood Source; April 23, 2014; First Canadian land-raised salmon enters market 
• Yahoo Finance; April 22, 2014; Canada's first land raised Atlantic salmon enters the retail market
• CNW; April 22, 2014; Canada's first land raised Atlantic salmon enters the retail market
• Times Colonist; April 22, 2014; Tank-raised Atlantic salmon heads to off-Island stores
• Digital Journal; April 22, 2014; Canada's first land raised Atlantic salmon enters the retail market 
• Canada NewsWire; April 22, 2014; Canada's first land raised Atlantic salmon enters the retail market 
• Undercurrent News; March 24, 2014; Albion to sell first closed-containment salmon from Namgis farm 
• Times Colonist; March 20, 2014; Containment fish farm near Port McNeill ready for harvest

Think Progress
April 21, 2014

Don Kent, President of the Hubbs-Sea World Research Institute, was standing in the seafood aisle of a Whole Foods in the affluent San Diego neighborhood of La Jolla recently when he took out his phone and snapped a photo of a fresh-looking branzino.

“Branzino is European sea bass,” Kent explained. “It’s grown in the Mediterranean. And it’s flown 6,900 miles from Greece to here and then it’s put on ice in La Jolla.”

Kent, whose organization studies the intersection of nature and human activity and offers solutions on how the two can co-exist, is one of the people who believes there’s a different way to approach how we get our protein here in the United States. He insists that there’s a new, innovative, and more efficient method of feeding people — not just in La Jolla, but all over the world. Aquaculture. Or, as it’s known to most people, fish farming.

“We spend 130 million dollars a year on air freight for the 300,000 metric tons of salmon that get flown into the U.S. from Chile. Think of the carbon footprint associated with that,” he says. “There’s absolutely no reason why that brazino shouldn’t be a white sea bass grown three miles off the coast. And then imagine the carbon footprint that’s saved in doing that.”

What, exactly, is aquaculture? The basic idea is that you’re farming aquatic life. The specifics, however, vary quite a bit. In the case of fish, eggs are fostered into small fish at a hatchery, raised for food, and farmed whenever they’re needed. The fish can be raised in tanks or in net pens, in fresh water, off the coast, or out in the open ocean. And fish are just one kind of aquaculture; a similar process is utilized to farm shellfish — like mussels or oysters — and for seaweeds.

Aquaculture right now is in an age of innovation. The advent of indoor tank farming is one promising way fish farming could grow. Another would be going out into the open ocean and dropping fish in large, globe-shaped aquapods down below the surface.

“Open-ocean aquaculture is one of the emerging frontiers,” says Michael Rubino, Director of the Aquaculture Office at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. “There’s not much of it yet but we have crowded coastlines, we have coastlines that have a lot of new trees and they’re shallow, or they’re multiple uses, so some people think that going further offshore, you avoid those multiple use conflicts and get a more stable environment.”

Read the full article in Think Progress.

Vancouver Sun 
April 18, 2014

The frequently maligned federal Fisheries Department reacted with speed and apparent sensitivity as it raced to come up with a response to the critical 2012 report from Justice Bruce Cohen on its management of Fraser River sockeye, according to just-released internal documents.

The department quickly prepared an in-depth response, including cost estimates, intended to prove Ottawa was committed to a species “economically and culturally important” to British Columbians.

But Fisheries, which has not made its detailed response public, appeared to be orphaned by Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s top officials. More than two months after Cohen’s report was released, senior Fisheries officials were noting they still hadn’t been asked by the Privy Council Office to respond to Cohen.

The PCO, the senior bureaucratic arm of the federal government that works closely with Harper’s political staff, appeared to become engaged only in early 2013, when media began running stories on the silence from Ottawa, the documents suggest.

The documents, obtained by the B.C. group Watershed Watch Salmon Society, present the first internal look at how the bureaucracy handled the results of the public inquiry into Ottawa’s failings in the management of the Pacific salmon fishery. That peek is very extremely limited, as the documents were extensively censored before release.

Government critics say Ottawa has still not adequately responded to Cohen’s many recommendations, issuing only brief media statements and, when forced through formal petitions that legally require a response, giving basic and upbeat summaries of the government’s approach.

A spokeswoman for Fisheries Minister Gail Shea said Thursday the government is justified in its handling of the Cohen recommendations because the report didn’t, in Cohen’s words, find a “smoking gun” to prove the department or any other actor or factor was solely to blame for problems in the fishery.

“Given that the Cohen Commission did not find any smoking gun, our government has decided to take a practical approach instead of spending more money, time and energy producing an extensive written response,” Sophie Doucet said in an email.

Craig Orr, executive director of Watershed Watch, called that response “ludicrous” and insulting to British Columbians who have signed petitions calling for a formal and detailed response.

He noted that science “rarely finds a single cause” in situations like the 2009 sockeye collapse, and said Ottawa is acting irresponsibly in pushing now for salmon farm expansions in B.C. despite Cohen’s concerns.

