Eurofish Magazine 5 2016

www.euroďŹ shmagazine.com

ISSN 1868-5943

October 5 / 2016 C 44346

October 5 / 2016 Eurofish Magazine

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Innovation, diversiďŹ cation to boost aquaculture production The Mediterranean diet evolves to include sustainability International interest in Estonia’s red tape-reducing app for ďŹ shers Trade and Markets: Fish becomes an up-market fast food in parts of Europe

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In this issue

Poland determined to increase aquaculture production In Poland farmed carp and trout account for nine tenths of the production from aquaculture, while the remainder is made up of a mix of several different species. Poland’s EMFF operational programme seeks to encourage the cultivation of species that have significant market potential and to further increase the sustainability of the sector by supporting production in recirculation systems. The aim is to increase output from farming by 37, to almost 52,000 tonnes, in the decade up to 2023. With a budget of EUR269 million of which EMFF support amounts to 75, Poland has the largest contribution from the EMFF for aquaculture after Spain. But increasing aquaculture production will be contingent on removing some of the obstacles faced by the industry, including water charges, veterinary legislation, and the lack of qualified young people. Read more on page 35 The Mediterranean Agronomic Institute in Zaragoza (IAMZ) in Spain is part of a four-member network of organisations in Mediterranean countries that work in education, research, technical assistance, and policy development in the region. In collaboration with other organisations the Zaragoza institute organises courses in fisheries and aquaculture, among other subjects, of short and long durations. The courses are characterised by a combination of classroom lectures and field activity with close interaction between students and lecturers. The goal of these courses is to provide the students with content, but also to encourage them to cooperate and build networks that they can use in the future. Read more about the recent course on marine algae on page 28 Despite the best efforts of scientists much is still hidden about the lifecycle of the European eel. Fortunately, the same cannot be said for the status of the stock. Researchers established that stock numbers were so poor that a recovery plan for eel was adopted by the European Commission in 2007 with management plans implemented in each EU country with eel habitats. In Denmark the fishery is mainly for the yellow eels and the catch is overwhelmingly from the sea. As part of the national management plan the number of licences issued for the eel fishery has gradually been reduced. Fishers grumble that recreational fishing probably also impacts eel stocks and that seals and cormorants are an unmitigated menace. But eel populations are affected by a number of other factors too. Read more on page 31 Freezing has an important role to play in the seafood industry. It increases the shelf life, enables easier transport, kills or inactivates pathogens, and retards decomposition. These advantages have spurred the evolution of new trading channels, in particular e-commerce which is based mainly on frozen products. The significance of freezing has also resulted in different ways of freezing products depending on the requirements. Blast freezing, contact freezing, and spray freezing are broadly the three methods of freezing products each with its own advantages and disadvantages. Read Dr Manfred Klinkhardt’s article on page 54 Squids, the largest group within the cephalopods with over 250 species, are a popular seafood. A few species are found in European waters of which two, the European squid and the veined squid, are of particular economic significance especially in southern Europe. However, catches of these animals have declined drastically since the turn of the century partly it is suspected due to environmental factors, but mainly because of over fishing. Currently however there are few management measures for squid in place; the effort is considered too high for a species exhibiting marked natural variations in numbers. But perhaps it would make sense in countries where squid is an important part of the diet.

Read more on page 58 www.eurofishmagazine.com

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Table of News 6 International News

Events 17 Rethinking the Mediterranean diet From healthy dietary pattern to sustainable lifestyle

20 NACEE meeting combines general assembly with sturgeon conference Forging professional links between EU and Eastern European countries

Projects

21 Estonia pioneers app to reduce paperwork and increase transparency Digitising the administration of fisheries

Aquaculture 22 Opportunities and risks of land-based salmon farming Ecologically tempting but economically risky 25 Towards a GFCM strategy for the sustainable development of aquaculture in the Mediterranean and the Black Sea Piecing together a mosaic

Education 28 Zaragoza institute offers intensive courses in fisheries and aquaculture State-of-the-art content and international contacts

Fisheries

31 The eel fishery in Denmark Commercial eel fishers decline in number

Poland 35 The priorities of Polish fisheries and aquaculture Poland will strive to ensure healthy cod stocks in the Baltic

(CC BY-SA 3.0) Map based on https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Location_European_nation_states.svg

by Hayden120 and NuclearVacuum

37 The aquaculture sector in Poland Ambitious strategy to increase production and sales

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Contents 42 Gospodarstwo Rybackie Goslawice sp. z.o.o. produces caviar and sturgeon Sturgeon farm expands production 46 Hodowla Ryb K-2 combines a recirculation system with the generous use of water Farming and processing trout for the Polish market 49 Dabie Hatchery produces eyed trout eggs for the domestic market and export Substantial expansion planned

52 FLAG Bytow Lakeland projects should strengthen the economic, social, and environmental sustainability of the area Developing projects that conform to new requirements

Processing

54 Rapid and gentle freezing preserves product quality Which freezing method is best?

Species

58 Cephalopods: Seafood delicacies with tentacles and suckers Climate change drawing squid northwards

Worldwide Fish News

Albania

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Denmark

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France

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Georgia

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Ghana

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9

Italy

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Latvia

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12

Mexico

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Netherlands

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Norway

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Romania

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Spain

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Sweden

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Turkey

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UK

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Trade And Markets

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62 In the fast food industry, fish products still have a limited presence Health benefits may encourage greater use of fish

Fish Infonetwork News 64 News

8, 9, 14

64 Events

Service 65 Diary Dates

6, 8, 10, 16 66 Imprint, List of Advertisers

Scan the QR code to access the Eurofish Magazine website (www.eurofishmagazine. com), where you can also sign up to receive the Eurofish Magazine newsletter.

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[ INTERNATIONAL NEWS ] New rule increases exibility for Norwegian salmon producers The Norwegian government has a new flexible allowed biomass rule, which it hopes will allow production values of Norwegian salmon to increase. The new rule allows farmers to keep a greater number of fish in the water during the summer growth period, allowing existing capacity to be used more effectively and farmers to take better advantage of warmer temperatures. This is reported to lead to increases in volume of up to 5 percent, or an additional 50,000 metric tons of Norwegian production, taking effect in 2017.

Making use of this greater flexibility is optional for producers. The companies that desire this opportunity must pay NOK 1.5 million per permit by the beginning of September. The revenue generated from this will be distributed between the municipalities that participate in aquaculture (80 percent), while the rest will go to the state (20 percent).

and keep facilities open for the duration of the year, which cyclical production had made difficult. “For the industry, this will provide increased flexibility and opportunities to keep production steady for the winter, thus avoiding layoffs,� Norwegian Fisheries Minister Per Sandberg stated. The increases in volume may lead to a reduction in prices, though greater quantities and lowered production costs should offset price reductions and keep earnings stable. Strong demand for Norwegian salmon should allow these volume increases to be absorbed by the market. Analysts have noted that the introduction of this new rule shows an industry focused on growth rather than only biological concerns.

The Norwegian Seafood Association praised the plan: “The time has long been ripe for a new approach and further development of the production control system by giving individual players greater flexibility, autonomy and responsibility for marketing.� Š Johan Wildhagen, Norwegian Seafood Council.

This new rule will allow firms to stabilise their labour practices

GFCM: Enhanced cooperation on Black Sea ďŹ sheries and aquaculture

Norwegian salmon farmers may increase production slightly from 2017 thanks to a new allowed-biomass rule that permits them to increase the number of fish in the water in summer.

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Bucharest, Romania will be the setting on 24-25 October 2016 when the General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean together with ACCOBAMS, the Black Sea Commission, the Black Sea Economic Cooperation, and Eurofish and in close cooperation with the government of Romania are arranging a conference towards enhanced cooperation on Black Sea fisheries and aquaculture. The conference will

be composed of expert sessions followed by a high-level session in which strategic aspects linked to cooperation in fisheries and aquaculture at regional level will be discussed. The final session will address regional priorities, needs, and next steps towards enhanced cooperation in fisheries and aquaculture in the Black Sea, taking into account the particular characteristics of each riparian country.

A Romanian coastal fishing vessel near Constanta on the Black Sea. Fishermen use fixed gears catching horse mackerel, flounder, Black Sea mackerel, sprats, and anchovies.

Tesco removes John West tuna over sustainability concerns After canned fish brand John West failed to meet standards for sustainability, UK retailer Tesco has pulled 20 percent of the company’s products from their stores, including tuna and some salmon products.

This follows Tesco’s announcement in April that it would work with the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) to ensure that it sold more sustainably sourced products.

Tesco will now only sell tuna that is free of fish aggregation devices (FADs), which can endanger marine life, and is MSC certified.

Though a spokesperson from John

West claimed the salmon products were certified, the Council noted that none of the named products actually carried the MSC eco-label required to claim sustainability.

Tesco continues to sell some of John West’s products, and group quality director Tim Smith said that the company is “working with John West on a plan for these remaining lines to be converted to sustainable tuna sources as soon as possible.�

Tesco has already introduced more than 80 new seafood products with the MSC eco-label to their shelves since May. The tuna that it sells under its own brand already www.eurofishmagazine.com

[ INTERNATIONAL NEWS ] utilises sustainable catch practices, and has been sourced from poleand-line fisheries since 2012.

In line with Tesco’s commitment to increasing sustainability,

Waitrose has vowed to discontinue products sourced from purse seiners using FADs by the end of 2017, which Tesco will also do. Greenpeace has pushed Sainsbury’s to join in this

commitment. The organisation has also issued letters to retailers in order to pressure the large US tuna companies of Chicken of the Sea, Starkist, and Bumble Bee to improve their practices and cease

supplying “destructive tuna.�

Greenpeace has praised Tesco’s action on the matter, and other retailers must continue to put the pressure on tuna suppliers to “clean up or ship out.�

Ocean. Fish living in caves have become increasingly rare, comprising less than half a percent of all fish species; they face many environmental threats, including dam building. The researchers note that conservation efforts of such species, many of which are endangered, often are behind those of species in areas that are more readily accessible.

the discovery of the species was significant to studies of evolutionary biology. Researchers say that this also proves that museums dedicated to natural history can be important tools for science; though the species was in danger of extinction, it remained unknown for many years. “If not for natural history collections preserving the world’s biodiversity,� Chakrabarty said, “we would never have had the opportunity to discover it, name it, and hopefully try to save it.�

Rare caveďŹ sh discovered in Mexico The fish, known as the Oaxaca Cave Sleeper, is the first of its kind seen in the western hemisphere, and is an entirely new genus species. The fish, Caecieleotris morrisi, is a sleeper goby which lives in caves. The fish has adapted to the total darkness of its underground cave habitat, and lacks eyes or pigmentation, which it makes up for with other advanced sensory structures.

