Thursday, Oct. 29, 9.13 a.m. PDT
Waste not want not
Darden Aquafarms' Bill Herzig was presented the GAA Lifetime Achievement Award on the final day of the show by the organization's Wally Stevens and George Chamberlain.
Herzig's legacy includes being instrumental in lobster aquaculture where he "took a brand new species and took it from concept to commercial."
He was also a large part of the creating of GAA and "started using buyer influence" at a time when the organization "was about to fold."
-- Avani Nadkarni
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Thursday, Oct. 29, 9.13 a.m. PDT
Waste not want not
IntraFish learnt a new word today – flexitarian – and it’s probably something we all need to become with the pressure on resources going forward.
With US consumers currently eating twice the amount of protein necessary and Europeans almost as much, there is a definite need to scale back, and simultaneously we are also wasting enough protein every year to feed 10 million men or 12.4 million women.
They’re shocking figures, but they’re all on the agenda to tackle for Protein Challenge2040 – an innovation partnership to work out how to balance supply and demand of protein for a growing population in a way that is affordable, healthy and good for people and the environment.
Led by Forum for the Future, the initiative kicked off this year and will launch initiatives in January to – amongst other things – tackle the production of sustainable protein feed.
-- Rachel Mutter
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Thursday, Oct. 29, 8.30 a.m. PDT
Is the industry’s house in order?
The aquaculture industry has “a lot of work to do” before convincing more consumers to eat more farmed seafood, said Henry Demone, chairman of the board at High Liner, during his keynote speech on the last day of GOAL.
“We’ve got a great story to tell and we need to tell it better, and we can’t tell it better unless we make sure we have our own house in order,” he said.
Not being transparent and having inconsistencies in the supply chain “just give consumers a reason not to buy when they’re just looking to be reassured,” Demone said.
Organizations such as the Global Aquaculture Alliance (GAA) have critical roles in this work, but federal governments also need to get involved, he said.
“We need consistent enforcement of best practices at the country level,” he explained. “We must get the message out there and we can only do that with conviction when we have complete confidence in our supply chain.”
He urged the industry to have certified farms, hatcheries, processing plants and feed mills and identify training requirements for them.
-- Avani Nadkarni
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Wednesday, Oct. 28, 12.51 p.m. PDT
Is the industry shooting itself in the foot?
BJ’s Wholesale’s Scott Williams thinks the industry is doing “a disservice to ourselves” by trying to get too detailed about the fish it wants people to consume.
While the egg or pork or beef industry don’t say “eat product from this farm only,” the seafood industry tries to tout Icelandic cod or Pacific cod specifically.
“Just say, ‘eat cod,’” Williams said. “Once you get somebody into it, they’ll look into [the details]. People who eat eggs every day, then they want the conversation ‘Is it cage free?’ but they’re still eating eggs every day.”
-- Avani Nadkarni
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Wednesday, Oct. 28, 12.32 p.m. PDT
Be careful of slow news days
Mike Berthet from UK foodservice company M&J Seafood outlined the level of detail demanded of them on company sourcing policies as an example of the level of food traceability concern currently in the United Kingdom.
Policy on antibiotics, growth promoters, GM, finfish transportation and slaughter times, stripping broodfish, sperm collection, testing regime on fish flesh and its residues all come up on supplier audit forms on the back of Europe’s ‘horsegate’ scandal a few years back, said Berthet.
“There is massive potential liability to your credibility and your brand,” he said, with any hint of an issue jumped on by the media. “Watch out for slow news days,” he said.
-- Rachel Mutter
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Wednesday, Oct. 28, 12.15 p.m. PDT
Where are all the men?
Sitting on the social responsibility roundtable, Regal Springs’ Magdalena Wallhoff said it was the first time she noticed something about her fellow panelists.
“The problem I see [about social responsibility] in this industry is right here in this room,” she said of the five-person panel featuring just one man. “This is the first time I’m on a panel where I realize the gender of the panel – it’s [almost] all women.”
The social responsibility component of fish farming shouldn’t be just where the women participate, she said, encouraging the men in the male-heavy industry to get involved, too.
“I don’t like pretending it’s a warm, fuzzy women’s issue, this social side,” she said.
-- Avani Nadkarni
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Wednesday, Oct. 28, 12.07 p.m. PDT
Social responsibility is not ‘wishy-washy feeling’
Regal Springs’ Magdalena Wallhoff said her company “bridges the gap between conservation and business” and said all aquaculture companies can do the same.