Read the full article in the Vancouver Sun.

Undercurrent News
April 18, 2014

Norwegian salmon farmer Bremnes Seashore has teamed up with aquaculture equipment and solutions provider Ocea to jointly develop the latter’s environmental friendly delousing solution, reported Norwegian media.

Under a newly signed deal, the two companies have agreed to together further develop Ocea’s Thermolicer, which Ocea is bringing for the first time to Norway, said iLaks.no.

As part of the deal, Ocea will also supply Bremnes Seashore a new 400 metric ton feeding fleet, a renovation of a feeding station and other equipment for a combined value of NOK 28 million.

Ocea has worked on Thermolicer, a thermal solution for delousing fish, since 2007. It has patented the technique, which is being applied commercially in Chile already. The technique is now ready for commercial use in Norway, said the company.

Thermolicer works by pumping the fish into a lukewarm water bath for under 30 seconds. The lice cannot withstand the sudden temperature change and dies. The fish is then released lice-free into the sea, while the lice is collected and destroyed.

The technique has yielded very good results in Chile, with very low mortality both right after the treatment and over a longer period, said Ocea’s Karl Petter Myklebust.

Together with Bremnes, the company wants to further develop the process, with a focus on increasing its capacity while maintaining the fish’s wellbeing.

Read the full article in Undercurrent News.

Read related article:

• Fish Update; April 22, 2014; Ocea Bremnes Seashore double team on sea lice solution

Washington Post
April 18, 2014

Still have farmed salmon crossed off your short list of eco-friendly fish? A local version that’s available for a limited time in the Washington area could temporarily rewrite your rules.

Most farmed salmon are raised in open nets or pens in the ocean, where their waste and potential to introduce parasites, diseases or non-native fish to the wild present serious environmental concerns. The Freshwater Institute, a program of the Arlington-based Conservation Fund, has been trying another way.

For two years, the institute’s researchers have been growing Atlantic salmon at a recirculating aquaculture facility in Shepherdstown, W.Va., 70 miles from the District. They have been chipping away at the sustainability issues that plague this farmed fish’s reputation by growing it in land-based tanks without the use of antibiotics or hormones. They’ve acclimated the fish to grow in fresh water and are reusing 99 percent of it while reducing the amount of forage fish required to feed the growing predators.

The next step in proving that the concept works — and is viable enough to be adopted by the broader aquaculture industry — is showing that it sells in the marketplace. Year-round consistency could give this brand of aquaculture an economic edge over wild resources, making available from a nearby source a healthful fish that doesn’t even swim in Chesapeake Bay waters.

Freshwater’s first batch hit markets in Maryland and Virginia in late March and will be available through mid-May at area Wegmans seafood counters and on more than a dozen restaurant menus. That means Washington consumers can get the first taste of the only Atlantic salmon in the United States grown with this technology.

Read the full article in the Washington Post.

Read related article:

• Undercurrent News; April 21, 2014; NGO’s land-farmed salmon to hit Wegman’s in May

Food Safety News
April 17, 2014

Members of the Vermont Senate voted 28-2 on Wednesday for a bill that, if the Vermont House of Representatives concurs with the Senate’s changes, would make it the first state in the country to require labeling of foods made with genetically modified organisms (GMOs).

The bill, H. 112, passed the Vermont House last year but needs to go back there for final approval of changes made in the Senate. Then, if House members give their final approval and Gov. Peter Shumlin signs it, which he has said he is likely to do, H. 112 would become effective on July 1, 2016.

Vermont’s legislation has no trigger clause like Maine and Connecticut, which have passed GMO-labeling laws but made them contingent on neighboring states taking similar action.

Read the full article in Food Safety News.

Read related article:

• Undercurrent News; April 17, 2014; Vermont Senate approves GMO labeling bill

The Coast
April 17, 2014

Canada quietly made history last November when officials at Environment Canada gave the go-ahead on production of the world's first genetically modified food fish: the AquAdvantage® salmon.

Created by micro-injecting genetic materials from a chinook salmon and an ocean pout into the egg of an Atlantic salmon, the new GM fish grows about twice as fast as regular Atlantic salmon, shaving about 18 months off the time it takes for a salmon fillet to make it to your table.  

Under the November approval, AquaBounty Technologies Inc., a US company with an ACOA-funded facility in Prince Edward Island, can manufacture GM salmon eggs in PEI, with permission to grow out some fish within the contained facility. But the bulk of the eggs are destined for a land-based aquaculture farm in Panama, where they will grow into fish, and then, pending approvals by the FDA and Health Canada, be sold as food in North American grocery stores.  

The global precedent of a GM food fish has not been lost on the Ecology Action Centre. Along with west coast partner group the Living Oceans Society, the EAC is hoping to give the historic approval a little more scrutiny. And so with help from the lawyers at Ecojustice, the centre is taking the federal government to court.  

