On 24 May, NOAA Fisheries announced several senior leadership changes that align with the changes we are making to our West Coast operations. First, our current Northwest Regional Administrator, Will Stelle, will take on the responsibility of regional administrator for the agency's Northwest and Southwest regional offices as the agency works on forming its new West Coast Regional Office. At the same time, Rod McInnis, our Southwest Regional Administrator, has accepted a new position at Fisheries headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland, as the Acting Director of NOAA Fisheries Office of International Affairs.

Please be advised that although other changes will take place, the agency will maintain all of its current physical field offices, within the region, and we will continue to provide a sustained level of service to our many stakeholders in California, Washington, Oregon, and Idaho under the new structure.

Oyster fans might want to reduce their consumption of the mollusks as test results in Guangzhou showed they contained excessive amounts of cadmium and other heavy metals.

Following a scandal of cadmium-tainted rice in the southern province, China Central Television reported that 1 kilogram of oysters sold at a Guangzhou restaurant, famous for grilled oysters, contained 2 mg of cadmium, 20 times the permitted content stipulated in a national standard drafted by the health authority.

Source: China Daily

TOKYO - Investors in Japan might keep a close eye on sales of the homely horse mackerel as an early warning of any trouble ahead. The good news is that in the more confident Japan of 2013, tuna remains king.

So says Mizuho Securities economist Kenta Ishizu, who believes he has found a leading indicator of Japanese consumer demand that relies on two of the most common items on a sushi menu: Japanese horse mackerel and tuna.

Source: Taiga Uranaka / Reuters

There's no smoke and mirrors about it - Americans are eating a lot more smoked seafood than they used to. And that demand — part of a larger trend of infusing everything from salts and cocktails to fruit and teas with a kiss of smoky flavor — has smoked seafood producers like Maine's Ducktrap River moving fast to expand production.

"Our sales have increased to the point where we can't keep up," says Don Cynewski, the company's general manager. "We feel strongly that this is still a relatively new product in the United States, and that it has good growth potential."

Source: Times Union

DAGUPAN CITY - The Philippines is still lucky that it is still free from the deadly shrimp disease called Early Mortality Syndrome (EMS) which is now stalking shrimps from all over the world.

Dr. Westly Rosario, chief of the National Integrated Fisheries Technology Development Center (NIFTDC) here, said they were aware that EMS could wipe out the local shrimp industry if the disease finally enters the country, the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) has banned lately the importation of shrimps, lobsters, crabs and other crustaceans.

Rosario said that EMS is a deadly disease that could wipe out shrimp population overnight since it kills the juvenile at very early stage.

Source: Balita

Therney RE is now steaming home after having taken its entire 650 tonne redfish quota in only twelve days. The same applies to Örfirisey RE, but HB Grandi’s two other vessels on the redfish grounds, Helga María AK and Venus HF, are still at sea. Helga María is newly arrived on fishing grounds around the 200 mile limit after a half-landing in Reykjavík.

According to Therney’s skipper, Kristinn Gestsson, fishing has been very good since the Icelandic trawlers started on redfish on 10th May. ‘Things started off quietly but picked up and the last three or four days have been excellent. The redfish are in thick shoals so we have been fishing carefully. This means that we have shortened the tows so as not to get too much in each haul. Our maximum production capacity is 45 to 50 tonnes per day, depending on what we are producing, so we can cope well if we are getting around 35 tonnes per day.

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Alaska Department of Fish and Game biologists say the next commercial opening of the Copper River District for wild salmon harvests is anticipated to be on Monday, 27 May, with the time and area to be announced on Saturday, 25 May.

Meanwhile, the Copper River District is to open for subsistence fishing at 7 a.m. on Thursday 23 May, for a 12-hour period with waters within the Chinook salmon inside closure area to be closed during this subsistence period.

Source: The Cordoba Times

HA NOI - The US Department of Commerce (DoC) has decided to increase anti-dumping duties on tra fish imported from Viet Nam by an additional USD 0.52 to 1.29 per kilo, said the Viet Nam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP).

Association secretary Truong Dinh Hoe said the tax hike was made after the US checked errors in the calculation of the previous tax, saying that the increase was consistent with the calculated data.

Source: VNS

Atlantic sturgeon, an ancient species that in the 19th century briefly made New Jersey a world capital of the caviar trade, are now on the endangered species list. But fishermen’s nets now won’t threaten the sturgeons’ survival, as they make a slow population recovery along the East Coast, according to a new analysis by government biologists.

Continuing use of gear like fixed gill nets for monkfish — a valuable commercial fishery to New Jersey — “could adversely affect, but is not likely to jeopordize” the survival of Atlantic sturgeon in the wild, according to the report issued this week by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Source: Kirk Moore / APP

The additional 84 600 tonnes horse mackerel quota which the Minister of Fisheries and Marine Resources Bernhard Esau, is expected to allocate soon, is only for existing right holders and not new companies, Esau told The Namibian on 22 May.Esau declined to say when he would issue the quota saying that he would inform the companies that qualify for the rights.

He said it appears that “there are forces using the media” to find out when the TAC will be allocated. “The quota has owners. Its not for new companies,” he said adding that the horse mackerel industry in the country was saturated at the moment.

Source: Camwe Kaira / The Namibian