News Summary: December 18, 2015

Top Story:  Warming New England Waters Challenge NOAA Fishery Models 

The Gulf of Maine is one of the most rapidly warming areas on the globe, due to the confluence of the North Atlantic Warm Water Oscillation and warming driven by climate change. With such a strong signal, fish breeding, habitat and migration patterns all are affected, yet the fish management models used on each species can’t keep up. John Bullard, NMFS Northeast regional director, has pushed for incorporating the changing climate into Council catch allocations each year, but NOAA’s single species focus makes this extremely difficult. The New Bedford Standard Times has a nice write up. 

Hokkaido scallop landings are the lowest in many years, contributing to the continued shortage and high price of scallops. Many scallops were destroyed in severe storms last year, and that damage is expected to continue to be felt in 2016. 

Another surprising global warming consequence: Atlantic cod may become dominant fish predators in the Arctic. A Norwegian study suggests that visual hunters – like Atlantic cod – will find enormous potential seasonal habitat with less sea ice allowing more light in the water column. Arctic cod, which live under the ice and are less visual, may sharply decline. 

With Amy Zhong we look back at China’s tilapia industry’s horrible year. Low prices and weak demand have taken a big toll. One response has been a movement away from contract feeding, where farmers grow tilapia in exchange for feed, which may have exacerbated production amid weak market conditions. 

We also look at The Nature Conservancy’s sales of excess quota to community fisheries groups on the West Coast. TNC was forced to divest groundfish quota by NOAA on November 30th. They have sold most of this to local community groups. Pacific Seafoods, also affected, has filed suit against NOAA. 

Finally – there usually is a back story, and with the ban on selling unlabeled GMO salmon in the budget bill, it turns out that this long sought goal of the Alaskan industry mostly came about because the relevant Congressional Committee was angry with the FDA. “I would have appreciated an understanding of what FDA was doing and was thinking and that did not occur,” said the Chair of the Senate Agriculture Appropriations Committee, Jerry Moran R-KS.

--John Sackton

2015 Subscription prices for Seafood.com News are $26 monthly for a single user, $43 for 2-5 users, and $62 for 6-20 users. For questions about subscriptions or passwords, please Urner Barry at 1-800-932-0617, or subscribe on-line with a credit card by clicking the subscribe button.

Subscribe Here.