The Oaxaca Cave Sleeper was discovered by researchers from

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the U.S. Geological Survey and Louisiana State University, who collected all 13 of the known individuals. The fish were discovered by cave divers in 1995, and were kept in the Florida Museum of Natural History for twenty years before scientists recognised that the fish was distinct from the roughly 170 other species of cavefish.

Other cave-dwelling species of this family of fish had previously been found only in the Indian

Prosanta Chakrabarty of Louisiana State University said that

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[ INTERNATIONAL NEWS ] Norway: Fishing fair enjoys signiďŹ cant increase in visitor numbers Nor-Fishing, an event for the international fishing industry is held every two years, alternating with AquaNor, an aquaculture fair, that is also organised by the Nor-Fishing Foundation. The last few editions of the fishing event have each attracted some 15,000 visitors from about 50 countries, making it one of the world’s biggest events for the fishing technology industry. And interest in the event is increasing. The number of visitors increased by 22, while exhibitors went up by a quarter in relation to the 2014 show. Part of the draw is the Norwegian fishing industry’s reputation for high technology products, but the range of seminars, workshops, and lectures as well as product

launches contribute to ensuring that space at the exhibition was sold out already in February. A new hall will therefore be built in preparation for the next event in 2018. This year Scantrol Deep Vision won the innovation award at Nor-Fishing for its system for identifying and measuring fish under water. The device uses computer vision technology and image processing software and can be attached to a trawl. As the fish swim through the trawl they are identified and measured making it possible to gather data without bringing the fish on board.

The system is currently being used by researchers with further developments ongoing to allow it to be used in commercial fisheries.

Increasing exhibitor numbers at Nor-Fishing have prompted the building of a new hall in time for the next event in 2018.

Farmed and wild ďŹ sh seem nearly identical in taste tests Farmed and wild fish have been compared by French and Italian researchers in order to analyse the differences that might exist in taste and nutrition. While some consumers might be willing to pay more for the taste of wild species, the researchers aimed to test the validity of such preferences using objective methods.

to Emilio Tibaldi, a professor of aquaculture at the University of Udine who carried out the study for a report for the Italian Ministry of Agriculture. He noted that the most significant determinant of a fish’s taste seems to be its freshness, rather than its source. Age and environment can also be key factors in taste and texture.

The findings were that a group of tasters was unable to distinguish between wild and farmed sea bass in terms of taste, according

Farmed fish may have more fat, due to less movement and greater consumption than wild fish, noted Sadasivam Kaushik,

director of Fish Nutrition Laboratory at the National Institute of Agronomical Research in Bordeaux. But “apart from that, the nutritional profiles can be indistinguishable,� he said.

Yet fish farmers must be sure to monitor the diets of their fish in order to maintain natural levels of healthy omega-3 oils. Some omega-3 fatty acids can only come from aquatic sources: either algae, fish, or other sea life. Feeds thus usually include

fishmeal and fish oil coupled with proteins from vegetables.

Kaushik also coordinates a project to lower the usage of fishbased feeds, ARRAINA, which has discovered methods of substituting a portion of fish oil in feeds without affecting fish health or nutritional value. The outcomes of the taste study and additional research provide positive results for an increase in sustainable aquaculture and a reduction of pressure on wild stocks.

Copenhagen to host the second WhiteďŹ sh ShowHow Following the successful event in 2015, a second Whitefish ShowHow, will be taking place in Copenhagen on November 10, 2016. The event is organized by Marel and caters to whitefish processors from all over the world – in wild and farmed processing.

The full-day event introduces industry leading equipment and software for whitefish processing.

The Whitefish ShowHow shows 8

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hands-on demonstrations of raw material receiving, fillet handling, value added processing, as well as software solutions designed to improve processes throughout the value chain to meet today’s processing challenges.

The event is an opportunity for processors to discover how products can address the critical factors that affect raw material utilization, processing times, labor costs, as

well as food safety. A parallel conference program includes lectures and seminars where guest speakers and specialists will address some of the key issues the industry

faces today. The event will be held at Progress Point, a state-of-the-art demonstration and training center located 5 minutes from Copenhagen airport. www.eurofishmagazine.com

[ INTERNATIONAL NEWS ] Italy partners with Ghana to create ďŹ shery cluster An Italian delegation in Ghana has formed a partnership with local fishermen with the intention of strengthening the fishing industry in the country by creating a fishery cluster.

In july Ghana’s fisheries ministry signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Italy’s Mazara del Vallo-Cosvop. Mr Giovanni Tumbiolo, President of the Fish District of Italy, met with fishermen and fishmongers in the Apam coast region. He was joined by Ms Sherry Ayittery, Ghana’s Minister of Fisheries and Aquaculture Development.

Ghana’s fishing sector has been experiencing negative growth in recent years. Last year an

agreement was signed between the Apam district and the Ministry of Fisheries and Aquaculture Development, which aimed to combat the decline and increase fishery production in Ghana. The agreement also hopes to increase the proportion of Ghana’s GDP that comes from the fishing industry, from the starting value of 4.7 percent to an eventual level of 27 percent. Ghana also hopes to create more employment opportunities in scientific and marine research.

Given sufficient investment, the fishing sector can become a more substantial component of Ghana’s economy. The fisheries clusters hope to increase revenue from an initial annual

amount of one billion dollars, to $3.5 billion. This is also part of an initiative toward greater productivity and sustainability in the fisheries industry.

Ayittey noted that policies relating to monitoring fish health and the quality of products sold to consumers are expected to be

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implemented shortly. Tumbiolo also emphasised the importance of scientific research to fisheries growth, as it will lead to progress in improving fisheries control and response to climate change.

A committee will oversee the progress of these partnership initiatives, with Ayittey as the chairperson.

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[ INTERNATIONAL NEWS ] Denmark: Danish Turkish joint venture Melting ice in Barents Sea prompts opens new feed factory calls for caution

A feed factory jointly owned by Danish BioMar and the Turkish Sagun Group was officially opened at the end of August 2016.

BioMar, a Danish fish feed manufacturer, and the Sagun Group, a leading fish farming and trading company in Turkey have opened a jointly owned fish factory in SĂśke, Turkey. The facility has a production capacity of 50,000 tonnes and will supply locallyproduced high performance diets including grower feeds for trout, sea bass and sea bream. The joint venture, BioMar-Sagun, will also market and distribute other feed

types like hatchery diets and fry feeds produced in other BioMar factories. BioMar-Sagun will mainly serve Turkey, but plans to also start exporting to neighbouring countries. In addition to supplying feeds to Turkish fish farmers the company will also offer technical advice related to farm management, feeding strategies, and nutrition, to help farmers make their production more efficient and sustainable.

The Barents Sea is a productive area with a number of commercially important species including cod, haddock, saithe, Greenland halibut, and capelin. Barents Sea stocks are managed by the Joint Russian Norwegian Fisheries Commission which regulates the fishing implementing management measures and determining Total Allowable Catches (TAC). Climate change is having an impact on the Barents Sea and in the long term may imply increased temperatures, warmer oceans and less ice. Melting ice has already begun to open up pristine areas enabling bottom trawlers to enter and fish there, according to Greenpeace, an environmental NGO. The organisation has therefore brokered an agreement between several leading members of the seafood industry that enjoins fishing companies to limit their industrial fishing activities for cod in the area, and major seafood brands and retailers to reject fish that may be associated with Arctic destruction. The parties to the agreement include Youngs Seafood, Karat, Tesco, Esperson, McDonalds, and the Norwegian

Fishing Vessel Owners Association, FiskebĂĽt.

At a recent meeting in London Fiskebüt renewed its commitment to sustainable fishing in the Barents Sea. Jan Ivar Marük, the association’s representative, confirmed that the Norwegian trawler fleet would refrain from fishing in areas that have previously not been fished, until a mapping exercise of the seabed under these newly accessible waters had been conducted. The meeting in London was organised by the Norwegian catching sector and brought together scientists, environmental organisations and British importers to hear how the fisheries authorities in Norway are dealing with the challenge.

Participants were also shown a map outlining the areas, where the Norwegian trawler fleet will voluntarily refrain from fishing.

Mr MarĂĽk also expects that foreign trawlers with quota rights in the northern Barents Sea, such as those from Russia, EU, Greenland, the Faroe Islands and Iceland, will respect the industry agreement.

Research suggests trees could protect wild species in England Wild fish in England are in danger due to rising temperatures, yet research suggests that perhaps trees could moderate the effect. Fish like brown trout or salmon can only withstand certain maximum temperatures; for brown trout, temperatures outside of the range of 22˚C – 25˚C persisting for more than a week can be lethal. Certain locations in England have already recorded incidents of temperatures over 31˚C during the summer.

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Climate change is one of the largest causes for the reduction of marine wildlife in recent years.

While researchers suggest that temperatures may climb to fatal levels soon, trees can help reduce high temperatures by providing shade to rivers. According to the Environmental Agency, over 90 percent of the salmon stocks in English rivers are considered to be at risk. Salmon’s survival at sea has also decreased by nearly 50 percent in the past two decades, highlighting the need

for improving freshwater habitats. Thus, there have been calls to increase the numbers of trees along rivers, in order to create more shade and lower the water temperatures.

river banks. The project has asked that people like landowners, farmers, and anglers take action by surveying their local areas and noting which locations are in need of additional shade.

The Environmental Agency’s project Keeping Rivers Cool has called for steps to be taken to protect wild populations of trout and salmon, and ease pressures on their freshwater ecosystems.

This can be done by planting more broadleaf native trees on

Keeping Rivers Cool and the Woodland Trust plan to offer subsidised trees, in addition to providing advice and information to fishermen. Shade maps indicating areas in danger of too much direct sunlight will also be distributed.

www.eurofishmagazine.com

[ INTERNATIONAL NEWS ] Albania’s “last wild river� threatened by hydroelectric dam

The river, which flows from northern Greece through Albania to the Adriatic Sea, currently runs uninterrupted, and is a habitat for spawning fish and migratory birds. The 99.5 megawatt dam at Pocem, which the Albanian government approved proposals for in May, would cost about EUR 100 million. Albania can

www.metalbud.com

only currently supply 70 percent of its domestic power needs, and thus hydropower is a key area of development for the nation.

Residents along the river fear, though, that the creation of the dam will cause their properties to be flooded. In addition, there are potential environmental ramifications. Balkan river systems are the sole home to nearly 70 species, including about 40 percent of endangered freshwater mussels and snails in Europe.