“It’s not a wishy-washy, warm fuzzy feeling that goes away when times are tough,” she said. “I think the lessons we have learned are applicable to the industry as a whole.”
Regal Springs is tough with its hiring process at its facilities in Indonesia, Mexico and Honduras, but once an employee is in and performs “he gets fair and timely wages. It’s not a dollar amount, it’s ‘Can you change your situation in life [with the wages]?’ We all have responsibilities with the fishermen and the workers in this industry.”
-- Avani Nadkarni
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Wednesday, Oct. 28, 11.58 a.m. PDT
Social responsibility still a huge issue
Since 2006, the Labour Rights Promotion Network (LRPN) had received “hundreds” of complaints from fishermen, said Manager Patima Tangprachyakul.
The biggest issues include child labor, human trafficking “and other forms of exploitation.”
In August 2014, LRPN went to Indonesia and conducted a survey and helped six Thai fishermen return back to Thailand. They’re also working to get more Thai, Burmese, Cambodian and Laotian fishermen back to their countries.
“There are still thousands of fishermen who need help,” she said.
-- Avani Nadkarni
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Wednesday, Oct. 28, 11.56 a.m. PDT
Getting on message
Educating store staff is clearly a massive step in consumer messaging around sourcing and sustainability, but it’s a big challenge for retailers where staff turnover is high, said Kendra Repko, social compliance manager at Dutch supermarket chain Ahold. And with 222,000 store staff worldwide, this is no small challenge.
Ahold also struggles with the wider sustainability issue, said Repko.
“We’ve been working closely with Monterey Bay Aquarium since 2000, she said, but not many people know that,” she said.
“I think we need [as an industry] some kind of catchphrase,” she said, “and we need to come together to decide what that is.”
-- Rachel Mutter
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Wednesday, Oct. 28, 11.53 a.m. PDT
Fighting back with storytelling
Troy Enz of Darden Restaurants said his group's biggest messaging challenge is how to overcome the misinformation that consumers come to the restaurant with.
"The first thing they typically ask is where [the seafood] is from," Enz said. "Then they go into the question of antibiotics -- because that's the hot topic right now -- then they go into sustainability."
The issue of technology is a hindrance Enz said, referring back to Barton Seaver's comment that "Facebook Science" is increasingly how people get informed.
"They get the message quickly, and they only get a fraction of the message," he said.
Darden has focused on educating chefs and servers to help combat consumer misconceptions.
At a recent meeting with SalmonChile, Enz gave them the message that "it really comes down to being proactive in messaging a story."
"All it takes is one or two negative words and it can propogate through," Enz said.
-- Drew Cherry
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Wednesday, Oct. 28, 11.49 a.m. PDT
Light at the end of the tunnel for US aquaculture
The conversation is changing on US aquaculture production according to Michael Rubino, director of the office of aquaculture at NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service who is busily working to put into place regulations around licensing aquaculture in federal waters.
Indeed, soon licensing will be able to be accessed as a one-stop shop in the Gulf of Mexico and off the coast of southern California where a fish farm is proposed.
With strong competition for coastal use, environmental lobbying and the concept of farmed seafood as competition to wild seafood, the US aquaculture industry has floundered since the 1980s.
But with the recent realization that 90% of the country’s seafood by value is imported, “we woke up and noticed,” said Rubino and there appears to be a movement towards bringing aquaculture back onto American soil.
-- Rachel Mutter
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Wednesday, Oct. 28, 11.40 a.m. PDT
Catfish has room to expand -- if numbers bear out
Drew Cherry: Randy Rhodes of Harvest Select said expansion of the US catfish farming industry has few barriers, but investment and demand are the hold ups.
"We've been 40 years in the making and we've overcome a lot of barriers," Rhodes said. "It's a real success story in what we are capable of what we're doing."
Available land is no issue, and community support is strong.
"The farmers and the hardware stores and local vendors expect big things from us as far as being suppliers," he said.
-- Drew Cherry
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Wednesday, Oct. 28, 11.28 a.m. PDT
Lots of work, but few takers
Randy Rhodes of catfish producer Harvest Select said though his Alabama and Mississippi operations have plenty of available jobs in rural, high unemployment areas, keeping his factories and farms operational is a challenge.