Its legal case focusses on the idea that Environment Canada and Health Canada failed to get the information they needed to figure out if GM salmon eggs in production in PEI are "toxic or capable of becoming toxic" under section 108 of the Canadian Environmental Protection Act.

Potential toxicity in the case of GM salmon comes from risk of escapes, and the effect that the new hybrid species would have on its originator, the wild Atlantic Salmon, which is endangered in many parts of the Atlantic coast.

"In the case of GM salmon eggs or salmon," says Susanna Fuller, the EAC's marine conservation coordinator, "would they get out into the wild? What would happen if they did? Could they interbreed? We don't know any information [the government] might have used to make the decision and ensure it's not toxic."

Read the full article on The Coast.

Vancouver Sun
April 16, 2014

The Harper government is laying the regulatory groundwork for a resurgence of the controversial B.C. fish farm industry.

Bureaucratic hurdles and legal uncertainty are being swept away as part of an attempt to help the Canadian industry, which has stagnated for years, to take advantage of rising global demand for seafood, according to testimony by top officials before a Senate committee.

The regulatory changes include a planned exemption from a Fisheries Act prohibition against dumping harmful substances in the ocean, though government and industry officials say the change won’t alter current practices or pose environmental threats.

The push for a major expansion comes despite the cautionary words about the risk of fish farms to wild salmon in Justice Bruce Cohen’s 2012 report into the decline of the Fraser River sockeye fishery. Cohen, while finding no “smoking gun” linking fish farms or any other specific factor to the fishery’s troubles, concluded that industry’s “potential harm” to Fraser sockeye is “serious or irreversible.”

The pending federal regulatory changes could result in a fourfold increase in production by 2030, according to Fisheries Minister Gail Shea.

“Under an improved legislative and regulatory framework, the aquaculture industry believes that aquaculture could expand from $2 billion in total annual economic activity (in Canada) to $5.6 billion in 10 years and to more than $8 billion in 15 years,” she told the Senate fisheries committee.

“That’s why we’re working hard to enable aquaculture to thrive while ensuring that it is sustainable over the long term.”

One senior official at the same meeting said that B.C., in particular, is poised for growth.

“In British Columbia, we’re in a position now where I think the scenarios and signals are all positive,” said Trevor Swerdfager, assistant deputy minister in charge of ecosystems and fisheries management. … The industry is getting ready for a bit of a takeoff there.”

Shea has said she wants new regulations to remove the red tape that one of her senior officials described as “a very critical impediment” to the industry’s growth.

For example, the industry wants an exemption from a Fisheries Act provision that bans the dumping of harmful substances in waters “frequented by fish.”

The industry, which uses hydrogen peroxide as well as antibiotic-laced feed to deal with sea lice and disease in fish pens, would still need clearances to use these products from two Health Canada agencies. But they would no longer need the extra step of getting one-off exemptions to the Fisheries Act.

A government notice published in February announcing plans for the regulations said the environmental risk “is expected to be negligible” because the chemical and antibiotics are already in use.

Watershed Watch executive director Craig Orr acknowledged the Fisheries Act exemption won’t likely make a tangible difference. But he said the overall thrust of Ottawa’s actions are “scary.”

Orr pointed to Cohen’s warnings about scientific uncertainty surrounding the potential spread of disease and sea lice from farms to young wild salmon.

“I think it’s quite irresponsible to be considering expanding the industry at this point,” Orr said. “They seem to be abandoning wild fish protection on this coast.”

Read the full article in the Vancouver Sun.

Read related article:

• Common Sense Canadian; April 17, 2014; Harper government guts fish farm regulations

Yahoo Finance
April 16, 2014

True North Salmon, provider of the freshest branded salmon to consumers, announces expanded product distribution through FreshDirect, a leading online fresh food grocer.  A product of the United States, True North Salmon is now being delivered fresh to FreshDirect, from the Gulf of Maine within 48 hours of catch, ensuring customers have the highest quality and best tasting salmon.

FreshDirect customers will enjoy True North Farm-Raised Atlantic Salmon in several varieties, including filets, family packs, whole-side filets, boneless steaks, traditional steaks and whole fish options. In addition, FreshDirect and True North Salmon will offer the convenience of a double fillet on a cedar plank for an effortless and delicious outdoor grilling experience.

"At FreshDirect, we are committed to providing a wide assortment of fresh, high-quality, directly-sourced seafood to customers," said Jeff Ludwin, FreshDirect's Seafood Merchant. "We are excited to introduce True North Salmon to our marketplace, rounding out our offering of sustainable and traceable wild and farm-raised salmon options." 

True North Salmon is rated three stars by the Best Aquaculture Practices (BAP), the highest certification level standards achievable, for its farms, feed mill and processing plant. The certification recognizes the company as one that holds the health and welfare of fish and their natural environments as a top priority.

Read the full article in Yahoo Finance.