Energy Minister Damian Gjiknuri said that Albania will continue with the project, despite protests, as “every development has a cost to the environment.� The government maintains that this is a crucial

ŠOblak Aljaz, balkanrivers.net

The Vjosa River, considered to be one of the last wild, large free-flowing rivers in Europe, is planned to be the location for the sourcing of hydropower, as the Albanian government plans to build a dam in the river. This project has not been met with positive reactions from the Albanian people who live near the river, who are concerned about the dam hurting their livelihoods.

development for Albania, which is estimated to only be currently making use of only about a third of its hydropower potential. Yet environmentalists have continuously voiced opposition to the hydropower projects, stating that the government should instead focus on combatting inefficiencies in energy use.

Knut Fleckenstein, a representative to the European Parliament, noted the continued effort to preserve river ecosystems. There is still “a chance for tourism to maintain the unique Balkan rivers in their natural state instead of building hydroplants everywhere,� he said.

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[ INTERNATIONAL NEWS ] Spanish researchers close blueďŹ n tuna lifecycle in captivity Scientists at the Spanish Institute of Oceanography (IEO) have managed to close the lifecycle of Atlantic bluefin tuna in captivity.

This means that viable eggs were obtained from the fish that were bred in captivity, and marks the first time that a fully closed lifecycle was achieved. This achievement is the result of one of many research initiatives being conducted by the IEO in collaboration with several companies. The researchers were able to collect approximately 50,000 fertile eggs from cages, which were then taken to the IEO facilities in Mazarron.

Next, these eggs were hatched so that the larvae could be raised.

Researchers hope that closing

the lifecycle will allow further developments in aquaculture for bluefin tuna, an important but threatened species.

Japanese researchers from Kindai (formerly Kinki) University in Wakayama have also had success in breeding tuna, first breeding tuna in captivity in 2015. These researchers had worked for many years to achieve this goal, as bluefin tuna are known to be quite difficult to raise in captivity due to their high sensitivity to water temperatures, currents, and noise.

Another difficulty was increasing the survival rate for the hatchlings, which they brought to around 5 percent.

Swedish and Latvian ďŹ rms create further automation in sardine processing The companies Seac AB of Sweden and Sia Peruza of Latvia have further expanded their technology dedicated to sardine processing and canning, making progress toward automation.

The two firms, which have already introduced nobbing machines in two plants in the Philippines, installed the new machinery in Masy and June at the Mega Sardine Plant and Sea Coast Top Choice Plant. These consisted of six Peruza Autofeeders to twelve Seac FPM-200s, and four Peruza Autofeeders to eight Seac FPM200s, respectively.

According to Peruza, the Autofeeder, which the company spent a number of years developing, can be used for fish that measure 14 to 20 centimetres long, and replaces 8 to 10 workers at existing pocket-chain machines. This machine is meant to position the fish head-first for delivery to the Seac FPM-200.

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The Seac FPM-200 then produces HG+T from pelagic fish, and has been tested for processing on 14 different species. The machine also has a special mechanism for optimal head-cutting, which the company claims can increase yields up to 15 percent compared to machines by similar brands.

The automation of such technology has provided results of processing up to 600 fish per minute with two operators. The companies say that the usage of their machines can save between 50 and 60 operators per line. In addition, the automatic processing equipment can be operated 24 hours a day. Ulf Groenqvist, the owner of Seac, said that automating these machines is a final step in the automation of the whole sardine processing and canning system, though it still may take a few additional years to create a fully automatic packing line for canned fish.

The bluefin tuna cycle has now been closed in Europe.

These advancements in farming bluefin tuna are important to reducing pressures on the wild tuna stocks, which face decreasing populations. The researchers at Kindai University noted that they hope to eventually

supply half of the Japanese tuna market.

The IEO will continue its work with tuna, moving the fish to the Facility for Bluefin Tuna Reproduction Control (ICRA) on Isla Plana.

Brexit may impact Danish catches and whiteďŹ sh prices In the wake of Britain’s decision to leave the EU, many markets have been thrust into uncertainty, and the fishing industry remains wary of the future of fishing territory regulations. Esben Sverdrup-Jensen of the Danish Pelagic Producers Organisation (DPPO) said that the Danish fishing market will most definitely be affected by Brexit, though the extent of the impact is still unclear in these early stages.

Danish fishermen rely on UK waters for a substantial proportion of their catches, an estimated third of volume and value. “At least 50 of Danish pelagic catches come from UK waters, and probably more than that in value terms,â€? added Sverdrup-Jensen.

Part of the uncertainty stems from the question of regulation of British waters. According to the National Federation of Fishermen's Organisations (NFFO), policies regarding access by foreign vessels will be dictated by the UK, rather than Brussels. Sverdrup-Jensen noted

the frustration with EU fisheries policies felt by many British fishermen. An extreme course of action would be for the UK to close off access for fishing vessels from all other nations, though that is highly unlikely. Yet there is still fear surrounding the possibility of losing access to the UK’s fishing territories, which would lead to the loss of most sandeel fishing. French fisherman worry that their catches may be reduced by up to 80 percent if they are cut off from the Channel.

Analysts from Nordea have also noted the potential price impacts of Brexit, with whitefish prices facing more moderate price growth than initially forecasted. With early depreciations for the pound shown, a weaker currency for the UK, which is a significant market for whitefish, does not bode well for industry prices. Â While there are serious concerns surrounding the Brexit situation, the DPPO emphasised that nobody can truly determine what Brexit will mean for the fishing industry at the current stage. www.eurofishmagazine.com

[ INTERNATIONAL NEWS ] EU: Fish stocks improving, but continued progress is necessary At the European Commission’s conference on “The State of Fish Stocks,” Commissioner Vella stated that scientific evidence supports that fish stocks are growing, and fishing mortality has decreased. This is good news for fishermen, as it means that the fishing industry is becoming more profitable; yet the Commissioner made it quite clear that further work was needed to improve fish stocks, particularly in the Mediterranean.

Species in the North Sea, including hake, cod and plaice, and the Baltic, including sprat, herring and plaice, have been observed to be doing well and increasing in numbers.

Scientists are still baffled, though, as to why certain species like sole in the Irish Sea and nephrops in the North Sea have not shown similar recovery in stocks, despite decreasing mortality rates.

In the Mediterranean, only 15 stocks were analysed, and fishing

mortality remains high. Kathryn Stack, the Managing Director of Europêche, said: “The fishing sector has to take the lead on the recovery of the Mediterranean together with the scientific community, governments and NGOs.” She stated that fishermen must be able to voice their opinions on fisheries policies, as a bottom-up to approach will allow for greater understanding and compliance. The economic performance of the EU fleet has also been improving over the past few years.

The FAO has also recently released its SOFIA report on the status of fish stocks around the world, the results of which showed more troubling amounts of species exploitation, according to OCEANA. Nearly 90 percent of stocks are fully fished or overfished, a fifth more than in 2000.

Oceana, like the European Commission, believes that there must be continued focus on maintaining wild fish stocks and sustainable fisheries.

Reducing size variation in farmed tilapia Researchers from Wageningen University and Research in the Netherlands, in collaboration with the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU) and WorldFish, have recently published a study regarding the potential for

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breeding more uniformly sized Nile tilapia.

By researching within-family differences in weight and body dimensions in tilapia, the scientists discovered that differences

in size in the fish had a significant genetic component. The aim was to determine the genetic correlations between level and variance of size traits. Their analysis indicated that variance in weight of harvested tilapia could be reduced by

over a third with one generation of genetic selection; they were able to achieve similar results for variance in body size.

Nile tilapia can show large differences in size and weight

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[ INTERNATIONAL NEWS ] between individuals, and the genetic basis of these differences is still not completely understood. This investigation brings additional understanding of tilapia genes and the potential for genetic improvement

of aquaculture species. Animal breeding has long utilised techniques for improving average sizes of harvested species, yet reducing variability is also highly desirable. Tilapia which are more similar in size and weight

are beneficial to fish farmers, for producing more fish that are of the size demanded by consumers will increase farmers’ profits.

Competition between fish could also be reduced if they are more equal in size.

Genetic selection for uniformity in size has never before been carried out in aquaculture, and research on the subject is still somewhat limited.

Yet the results of this research show a promising future of the possibility of use in tilapia and other species.

Collection of blueďŹ n tuna eggs begins in Mediterranean Bluefin tuna aquaculture continues to be a subject for many researchers, who have recently begun their collection of bluefin tuna eggs in the Mediterranean, after experiencing some delays to the spawning season. Egg researchers carried out their collections in the waters of Italy, Malta, Spain and Croatia.

Initially progress was slow, and researchers had to wait for the winds and cold waters to subside, but researchers were able to collect

millions of eggs, which the tuna aquaculture sector relies on. “Initially there were results from Kali Tuna in Croatia, first with a few eggs and then millions,� noted one researcher from Heinrich Heine University in Germany, and eggs continue to be collected each day.

According to the researchers, some efforts may soon be able to reach marketable quantities of eggs.

These eggs come from broodstock operations in Spain and Croatia, as

well as production cages in Malta.

Interest in the eggs for tuna farming or research on the subject continues to increase. New technology has been devoted to the subject, and there has been scientific investigation taking place regarding potential modifications to the tuna’s natural diet of copepod.

This comes around the same time as breakthroughs in research on bluefin tuna farming, with researchers able to close the tuna

lifecycle in captivity and obtain viable eggs. Groups in other nations, including Japan, have devoted research efforts toward farming tuna. Kindai University in Japan is a leading researcher on the subject. In addition, Korean fish farmers with idle space in their facilities made for Pacific bluefin tuna have been buying the eggs of Atlantic bluefin to raise too. This growing demand, the egg collectors hope, will lead to a larger number of prospective egg buyers this year.

Italy: Ocean acidiďŹ cation can alter ďŹ sh spawning behaviours Increased concentrations of carbon dioxide can affect the reproductive habits of fish, leading to lower spawning, according to research teams the University of Palermo (Italy) and the University of Plymouth (UK).

Species of ocellated wrasse (Symphodus ocellatus) were studied in areas near volcanic vents off of the southern Italian coast, from which CO2 is emitted naturally, causing waters to become more acidic. Videos were shot in both acidic and ambient waters to

observe the fish between environments.

The results noted that while most reproductive behaviour was the same in both areas, dominant male spawning with females in the more acidic areas dropped by nearly two thirds.

These dominant males, which are responsible for nest-building and defence, spawned alone with females less frequently in high-CO2 areas. Interestingly, though, these males were also more successful in their mating,

with genetic tests showing that dominant male parentage was 20 percent higher in the more acidic areas compared to the ambient areas. Sneaker males, which tend to hover around nests, spawned more often, but did not see increases in fertilisation. This was against the predictions of researchers, who thought dominant males would lose out from increased competition.