"The government is our biggest competitor," Rhodes said.
What does he mean by that? Employees in the area have figured out how to "work the system."
"This has probably been the worst year as far as recruiting and keeping people in our business," he said. "We have a need for employees, and this year we have gone through quite a few people."
Some employees may work for a day, a week, then go back to relying on government support.
Rhodes has lobbied the US government to help employees stay committed to their jobs in the area.
"I've realized in last few months we've seen some interest in what we're trying to say," Rhodes said.
-- Drew Cherry
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Wednesday, Oct. 28, 11.15 a.m. PDT
What's in a name?
When was the last time you saw ‘farmed chicken’ on the supermarket shelf? Or ‘farmed beef’? Well, everyday, of course… but it’s sure as hell never referred to as that, pointed out Four Seasons Chef Ned Bell in a panel session on perceptions of farmed fish amongst consumers.
You do however probably have an engrained slogan attached to it – “Beef, it’s what for dinner”; “Pork, the other white meat” etc…. “but fish? Nothing,” said Chef Barton Seaver.
And it brings about an interesting point about the depth of the sustainability message and understanding in the world.
Bell made a very valid point when he surmised that sustaiinablily means very different things to different people. But Seaver also pointed out that some of the most basic things are being done wrong in terms of message.
Touching on the emergence of a romanticism around sustainable seafood, similar to that of the resurgence of the Farmers’ Market in urban areas. The concept of ‘trash food dinners’, he said, is encouraging the use of underutilized, under-loved seafood, but that there is also “a lot of species ‘coming into vogue that don’t have distinct or robust data behind them,” he said.
“And why the hell are we calling it ‘trash food’,” he asked.
Chefs have a lot of responsibility, said Bell. But a lot of chefs don’t have a clue about what they’re sourcing. “It’s only a few of us – the cowboys – who push out of our comfort zone and ask the questions,” he said.
-- Rachel Mutter
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Wednesday, Oct. 28, 11.11 a.m. PDT
Turning the tide
Stewart Hawthorn, managing director of Grieg Seafood BC, said partnering with local communities and getting social license for aquaculture begins with quality fish.
"The most important thing we can do is be really great farmers," Hawthorn said. "The absolute most important thing is have a great healthy product."
In British Columbia, partnerships with the First Nations that inhabit the region are key stakeholders in expanding the aquaculture industry, Hawthorne said.
The tailwind for the salmon farming and aquaculture industry are the "mega trends" of the need for more protein, and seafood in particular.
That continual message is helping people "get it," he said.
"[People know] we need more seafood and aquaculture is the only way of doing that," he said.
In BC, where a strong anti-farmed salmon sentiment still flourishes, the media played a large role in stoking the flames.
"What helps media is clickable moments and selling papers," he said. "For them, controversy is what they look for. Our challenge is not to be controversial, but that's not so interesting to media."
However, more recently, the controversy has been mitigated somewhat by more responsible consumer press, Hawthorne said.
"Looking back on last five years, I would say the media has made great strides in understanding what we're doing."
-- Drew Cherry
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Wednesday, Oct. 28, 9.30 a.m. PDT
Consumers: What are they thinking?
American consumers list price and visual appeal of seafood as a top priority when purchasing and see China as the least impressive country of origin, according to a survey presented by The Fishin' Company Senior Category Manager Matt Brooker.
"We need to know [consumer] perceptions, we need to know how their views get shaped and we need to know what we can do about it," Brooker said.
In the survey, he asked 454 American consumers across the country 30 questions about their perceptions on seafood, specifically.
Some tidbits Brooker found: The younger consumers, aged 18-24, were less invested in the country of origin of the seafood but very interested in price, whereas the 55 and older crowd rated country of origin very high but were not as concerned with price.
In addition, as a whole, the responders rated US as the most trusted country of origin and then Norway. Chile was neutral and Thailand and Vietnam were rated negatively. China had the most negative perception with the survey responders. Forty-seven percent of consumers had a negative view of farm-raised seafood, but a whopping 88 percent had a positive view of wild-caught -- "For them, it's a feel-good story," Brooker said.
Brooker said he thinks the industry should continue to do similar surveys and get a handle on how consumers are changing.
"We need to make [this] info readily available because right now, we haven't done a godo job of that," he said. "I want this survey to be a baseline. We need to more often come together on studies like this."