Read related article:

• Digital Journal; April 16, 2014; True North Salmon Announces Distribution Through FreshDirect

Chronicle Herald
April 15, 2014

Police are investigating a power failure that killed about 12,000 salmon — almost $350,000 worth — at a land-based fish farm in Hants County last month.

“We are conducting an investigation,” provincial RCMP spokesman Sgt. Alain LeBlanc confirmed in an interview Tuesday.

Officials from Sustainable Fish Farming (Canada) Ltd. contacted the RCMP on March 22, a week after a catastrophic power failure March 15, LeBlanc said.

The nearly market-ready salmon, totalling 30,000 kilograms, were killed in the six-hour power outage at the aquaculture site in Centre Burlington, near Brooklyn, Hants County.

“However, it’s important to say that, at this time, there is no evidence to support or to suggest that this was a criminal act,” LeBlanc said.

“The company reached out to us. We, in consultation with the company, are trying to determine what caused the power failure.”

He said the general investigation unit of the Windsor District RCMP is handling the file.

Kirk Havercroft, CEO of the company, said that as part of the investigation, several simulations were run in the plant to determine the cause of the outage.

“One of those simulations … was basically to assume what would happen if somebody deliberately turned off a key piece of equipment,” he said in an interview Tuesday.

“When we ran that simulation it did reproduce all of the incidents that occurred on the night of the problem,” he added. So police were called.

“As of yet, there is no direct evidence that would suggest that somebody did it, other than to say that the simulation that we ran fit the events of that night.”

Read the full article in the Chronicle Herald.

Peninsula Clarion
April 15, 2014

Pink salmon fishing in the Lower Cook Inlet could soon be revitalized as the Cook Inlet Aquaculture Association finalized its purchase of the Port Graham Hatchery on Monday after nearly two years of planning, permitting and logistics.

The facility has not been operational since 2007 when low returns of pink salmon and poor prices forced the Port Graham Hatchery Corporation to close. In 2010 the group asked the aquaculture association to assume management of the operation.

Pink salmon reared by the aquaculture association, or CIAA, are expected to return to Port Graham Bay this year, allowing CIAA to begin collecting eggs for brood stock and harvest fish to recover some of the costs during its first year of operation.

“Our goal is to put 84 million eggs in the hatchery and any fish that are beyond that will probably be harvested as cost recovery, although some will be collected by local subsistence users,” said Gary Fandrei, executive director of the aquaculture association.

Read the full article in the Peninsula Clarion.

Seafood Source
April 15, 2014

China’s ability to increase its aquaculture yields while also conserving scarce water supplies looks set to be tested in a project being funded by the municipal government of the nation’s capital. Beijing municipal government has spent a stunning RMB 294 million (USD 47.4 million, EUR 34.4 million) since 2010 to ensure that yields are improved from RMB 15,000 (USD 2,420, EUR 1,756) to RMB 24,000 (USD 3,873, EUR 2,809) per mu (15 mu in a hectare) in value terms each year. A further RMB 34 million (USD 5.5 million, EUR 4 million) will be spent this year. The goal is to add 6,000 metric tons (MT) to the Beijing region’s freshwater fish output: part of a broader local government plan to enlarge the city’s “food basket.”

Beijing’s eagerness to meet its rising seafood needs is apparent in a heavily subsidized overhaul of the freshwater aquaculture resources in the region of the capital city (whose urban and rural counties cover an area the size of Belgium). In Miyun county two hours outside the city proper, fish farmers are availing of generous subsidies from the local government to restore ponds and build what are termed “greenhouse”-style fish farms: indoor year-round production in tanks with water recirculating systems.

According to the city’s government press office, this year Beijing is also subsidizing the building of 12 specialized “breeding farms” producing carp, perch and eels. “The goal is to eliminate small, scattered and inefficient ponds and to industrialize our fish farming,” explained a government spokesman this week on the Beijing TV channel run by local government. Also interviewed, fish farmer Wang Xiaoyue had a third of the price of new ponds and water systems. His is one of the 28 “standardized” fish farms promoted by the city as models for others to follow — a model paid for with taxpayers’ money.

Read the full article in Seafood Source.

Digital Journal
April 15, 2014

More than 47,000 farm-raised salmon have escaped their cages in northern Norway, the fifth such escape in two months. Environmentalists are warning that the country’s growing aquaculture industry could destroy native wild salmon stocks.

According to an article in the Norway edition of The Local, this latest incident occurred in the Alfjorden, north of Stavanger, at a farm owned by Alsaker Fjordbruk, a leading aquaculture firm, with several farms spread out along the Norwegian coast. Farm-raised fish are Norway’s second-largest export.

The incident has drawn the ire of the Green Warriors of Norway, a major environmental group opposed to aquaculture.

According to their website, the Green Warriors oppose aquaculture because of “contaminants in the farm fish, over-exploitation of wild fish to produce fish food, organized animal abuse, sea lice that kill wild Atlantic Salmon strains, and the vast organic pollution of the beautiful Norwegian fjords.”