Prior research had shown that higher acidity could lead to

altered behaviours and sensory function for fish, but this is the first to look into the effects on reproduction for wild fish. As CO2 levels rise globally, scientists are continuing to try to determine the impacts on the environment and on marine species. Professor Marco Milazzo of the University of Palermo noted: “Given the importance of fish for food security and ecosystem stability, these results highlight the need for further targeted research into the effects of rising CO2 levels on their reproduction.�

Survey of seafood consumption attitudes shows value of sustainability According to the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC), recent independent research has indicated that sustainability is a key factor in seafood purchasing decisions, often more significant to consumers than other factors like brand or price.

More than 16,000 consumers of seafood from 21 countries, including Belgium, China, Denmark, 14

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France, Germany, Italy, Norway, Poland, Spain, UK and USA were surveyed. This research was conducted by GlobeScan, an independent firm, on behalf of the MSC. 72 percent of those surveyed said that they believed seafood should only be consumed from sustainable sources, and 54 percent were willing to pay more for sustainably sourced products.

The CEO of MSC, Rupert Howes, underscored the importance of sustainability to many shoppers. “These insights demonstrate that seafood consumers are attuned to the need for sustainability and that they are prepared to change shopping habits to protect the oceans,� he said.

consumers, as one might expect.

In fact, older consumers demonstrated an even higher preference for sustainability, with 75 percent of those surveyed over age 55 saying they would only eat sustainably sourced seafood, as opposed to 67 percent of those aged 18 to 34.

This environmental awareness is not only important to younger

The survey also noted the importance of labelling to denote www.eurofishmagazine.com

[ INTERNATIONAL NEWS ] sustainability and increase brand trust. More than two-thirds of respondents emphasised the need for stores and brands to back up

their sustainability claims with proper verification. While the level of awareness regarding the MSC label varied between countries,

the vast majority of respondents (over 80 percent) expressed trust in the label and the commitment to sustainable fishing that it denotes.

Consumers continue to increasingly prioritize environmental impact, which is a positive shift for the sustainability of the seafood industry.

Spain prohibits recreational ďŹ shing of blueďŹ n tuna The Spanish Ministry of Agriculture has banned sport and recreational fishing of Bluefin tuna, part of ongoing recovery efforts for the species. Fishing, retention on board, and landing of Bluefin tuna for such purposes are now prohibited, as the quota allocated for the species has been reached.

Over a third of tuna and tuna-like species are currently being fished at or above sustainable levels. The International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) works to protect about 30 species in the Atlantic Ocean

and neighbouring seas. ICCAT recently adopted a new recovery plan for tuna fisheries in the Mediterranean and eastern Atlantic, to help limit such overexploitation.

The plan builds upon the existing one, and will run until 2022.

An issue that effects Bluefin tuna and other species is the relative lack of regulation of the high seas; less than 1 percent of international waters were under protection as of 2014, and there is a call for the creation of more marine protected areas. High seas fishing can be problematic,

as the nets of bottom trawlers can shift objects and substantially disturb the seabed.

One specific outcome of the plan was the regulations adopted by the Council, which consisted of some of ICCAT’s conservation measures from 2012 to 2014.

For example, a recommendation covering procedures for stereoscopic cameras, release operations, and dead fish was incorporated. According to the Ministry of Agriculture, the recovery plan also stipulates that member states create annual

plans for bluefin tuna vessels and restrictions on fishing periods and minimum sizes; in addition, the allocation of specific quotas for recreational purposes is required.

Scientists work to further understand climate change impact Scientists are already noticing the impact of global warming and rising water temperatures on fish, both in Europe and North America. In the United States, scientists have discovered that climate change can affect the reproduction habits, growth, and habitats of inland fish, according to a number of new climate change studies.

According to these researchers, the species that face the greatest dangers are coldwater species like sockeye salmon and lake trout, fish that live in arid places, and smaller fish that are primarily prey for other species.

A major revelation from the research was that climate change’s effects on fish remains largely unclear, and can vary greatly between species and warm- and coldwater fish. For certain species, like the smallmouth bass, higher temperatures actually benefit populations.

In the United Kingdom, researchers have also detailed some of the www.eurofishmagazine.com

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troubling impacts of global warming on the future of some fish species. Professors at the University of Hull have stated that the consequences could be so severe that cod and haddock may migrate to colder waters, so that they will no longer be able to be caught in British waters within the next hundred years.

The Climate Change and European Aquatic Resources project (CERES), in addition to analysing the impact on currently fished species, is also investigating the prospects for new species to be caught and farmed. This is known as the Blue Growth agenda, which aims to find novel methods of production and new species. “In the next century we may be catching and culturing species that we have not even thought about yet,� said Professor Mike Elliot of the University of Hull. As a result, researchers must be aware of the changing environments of species, in order to adapt to new opportunities.

Visit us at China Fisheries & Seafood Expo, Qingdao 2-4 Nov, Stand W2-0232

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[ INTERNATIONAL NEWS ] Informed consumers crucial to expanding Turkish seafood market The Norwegian fishing institute Nofima has analysed the Turkish market for opportunities for growth and maintaining the presence of Norwegian products in the market.

Norwegian salmon in particular has become quite a popular choice for Turkish consumers, while frozen mackerel from Norway has had a strong presence in the Turkish market for decades.

Imports of fresh salmon have increased in recent years, in response to growing interests in healthy eating and sushi.

to diversify the market by introducing additional species including herring, pollack, and cod. Though some Norwegian products have already found

success in Turkey, if the market is to continue to grow, consumer knowledge must be addressed to promote continued consumption of seafood.

Unleashing the cooperation potential between Georgia and EUROFISH

Turkey’s preference for fresh fish is also partly responsible for the dominance of Norwegian salmon in the market. Nofima said that if preferences shift to frozen products, fish from Chile may become more popular. There have been attempts Gøril Voldnes/Nofima.

There are still considerable obstacles to growing the Turkish market for fish; for one, though the market has demanded imports, seafood consumption

in Turkey is still relatively low.

The average yearly per capita consumption is only 6 kg, compared to 40 kg for Norway. Consumers also lack sufficient knowledge regarding fish consumption; for instance, some consumers are under the impression that consuming fatty fish can be dangerous to their health, or even fatal. As a result, marketing and promotional activities will be key to increasing consumption, noted Nofima.

Mr Levan Davitashvili, Minister of Agriculture of Georgia, met with EUROFISH Director, Aina Afanasjeva, to strengthen cooperation in the fisheries and aquaculture sector.

Mr. Levan Davitashvili, Minister of Agriculture of Georgia, met with Aina Afanasjeva, Director of EUROFISH International Organisation, in August 2016. At the meeting both sides expressed a willingness to strengthen cooperation in the area of aquaculture and fisheries.

Many Turks have already acquired a taste for Norwegian salmon and its popularity is increasing.

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Mr Davitashvili gave a detailed account of the current situation in the sector stressing Georgian priorities for the sector’s further development, which include better utilisation of the existing potential of water resources to increase local aquaculture

production. He also noted that the Georgian Government has identified agriculture (including aquaculture) as a priority sector in the year 2017. This involves devising and implementing various activities aimed at developing the sector.

Ms Afanasjeva presented the core activities of EUROFISH and expressed her willingness to further deepen the cooperation especially with regard to sharing experience of good aquaculture practices, creating awareness of the Georgian fish farming sector, and promoting its image. www.eurofishmagazine.com

[ EVENTS ] Rethinking the Mediterranean diet

From healthy dietary pattern to sustainable lifestyle Pondering the future was the main purpose of scientists and nutrition experts at the First World Congress on the Revitalization of the Mediterranean Diet. Held at the Palazzo Lombardia in Milan in July 2016, the meeting attracted more than 200 participants from Europe, North Africa, Asia, and the US.

T

he programme of the threeday event comprised twelve sessions and over 40 presentations followed by round table discussions. The 200 attendees included representatives from science, education, and research, as well food processing companies and the retail sector.

consumption of fresh seasonal fruits, vegetables, olive oil, legumes, dairy products, oily fish and lean meats to a cultural model that focuses on sustainability. In addition to the variety of foods, other factors such as social customs, outdoor life and simple cooking techniques made it a balanced contemporary lifestyle model. The diet was declared an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) in November 2010. Health benefits associated with the Mediterranean diet include lower risk

Mediterranean diet offers distinct health benefits The concept of the Mediterranean diet has evolved continuously over the past 50 years from one that emphasises the

of major chronic diseases and reduced rates of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular events and increased life expectancy.

However, despite documented positive effects on human health and on the prevention of chronic diseases, the Mediterranean diet is gradually being abandoned, especially among the young, in

many Mediterranean countries in favour of unhealthy food patterns and consumption of foods with lower nutrient density.

The new food pyramid The creation of the first Mediterranean food pyramid dates back to 1995 (Willett et al, 1995)

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Sources of EPA and DHA fatty acids Species

Serving (g)

EPA (g)

DHA (g)

Herring, PaciďŹ c, cooked

85

1.06

0.75

Anchovies, canned, in oil

57

0.43

0.73

Salmon, chinook, cooked

85

0.86

0.62

Salmon, Atlantic, cooked

85

0.28

0.95

Oysters, PaciďŹ c, cooked

85

0.75

0.43

Salmon, sockeye, cooked

85

0.45

0.60

Mackerel, canned in water

85

0.37

0.68

Salmon, sockeye, canned in water

85

0.44

0.64

Trout, rainbow, cooked

85

0.40

0.44

Tuna, canned in water

85

0.20

0.54

Crab, dungeness, cooked

85

0.24

0.10

Shrimp, cooked

85

0.15

0.12

Cod, PaciďŹ c, cooked

85

0.09

0.15

Fish oil, menhaden

1

0.13

0.09

Fish oil, salmon

1

0.13

0.18

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[ EVENTS ] it is suggested that each country applies the basic Mediterranean diet pyramid recommendations as a guide, and adapts them to its own nutritional context and culturally established cuisine.

Lluis Serra Majem (extreme right), President of the International Foundation of Mediterranean Diet (IFMeD)

and was based on the concept that all foods can be used in the Mediterranean diet, but the frequency of consumption had to be correctly ensured. The products at the bottom of the pyramid (fruits, vegetables, whole grains, olive oil, nuts, legumes, herbs and spices) are to be eaten daily.

Products in the middle of the pyramid (fish and seafood, eggs, cheese, yogurt and poultry) are to be eaten on a weekly basis/ several times a week, while products at the top of the pyramid (meat, sweets and fats) should only be consumed occasionally.

The pyramid was updated in 2009-2010 by a network of institutions and experts coordinated

by the International Foundation of Mediterranean Diet (IFMeD).

A new graphic representation was developed in 2011 (Bach et al 2011), and the updated pyramid included the relative proportions and consumption frequency of servings of the main food groups.

