Latest news with #aquaculture
CTV News
4 hours ago
- Business
- CTV News
Global salmon populations are in trouble. How will the trend affect groceries in Canada?
A new report from Concordia University shows global salmon populations are on the decline. Professor James Grant shares why and what the consequences will be. A new report has found young wild salmon populations are decreasing around the world, with the trend expected to have 'minimal' impact on fresh fish at grocery stores in Canada. However, James Grant, a professor at Concordia University in Montreal and co-author of the study, says if the decline continues to accelerate, shoppers will see more of an effect on prices of certain fish products. The Concordia University study shows wild salmon, trout and related fish known as salmonids have declined globally by nearly 40 per cent since 1980. The study was published in the journal Fish and Fisheries. It is based on data from more than 1,000 rivers and streams in 27 countries involving 11 salmonid species. The fish sampling noted in the data occurred from 1937 to 2021. Most salmon or trout sold in Canadian grocery stores are typically from aquaculture, or fish farms, which Grant says is different from fish caught wild from oceans, adding that most of the wild salmon he sees at grocery stores are typically canned. 'Our study shows that salmonid numbers are down over a long period of time,' Grant told in a Zoom interview Tuesday. 'That's probably why aquaculture has moved into that space at providing … inexpensive, high quality fish protein.' 'A huge environmental cost' The Concordia study focused on wild fish and the rivers and streams where they spawn, not fish that are sold in grocery stores and born in aquaculture. At the same time, Grant said wild salmon populations are decreasing. 'Aquaculture has made fish prices very inexpensive, but there's a huge environmental cost that we're all paying, including that's one of the main drivers of the decreases in wild salmon,' Grant said. He said aquaculture fishes are a source of potentially deadly sea lice and can pollute the ocean floor with their waste -- both negatively affecting wild fish. Grant says the fishes that Concordia researchers studied are the smaller types that Canadians might catch at the cottage, as well as wild juvenile fishes that travel from streams to the ocean and grow to become bigger adults that people or trawlers may catch. 'If the juveniles are in decline in rivers, then the adults are inevitably going to be in decline as well,' Grant said, adding that the researchers focused on salmon streams because more data is available and they're more accessible to humans. 'But streams are embedded within our forests and farms,' he said. 'And so streams give you a very good indication of how we're treating our flowing water in Canada and the rest of the world.' Other impacts of salmon's decline Salmon species are in trouble not only on the West Coast. 'On the East Coast, the Atlantic salmon has been in decline for a long time,' Grant said in a separate interview with CTV Your Morning on Tuesday. 'We no longer fish them, and even the sport fishing industry is primarily catch and release because the numbers are so low. So huge economic costs we are paying.' The salmon's plight is also detrimental in other ways. The loss of fish is devastating for Indigenous Peoples across the country who have close relationships to these fish, including those on the West Coast who built their cultures around Pacific salmon, Grant said. Fishing is one of the top hobbies for Canadians, he told Your Morning. 'It generates money for our economy and makes us feel better about the world,' Grant said. 'These fish are also great indicators of ecosystem health.' In a May 27 press release from Concordia, lead author Kyleisha Foote noted that the sharp decline is not surprising but it's hard to determine the exact cause. She said many rivers are suffering from serious issues related to habitat degradation, climate warming and overexploitation. Watch the video above for the full CTVYour Morning interview.
