The Russian Ministry of Agriculture has developed a draft order to limit industrial cod fishing in the Far Eastern fisheries basin in 2025. The document can be found on the portal of draft regulatory legal acts.

In particular, this concerns  a ban on  catching Pacific cod using bottom trawls and snurrevads in the West Bering Sea zone and the Karaginsky subzone until April 15, 2025.

The same order proposes to limit cod fishing using longline gear in the above-mentioned fishing zones until March 31 of next year.

Public discussions of the project will continue until the end of December.

In December last year, the Ministry of Agriculture  banned  industrial cod fishing with all types of fishing gear in the West Bering Sea and Chukchi fishing zones. The restrictions were in effect until April 15 of this year.

Several foreign vessels have begun to opt out of Denmark when they are going to sell their landings.

"It is deeply worrying. The foreign landings are vital for the port of Hanstholm, and if they disappear overnight, we are talking about massive losses of revenue and jobs", says Jesper Kongsted to Nordjyske.

In recent weeks, the auction in Hanstholm has not received fish from a handful of French vessels. They usually land around 80 tons of fish every 10 days. Now they are landing in the Faroe Islands or Scotland instead.

And the auctioneer understands the French fishermen well. Because with a CO2 tax, foreign fishermen will pay up to 15 million kroner more to fill up with diesel fuel in Hanstholm from next year.

Jesper Kongsted states that he has received the same message from Swedish, German and Scottish fishermen – they will choose other ports in the future.

Of the approximately 32,500 tons of fish received in Hanstholm each year, 22,000 tons are landed by foreign boats. Therefore, it will have irreparable consequences if the tax is not postponed until alternative solutions to diesel oil are found – solutions that do not exist at the time of writing.

"In six months we can go from being a leader to being completely insignificant. I simply cannot emphasize how serious this is. And we are not in the 11th hour. We are one minute from closing time", the auctioneer tells Nordjyske.

2024 a year of milestones and success for ASC and more to come in 2025!  As 2024 comes to a close, Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC) is celebrating a year filled with unique milestones and achievements across the globe. We recognise ASC farms and feed mills and partners around the world who continue to make significant changes towards sustainability, ultimately ensuring that farmed seafood is produced responsibly.

Throughout 2024, ASC has expanded its reach and impact, working with farmers, retailers, seafood suppliers and consumers to raise awareness about the importance of responsible farmed seafood.

Source:  Fish Focus l Read the full article here

The value of seafood imported into the United Kingdom in 2023 was nearly four and a half times greater than the value of fish landed into the country, according to the latest bird’s-eye view of the seafood landscape published by public body Seafish.

Delivering trends on UK seafood consumption, trade, processing, and fishing for last year, the Seafood in Numbers 2023 snapshot finds that the UK fleet caught 680,000 tonnes of seafood, including landings abroad, with mackerel landings by UK vessels growing 20% – holding on to its place as the top species landed in the country.

Historically, international demand for UK seafood has been strong. However, Seafish’s data learns that demand has slowed due to export challenges, changing consumer preferences and economic shocks.

Source: Worldfishing l l Read the full article here

Sotra Fiskeindustri, a leading Norwegian seafood processor, is investing in a new filleting line from the Icelandic equipment company Marel.

Sotra Fiskeindustri, a leading Norwegian seafood processor, is investing in a new filleting line from the Icelandic equipment company Marel.

The new line includes Marel’s latest filleting machine, the MS 2750, which is specifically designed for filleting salmon and trout.

Author: Vince McDonagh / Fish Farmer l Read the full article here

Indonesia's Marine Affairs and Fisheries Ministry (KKP) is resolved to continue bolstering the involvement of members of the public in actions against illicit practices in the fisheries sector through the empowerment of community monitoring groups.

Jakarta (ANTARA) - The ministry's Director General of Marine and Fisheries Resources Supervision, Pung Nugroho Saksono, stated that the government requires support from other parties, including communities, to effectively combat increasingly varied crimes committed in the sector in question.

"Our success in dealing with some big cases is inseparable from the reports we received from the community. Owing to their involvement, we managed to detain the foreign vessel Run Zheng 03 and avert the smuggling of lobster seeds," he noted in KKP's statement cited here on Sunday.

He further said that Indonesia is prone to illegal and unregulated fishing activities, smuggling of lobster seeds, illegal reclamation, and unlawful use of marine space.

Saksono highlighted the urgent need for the country to prevent and take actions against fish imports that disrupt domestic markets, destructive fishing, and trade of banned or protected species of fish.

Bearing the crimes in mind, he emphasized the importance of involving members of the public in the monitoring of Indonesia's vast expanse of marine space, which, in turn, is expected to help the government address the lack of patrol budget and personnel.

Sister ships Vilhelm Þorsteinsson EA and Börkur NK have both arrived in Neskaupstaður with full holds of blue whiting caught in Faroese waters. Vilhelm arrived on Saturday and Börkur this morning. This is reported on Síldarvinnslan's website.

It is stated that each ship carries between 3,100 and 3,200 tons. The catch is being landed and processed almost immediately, as the blue whiting is best preserved when chilled on board the vessels.

Captain Guðmundur Þ. Jónsson of Vilhelm is quoted in the news. "This was a fantastic trip and now Christmas is coming. Everyone is excited to get home for the holidays," he says. Hálfdán Hálfdánarson on Börkur has similar sentiments.

"We caught the fish in nine hauls, and they varied in size from 220 to 600 tons. We towed for 14-15 hours. This is considered very good fishing, but it's not the same catch as it was before we arrived at the fishing grounds. The weather during the trip was as good as it gets, but the fishing grounds are southeast of the Faroe Islands. Now we are tending to the fishing gear and making sure everything is ready when we go fishing again in the new year. Then we will start landing in the early morning and after that, it will be Christmas vacation. Now everyone is waiting for capelin news and people hope fervently that there will be a capelin fishery - it would be incredibly good to get some tons of capelin," said Hálfdan.

The Instituto de Fomento Pesquero (IFOP) organized a workshop in Valparaíso to promote the digitalization of its historical zooplankton samples, collected since the 1960s. This project, part of the program "Strengthening the Climate Change Monitoring System (SAPO)", seeks to create a "Digital Plankton Library".

The event brought together leading researchers from Latin America and other countries to share experiences and establish collaboration networks. The importance of digitalizing these samples to study changes in zooplankton communities over time, in the context of climate change, was highlighted.

The participants presented their advances in the automated analysis of zooplankton samples and discussed the future projections of this research. The potential of these historical samples to carry out academic theses and better understand fishing processes was highlighted.

The workshop was a success and collaborations between IFOP and academia are expected to continue to advance the digitalization of zooplankton and thus contribute to knowledge about the impact of climate change on marine ecosystems.