In 2014, (IFMeD) was established as a center of multi-disciplinary international expertise that would promote the diet. As noted

by Lluis Serra-Majem, President of IFMeD, the main goal is to promote the fact that the Mediterranean diet benefits not only the individual, but that it also benefits the planet and thereby mankind as a whole. In order

to entwine worldwide interest in the Mediterranean diet with increasing sustainability and environmental concerns, IFMeD aims to increase international adherence to the Mediterranean dietary pattern and way of life.

The revision of the Mediterranean diet pyramid by IFMeD has fostered a dialog among international scientists and experts in public health nutrition, food sciences, social anthropology, sociology, agriculture, environment and cultural heritage to provide a unified representation of the Mediterranean diet as a sustainable dietary pattern encompassing the entire Mediterranean area. However,

The new pyramid shows that the health and nutrition benefits of the Mediterranean diet are combined with additional advantages: low environmental impacts and richness in biodiversity as well as positive economic return locally, with specific country variations, according to Sandro Dernini, from FAO.

Fish and seafood consumption indispensable Fish is an indispensable pillar of the Mediterranean diet and one whose positive health impacts have been scientifically documented in the past decades. Fish products have low calorie content, omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids, hydrosoluble and liposoluble vitamins, and certain nutritionally valuable minerals and proteins. Compared to other diets or eating styles, the Mediterranean diet endorses frequent fish consumption, of 3 to 4 servings per week. In contrast,

Silvia Migliaccio, Department of Sports, Genevieve Buckland, Catalan Institute of Oncology, Barcelona; Antonia Trichopoulou, Hellenic Health Foundation, Athens; Christina Bamia, Hellenic Health Foundation; and Joy Ngo de la Cruz, Science and Human Health, University Nutrition Research Foundation, Barcelona of Rome 18

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[ EVENTS ] Nutritional characteristics of fresh and canned tuna Tuna 100g/edible part

Proteins (g)

Lipids (g)

Glucids (g)

Fibers (g)

kcal

Fresh

21.5

8.1

0.1

0

159

Canned (natural)

25.1

0.3

0

0

103

Canned (olive oil)

25.2

10.1

0

0

192 USDA National Nutrient Database

less than 2 servings of red meat, and 1 or less serving of processed meat is advised weekly.

An illustration of the nutritional properties of fish, and its effect on human health was presented

by Silvia Migliaccio, Department of Sports, Science and Human Health, University of Rome. Fatty fish species like herring, mackerel, sardines, tuna, salmon and other are rich in omega-3 fatty acids and alpha-linolenic acid (ALA), which is required for human health but cannot be synthesized in humans, so they must be obtained from the diet. Humans can synthesize other omega -3 fatty acids from ALA, eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), and docosahexanoic acid (DHA).

These two fatty acids are usually referred to as marine-derived omega-3 fatty acids because they are abundant in oily fish species.

In particular, EPA and DHA are reported to reduce the risk of coronary heart disease, cerebrovascular incidents, and are associated with anti-inflammatory properties.

Mediterranean dietary guidelines recommend simple methods for cooking fish with, if necessary, the use of extra virgin olive oil. Salted, smoked and canned fish is used in addition to fresh and frozen fish. Canned fish in particular is widely used in the Mediterranean. Comparisons of the nutritional characteristics of fresh and canned fish often show equal or higher content of certain minerals and vitamins in canned fish. For example, the content www.eurofishmagazine.com

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of proteins, lipids, calcium, iron and zinc is higher in canned tuna compared to fresh tuna as well as the content of folate, vitamin B12, vitamin E and vitamin K. Similarly, a comparison of fresh and canned mackerel shows similar or higher content of proteins, higher content of calcium, iron, phosphorous and vitamin A in canned mackerel compared to fresh mackerel.

European campaigns to spread the message One of the core parts of the congress was the launch of a European campaign for the promotion of the Mediterranean diet. The campaign represents a multi-target project supported by IFMeD to popularise and modernise the Mediterranean diet. The campaign addresses the scientific community and others involved in the areas of nutrition and health through the dissemeination of research results, and the organisation of workshops and conferences. The campaign also intends to involve citizens through online and offline communication and community events. Several countries including Italy, Spain, France, Portugal, Greece and Sweden have adapted the campaign to their requirements.

Italy will use its campaign to describe the Italian Mediterranean diet as a system which promotes sustainability and health and has planned three arrays of activities. Med Tour will be a series of scientific conferences in Milan,

Turin, Rome and Bologna that will promote the Italian food system with several parallel events on food and nutrition. Med Schools will address students of primary and secondary school, to educate tomorrow’s citizens, and Med Culture will focus on online and offline communication, from social networks to both general and specialized media, promoting events addressed to the general public.

The aquaculture sector in the Mediterranean region is a large and dynamic industry, which has grown substantially in past decades fueled by economic growth, liberalization of markets

and growing consumer demand.

For decades, the importance of the Mediterranean diet has been closely linked to the development of markets for fisheries and aquaculture products. The sustainable growth of the region’s aquaculture sector can be secured by linking Mediterranean aquaculture products closely to the Mediterranean diet. This will contribute to wider acceptance and adoption of the Mediterranean diet, higher consumption of aquaculture products, healthier eating habits and the overall wellbeing of the population.

Katia Tribilustova, Eurofish katia.tribilustova@eurofish.dk

The First World Congress on the Revitalization of the Mediterranean Diet was organized by the International Foundation of Mediterranean Diet (IFMeD) with the technical support of the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO), in cooperation with International Center for Advanced Mediterranean Agronomic Studies (CIHEAM) and supported by the regional government of Lombardy, the Italian Ministry of Health, and the Presidency of the EU Council of Ministers.

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[ EVENTS ] NACEE meeting combines general assembly with sturgeon conference

Forging professional links between EU and Eastern European countries The Network of Aquaculture Centres in Central and Eastern Europe (NACEE) is a bridge between institutions and individuals in EU and non-EU Central and Eastern European countries.

T

his was the 7th general assembly of NACEE since the network became a legal non-profit association in 2010, and the 13th annual meeting of NACEE since its foundation in 2004. The event was hosted by the Institute for Fisheries of the National Academy of Agricultural Sciences of Ukraine, the Kherson State Agricultural University, the Dnieper Sturgeon Hatchery and the Nova Kakhovka Restocking Fish Farm.

The venue of the GA and the Sturgeon Conference was the “Dnieper Delta� Fishing and Recreational Centre situated by one of the branches of the river Dnieper close to the city of Kherson. The General Assembly was attended by 26 professionals representing 13 NACEE members from 7 countries (Belarus, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Poland, Ukraine). The event was also attended by representatives of the FAO Regional Center for Europe and Central Asia and the Ukrainian State Agency of Fisheries.

Network participates in EU aquaculture sustainability project As the president of NACEE, Laszlo Varadi, emphasised in his progress report, the network continues to play an important role in strengthening collaboration between institutions and professionals in EU countries and 20

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Twenty-six people from seven countries participated in the Network of Aquaculture Centres in Central and Eastern Europe general assembly meeting in Kherson, Ukraine in May.

non-EU Eastern European countries. A recent achievement in this area is that NACEE has become a consortium member of the EU H2020 project “TAPAS� (Tools for Assessment and Planning of Aquaculture Sustainability). This project offers an opportunity for scientists in the NACEE region to contribute to an EU research program and also to benefit from the results of the project through dissemination activities. NACEE will continue to facilitate communication among members and with partners, and to organize scientific and professional workshops and conferences including the annual Young Scientist Conferences. The General Assembly in Kherson approved the admission of five new members from Hungary, Latvia and Moldova and

Ukraine. In an effort to strengthen the ties with the Word Sturgeon Conservation Society (WSCS), it was also agreed that NACEE would join WSCS as an institutional member.

Sturgeon farming text book released at conference In line with the tradition of organizing a scientific conference in conjunction with each NACEE General Assembly, a conference on sturgeon culture was held on the day preceding the General Assembly. The conference brought together 62 participants from 8 countries, including 23 participants from NACEE members. The keynote presentation was held by Dr. Paolo Bronzi,

Vice-President of the WSCS, which was then followed by 12 presentations covering different issues of modern sturgeon aquaculture. A new text book “Sturgeon aquaculture�, published in Russian with the endorsement of NACEE, was introduced during the conference. The book was prepared by a team of authors from NACEE institutions in Russia, Ukraine, Poland and Hungary, headed by Prof. Lidiya Vasilyeva.

Participants also visited two state farms of the region: the Dnieper Sturgeon Hatchery, and the “Nova Kakhovka� Restocking Fish Farm.

Both farms produce indigenous species (sturgeons in the former, pike, perch, pikeperch, catfish, roach, tench and breams in the latter) mainly for restocking purposes. www.eurofishmagazine.com

[ PROJECTS ] Estonia pioneers app to reduce paperwork and increase transparency

Digitising the administration of fisheries The fisheries administration in Estonia will shortly launch an app for coastal and inland fishermen that will greatly simplify the production and distribution of the obligatory reports they need to file.

T

he rapid adoption of technology in Estonia is now well known. The country has been one of the fastest in the world to place government services on the web from filing tax returns to establishing a company, spawning similar initiatives around the globe.

Fishermen respond positively Now digitisation is spreading to the fisheries sector too. In October 2016 a new app called PERK, the Estonian abbreviation for electronic reporting of catch data by coastal fishermen, will be launched. Keno Kaasiksoo, an advisor in the Fishery Economics Department in the Ministry of Rural Affairs, who is coordinating the project, says preliminary tests by fishermen have generated an enthusiastic response as the advantages of the app include a substantial reduction in the amount of paperwork.

Fishers can now bid farewell to printouts of their fishing permits, nor do they need to bring their physical logbooks to local fisheries administration offices any more.

The app is web-based, meaning that it can be used with any operating system, Windows, iOS, Android, or OSx. Users have the freedom to choose the device with which they are most comfortable or is the most convenient for them. It is intended for use by www.eurofishmagazine.com

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coastal and small scale fishermen both in the sea and in inland waters. The latter refers primarily to the Lakes Peipus, Pskov, Lämmijärv and Vþrtsjärv, where some 400 vessels are active catching mainly perch, zander, pike, and bream. The marine coastal fishery extends to the 20 m isobath and comprises about 1,500 vessels targeting sprat, baltic herring, perch, zander, flounder, smelt, and salmon. The coastal fishery is significant accounting for just under a third of the Estonian catch.