ABC News
2 days ago
- Business
- ABC News
Tasmanian abalone exports dive as competition from farmed operations heats up
Tasmania's farmed and wild abalone industries are reeling as demand stalls and export prices plunge. Chinese farmed abalone has flooded the market, forcing out a lot of Australian farmed product and bringing about the closure of two Tasmanian farms. "We've lost two farms in Tasmania within the past two months," Nick Savva from the Australian Abalone Growers Association said. Yumbah Aquaculture will decommission its abalone farm at Bicheno, harvesting all stock and sending juvenile abalone to other Tasmanian farms. The company says it hopes to redeploy its 16 staff to its oyster operations or to its mainland abalone, mussel and oyster farms. Yumbah says it plans to focus on greenlip abalone in the future, which is not farmed at Bicheno. The Dunalley abalone farm owned by Jade Tiger Abalone will close its doors at the end of the month. Prices for live and wild black-lipped abalone in China have dropped by about 30 per cent. Demand for high-end abalone products has also fallen by as much as 80 per cent. "China is being swamped with aquaculture, farmed product, from China into those markets," Tasmanian Abalone Council chief executive Julian Amos said. Tasmania's biggest live abalone processor, exporter and quota holder, Tasmanian Seafoods, is taking a big hit on prices in particular. Darvin Hansen, who owns it, sends 250 tonnes of live black-lipped abalone to China each year, and competition in the market on price is getting stronger. He said competition was coming from a plethora of seafood and cheaper abalone, including farmed abalone that looks like wild-caught abalone. "There's been a lot of price competition in … the last year or so," Mr Hansen said. He has also watched as trade wars have sparked uncertainty in Chinese markets, prompting Chinese consumers to spend less. Niche exporter, Tasmania's Candy Abalone, has taken a huge hit to sales. "With issues around trade at the moment, and the economic situation in China this year, it's fallen off a cliff," owner James Polanowski said. "We're doing some hard work behind the scenes to get our abalone back into China." Candy abalone is a dried whole abalone product that consumers shell out hundreds of dollars a piece. It takes days to rehydrate and cook, but the slightly sweet, smoky, tender-tasting product is highly valued in the Chinese market and is often given as a gift. Mr Hansen said a "fire has been lit" under the Tasmanian industry in response to the downturn. He is enthusiastically supporting a marine stewardship certification for Tasmanian wild-caught abalone. Mr Hansen said he believed the certification was important for the fishery and to guarantee sustainable practices for the consumer. "We're pursuing a number of strategies, such as independent sustainability certification, and that's on the back of years of conservative quotas and reviewing biomass," he said. The Tasmanian Abalone Council's Julian Amos said the industry was considering the certification system, but it had not yet committed to implementing it. "We've gone through a pre-assessment process with a private audit company, and that process is continuing," Mr Amos said. The industry has also committed to boosting its marketing presence in China. Mr Hansen said the industry was currently also "in the final stages" of "preparing a digital platform-based marketing trial in China over the next few months". "And if that performs well, we'll likely extend or expand that marketing and promotion," he said. Candy Abalone has employed a Chinese social media expert to help reintroduce its Tasmanian story to the Chinese market. "I think the most powerful tool today is social media. It's pretty obvious that people have their heads in their phones every day. "[Our] marketer will help us get into the eyes of the Chinese through Weibo, WeChat and Redbook." More controversially, Tasmanian Seafoods is also pushing for slot size regulations on the west coast. It would result in a minimum and maximum size for abalone harvested in that area. "The industry is … investigating slot size limits to protect the largest, most productive breeding abalone alongside the juveniles," Mr Hansen said. But it could be a step too far for some abalone fishers, who believe the bigger fish set them apart in the Chinese market. "I can't say [the council] is supportive. I can't say it's not supportive … we're in a process where we're considering the proposal, and I can't say more than that," Mr Amos said. "You then have to consider how commercial it will be in terms of the diver in the water. "They will spend more time getting the amount of fish they need, and therefore, there's a commercial element to it as well." But Mr Hansen is confident such moves will be the backbone of a revitalised market. He said proof of sustainability will make the fishery stand out in a crowded Chinese market.
RNZ News
3 days ago
- Business
- RNZ News
Aquaculture animal welfare code 'anti-Kiwi', Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones. Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is ruling out an animal welfare code for aquaculture, saying it is "anti-Kiwi" and an "indulgence". The SPCA has called for a code to protect farmed fish, following a government plan to grow the industry's revenue to $3 billion annually by 2035. Scientific officer Marie McAninch said a code would also help give the aquaculture sector access to the sorts of international markets that land-based farmers benefit from, thanks to their animal welfare codes. "New Zealanders care about how farmed animals are treated - and so do people overseas who buy our products. They'll expect that farmed fish in aquaculture are treated well and that their welfare meets our animal welfare laws. "A code of welfare for aquaculture would help make that happen. But right now, New Zealand's Aquaculture Strategy - and the Aquaculture Development Strategy that Shane Jones announced in March - are both completely silent on the welfare of the animals being farmed." Jones said he would not be considering an animal welfare code. "Most certainly not. I think these impositions are anti-Kiwi. We are in the midst of a set of economic challenges where we must expand and grow the footprint of aquaculture. It's all going to end up [as food for] human