-- Avani Nadkarni
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Wednesday, Oct. 28, 9.07 a.m. PDT
The F word
Farmed fish is not a four letter word said Four Seasons exec chef Ned Bell in the plenary this morning, saying he looked forward to the day that aquaculture sees the positive turnaround that organic products have over the last few years.
“Organics used to be the limp dark corner of the grocery store – now it dominates every single aisle,” he said.
The route? Education, according to Bell, who emphasized the role chefs can play in helping the aquaculture industry tell its story.
Bell is also behind a mission called Chefs for Oceans to engage other chefs, communities and regions in the future of sustainable seafood.
Part of Bell’s goal is also to institute and raise awareness of National Sustainable Seafood Day on March 18th. For more go to www.chefsforoceans.com.
-- Rachel Mutter
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Wednesday, Oct. 28, 8.30 a.m. PDT
'Environmental campaigns can be acute'
Environmental campaigns can actually be counterproductive, said famed seafood chef Barton Seaver, who now works with the health and sustainability food program at Harvard University's School of Public Health.
"Some environmental campaigns can be acute," he told the GOAL crowd during the keynote address on the second day. "Reduce, reuse, recycle -- it is absolutely ingrained fundamentally into the minds and hearts of the next generation but in the years since ... the amount of recyclable goods floating into our marketplace has increased exponentially. There's nothing wrong with organic, there's nothing wrong with recycling, but rather what's wrong is the way we use these campaigns to act like a confirmation bias to continue to act in the same behaviors."
With seafood, the producers making cuts doesn't necessarily make anything better for consumers, he said.
"If cod fishermen make sacrifices, cut quotas ... guess what happens? Cod is still on sale at Stop and Shop. There's no real presence of the positive and this is partly because as an industry, we haven't been able to sell the positives. Just as health isn't defined as the absence of disease, sustainability cannot be defined as the absence of negative impacts."
-- Avani Nadkarni
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Wednesday, Oct. 28, 8.40 a.m. PDT
'Lay claim to the halo,' fish farmers!
"We need to sell the story to eat more salmon, eat more fish," Seaver told the crowd of increasing seafood consumption in the US. "It's a story of jobs, it's a story of food security, it's a story of working waterfronts, it's a story of community."
He shared a story of a man he met in rural Maine who had a sick father and was struggling to stay in the small town to take care of him "until Cooke Aquaculture built a salmon processing facility."
"Damn, folks," Seaver said. "That is a good story. That is a really good story."
He encouraged the fish farmers and aquaculture companies in the audience to take control of the story.
"You need to lay claim to the halo that has long hung over the head of agrarians," he said. "Tell the world you feed people. Take credit for this."
-- IntraFish Media
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Tuesday, Oct. 27, 7.30 p.m. PDT
BC antibiotic use falls seven-fold in 10 years
Antibiotic use in the British Columbia salmon farming industry decreased seven-fold over the past decade, currently sitting at about 50 grams of antibiotic prescribed per metric ton of production, according to a new sustainability report published by the sector.
The report from the BC Salmon Farmers Association (BCSFA), a first for salmon farmers in British Columbia, includes information on all three pillars of sustainability: environmental, social and economic.
It also reported significant improvements that have been made by feed development companies to replace marine oil and protein sources with plant and animal sources. Today the majority of salmon feed contains less than 18 percent marine-based products, said the report.
In addition, every farm in British Columbia now meets the requirements of at least one third-party certification system, it said.
As well as the new report, BCSFA member companies farming Atlantic salmon have also begun publishing information on sea lice management online on a monthly basis.
This information will include lice levels on farms as well as any management measures that may have been taken.
-- IntraFish Media
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Tuesday, Oct. 27, 7.00 p.m. PDT
Marine Harvest Canada invests $40 million in RAS
Marine Harvest Canada exclusively told IntraFish it is investing $40 million in seven new recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS) at its two Vancouver Island salmon farms.
-- Avani Nadkarni
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Tuesday, Oct. 27, 5.00 p.m. PDT
USSEC creates industry advisory council
The US Soybean Export Council (USSEC)'s International Soy in Aquaculture Program announced the creation of an Aquaculture Industry Advisory Council, the group said Tuesday, to help USSEC develop long-term strategies for sustainable aquaculture development.
