WWF report on illegal Russian crab is mostly focused on older data; says current conditions improving
The World Wildlife Fund has released a report that attempts to show how Russian IUU crab is still making its way into the US market. But according to John Sackton the WWF analysis is somewhat misleading. The report uses mostly older data from the past decade when illegal crab fishing was out of control and does not focus on Russia’s recent efforts to crackdown on illegal crab operations. In particular, there is little evidence provided by WWF that US imports of Russian crab are based on IUU fish. Still, the report is full of good information about the state of the Russian crab fishery, and does highlight continued corruption in the country. However, little evidence was provided to scare US buyers about the origin of their king crab in making this case.
Indian fishery scientists have developed a low cost disease detection kit for mass production that will allow shrimp farmers to test broodstock, larvae and adult shrimp for White Spot. “The new kit will indirectly help farmers earn more foreign exchange by sending only disease free consignments to the high value markets in the first world countries,” said Dr K M Shankar, principal researcher who worked on the kit. “The farmers will be able to get the kit in the market by December - in time for the second crop of Vannamei shrimp next year.”
In other news reports say Sysco is negotiating with Reinhart Foodservice, Performance Food Group and Gordon Food Service to divest parts of its operations in order to complete the merger with US Foods. These discussions follow calls from the Federal Trade Commission that it could squash the deal between the country’s top two broadline foodservice distributors on concerns the merger would limit competition.
Finally, Alaska’s Aleutian King Crab Research Foundation is preparing for the first year of the largest-ever survey of the Aleutian Island’s golden king crab stock. “What we’re thinking is to design the survey for the entire area and then start off the first year by doing a portion of the area to prove that the concept and make sure the survey works well and integrates will with the fishermen,” said the foundations’ John Hilsinger. The survey will cover 800 miles from Dutch Harbor to Atka and could take up to 10 years to develop a proven model.
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