consumption or pet consumption." Jones said existing fish farmers already did "a very good job" of looking after their stock. "All of these animal husbandry businesses, there's always scope for improvement. But regulatory codes ... only represent red tape and at a deeper level where does all this end? We're a small economy and a lot of these impositions are, in my view, indulgences. They're vanity projects and these debates need a clear set of contrasting views." But McAninch said New Zealanders cared about how farmed animals were treated - and so did people overseas who bought products from New Zealand fish farms. Fish were legally recognised as sentient beings, which meant they were capable of feeling pain, stress and positive emotional states, she said. The SPCA was not against aquaculture, McAninch said. "But we do believe it's crucial to make sure all farmed animals - and any wild animals affected by these systems - are properly protected. Our land-based farming sectors take pride in their animal welfare codes, and it's helped them with access to international markets. If the aquaculture sector doesn't plan for this now, they risk falling behind in a global environment where factory farming is increasingly under scrutiny." Jones said he was "the first to admit some of my views might be a bit difficult to stomach". But animal advocates were "on a trajectory of mission creep, and I kind of feel it's anti-Kiwi," he said. "I can understand that little kittens and dogs that bite children and other welfare considerations [are] an established part of rural life and our ethos, but suggesting that people growing salmon, new fish species and indeed shellfish ... we already have a system through the Resource Management Act that deals with the effects of such activity." Jones described a recent outcry by animal lovers about farming octopuses , which are sentient beings, as "the height of this folly". "We need to grow industry, we don't want to impose these urban based vanity beliefs of basic industrial growth prospects." Octopus farming was banned in the United States in Washington and California due to animal welfare concerns, and consideration of a ban is also underway in three more states. But Jones said New Zealand could not afford such "luxury indulgences". "It's not something that I'm going to encourage, it's certainly not something I'm going to push forward, or agree with, at a time we have large competing objectives and other goals that I think society should set its mind upon." The SPCA would welcome talks with the minister about how a welfare code could help ensure the aquaculture sector was sustainable and resilient, McAninch said. There is currently no code of welfare for farmed fish species, although the New Zealand Salmon Farmers Association has developed a voluntary welfare standard for farmed salmon in New Zealand. The Animal Welfare Act 1999 (the AWA) and the Code of Welfare for Commercial Slaughter applies to farmed fish and for any fish that are intended to be held or transported live. The National Animal Welfare Advisory Committee (NAWAC) has identified development of a code of welfare for farmed fish for consideration as a future priority. The Minister in charge of Animal Welfare, Associate Minister of Agriculture Andrew Hoggard said NAWAC set its own work programme and schedule for code reviews, but he had asked it to prioritise production livestock codes, and the rodeo code. "Several of these codes have been under review for some time and the industries concerned need certainty. I expect NAWAC to deliver on those codes before turning their attention to other animal species." Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
RNZ News
5 days ago
- Business
- RNZ News
NZ King Salmon reduce harvest due to small, 'stressed' fish
New Zealand King Salmon said its fish are not eating as much as usual. Photo: Supplied Fish farmer New Zealand King Salmon says its fish are not eating as much as usual, forcing it to reduce harvest volumes for about four months by as much as 17 percent. The company said this year's harvest would shrink to between 5200 and 5400 metric tonnes. It also cut its full year underlying profit guidance by about half to between $6 million and $12 million for the end of January. King Salmon chief financial officer Ben Rodgers said the fish were smaller than expected and needed time to fatten up. "One thing we see with King Salmon is they are a species which is easily stressed, and when they get stressed they can have a suppressed appetite," Rodgers said. "So, they have still been eating or feeding, but just not as much as we thought they would based on a historical feed out rates." He said the aim was to increase the average fish size, with a view to protecting future harvests beyond 2027. "It is a tough decision to make, but we need to reduce our harvest at some stage." King Salmon expected harvest volumes to begin to recover by September 2025. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
Yahoo
25-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
5 homegrown businesses on Treasure Coast sell shrimp, chips, wine, beer, pineapples
Hometown Area Local Day on May 25 celebrates what it means to be a local from your current hometown or from the town where you grew up. Here are five homegrown businesses on the Treasure Coast. Innovative, state-of-the-art indoor aquaculture farm that raises about 275 tons of Pacific white shrimp a year Started in 2012 in the back of a Hobe Sound fruit stand to make uniquely flavored tortilla chips, seasonings and salsas 10 acres with 6 miles of vines with two muscadine grape varieties: Carlos for white wines and Noble for red wines Fort Pierce: 5 facts about 124-year-old city on Treasure Coast Port St. Lucie: 5 things to know about Florida's sixth-largest city Treasure Coast's first craft brewery opened in 2013 and started canning its own beer for sale in 2017 after moving into larger location Grandson of a former citrus grove owner harvests thousands of pineapples a year on his family's 25-acre farm Laurie K. Blandford is TCPalm's entertainment reporter dedicated to finding the best things to do on the Treasure Coast. Email her at Sign up for her What To Do in 772 weekly newsletter at This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: 5 homegrown businesses sell shrimp, chips, wine, beer, pineapples