-- Avani Nadkarni
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Tuesday, Oct. 27, 3.30 p.m. PDT
Buyers facing social issues
A panel of leading retail and foodservice seafood buyers at the 2015 GOAL conference identified how consumer perceptions are affecting their fish sales.
"The feedback we hear from our customers is influenced by what is in the news," said Charlie Lousignont, VP supply chain at Brinker International, which operates US restaurant chains Chilis and Maggiano’s.
"As soon as something hits the press, we response appropriately," said Joann Simon category buyer for Whitbread hotel and restaurant company.
Two top concerns are social welfare and animal health related to antibiotic use, according to Josanna Busby, seafood category manager for Food Lion and Hannford, which are part of Delhaize.
Simon said her group is getting deeper into social issues that impact the products they buy. “Human welfare is even more of a concern to the average consumer,” said Steve Disko category manager at Schnucks Markets.
Gaps in knowledge of the entire supply chain make buyers uneasy.
“The more we can do to better understand the supply chain the better off we will be. It something that’s not going to go away so we need to cooperate together,” said Simon.
--John Fiorillo
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Tuesday, Oct. 27, 11.28 a.m. PDT
Some species beating out others
Barramundi, catfish, Vietnamese pangasius production, tilapia and cobia sat at the top of a graph of growth rates over the last decade, presented by University of Stavanger’s Ragnar Tveteras. Species such as rainbow trout, coho salmon and seabass and seabream were hanging at the bottom of the chart.
The information – garnered from industry surveys – suggests that as groups, marine species have not been able to double since 2005, but diadromous species grew 66 percent, and freshwater, excluding the massive carp industry, grew an impressive 194 percent -- showing almost three times higher volumes in 2015 than in 2005. Including carp, this group roughly doubled.
Other interesting indicators from the survey were that Vietnam now accounts for less than 50 percent of world pangasius production, with production expected to drop to 1 million metric tons this year from 1.1 million tons, with a further drop expected next year to 900,000 metric tons.
“Declining prices are part of the story, but in major markets they have been fairly stable, so it “doesn’t explain the whole story,” said Tveteras.
-- Rachel Mutter
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Tuesday, Oct. 27, 10.55. a.m. PDT
Missed opportunities in seafood
Customers are clearly trending toward seafood alternatives said Charlie Lousignont, VP supply chain Brinker international, which operates US restaurant chains Chilis and Maggiano’s.
Availability of farmed seafood has been an issue, he said.
“It’s more about missed opportunities than alarm,” he told attendees at the 2015 GOAL conference in Vancouver, B.C. on Wednesday.
-- John Fiorillo
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Tuesday, Oct. 27, 10.44 a.m. PDT
Big prize for new ideas
Kevin Fitzsimmons, professor at the University of Arizona, took to the stage just now to announce the launch of yet another marine-ingredient free fish feed challenge, this time with a $100,000 prize.
The innovative crowd-funded initiative from the University of Arizona, Monterey Bay Aquarium and New England Aquarium aims to ‘encourage innovation of alternative ingredients to improve industry sustainability and reduce pressure on fisheries,” according to Fitzsimmons.
More details can be found at www.herox.com/F3.
-- Rachel Mutter
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Tuesday, Oct. 27, 10.27 a.m. PDT
What is behind the antibiotic phobia?
There are three basic concerns surrounding antibiotics, according to Hugh Mitchell of AquaTactics: total amount used, preventative use instead of therapeutic use, and usage for growth promotion.
So how prevalent is antibiotic application in aquaculture?
In 2013, a New England Journal of Medicine study found that around 150,000 kg of antibiotics were used in aquaculture, as opposed to 13.5 million kg used in livestock and 3.3 million kg used in human treatments.
Some 87 percent of antibiotics used are never or rarely used in human medicine, Mitchell said.
In addition, the concerns over bacterial resistance to antibiotic use are overblown, and not understood.
“If you grab a handful of soil, there are going to be bacteria resistant to any antibiotic you can throw at it,” Mitchell said.
Misconceptions about the kind of antibiotics that are used, the different ways they are applied, and the withdrawal times used to clear out antibiotics out of animal systems abound.
“Don’t estimate the public’s preconceptions,” Mitchell said.
-- Drew Cherry
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Tuesday, Oct. 27 10.20 a.m. PDT
Farmed seafood is safe
The seafood sector’s antibiotic usage is miniscule compared to the rest of the agriculture world, and the impact of farmed seafood on human health is almost negligible, according to GAA’s George Chamberlain.