Read the full article in the Digital Journal.

Read related article:

• The Local; April 15, 2014; Thousands of salmon escape cages in Norway

The Fish Site
April 14, 2014

Torfinn Moldal et al, Norwegian Veterinary Institute, investigated the intestinal health in Atlantic salmon fed with different vegetable oils as partial substitutes of fish oil in the diet.

Salmonids are indigenous carnivores, and fish meal and fish oil have traditionally been the main ingredients in feed for farmed Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) and rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss). Due to limited sources of marine raw materials, a fast growing aquaculture industry and increased focus on sustainability, the salmon farming industry has searched for alternative feeds. The inclusion of plant-derived materials in fish feed may be beneficial from an economic and ecological point of view, but used without carefully considering the fish minimum requirements or upper tolerable levels of certain nutrients or anti-nutrients, it can unfortunately also cause adverse effects with regard to fish health, nutritive value and the consumers’ acceptance.

Read the full article on The Fish Site.

Wall Street Journal
April 14, 2014

Norwegian fish-farming company Marine Harvest, riding growing global demand for aquaculture products, achieved the best quarterly operating results in its eight-year history following a larger-than-expected harvest and rising prices for salmon and other fish.

Marine Harvest, which was formed from a merger in 2006 and listed on the New York Stock Exchange earlier this year, is the biggest player in an expanding global aquaculture industry as demand for food increases.

The Bergen, Norway-based company said it expects to increase supply and proposed a sizable dividend increase as a result of the favorable conditions.

The company issued a news release Monday saying it earned an operating profit of 1.08 billion Norwegian kroner ($181 million) in the quarter ending March 31, more than double the 482 million kroner in the year-earlier period. The operating profit, which excludes interest and taxes, outpaced initial expectations of analysts polled by the Reuters news agency.

It is scheduled to report first-quarter earnings April 30.

Marine Harvest's solid first quarter follows a record 2013, during which it harvested 343,772 metric tons of fish, gutted weight.

And although volume was lower than the prior year in the period, strong pricing, due partly to constrained supply, lifted results.

Read the full article in the Wall Street Journal.

Read related articles:

• Undercurrent News; April 14, 2014; Marine Harvest surprises with generous dividend, as Q1 harvest higher than expected
• Fish News EU; April 14, 2014; Record quarter for MH
• FIS; April 14, 2014; Marine Harvest deems Q1 'the best quarter so far'
• The Local; April 14, 2014; Marine Harvest profits double

The Nation
April 13, 2014

The Global Salmon Initiative (GSI), the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), the UN's Food and Agricultural Organisation, and Rabobank joined up for the first time in the US last week to demonstrate how the global farmed-salmon industry is leading the way in changing aquaculture-business practices to ensure a sustainable future for the industry.

The meeting took place during the "Seafood Expo North America" in Boston.

The US is the largest consumer by country of farmed salmon worldwide, consuming more than 282,000 tonnes last year. In fact, demand for farmed salmon has increased by over 14 per cent in the last five years in the US alone, and is showing no signs of slowing down. 

Global demand for salmon has increased even more quickly, doubling in the last decade, and is set to double again by 2020.

The "Pathways to Sustainability" seminar at the Boston expo intended to set an example of how cooperation among seafood industry members can lead to sustainable development and can be replicated across other industries. 

Many business leaders believe a significant change in current business practices is the only way for the industry to meet its market potential and future global consumer demand for salmon. 

GSI executives meeting in Boston with global sustainability leaders announced their commitment to put sustainability before competition, in order to pursue a unique model of environmental cooperation as a driver for their industry's success.

Read the full article in The Nation.

The Fish Site
April 11, 2014

The first use of hydrogen peroxide in British Columbia for control of sea lice has been completed with great success. The new treatment option, announced by Marine Harvest Canada in January, was applied to a group of the company’s salmon in March, and proved to be a very safe and effective method to reduce the level of sea lice on farm-raised salmon.

"Our current sea lice management may require the use of an in-feed drug (SLICE™)," said Clare Backman, Marine Harvest Canada's Public Affairs Director. "Although successful to control sea lice, and sparingly used, our adherence to voluntary but strict third part certification standards require us to continually reduce our use of medication."

The new treatment available to BC salmon farmers, diluted hydrogen peroxide, is applied as a bath to a group of salmon. The bath removes small, naturally occurring, external fish parasites (sea lice) attached to the salmon. Hydrogen peroxide rapidly breaks down into harmless compounds: water and oxygen.

Read the full article in The Fish Site.

Undercurrent News
April 10, 2014

British Columbia-based West Creek Sockeye has begun processing its fish waste and selling it as dried, concentrated plant food.

The company claims to have introduced the world’s first commercial supply of land based, closed containment sockeye salmon, and the West Creek brand is now being applied to its plant food.