App fulfils multiple needs Designed for ease of use with several convenient features like big buttons, autofill forms, and prediction, the app loads all the information about the fisherman, such as his ID, fishing permits, and other details, once he logs in to the system. The app can generate the five reports that constitute the information in the log book (departure, fishing activities, prior notifications, return to port, and landing declaration), and send them simultaneously to three institutions, the Police and Border Guard, Environmental Inspectorate, and the Ministry of Rural Affairs. In addition, the ability to produce sales notes, transportation documents and other declarations necessary to track the fish all along the value chain to the final

consumer has also been included in the app.

License owners will be able to monitor the fishermen by logging in to the ministry database, where the information recorded by the app will be visible. And with the GPS support that is built in to the app it will be possible to record and store the coordinates of the fishing gear, which can then be displayed on a map so that the position of the gear will be immediately identifiable. In other words the app introduces an unprecedented level of transparency in real time in fishing operations.

Neighbouring countries show interest However, Mr Kaasiksoo cautions, this is a work in progress and there are still some challenges to overcome. Some of these are physical, such as the network connection, which can be patchy in parts of the coastal zone. This can affect delivery of reports (departure, return, and landing declaration) which need to be sent when the vessel is close to port. Out at sea the reports can be prepared offline and then sent automatically when the device connects to a network.

Another issue is how comfortable some users feel with the system.

About half the fishers are 50 years of age and above and for them to use the technology may not come as naturally as it would to younger

The new app has a user-friendly interface and can run on any operating system.

generations. These are relatively minor obstacles and will no doubt be dealt with over time. The advantages offered by the app should ensure that adoption will be wide not only in Estonia, but possibly also outside as enquiries from neighbouring countries including Finland, Lithuania, and Denmark, have already started arriving in Mr Kaasiksoo’s mailbox.

For more information contact: Mr Keno Kaasiksoo Adviser of the Fishery Economics Department Ministry of Rural Affairs Estonia Tel.: +372 6256 513 keno.kaasiksoo@agri.ee Eurofish Magazine 5 / 2016

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[ AQUACULTURE ] Opportunities and risks of land-based salmon farming

Ecologically tempting but economically risky Is the era of salmon farming in oating net cages coming to an end? More and more critics are calling for a shift of production to land-based facilities because of the numerous risks to which open systems in the sea are exposed: adverse weather conditions, toxic algal blooms, jellyďŹ sh plagues, diseases and parasites. Added to these hazards is the fact that oating farms have a strong impact on the marine environment. But would land-based farming really solve all the problems?

A

n attempt to draw the balance of salmon farming since its early beginnings would probably give a rather mixed picture. On the one hand, there have been indisputable achievements: total production has risen to over 2.3 million tonnes and is relatively stable. Salmon is in demand and now available almost anywhere in the world. On the other hand, we cannot turn a blind eye to the fact that difficulties are growing in many places, and particularly in the big producer countries. In Chile, when the industry just seemed to have more or less conquered the ISA crisis, the next disaster was already waiting around the corner in the shape of toxic algal bloom.

And Norway, the most important

producer country, has despite all efforts been unable to gain control of the sea lice problem. Production is stagnating, a development that is not only felt by smokehouses and retail chains but also by consumers who find they have less in their purses as salmon prices rise. One can’t help but get the impression that the salmon industry is currently at an impasse.

Environmentalists and scientists see the reason for the industry’s present plight mainly in the methods that are currently used to farm salmon in the sea. They are particularly critical of the floating net pens, for these “open systems� interact directly with the environment. This does have certain

Already now farmed salmon spend the first third, sometimes even half, of their lives in land-based facilities, for (as we know) smolts are reared in freshwater.

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advantages because the fishes can then grow in their natural surroundings, constantly swimming in clean water, but it can also lead to problems. Storms, wind and waves inflict damages on the pens, seals and other predators attack the nets, toxic algae, tiny jellyfish and parasites get through the net meshes, and sometimes serious diseases cause havoc on the farms. The salmon are subject to such risks nearly every day of the 18 to 24 months that they spend in the marine enclosures and no one can predict exactly how high the losses will be or if all will ultimately turn out well.

So wouldn’t it actually be better to move salmon production from the “open� enclosures in the sea to enclosed facilities on land where environmental impacts can not only be effectively controlled but also often be specifically influenced? At the centre of such considerations are mostly Recirculating Aquaculture Systems (RAS), also called closed loop systems, where the water in which the fishes grow circulates constantly. Integrated water treatment technology ensures that the water is repeatedly cleaned and recycled in such a way that it can be used several times. Over the past few years this elaborate and complex technology has made considerable progress,

making it seem feasible and manageable for commercial usage on the industrial scale that is today characteristic of salmon farming.

Land-based production promises greater sustainability In some respects RAS are autonomous systems which make the choice of location largely independent of a permanent water supply. Their separation from the environment isolates the farmed salmon from their relatives in the wild which also solves the problem of escapes from the net cages.

In addition, it acts as a barrier that keeps diseases and parasites such as sea lice away from the breeding tanks. That is why this kind of system can get by without the use of vaccinations, pesticides or aggressive chemicals. And because water temperatures in RAS are always ideal the salmon eat throughout the year, they grow uniformly and develop much faster to a marketable size. On average, an RAS will enable time savings of about 6 months compared to traditional net enclosures. Because in many countries approval is no longer given to applications for marine farms RAS are often the only way to pursue aquaculture today. In the face of the convincing benefits and opportunities offered by this www.eurofishmagazine.com

technology one might now expect conventional salmon farmers to be investing in RAS as a means of expanding their production.

Particularly since farmed salmon already today spend at least the first third, sometimes even half, of their lives in land-based facilities because the species lives in freshwater up to the smolt stage.

As a rule this phase is carried out in raceways but occasionally also in recirculating systems.

Steven Summerfelt, the Aquaculture Director at the US-American Conservation Fund Freshwater, is convinced that the future of salmon farming is in land-based RAS. The Atlantic Salmon Federation, which is committed to the conservation and protection of wild salmon stocks, is calling for a changeover to this environmentally friendly technology. A study published in June 2016 by the North Atlantic Salmon Conservation Organization (NASCO) confirmed that aquaculture in enclosed systems on land had decisive advantages with regard to the sustainability of farming methods. However, although the number of supporters is growing, RAS technology remains controversial in much of the salmon industry.

First land-based salmon farms already in operation Hardly more than a dozen such farming systems are currently in the planning, construction, or operation phase worldwide.

There are three in each of Canada and the USA, two in each of Denmark and China, one in Poland and one in France. The planned capacity of these recirculating systems is altogether 10,000 t per year, or approximately 0.4 per cent of global salmon production. The world’s first landbased salmon farm, the RAS of www.eurofishmagazine.com

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Langsand Laks, began producing in Hvide Sande in RingkĂśbing Fjord in 2013. This company is to supply 2,000 t salmon per year once it is working at full capacity.

Danish Salmon, which is located near Hirtshals, is equipped for the same production volume. In November 2014 Jurassic Salmon went into operation in Karnice near Szczecin as the first landbased salmon farm in Poland. The farm covers an area of just under 8,000 square metres and once everything is running it should produce 1,000 t salmon per year.

Interest is growing in France, too.

With Bdv (SAS) a small 50 tonne system is already in operation in Normandy near GÊfosse-Fontenay. And the salmon smokehouse and processor Meralliance has announced that it plans to set up a land-based 4,000 square metre RAS in Brittany in the port of Guilvinec (DÊpartement Finistère) which will have an annual capacity of 800 tonnes.

In China, too, which currently imports 30,000 to 50,000 t salmon per year, there are serious intentions to produce the species locally in RAS. The 1,000 t Yantai Salmon Farm of Shandong Oriental Ocean Sci-Tech already supplied 400 t salmon in 2015. The company now wants to gradually increase production. However, it is uncertain whether a second project was in fact realised. The investor, a Chinese state-owned water supplier, wanted to have the Danish specialist Billund Aqua set up a 1,000 t RAS for Atlantic salmon in the Gobi desert in Central Asia.

Since its announcement in 2013, however, little has been heard of the project. The basic intention to produce salmon in China remains an ongoing issue, however. Only recently, the Chinese planning office Sinor which supports European companies looking to enter the Chinese market

Asgeir Brynjulfsson/Langsand Laks

[ AQUACULTURE ]

Salmon farming on land has some distinct advantages with regards to sustainability, but not everyone in the industry is convinced by recirculation technology.

announced that it was planning the construction of a 10,000 t RAS. And land-based salmon farming is planned in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), too, and was scheduled to start in April 2015. In addition to sea bass, sea bream and grouper, Fish Farm LLC was to farm 200 t of salmon in a separate hall. The technology partner for this recirculating system was the Danish subsidiary of the Norwegian Akva Group which announced the signing of a contract with the Fish Farm LLC (headquarters: Dubai) worth 9.5 million euros in November 2013. Since then, however, little has been heard of this project.

base of the US Marines in the state of Maine does not seem to have been implemented yet. When searching the web for news of any developments in this direction one only gets project sketches and budget figures. And the fate of the land-based 3,000 t mega salmon farm whose construction was to begin in 2014 on the Kintyre peninsula on the west coast of Scotland is equally unclear. Apparently it was money that was lacking, for in the official project announcement it said that they were looking for investors who could provide about 15 million GBP or approximately 18.1 million euros.

Financial requirements often much higher than expected

Financing problems are a problem for almost all operators of recirculating systems. The investment and operating costs of RAS are considerable and it often takes several years for production to yield any profits. Although industry experts claim that, when assessed fairly, the operating costs of land-based facilities are hardly higher than those of marine farms because the boats which are a necessary part of any marine aquaculture facility cause enormous costs, neutral studies have shown that RAS farming is 10 to 15 per cent more expensive than marine farming even in the

There is no lack of audacious plans, projects and announcements in the RAS scene. But it is often not easy to find out at a later date whether they were actually realised or if they have been postponed or even given up altogether. Some projects are still haunting the internet although the investors have long since pulled out. The announcement by Palom Aquaculture to set up a land-based 500 t farm for Atlantic salmon (with the perspective of even extending production to 1,500 t) at a former

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most favourable of cases. This can also be seen in the balance of Langsand Laks. After a debt of about 700,000 euros accrued in the first twelve months the operating losses rose to 2 million euros in 2014 despite the fact that 352 tonnes of live salmon had already been sold. The company expects to achieve profitability for the first time in 2016. It is difficult to assess cost-effectiveness in some recirculating systems because state subsidies or financial aid from the EFF fund of the EU tend to cloud any clear view of economic realities. In spite of cost-saving advantages such as the relative closeness to the markets or the possibility to produce throughout the year RAS remain a particularly expensive method for producing fish. This is presumably one major reason why conventional salmon farmers have so far been hesitant and are still delaying the transition from the sea to the land.

