Welcome to Fishing and Aquaculture Week!
It is interesting to review the cycles that industry sectors develop through. After thirty years of near global devastation, the fishing industry has drastically changed, some may say reformed, and is receiving considerable investment mainly in the form of new, larger and more efficient vessels.
The other main marine protein producer, aquaculture, is now receiving the same kind of malign attention from green-left zealots and their fellow travellers among the bureaucracy and woke corporates that their fishing counterparts became used to. That is not yet destroying the industry but it is, sensibly, moving it further offshore.
Indeed, the further offshore and more out of sight that both sectors operate in future, the better. If they can't be easily seen, perhaps the malignant green glance will turn to the currently fashionable offshore wind farms with all their unforeseen environmental disadvantages. Just more of the collateral damage that results from green zealotry.
Trawling • Longlining • Seining • Potting • Aquaculture • Mariculture
It is best to be invisible in the modern world. So, for maritime industries, it is safest to operate out of sight of land, say 20-plus nautical miles off. Practically, that means bigger fishing and aquaculture service vessels and much bigger and more seaworthy fish farms.
Given that other green fantasies like terrestrial fish farms are unlikely to happen, there is only one real solution to the problem of producing marine protein for the world's hungry billions who do not choose to be vegetarians. That is exactly what is happening as you will see from the vessels reviewed in Baird Maritime over the coming week.
Not only are they operating further out to sea but the vessels are cleaner and greener in themselves with several examples of electric and hybrid power and, despite what the green zealots say, clean LNG power.
The two sectors are far from dead but they are changing dramatically. Read how in Baird Maritime this week.
Vessel Reviews:
- Franson – New beam trawler for Belgium's Long Ships
- Ella – Killybegs owner adds whitefish vessel to pelagic fleet
- Elisabeth – All-electric, harsh environment workboat for Norwegian fish farm operator
- Crystal River & Faithful – Scottish newbuilds to operate as pair trawl team
- Harald Martin – Nordlaks' second LNG hybrid wellboat in series
- Blue Wave – Moroccan-built diesel-electric trawler delivered to Brittany fisherman
- Norvezhskoye More – Ice-class trawler to operate in Russia's Northern Fishery Basin
News and Gear:
- NTSB publishes report on fatal 2020 collision between tanker, fishing boat in Galveston, Texas
- Nordland fishermen brothers order locally-built coastal seiner
- Construction underway on new aquaculture workboat for Long Beach owner
- Canada's Baffin Fisheries orders Arctic factory trawler
- Taiwan Fisheries Research Institute taps Singapore builder for new vessels
- Russian fisheries research vessel to conduct stock assessments off Morocco
- Sea trials completed for Atlantic Dawn Group's newest midwater trawler
- Russian fish processing fleet to get 100 additional vessels by 2025
- Construction completed on AI-equipped marine ranch for Chinese offshore waters
- Scottish Sea Farms' first hybrid workboat enters service
- Lack of proper lookout led to 2020 vessel collision off Port Adelaide, South Australia
- Texas A&M University research on West Coast fisheries management awarded NSF funding
- Construction starts on 78m fishing training vessel for Taiwan
- Two adrift fishermen rescued following collision off south-western India
- Canada's Qiqiktaaluk Fisheries taps Norwegian designer for new freezer trawler
- Northern Ireland to award £1.9 million grants for local fishers
Recent Important Features:
– "Scientists often do not account for the in-between time as a fish is transitioning from one stage of development to the next, nor do they consider the cumulative impacts across life stages."
– "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
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 editor@bairdmaritime.com ASAP (between now and November 5), 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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