“Rather than impacting our local environment, we have removed the fish waste and processed it into a dried and concentrated plant food. Unlike most fertilizers, West Creek Plant Food is not derived through chemicals, but sustainable aquaculture,” said company spokesperson Don Read.

Read the full article in Undercurrent News.

The Ellon Times
April 10, 2014

An application for a seal-shooting license has now been withdrawn after ‘careful consideration’ from the company.

Usan Fisheries of Montrose applied to Marine Scotland for a permit to shoot seals following the acquisition of the Ythan estuary from Udny Estates.

But the application saw concerned local residents and animal protection groups take action by setting up a petition and a Facebook page: Stop the Ythan seal cull, which included over 800 ‘members’.

The company had stressed that lethal means would only be used as a last resort if non-lethal measures proved ineffective, but the firm have now announced that they have withdrawn their application to Marine Scotland.

Read the full article in the Ellon Times.

Read related article:

• For Argyll; April 4, 2014; People power forces east coast salmon farmer back-down on seal cull

Design World
April 9, 2014

From a global perspective, fish is one of the most important sources of protein for human consumption. Without aquaculture, this hunger for fish cannot be sated. The negative side effects of industrial aquaculture, such as high levels of pollution from medications, however, have scared off consumers in Europe in particular, causing sales to collapse a few years ago.

Aquaculture fish are bred for maximum production and for economic reasons they have significantly less living space than their cousins in the wild. This makes them especially susceptible to illness and parasites.

Many breeders, therefore, use large amounts of prophylactic medications, especially antibiotics. Growing criticism of the side effects has led to the use of medications being restricted in Europe.

Norway in particular has long endeavored to solve the problems of aquaculture. The country, where fish is the third most important export, has recently succeeded in nearly eliminating antibiotics. This was made possible by vaccinating the fish.

This procedure is difficult, however, because up to now each fish has had to be manually injected with the vaccine using a syringe. Considering the number of fish bred annually—1.4 million tons of salmon in aquaculture worldwide in 2010—this procedure has reached its limits. The machine builder Maskon has therefore turned to automation of the vaccination process. A system developed by the company, which requires just a single operator, can automatically anesthetize, sort, singulate, and vaccinate up to 20,000 fish per hour, depending on the model. This would previously have required four to six experienced “fish injectors.” The machine cannot only vaccinate substantially more fish, but also ensures a significantly higher level of quality of vaccination than humans can provide.

Read the full article in Design World.

Nate Schweber
April 5, 2014
Al Jezeera

Just beyond the balcony on the 22nd-floor penthouse, New York City's skyscrapers flickered, and the Yale Club's tablecloths flapped as white as the waiters' jackets in the night breeze. Yet the fresh air was not the star of this 2013 spring night, but rather, fresh water. Specifically, the kind used to produce the night’s supper — Atlantic salmon.

Served three ways — raw as tartare, roasted with skin on or cured as gravlax — this salmon had been farmed using a new technique, in fresh water on an inland salmon farm. The guests, members of the Atlantic Salmon Federation, hoped that more salmon farmed this way could help save endangered wild salmon.

“The flavor was great,” said the chef, Tom Valenti, noting that in terms of taste the pink fillets were to other farmed salmon what heirloom tomatoes are to winter beefsteaks. “But my angle, forgive the pun, has more to do with conservation.”

With an inland farm in British Columbia poised for the first time to start selling commercial quantities of freshwater-reared salmon this month, conservationists in North America are counting on chefs and shoppers to show the aquaculture industry that inland farming is a viable alternative. The standard practice of farming salmon in huge sea cages is toxic to the oceans, they say, and deadly to wild salmon.

So how is the new technology working? “All of the fish has been pre-sold for the next year and people are very excited,” said Guy Dean, vice president of Canada’s Albion Fisheries, a distributor of inland-raised salmon.

Albion sells this special salmon for around 20 percent more than salmon farmed offshore. The price point fills an important niche for a growing number of concerned consumers who are willing to pay more for safe salmon, Dean said, but who can’t afford to pay triple for sustainably caught wild Pacific salmon. People who tasted the inland-farmed salmon for market research reported that it was leaner, less fishy and more buttery than standard farmed salmon — similar to wild salmon, he said.

“This salmon has the ability to tell a story on multiple levels: its sustainable impact, the non-use of pesticides or chemicals,” he said. “So for the average [consumer] it really resonates.”

Salmon farmed in inland tanks, also known as closed-containment systems, have the advantage of growing in a controlled environment, said Sue Scott of the Atlantic Salmon Federation in New Brunswick. The federation has given money for research on an inland salmon farm run by the Conservation Fund’s Freshwater Institute in Shepherdstown, W.Va. Farms like that eliminate escapes of farmed salmon into the ocean, a major threat to wild salmon genetics, Scott said. They also keep salmon food — small, wild-caught fish like anchovies that are a renewable but sensitive resource — from going to waste when portions wash through the nets and into the ocean, she said.