And higher costs are not the only problem, because from a technical and biological viewpoint RAS can have some unpleasant surprises in store, too. Sustainable Fish Farming (SFF) in Nova Scotia, Canada, which produces about 100 t salmon per year experienced quite a setback last year when there was an electricity cut over a period of six hours during the night time one weekend. This had not only paralyzed the system’s pumps and oxygen supply but also switched off the alarm and backup system. 12,000 salmon, the first from land-based production in the province of Nova Scotia, were lost. Total damages amounted to 225,000 euros.

Considerable progress but more research needed In a lot of recirculating aquaculture systems there also arises the 24

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problem that up to one third of the male salmon reach sexual maturity prematurely, mostly at a weight of 1.5 to 2 kilograms. In spite of feeding, these fishes stop growing and lose the salmon’s typical silvery hue, and the quality of their meat diminishes strongly so that they are practically no longer marketable. The reasons for this phenomenon are still not clear. There are guesses that the constant temperatures in the systems are to blame. The influence of female sex pheromones is also being discussed as a possible reason. These hormones are excreted in low concentrations by female salmon. In farms located in the sea these attractants are immediately diluted and washed away but in the RAS tanks they can accumulate and stimulate the male fishes.

By altering the daily light-dark rhythm the problem can be limited to just a few per cent of the stock but it cannot be completely eliminated. Currently efforts are being made to solve the prematurity problem through new, RAS optimized strains of salmon.

In theory it is correct that fishes farmed in RAS are less at risk to diseases, making medication unnecessary. However, to achieve this, all biosecurity measures have to be adhered to exactly in order to protect the system from external influences. In everyday practice this is difficult to achieve however, because there are numerous vectors with which germs can get into the system: inadequately disinfected staff, contaminated feed, unhygienic instruments, or previously infected fry. Once a pathogen has overcome the safety barrier the constantly warm, humid climate in the RAS offers optimal conditions for growth and it can then spread very quickly. Fighting such a pathogen in an RAS is often more difficult than in the open sea because the use of certain

Langsand Laks

[ AQUACULTURE ]

The trickling filter removes carbon dioxide from the water at a Danish land-based salmon farm.

drugs is prohibited in RAS due to the fact that they harm the bacteria used during water treatment.

At Langsand Laks, for example, there were initial problems with a bacterial furunculosis infection which was so persistent that the system had to be shut down completely, thoroughly disinfected and then restarted.

The Canadian salmon producer Kuterra had similar experiences in the north of Vancouver Island where they have operated an RAS since 2013. The plant cost 6.7 million USD and has six tanks each with 40,000 Atlantic salmon which swim there in freshwater (!) until they are ready for market. In the opinion of the plant operators who belong to the Nemgis, the country’s “First Nation�, this gives the salmon a particularly mild, fullbodied, slightly buttery flavour.

Kuterra market their salmon at premium prices which are 15 to 50 per cent above conventional prices for marine farmed salmon. Although the company alleges the salmon easily find buyers Kuterra has still not reached break-even point. It is not only the high production costs that are to blame for this but apparently also quality problems in the first production batches.

Some salmon reached maturity prematurely, were too small and displayed discolouration in the

fillets, as well as, frequently, having an off-flavour. The farm technology didn’t work as expected.

Pumps had to be replaced, additional oxygen supply systems had to be installed, and a defect feeding system that threw up to 75 kg more feed than required into the water every day had to be repaired.

All of this meant additional costs which had not been anticipated in the original business plan. In addition, mortality was high in the first three production cycles: between 13 and 29. The cause was a fungal infection in the smolts which is normally not a problem because the salt water kills the fungus when the smolts are put into the sea.

Kuterra salmon continue to live in freshwater, however, which had led to the losses. The problem is said to have in the meantime been solved and mortality is now below 10. What remains, however, are financial losses, so that three years after the start the company is still not making profits.

Profitability doubts dampen optimism In spite of some unresolved issues land-based salmon production is playing an increasingly important role in strategic planning simulations for the future of aquaculture, particularly since traditional marine farms are facing www.eurofishmagazine.com

[ AQUACULTURE ] ever increasing challenges. Under pressure of rising production costs which according to a statement by the consultant Kjell Bjordal increased by 55.6 in the last decade experts are in the meantime having serious thoughts even in Norway about whether a shift of salmon production from the sea to the land might be feasible. Lack of space would presumably not be a problem: based on Bjordal’s calculations an area of 4.8 square kilometres would be absolutely sufficient for Norway’s current salmon production of 1.2 million

tonnes in land-based RAS. A working group of the Ministry of Fisheries recommends that, to promote land-based salmon production, the responsible authorities issue an unlimited number of special licences without the fees that are generally charged. So far no one need fear that Norwegian salmon will flood the market from land-based farms, however, for experts from the research institute Nofima have recalculated and come to the sobering conclusion that even under the condition that it would be possible to hold 180 kg

of salmon per cubic metre in RAS tanks, for an annual production of 2,000 t, salmon tanks with a total volume of 11,000 cubic metres would be necessary. The investment necessary for that would be 150 to 200 million NOK, or 16 to 21 million euros. That would make land-based production five to seven times more expensive than production in floating sea cages.

in closed containment systems under Irish conditions� and the study “Potential for Land-based Salmon Grow-out in Recirculating Aquaculture Systems (RAS) in Ireland�: salmon farming on land is still far too expensive and unprofitable. However, if it is a question of eliminating risks to natural fish populations in the wild RAS are already indisputable. A convincing example of this is Aqua Bounty which keeps its genetically engineered AquAdvantage Salmon strictly isolated in recirculating systems.

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The Irish Salmon Growers’ Association come to the same conclusion based on the “Assessment of land-based grow-out of salmon

Towards a GFCM strategy for the sustainable development of aquaculture in the Mediterranean and the Black Sea

Piecing together a mosaic Regional Fisheries Bodies are a mechanism enabling nations to work together in order to study, manage, conserve or develop sustainable ďŹ sheries. They are practically the only way to govern ďŹ sh stocks that transcend national jurisdictions, that are shared by countries or that populate the high seas.

Aquaculture is too important not to be sustainable

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he General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean (GFCM) of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) is the competent regional body for fisheries management in the Mediterranean and the Black Sea. The term “fisheries management� is used here in the broadest sense since the overarching objective of the GFCM is the conservation and sustainable use, at the biological, social, economic and environmental level, of living marine resources, as well as the sustainable development of aquaculture. The GFCM is currently composed of 24 Contracting Parties (23 countries and the European Union) and 3 Cooperating non Contracting Parties (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia and Ukraine), collectively referred to as CPCs.

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tonnes in 2014 (worth 6.8 billion USD)2.

While production from capture fisheries in the GFCM area of application has ranged between 1.1 million tonnes in 1970 and almost 2 million tonnes in 1988, falling gradually again to just over 1.1 million tonnes in 20141, aquaculture production (including marine, brackish and freshwater environments) in Mediterranean and Black Sea bordering countries has shown, on the contrary, a steady trend of over 1.6  a year, increasing from about 0.9 million tonnes in 1994 (worth 1.9 billion USD) to almost 2.4 million

The FAO estimates that globally aquaculture will remain one of the fastest-growing sectors for animal food production with output expected to expand at a rate of 3 per annum over the 2015–2025 period. In the Mediterranean and Black Sea countries, this would translate into a production of almost 3.3 million tonnes by 2025.

However, when considering the national strategic plans implemented in the area, and especially the growth expectations, it is very likely that the regional production will largely exceed that figure, says Fabio Massa, GFCM senior

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FAO Fisheries and Aquaculture and Statistics and Information Branch. 2016.

Capture production 1950-2014. Available at: http://www.fao.org/fishery/ statistics/en

FAO Fisheries and Aquaculture and Statistics and Information Branch. 2016.

Aquaculture production 1950-2014. Available at: http://www.fao.org/fishery/statistics/en

aquaculture officer and backstopping officer for the GFCM Scientific Advisory Committee on Aquaculture (CAQ).

The expanding aquaculture industry in the Mediterranean and the Black Sea has contributed significantly to the supply of sustainable and healthy food fish, both within the region and outside, and has created direct and indirect employment opportunities, including in coastal communities where job opportunities are generally lacking. As the industry continues to flourish, concerns have been raised in terms of its sustainability. The aquaculture sector thus has a crucial economic and social importance in the region which is only likely to be strengthened over time; it is therefore in the interest of all stakeholders that the aquaculture be, and remain, sustainable.

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[ AQUACULTURE ] The GFCM has a clear mandate to promote the sustainable development and responsible management of aquaculture, a task it has supported since 1995 through the CAQ, its scientific advisory body for aquaculture. The main areas covered by this committee address for instance issues connected to aquaculture governance, the promotion of marine spatial planning and allocated zones for aquaculture (AZA), environmental monitoring programmes for marine cage finfish farming, sustainable management of coastal lagoons and the development of sustainability indicators at the national and regional levels. The CAQ follows an ecosystem approach to aquaculture and is also promoting cooperation in the region through a series of projects.

The GFCM commitment In 2013, the aquaculture multistakeholder platform (AMShP) was launched by the GFCM as a regional consultative body, following the positive results of participatory EUfunded aquaculture projects such as SHoCMed, InDAM, LaMed, MedAquaMarket and based on the fruitful discussions held within the AquaMed project. This regional platform includes researchers, NGOs, private industries, representatives from civil society, administrators, etc., and supports the CAQ’s advisory capacity in the GFCM by providing a forum where regional aquaculture stakeholders can share information and propose solutions to challenges facing the aquaculture industry.

In line with this work, the highlevel Regional Conference “Blue Growth in the Mediterranean and the Black Sea: developing sustainable aquaculture for food security�, organized in 2014 by the GFCM, took stock of the progress made by aquaculture in the region and 26

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The strategy for the development of aquaculture in the Mediterranean and the Black Sea region aims at environmental, economic, and social sustainability.

provided key elements to address priorities and transboundary challenges towards aquaculture sustainability. On the wake of the Conference, and within the remit of its mandate to promote the growth of responsible aquaculture, the GFCM commenced an internal reflection on how to facilitate this development process and address regional and local specificities. This led the Commission to agree, at its thirty-ninth session, on the establishment of the GFCM Aquaculture Task Force (ATF) in order to develop a “Strategy for the sustainable development of Mediterranean and Black Sea Aquaculture�.

The strategy on aquaculture aims at fulfilling multiple purposes that include ensuring the harmonised development of aquaculture activities within a blue growth perspective across the region, and further improving the CAQ’s ability to provide technical advice to the GFCM, says Abdellah Srour, Executive Secretary of the GFCM. The consultation process involves experts and national focal points appointed by eighteen contracting parties to the GFCM as well as by cooperating non-contracting

parties; and the preparation of the strategy considers national aquaculture development plans and supra-national ones (e.g.

