The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said  on 18 June that it will press on with negotiations with Manila on fishing issues to protect Taiwanese fishermen still vulnerable to arrest in waters claimed by both Taipei and Manila.

“We hope [our] fishermen will be able to operate in a safe environment,” ministry spokesperson Anna Kao (??) said. “We also hope to establish a fishing order for fishermen from both sides.”

Source: Taipei Times

The sanctuary area at the confluence of the upper Kenai and Russian rivers will open to sockeye salmon fishing at 8 a.m. Wednesday 19 June.

The sanctuary area includes the waters upstream of Alaska Department of Fish and Game regulatory markers located just downstream of the ferry crossing on the Kenai River to markers 300 yards upstream of the boat launch at Sportsman’s Landing. It includes waters around the upstream end of the island near the mouth of the Russian River, and the Russian River upstream to markers 100 yards from its mouth.

Source: Peninsula Clarion

The company behind a huge prawn farming venture earmarked for the far north has nine investors in talks about funding the first stage of the billion-dollar project.

Ian Trahar's CO{-2} Group and its subsidiary WA Resources Ltd said three Australian and six overseas companies had been granted access to financial details with the pre- feasibility study completed.

Source: Brad Thompson / The West

Global fish prices have leapt to all-time highs as China's growing appetite for high-end species – from tuna to oysters – runs up against lower catches.

The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation's global fish price index, an industry benchmark that tracks the cost of wild and farmed seafood, hit a record high in May, up 15 per cent from a year ago and above the peak set in mid 2011.

Source: Emiko Terazono / CNBC

KUCHING - Officials from the Ministry of Domestic Trade, Co-operatives and Consumerism impounded a fishing trawler on 18 June after it was found to be transporting over MYR 20,000 worth of subsidised diesel instead of fish.

Its state director, Wan Ahmad Uzir Wan Sulaiman, said the fishless trawler was stopped near Jalan Pelabuhan around 1pm following a tip-off and subsequently detained after a check revealed it was carrying some 12,000 litres of subsidised fuel in three compartments.

Source: The Borneo Post

REYKJAVIK - Iceland's new prime minister this week cited the country's mackerel fishing dispute with the European Union as a prime example of the value of sovereignty.

Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson, speaking to Reykjavik crowd Monday during the Iceland's National Day marking its birth as an independent nation in 1944, said the EU's demands that Iceland reduce its mackerel catch shows why the country needs to maintain its independence.

Source: UPI

VERACRUZ - WWF welcomes the adoption of several conservation and management measures for tropical tunas in the Eastern Pacific Ocean (EPO) by the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission (IATTC) on friday 14 June. “These measures will considerably reduce tuna fishing mortality in the region, preserving tuna stocks at the level of maximum sustainable yield" said Pablo Guerrero, Eastern Pacific Ocean Tuna Coordinator of WWF’s Smart Fishing Initiative.

The measures include a ban of 62 days per year and a month long closure for purse seiners to enter a large marine area in the west of the Galapagos Islands, called “El Corralito”. The measures will become mandatory for all industrial type tuna purse seiners and longline vessels over 24 meters in length operating in this region.

Mike Parker has been awarded an OBE for his services to the seafood industry, seafood sustainability and the local community in Grimsby.

Mike Parker has over 30 years of experience as a senior manager in industry, principally in seafood and food processing. He has held Chairman and Managing Director positions in a number of companies which were some of the largest in their sectors in Europe. A business graduate from the University of Bath, he is a former deputy CEO of Young’s. He has been a leader in the development of good environmental practice in the Seafood sector having engaged with Seafish, the MSC and a number of other organisations internationally. Mike is a Non-Executive Director of Marine Harvest ASA, the world’s largest salmon farming company, is Chair of Governors at the Grimsby Institute further education college, is very involved in the local community in Grimsby and has recently been appointed as Vice Chair of the Humber LEP.

On 17 June 2013 the Chairman of Marine Harvest, Ole-Eirik Lerøy, purchased 500,000 shares in Marine Harvest at an average price of NOK 5.9452 per share through his affiliated company Profond Holding AS. Subsequent to the transaction, Lerøy and his affiliates' ownership of shares in Marine Harvest ASA is 41,720,000 shares, of which 30,000,000 shares are covered by a forward agreement. The settlement date of the forward agreement is 16 December 2013 and the purchase price is NOK 3.9287 per share. This represents a total ownership of 1.1 per cent of the issued share capital.

On 18 June, the Norwegian Ministry of Fisheries and Costal Affairs has announced that the proposed changes to the delivery obligations for cod trawlers issued 19. June 2012, will not be put into effect now. Havfisk issued the company's response to the public hearing in a letter to the Norwegian Ministry of Fisheries and Costal Affairs in February 2013.

Havfisk takes notice of the Ministry's desicion.