And inland salmon need not be rinsed with pesticides and other chemicals. At sea, inside net pens where fish are packed tightly together like kindergartners in a classroom, naturally occurring parasites and diseases can proliferate, the way common colds do in humans. Diseases and pests can spread to wild fish that swim past, she said. Inland farms, she said, are better protected from fish diseases.

“The Freshwater Institute is showing through their research that, operationally, it’s on par with the open net pen, and they’re taking care of their waste,” Scott said. “There’s a large niche market that wants to buy sustainable farmed Atlantic salmon, and that is a good start toward a transition that can take place over time.”

More than 99 percent of the fresh water used for inland salmon farms is filtered and reused, she said. And the salmon waste, which when dropped from net pens into the open ocean can trigger harmful algae blooms, is collected and recycled as compost.

“It keeps the disease out, it keeps the environment from being impacted,” said Steve Summerfelt, of the Freshwater Institute, who has spent two decades innovating technology to raise salmon inland. “And it hardly uses water.”

Read the full story on Al Jeezera. 

NPR
April 7, 2014

Why hasn't fish farming taken off in the U.S.?

It's certainly not for lack of demand for the fish. Slowly but surely, seafood that's grown in aquaculture is taking over the seafood section at your supermarket, and the vast majority is imported.

The shrimp and tilapia typically come from warm-water ponds in southeast Asia and Latin America. Farmed salmon come from big net pens in the coastal waters of Norway or Chile.

Michael Rubino, director of aquaculture at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, says the U.S. could harvest much of that fish — especially the salmon — here at home. He points to a study carried out by the U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organization, which concluded that, among all the world's nations, the U.S. had the greatest potential for ocean-based aquaculture production.

Rubino says it wouldn't even consume a very large area. "The entire Norwegian production of salmon, a million tons a year, can be grown in an area about the size of the runways at JFK Airport in New York," he says.

The major reason why it hasn't happened is opposition from environmentalists and from people living on the coast, who enjoy their pristine ocean views.

Environmentalists have been deeply suspicious of large-scale aquaculture. When millions of fish are crowded together, they generate a lot of waste. Fish farms can also be breeding grounds for diseases that can infect wild fish nearby.

And then there's the problem of feeding the fish. That feed usually contains lots of fish meal and fish oil, which in turn come from wild fish — small species like menhaden or anchovies that are swept from the oceans by the shipload.

It's all given aquaculture a bad name — although Rubino insists that these environmental risks can easily be managed.

But what if there was a way to make fish farms totally clean and green?

Several entrepreneurs say they're doing it. They're building fish factories on land, releasing almost no pollution — vastly less, in fact, than the fish farms from which we routinely buy seafood currently.

They're working to overcome two different kinds of barriers: technological and economic.

Read the full article on NPR.

Ferret
April 7, 2014

John Rafferty of Elemental Manufacturing has designed and manufactured essential components and injection moulding tools for the environmentally harmonious pen made for Australian salmon farming business Huon Aquaculture. A world first in aquaculture, the salmon protection pen not only protects the fish, but also safeguards the seals that want to eat them and the staff who might be caught in the middle.

Huon describes the pen as ‘revolutionising the salmon industry worldwide’, and praises John’s involvement as instrumental in realising the design and producing parts for half the cost of metal fabricated designs.

Mr Rafferty explains that seals in most countries outside of Australia and New Zealand are destroyed by farmers as a pest. These seal-proof pens are designed to protect seals and prevent them from being destroyed as a result of their continual attacks on the pens to get at the fish.

The new pens employ a double-net system to protect the salmon and prevent seals from ramming themselves against the inner netting to get to the tasty fish inside. The pens also allow easier and wider egress for the disappointed seals.

According to Mr Rafferty, the pens also create a safer working environment for staff with a new flat walkway that also helps keep aggressive seals away from workers. Many suggest this revolutionary pen design should be adopted as a new global standard.

Read the full article in Ferret.

Read related article:

• PACE; March 26, 2014; Save our seals, salmon and safety

The Telegram
April 5, 2014

Atlantic Canadian seafood was in the spotlight last month as federal Fisheries Minister Gail Shea led a large delegation of fisheries and aquaculture industry representatives to the 2014 Seafood Expo North America in Boston, March 16-18.

The delegation included 23 Atlantic Canadian seafood companies and the event featured more than 8,700 exhibitors offering a vast array of seafood, seafood products, services and equipment from around the world.

One of those companies was Northern Harvest Sea Farms out of Pool’s Cove on the south coast.

Jennifer Caines, the salmon farming company’s project and compliance manager, said this year’s show was busy and exciting.

“We were fortunate to meet some of our key New England customers,” she said.

Read the full article in The Telegram.

The Citizen
April 4, 2014

Don't expect to find genetically modified salmon — or any other engineered fish or meat — on store shelves anytime soon.

