Welcome to Fishing and Aquaculture Week!

After a long and rather boring hiatus, the fishing and aquaculture sector seems to be reviving with a bang. Bigger, better-equipped and more stylish boats are coming on the scene seemingly almost daily.

Fishing and aquaculture have suffered a severe hammering from the wider green movement. Some of that has been deserved but, as usual, too many babies have been thrown out with the bathwater. As far as the greens are concerned, “nothing succeeds like excess”.

Fortunately, though, some remnants of the global fishing and aquaculture sectors have managed to remain obscure and so have survived the green purges. In developed countries, at least, around 75 per cent of the industry’s participants and vessels have been eliminated. That was tragic overkill. Developing countries have not suffered nearly as much.

Trawling • Longlining • Seining • Potting • Aquaculture • Mariculture

So, it is pleasing and satisfying to observe and note this apparent rebirth of the sector. It is especially satisfying that so many of the new vessels are very refined technically. They are efficient, environmentally friendly and produce very little waste. The greens will not have much that they can legitimately condemn them for.

Of course, it was an inevitable development that so many of the new vessels have been designed and built to serve the aquaculture sector. That is growing and improving constantly and behaving significantly better environmentally. It has to.

This week on Baird Maritime, we will feature a number of newly launched fisheries and aquaculture vessels that will be employed in Norway, Russia and India. One is notably traditional but the others are all impressively modern. Interestingly, two of the larger vessels have been built in the very busy Tersan Shipyard in Turkey.

This positive trend is very satisfying to see.

Vessel Reviews:

• Vladimir Limanov – First in new large factory trawler series for Russian Fishery Company
• Bjørg Pauline – LNG hybrid live carrier enters service with Norway’s Nordlaks
• Aker BioMarine acquires USV for Antarctic krill harvesting work
• Reisa – Norske Fisketransport’s low-emission, high-capacity salmon wellboat
• Jesus – Deep-sea longliner designed for Tamil Nadu waters

Features and Opinion:

OPINION | Hands off all sharks?

– “The animal rights NGOs and some so-called serious journals have stepped up their demands for bigger no-take zones and for more sharks to be listed in CITES’ appendices, regardless of their abundance and any ongoing mitigation strategies.”

– by Eugene Lapointe, president of the IWMC World Conservation Trust and a former secretary-general of CITES

FEATURE | US, Russia team up on Bering Sea fisheries management project

– “Collaborating between countries has clearly improved the effectiveness of surveys providing information on fluctuations in fish availability.”

News and Gear:

• Latest ICES recommendations on total allowable catch “flawed,” Scottish fishers’ associations claim
• Rederij Devan’s newest beam trawler floated out
• Three rescued from sinking fishing boat off Montauk, New York
• Quebec’s Listuguj First Nation orders fishing vessel from local builder
• Sweden’s Gifico to expand trawler fleet
• Taiwan Coast Guard Administration takes delivery of second Anping-class catamaran
• Fishing vessel importation “major setback” for Malaysia, local maritime association claims
• Turkish-built seiner/trawler delivered to Norway’s Hardhaus

Recent Important Features:

OPINION | Indigenous whalers bring joy to beleaguered islanders

– “For decades, the Animal Welfare Institute ignored the evidence of whale abundance and spread fake news about their imminent extinction.”

– by Eugene Lapointe, president of the IWMC World Conservation Trust and a former secretary-general of CITES

FEATURE | Indigenous fishers play key role in NOAA research into declining Chinook salmon stocks in Alaska’s Yukon River

– “Finding a four-inch-long salmon in this environment is all about knowing where to fish and how to get around the river without getting stuck on a sandbar or losing one’s way.”

VESSEL REFIT | Arktur – Ex-supply vessel undergoes conversion to take on crab catching in Russian waters

– “The conversion also entailed the construction of a new freezer hold of significant capacity.”

Remember to come back every day to see the latest news, opinion and vessel reviews!

Call for content!

Any news or views about the global commercial fishing and aquaculture industries? Send it through to [email protected] ASAP (between now and July 2), so we can add it to this current edition of Fishing and Aquaculture Week!

We are after:

• Vessels – Orders, new deliveries, under construction
• Gear – Latest innovations and technology in the fishing/aquaculture sectors
• Interviews – Owners, operators, processors, co-ops, distributors etc.
• Reminiscences – Do you have any exciting, amusing or downright dangerous anecdotes from your time in the fishing world? (example here)
• Other – Any other relevant news

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