Daily Archives: May 8, 2016
Maine lobster suppliers joined Massachusetts and Canadian peers in Brussels to foil EU import ban
The six Maine companies joined their Massachusetts and Canadian peers, as well as national trade officials, to discuss the proposed ban with buyers and trade officials from eight European countries, including the three biggest importers of Homarus americanus: France, Italy and Spain. The meeting occurred at the world’s largest seafood industry trade show, said spokesman Gavin Gibbons of the National Fisheries Institute, an American seafood industry trade group. About 75 people met for 90 minutes to talk about how to avoid the all-out ban that Sweden asked the European Union to adopt in March after finding North American lobsters in European waters. Read the story here 13:19
Atlantic Pollock – a key to New England seafood’s future
It might not be time yet to rechristen Cape Cod as Cape Pollock, but the humble fish is staking its claim. The Atlantic pollock has long played a role in New England’s fishing industry as a cheaper alternative to cod and haddock, but the fish’s place in America’s oldest fishing industry is expanding as stocks like cod fade. But the fish has an image problem. While considered a whitefish, its uncooked gray-pinkish color looks drab compared to the snow-white cod fillets consumers are used to seeing on seafood counters. And many confuse it with the very different Alaska pollock, which is the subject of a much larger industrial fishery that provides fish for processed food products such as the McDonald’s Filet-O-Fish. Read the rest here 12:27
Mother’s Day is extra special for this boat building team
Joyce and Anita Cottreau spend every day working side by side on the floor of the bustling Wedgeport Boats yard in southwest Nova Scotia. A female fibreglass team is a rarity in itself, but this duo is also mother and daughter. “Working together has brought us closer together,” Joyce, 59, said. The two plan to spend Mother’s Day together, which they say will be no less special for being workmates. “Mom has always been there for me, even though she has worked full time since I was a baby,” Anita said. “Anything I needed or wanted, she’s bent over backwards for me, so I definitely have to appreciate that — and still do.” Video, read the rest here 10:08
Baby Salmon being devoured by predators – We’re spending millions to feed the fish!
It’s a quiet, damp Friday at the Feather River Fish Hatchery and not much is happening above the surface. The buildings where they spawn the adult salmon in the fall are all empty. Outside, two workers amble down the long concrete ponds in waders, fixing things here and there. There are no visitors except one, a journalist there to pay his last respects. Below the surface are millions of baby salmon. They fill the raceways, getting fat on free chow so that they can be released in the river any day now — and be devoured by predators. The predators are striped bass, a non-native species that lives very comfortably in the river downstream. If you read Friday’s fish report with religious fervor like I do, you’ll notice that fishing for stripers in the Feather River has been amazing recently because the hatchery is slowly releasing salmon smolt into the river. It’s like ringing a dinner bell for the stripers. Read the story here 07:50