In a study by the Center for Disease Control (CDC) from 2005 to 2010 – of the 100,000 foodborne illnesses -- only 2,348 came from imported food, and only 141 came from imported seafood – around .14 percent.
Of those, none came from farmed fish.
“You should feel secure that farmed seafood is safe, but antibiotics is an issue we need to address and think about,” Chamberlain said.
--Drew Cherry
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Tuesday, Oct. 27, 10.15 a.m. PDT
In the clear with EMS?
What doesn’t kill us makes us stronger, were the upbeat words of Blue Archipelago CEO Abu Bakar Ibrahim in his presentation of some pretty depressing shrimp stats on how Malaysian shrimp farming has been hit by Early Mortality Syndrome (EMS), with production dropping 65 percent since 2010.
In Blue Archipelago’s case, extensive measures seem finally to be getting its production issues under control, with the most recent action being to import SPR stocks of vannamei from Latin America. Although it’s only been six months, the stocks ‘appear to be EMS resistant,’ said Ibrahim.
And, as chair of the Shrimp Aquaculture Alliance Ibrahim has his plate full, with challenges also in the form of Malaysia’s antibiotic use, with the US FDA reporting 54 entry line refusals of shrimp products dues to antibiotic residues in July 2015, all of which were from Malaysia.
Ibrahim listed off the moves being made to deal with this issue, including increased regulation and compliance listing for processing establishments.
-- Rachel Mutter
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Tuesday, Oct. 27, 9.45 a.m. PDT
Salmon's pipe-dreams
It is an illusion that we will feed the world with salmon, said Jon Hindar, CEO of the world's second biggest salmon farmer Cermaq.
But there are lessons to be passed along to other sectors and in this sense "the role of salmon farming expands far beyond the actual product," he said.
And it is true that salmon farming has seen its share of challenges in many different areas, with Cermaq's multi-region production giving it great insight.
In Chile -- where Cermaq produces 100,000 metric tons of salmonids -- antibiotics use is the present challenge, but Hindar put this in context, pointing out that Norway was a big user of antibiotics until around 1992 when it found implementable vaccines.
In British Columbia -- where Cermaq produces 20,000 metric tons -- the issues are very much around social responsibility; and with its Norwegian production of 50-60,000 metric tons there are still market and message challenges, said Hindar pointing out that in France there is a consumer perception that Norwegian salmon is "full of antibiotics."
-- Rachel Mutter
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Tuesday, Oct. 27, 9.37 a.m. PDT
EHP: the new EMS?
A new disease is haunting the shrimp farming sector: EHP.
“It’s very difficult to disinfect once it’s there,” Robins McIntosh from CP Group said.
Tests are finding that most hatcheries in Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia have shown signs of the disease.
Over time, the infection grows, the shrimp grow slower, followed by mortalities.
The solution? Clean broodstock, clean hatcheries, clean ponds.
“If your pond has ever had EHP, you have to disinfect the pond,” McIntosh said. “This is not easy.”
But, he noted, the hard work combating EMS has begun to pay off, so tackling EHP can be done.
-- Drew Cherry
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Tuesday, Oct. 27, 9.15 a.m. PDT
Understanding EMS: Can it be stopped?
CP Foods Senior VP Robins McIntosh gave a resounding answer to the title of his presentation: yes.
“For three years, I wondered if it really could be stopped,” he said. “It was basically like the plague – you thoughts all was lost.”
In a Thai farm site visit in June, though, McIntosh began to see the tide was turning.
“Farmers were smiling again,” McIntosh said. “When a farmer understands disease, you know you’ve got it whipped.”
Early Mortality Syndrome (EMS) bacteria can live in feed, shells and sludge: shrimp must ingest toxin from its environment.
Biosecurity for EMS means not exclusion of pathogen, McIntosh said, but removal or exclusion of bacterial substrate in the food.
“EMS is about the environment,” he said.
--Drew Cherry
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Tuesday, Oct. 27, 8.45 a.m. PDT
Canada: A country with aquaculture promise
Rebecca Reid, Pacific Regional Director General of Canada’s Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO), gave an overview of Canada’s aquaculture efforts in her welcoming address to GOAL 2015.
