Thanks to a restructuring of the fish farming industry, focusing on technological upgrading, this Caribbean island nation produced last year 27,549 tons of freshwater fish in tanks, pools and reservoirs, the largest volume since aquaculture was introduced in the 1980s. The Food Ministry’s goal is to nearly double fish production by 2030, to 49,376 tons.

A new assessment released by the Gulf States Marine Fisheries Commission (GSMFC) has once again confirmed that Gulf menhaden are neither overfished nor experiencing overfishing. The assessment, an update to the GSMFC\'s 2013 benchmark assessment, is the latest piece of scientific evidence demonstrating that Gulf menhaden are being sustainably and responsibly managed. This thorough analysis of the Gulf menhaden stock utilized a wide range of sources: these include catch records, port samples, and daily logbooks containing fishing locations. The assessment also included data from two sets of fishery-independent surveys to help determine relative abundance of juvenile and adult menhaden.

The drive to reduce sea lice and increase harvests of Scottish salmon has received a £1.76m boost, following a successful application to the European Maritime Fisheries Fund (EMFF). Coordinated by the Scottish Aquaculture Innovation Centre (SAIC) on behalf of 11 companies, the award will enable a range of alternative technologies and approaches to be trialled in Scottish waters so that they can be evaluated for their ability to reduce sea lice. Amongst the alternative solutions being trialled is hydrolicer technology which uses low pressure water jets to dislodge sea lice; an innovative ‘bundle’ of technologies that brings best practice approaches into a single system; and a Thermolicer device which capitalises on the parasite’s low tolerance to sudden changes in temperature by briefly bathing fish in warmer water.

The National Sea Grant College Program recently announced $3.4 million in federal funding to support aquaculture research and outreach. The funding, which leverages all federal dollars 2:1 with state matching funds, will support 11 aquaculture research projects and 23 projects to organize and conduct conferences and workshops to transfer aquaculture information. “...these projects will begin to address priorities identified in the 10-year vision for aquaculture recently developed by the Sea Grant network in conjunction with industry partners and management professionals.”

A group of leading businesses and organizations in Scotland’s aquaculture industry have come together for the first time to create an ambitious new growth strategy for the sector. Launched on October 28, the 2030 Aquaculture Strategy identifies key actions required to double the economic contribution of the industry from £1.8 billion in 2016, to £3.6 billion by 2030. It is estimated this will generate over 9,000 new jobs in the sector and establish Scotland as a global leader in the industry.

EWOS CLEAR for RAS is a new salmon feed that takes into account many different factors behind optimum RAS operations. It is the result of extensive research at the Cargill Innovation Center (CIC) Norway, and commercial trials at one of the largest RAS facilities in Norway. During design of the feed, the focus was threefold: macronutrient balance (digestible protein & digestible energy); digestibility of the raw materials; and physical quality of the feed.

BMR Seafood has announced that it is the first company in India to be awarded the prestigious Aquaculture Steward Council Certification for its dedication to responsible farming methods. The company has just undergone an expansion of its facilities, with a recently completed feed mill on target to distribute 60,000 tons of premium quality feed to about 1,200 farmers.

Omega Protein Corporation has announced that the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) has increased the annual harvest quota by 6.45 percent for the Atlantic menhaden fish meal/oil fisheries and bait fisheries. The decision to increase the quota is based on the continued strength of the Atlantic menhaden stock as it expands in its range up and down the Atlantic coastline. The new harvest quota will take effect for the 2017 Atlantic menhaden fishing season.

Each year, NIFES monitors Norwegian farmed fish, on assignment for the Norwegian Food Safety Authority. The purpose of the monitoring is to check that the farmed fish intended for human consumption does not contain undesirable substances in amounts that may be damaging to health, and to examine whether illegal pharmaceuticals are used in fish farming. This control system complies with the applicable EU guidelines.

A major, new, multidisciplinary project has recently been launched, the title of which is “The importance of nutrition for skin, intestine and gill health in salmon.” Nofima Scientist and Project Manager, Gerd Marit Berge, is working with a broad team of researchers on feed, nutrition, health and physiology to examine the connection between marine omega-3 fatty acids (EPA and DHA) in feed and the properties of barrier tissue. The aim of this project is to research whether levels of omega-3 fatty acids DHA and EPA, together with modified zinc levels, affect the functioning and robustness of the skin, intestines and gills of salmon.