The Obama administration has stalled for more than four years on deciding whether to approve a fast-growing salmon that would be the first genetically modified animal approved for human consumption.

During that time, opponents of the technology have taken advantage of increasing consumer concern about genetically modified foods and have urged several major retailers not to sell it. So far, two of the nation's biggest grocers, Safeway and Kroger, have pledged to keep the salmon off their shelves if it is approved.

Supporters of genetically engineered fish and meat say they expect Food and Drug Administration approval of the salmon and still hope to find a market for it. However, the retailers' caution and lengthy regulatory delays have made investors skittish.

Read the full article in The Citizen.

Larry Pynn
April 2, 2014
Vancouver Sun

Ongoing government reviews of two salmon farm applications on the B.C. coast fly in the face of recommendations of the Cohen Commission related to expansion of the industry, industry critics charged Wednesday.

"It looks like there is major support from DFO to expand farming on this coast while ignoring the Cohen recommendations and the evidence around the science," said Craig Orr, executive director of Watershed Watch. "They're kissing it (the report) off, ignoring most of the recommendations around aquaculture and science."

The two latest applications for northern Vancouver Island are the subject of a "harmonized" federal-provincial review and are posted on the Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations website.

They involve applications by Port Hardy's Tlatlasikwala First Nation for 161 hectares of Crown foreshore or land and 76 hectares — both at Hope Island, off Cape Scott Provincial Park.

Watershed Watch says the two would each produce about 3,500 tonnes of salmon.

The government postings include few specifics, and says the public has until April 6 to comment. 

Read the full story in the Vancouver Sun. 

To submit comments regarding the applications for 2 new fish farms, see the March 29th SOS Bulletin. 

See the SOS media release regarding the applications for two new farms and the BCSFA target of 100% at this link.  

Related stories:

• CKNW The Simi Sara Show; April 2, 2014; New salmon farming plan nets criticism from salmon society 
• Ottawa Citizen; April 2, 2014; Deadline looms to comment on two new B.C. salmon farm applications
• IntraFish; March 28, 2014; BC Salmon Farmers Target 43% Production Increase by 2020
• Vancouver Sun; January 15, 2014; Ottawa opens door to fish farm expansion, and applications flood in - Critics say wild salmon at risk as 11 companies apply to expand or build new farms  

FIS
April 1, 2014

Bell Aquaculture’s plans to add a feed mill as part of a USD 30-million expansion in Delaware, Indiana, wereapproved by the Metropolitan Board of Zoning Appeals last week.

Although supporters of the project consider the plan presented by this fish farm producing nearly 3 million pounds per year of yellow perch, trout and coho salmon, will help turn the area into an aquaculture hub, neighbours have expressed complaints about the stench produced by the farm's fish feces lagoon, Associated Press reported.

Since that mill will produce more fish food a month than the firm needs for its operations, the surplus food will be destined to fuel the Indiana aquaculture industry's growth.

"We are a cutting-edge technology," Bell Aquaculture CEO Norman McCowan told the zoning board. "We want to see Delaware County become a hub for aquaculture."

The CEO added that residents who oppose the project do have legitimate concerns about the smell produced by the Albany-area farm's lagoons, but he said the company is already taking steps to address that.

Earlier this month, McCowan had remarked they continue to strive to advance their processes in order to reduce their environmental impact and produce the healthiest fish possible. And he stressed that their fish are not given antibiotics or hormones and their water is clean enough to drink, providing a healthy, sustainable option to the growing food crisis.

Nevertheless, neighbours who oppose the feed mill said that not only does the lagoon stink, but the farm is also discharging so much water it has flooded surrounding property. Bell withdraws nearly 400 million gallons of water yearly from the ground for its operations.

"They intend to bring in a fish food factory, which is not agriculture. It's a factory. It's industrial, and all the problems that exist now are going to get worse," Bill Hughes, an attorney representing the disgruntled neighbours pointed out.

Read the full article in FIS.

Read related articles:

• News Observer; March 29, 2014; Indiana county OKs farm's plans for fish feed mill
• The Star Press; March 29, 2014; Delaware County OKs another fish farm despite neighbors' concerns
• The Republic; March 29, 2014; Eastern Ind. county OKs plans for fish feed mill as part of expansion; neighbors say it stinks
• Daily Reporter; March 29, 2014; Eastern Ind. county OKs plans for fish feed mill as part of expansion; neighbors say it stinks
• The Indy Channel; March 29, 2014; Delaware Co. OKs fish feed mill
• Associated Press; March 29, 2014; Indiana County OKs farm's plans for fish feed mill
• Washington Times; March 29, 2014; Indiana county OKs farm’s plans for fish feed mill
• The Brazil Times; March 29, 2014; Indiana county OKs farm's plans for fish feed mill
• Kokomo Tribune; March 30, 2014; Delaware Co. OKs farm's plans for fish feed mill