With the world’s longest coastline, an abundance of freshwater and a young, well-educated workforce, Canada is conducive to aquaculture growth. Canada farms more than 40 species, and production has grown 60 percent over the past 10 years to reach a value of CAD$960 million ($724/€656 million). Aquaculture now accounts for around one-third of the country’s seafood production.
“Overall we have a stable aquaculture industry that is experiencing growth,” Reid said. Going forward, striking a balance of aquaculture companies, wild harvesters, aboriginal groups, property owners and environmentalists is the biggest challenge.
--Drew Cherry
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Tuesday, Oct. 27, 8.57 a.m. PDT
Back to school
Professor Stevens – otherwise known as Wally Stevens, exec director at Global Aquaculture Alliance -- dished out grades in his opening speech this morning, giving the industry Ds for its progress in disease management and social responsibility, Cs for feed, investor support and consumer awareness and investor support and Bs for environment and market support.
The grades were given as part of the wider challenge set at the 2010 GOAL conference of doubling aquaculture production over the next decade.
The aquaculture industry is on course to double production in the next 15 years at the current growth rate of 4.5 percent a year. This falls slightly behind the GOAL challenge, which would demand a growth rate of 7 percent per year.
“It’s not bad, though. In fact, it’s quite an achievement,” commented Stevens.
So how should the industry view the challenges to growth and their importance?
Enter the onion, which Stevens used to illustrate the layers of work needed to be done to create a sustainable sector going forward.
At the core is disease, said Stevens, and just as an onion rots from the inside, disease is ‘the major challenge we need to face,’ he said.
-- Rachel Mutter
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Monday, Oct. 26, 7.15 p.m. PDT
No more boom and bust
There are 50 million reasons to get aquaculture right, according to Anton Immink, aquaculture director at Sustainable Fisheries Partnership, referring to the future demand gap the industry needs to provide for.
Immink -- who has been working in Asia on implementing zonal management among local tilapia and shrimp producers – referred to the situation the fishing industry found itself in when overcapacity grew in the sector and then years were spent having to try and scale it back.
“If we can get systems in place now it will prevent us going through those boom and bust cycles… and will make aquaculture a more investable proposition,” he said.
-- Rachel Mutter
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Monday, Oct. 26, 7.00 p.m. PDT
Papering over the cracks?
The lessons from the Chilean salmon industry just keep on coming.
Despite bringing in stricter regulations after the ISA crisis that brought the country’s salmon industry to its knees, there are definite improvements still to be made, according to a presentation from Chilean economic agency Corfo’s Adolfo Alvial.
Working on a system of individual farm licenses working within "aquaculture management areas" (AMAs), which in turn work within "authorized areas for aquaculture" (AAAs), the industry thought it had everything under control. But as the industry grew and more farms and bigger volumes were put in the water, the situation quickly unraveled.
The answer? Another level in the zoning hierarchy, apparently. Macro zones were brought post ISA, as a level above AMAs, but "in my opinion they are doing what the AMAs should be doing. They should be enough," said Alvial.
Furthermore, rules remain in place that allow salmon farms to be situated only 1.5 miles apart from each other, which may represent part of the real problem being papered over.
“All this zoning is pointless if these farms are 1.5 miles apart. Four, even five miles, is necessary. Action must be taken,” he said.
-- Rachel Mutter
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Monday, Oct. 26, 6.35 p.m. PDT
Come together
Zonal management was the theme of a session this afternoon on Day 1 of this year’s conference.
Each with their own perspectives on how small aquaculture operations should or could be grouped – particularly in Asia where production is biggest but most fragmented -- there were common themes of the need and benefits of more organized, co-ordinated structures.
While many different farms can operate separately in one water body, their impact environmentally and socially is that of one large farm and as such they should operate as exactly that, said Patrick White, senior consultant at Akvaplan-niva presenting the findings of an 18-month joint project sponsored by FAO and Worldbank.
Aside from the need to manage effluent, waste, disease and social issues together, there are many side benefits to the system, which allows farmers – should they so wish – to source together, to market together and to distribute together. Even to finance together, he said.
-- Rachel Mutter
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Monday, Oct. 26, 1.35 p.m. PDT
Welcome to Canada
Beautiful Vancouver in Canada's west coast province of British Columbia provides the backdrop to this year's Global Aquaculture Alliance GOAL conference. And with unseasonabaly mild temperatures and not too much rain on the horizon it looks set to be a good few days.