A Cooke Aquaculture barge carrying fish feed sank earlier this week off Brier Island in Digby County. The barge, described as \"small\" was found submerged early Wednesday morning near Cooke\'s fish farm, company spokeswoman Nell Halse said Saturday afternoon. That day, she said divers plugged the barge\'s outlets to prevent liquids from leaking into the water. No fish or feed are believed to have been lost, she said. No one was on board or injured in the process.

Fish farmers in Lagos State are presently leaving the business due to the increase in the price of fish feeds in the state. The prices, according to the farmers, have gone up by as high as 80 to 100 percent and that was forcing some of them to abandon their farms in search of other business ventures. A renowned fish farmer, Nurudeen Tiamiyu, said a 15kg bag of catfish feed produced in Nigeria was a few months ago sold at N6,000 but that it now sells for N9,000 while the imported ones that sold for N6,000 now goes for N11,000.

Hatchery production of bivalves requires unicellular algae-based feed. Producing the algae for feed can be costly, labour intensive, and tricky. In the future, biorefinery by-products may offer a viable alternative feed source, but further research is still needed. During the process of converting macroalgae into biofuel, significant biomass waste occurs. By employing enzymatic saccharification (breaking sucrose down into glucose and fructose), the theory goes, this waste could be converted into a single-cell detritus product - and potentially fed to farmed bivalves, such as oysters.

Lexington, Kentucky-based biotechnology firm Alltech is willing to invest in overseas algae production plants closer to its feed customers if demand for its products as a fish oil supplement grows, a company official said. Keith Filer, who serves as the company’s research coordinator for aquaculture described Alltech’s work on alternatives for fishmeal and fish oil undertaken over the past three years to a crowd of shrimp farmers at Ecuador’s AquaExpo 2016.

The European Probiotic Association (EPA) has announced the recipients of the Jules Tournut Probiotics Prize 2016. This year two awards have been delivered. The prize for Innovative Industrial Application was delivered to Ms. Marie Smedley for her Ph.D. project conducted at the University of Stirling (UK) on probiotic application for salmon nutrition, showing that probiotics can help limit skeletal deformities in fish.

Final implementation of the new Veterinary Feed Directive (VFD) rule begins January 1, 2017, and many feed distributors still have questions and concerns about compliance, workload and inspections. GlobalVetLINK (GVL®) is hosting three free webinars to help educate feed distributors about recent VFD news, resources to aid in managing the VFD process, and tips for maintaining an audit trail to prove VFD compliance in the event of an FDA inspection.

Aquafeed producers in Chile facing probe by competition authority

Several ongoing projects funded by the EU are prioritizing the development of sustainable aquatic feeds and aquaculture technology. WISEFEED, which started this year, will examine the metabolism of farmed fish and develop an aquafeed that combines plant and marine ingredients in order to get the most efficient growth while lowering aquaculture’s dependency on wild fish. The NEMAQUA project is developing a sustainable solution to supplement or replace artemia, while the ECOFISH project is looking to convert conventional aquaculture farms into aquaponic ones.

Nofima researchers and Kontali Analyse have concluded that Norwegian fish farming sector production costs have risen by almost 90 per cent since 2005. These researchers’ report, which was presented at the Havbrukssamlingen aquaculture conference in Bergen, was commissioned by the Norwegian Seafood Research Fund (FHF). “The main drivers of this increase are the higher costs we see being incurred for feed, salmon louse and general fish health.”

A Freshwater Aquaculture Trials and Governance Project for Vanuatu was officially launched Monday by the Minister of Agriculture, Livestock, Forestry, Fisheries and Biodiversity, Matai Seremiah, at a ceremony at The Melanesian hotel in Port Vila aimed at combating the impacts of climate change. The project objectives are twofold: trial and test economically and environmentally sustainable small-scale community-based aquaculture model, integrating successes into a robust national aquaculture governance system; and upgrade the infrastructure of Tagabe Freshwater Aquaculture Center.