EU), while relying on a participatory approach and creating the opportunity for concrete actions aiming at addressing common priorities, Mr Srour clarifies.

Several donors, including the European Union, have been supporting the work on the aquaculture strategy. Italy in particular has played a key role in supporting the establishment of the ATF. Riccardo Rigillo, Director General for Maritime Fisheries and Aquaculture at the Italian Ministry of Agricultural, Food, and Forestry Policies feels that cooperative models and regional activities are an essential part of the GFCM aquaculture strategy in order to ensure a more sustainable aquaculture in the region and guarantee employment and development.

Opening the debate on common issues and priorities But what is exactly a task force in the GFCM context? According to Stefano Cataudella, GFCM

Chairperson, the task force is essentially an instrument that allows members and cooperating countries of the GFCM to continue working during the intersessional periods on issues raised during GFCM annual sessions. It was in fact a task force that was used to reform the GFCM itself in 2011. Stefano Cataudella is the coordinator of the GFCM aquaculture task force, which is charged with identifying a common character of the region’s aquaculture sector. We need to put together the pieces of this mosaic, says Prof. Cataudella, the countries in the GFCM area of application share species, the environment, as well as markets, but they do not have the same legal framework. Indeed, what qualifies as safe and healthy production in one country, may not in another. With respect to the authority and the autonomy of each country we want to open the discussion.

The first meeting of the ATF, held in Naples, Italy, in May 2016, provided a starting point to define the basic elements for a regional aquaculture strategy. The documents produced, www.eurofishmagazine.com

[ AQUACULTURE ] experts’ presentations and subsequent discussions provided a basis for a matrix containing the main axes that will represent the leading themes addressed by the strategy, i.e.: regulatory frameworks; healthy environment and health management; market for aquaculture products (including aspects related to the image of aquaculture). Once finalised, the GFCM strategy will be a detailed document including not only expected objectives and targets, but also outputs, management tools, indicators to monitor progress and a timeline with short, medium and long term activities.

Stakeholder platforms have a vital role Houssam Hamza, vice-chairperson of the CAQ, from Tunisia, is also enthusiastic about the ATF. He emphasizes the role of the regional AMShP and of national stakeholder platforms as powerful knowledge tools helping feed the strategy in the consultative process.

In Tunisia, already back in 2011 a national multi-stakeholder platform was established, where representatives from research, farmers, fishermen, NGOs, civil society etc. could identify common issues and suggest amendments to national legislation.

The initiative then spread to the local level so that potential investors in the sector had to submit their plans to the local multistakeholder platform as well as to the national one for them to be evaluated. Tunisia is not alone in this regard. Other countries in the region, including Algeria, Morocco, Lebanon and Egypt, all have similar fora where aquaculture issues can be discussed by different stakeholders. The experience with multi-stakeholder platforms at the national level www.eurofishmagazine.com

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in different countries convinced Mr Hamza of the need for such a body at the regional level too.

This would serve two purposes, he reasons. It would enable new stakeholders to participate in the aquaculture development process, and it would be a quicker and more flexible tool than at disposal of the parties. By representing the entire region, the AMShP would also carry more weight in funding matters and be able to stake a legitimate claim to a greater share of the global funding that goes to the fisheries sector. Bringing aquaculture sceptics on-board will also improve the chances for dialogue and for getting opponents and proponents of the aquaculture sector to better understand the other’s perspective.

The presence of these different bodies within the GFCM, all essentially supporting the sustainable development of the aquaculture sector in the region, might appear to some to be the creation of a highly overlaid structure with unnecessary overlap between functions and areas of competency.

Fabio Massa recalls that aquaculture is a complex activity that encompasses social, economic and environmental dimensions as evident in the provisions of Art. 9 of the FAO Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries, which specifically addresses aquaculture development. The different bodies therefore have very different mandates and roles and reflect the exigency of a holistic and multi-disciplinary approach to sustainable aquaculture.

Indeed, the CAQ provides technical advice for the work of the Commission, while the AMShP is a subsidiary body of the CAQ that reflects the different priorities of its members from a wider

Oyster farms in Morocco date back to the 50s, but production from fish and shellfish farming is relatively modest, something the government is keen to change.

point of view. An illustration of the coordination among the different bodies and their respective fields can be found in the output of a meeting on shellfish aquaculture in the Mediterranean and the Black Sea held last year in Cattolica, Italy. The participants included national shellfish experts, administrators, researchers and representatives from industry and NGOs coming from 13 countries, who got together for the first time in order to review the recent progress made in shellfish aquaculture in the region and identify priorities. The stakeholders agreed on the identification of 75 specific indicators to monitor the sustainable development of mussel and oyster farming in the Mediterranean and the Black Sea; these results have been reported to the GFCM and now constitute a knowledge tool at disposal of the ATF when addressing issues related to shellfish farming in the region.

The strategy must evolve steadily The consultative process among the main actors is well underway and the outcomes will be translated into an aquaculture strategy

by the ATF. Once the strategy has been approved by the Commission, it will be adopted by the CPCs. This degree of discussion will naturally prolong the process and allow to obtain a strategy that is acceptable to, and implementable by, most if not all the countries in the region.

The political and economic complexity of the Mediterranean and the Black Sea region means that countries are at different stages of preparedness to implement the strategy and finding a shared character of the aquaculture sector in a region as complex as the Mediterranean and the Black Sea is therefore an ambitious task.

However, bringing together the different stakeholders and fostering an exchange of ideas and experiences is already a useful outcome and an important step towards the objective to be met.

Agreeing on a viable strategy for the sustainable development of aquaculture in the region that would be governed by a framework of harmonised rules would be the icing on the cake. That, as Prof. Cataudella is aware, will be sometime in the distant future. “We are still only at the beginning of the process,� he says.

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[ EDUCATION ] Zaragoza institute offers intensive courses in ďŹ sheries and aquaculture

State-of-the-art content and international contacts The International Centre for Advanced Mediterranean Agronomic Studies (CIHEAM) is an intergovernmental organisation owned by 13 Mediterranean countries in Europe and North Africa. The centre focuses on the Mediterranean and the challenges that exist there looking in particular at issues of environmental protection, food security and nutrition, and sustainable development.

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IHEAM is comprised of a network of four institutes located in Italy, France, Spain, and Greece, and a headquarters in Paris. Activities in the four institutes are within the areas of education, research, technical assistance, and policy development and aim broadly to secure a prosperous and sustainable future for the Mediterranean region and its citizens.

Programme duration can be two weeks or two years Training is a core activity at the institutes. The institute in Spain, the Mediterranean Agronomic Institute in Zaragoza (IAMZ), offers training at the master’s level as well as short courses for professionals in several disciplines. The master’s degree takes two years to complete and is equivalent to a master’s degree offered by the Spanish university system and recognised by the Spanish state.

Currently, master’s degrees are offered in sustainable fisheries management (in collaboration with the University of Alicante, and the Spanish Ministry of Agriculture, Food, and Environment) and in marine aquaculture (in collaboration with the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and the Canary Institute of Marine Science).

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Thierry Chopin, professor of marine biology at the University of New Brunswick in Canada, and one of the lecturers on the course is an expert in Integrated Multi-Trophic Aquaculture (IMTA).

The short courses for professionals last one to two weeks and combine the latest information on the subject of the course with the opportunity to network with other students and the instructors.

The courses are usually organised together with other national or international organisations among which the FAO is perhaps the most important with different departments having contributed

to about half the courses held. The European Commission, Spanish Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Environment, the Spanish Institute of Oceanography (IEO), the French Research Institute for Exploitation of the Sea (IFREMER), and the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) are among the other institutions that have collaborated on these courses.

High degree of international collaboration Apart from the technical content of these courses they are also designed to promote cooperative research among the member countries of CIHEAM within the fields of agriculture, food, and rural development. The training is conducted by staff at IAMZ as www.eurofishmagazine.com

[ EDUCATION ] well as by some 250 guest lecturers from 80 countries, and the actual teaching may be at the IAMZ campus or at the facilities of partner institutions.

At IAMZ the areas of expertise are plant production; animal production; environment; food science, technology and marketing; and fisheries and aquaculture. The institute is the only one under CIHEAM that specialises in fisheries and aquaculture.

Annually, about 400 students participate in the eight master’s programmes (four a year) and roughly 12 short courses that are held each year. Within this portfolio two master’s programmes and three short courses (2016) are dedicated to fisheries and aquaculture subjects.

This year IAMZ organised a course on the culturing techniques, uses, and prospects for marine algae that was taught

Lynn Cornish, Acadian Seaplants, Canada, found it exceedingly useful to learn about other cultivation techniques, to see what new innovations were being explored and implemented, and to further her understanding of algae in general.

and students. Lynn Cornish, seed stock manager at a Canadian company that harvests, cultivates, and processes marine plants for a variety of uses, was

“Really good for networking and to learn more about the potential of algae�

Beatriz Garcia Sanchez, Centro de Experimentacion Pesquera, Depto. de Algas, Principado de Asturias, Spain in collaboration with the University of Las Palmas on Grand Canaria. The course was truly international with participants from 13 countries and lecturers from five, a mix that contributed to animated discussions during the week-long programme.

The students too were a diverse group ranging from post doc and doctoral candidates to younger students as well as working professionals. For all the participants the course was also an opportunity to network and to meet different stakeholders – administrators, researchers, employees of commercial companies, www.eurofishmagazine.com

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both an instructor and a student on the course. She found that the organisers actively encouraged networking not only during the course, but, by making contact details of the participants available to all, also when the students returned home.

While expanding contacts was an important element the course was also designed to further knowledge and understanding about marine algae and to introduce students to the latest innovations in the field. According to Ms Cornish, the presentations were “extremely comprehensive,� covering a wide range of

topics, and some from very different perspectives.

IMTA demonstrates the benefits of polyculture Perhaps most importantly the programme was not just abstract theory, but concepts that could be applied. Some of the research presented by university staff could easily lead to ideas that have practical applications. For example, one of the areas where marine algae show a lot of potential is in Integrated Multi-Trophic

where seaweeds/aquatic plants and animals recover nutrients from uneaten feed and by-products from the fish. Seaweeds, for example, can extract nutrients, such as nitrogen and phosphorus that are dissolved in the water; other organisms, such as mussels and oysters, recover the small organic particles suspended in the water, while yet others, such as sea urchins, sea cucumbers, and sea worms, feed on the larger organic particles that accumulate on the seabed. These interactions are examples of “services�

“I learned a lot about the cultivation of seaweed and microalgae both from a theoretical and practical point of view�

Dr Leila Ktari, National Institute of Marine Science, Tunisia Aquaculture or IMTA. Thierry Chopin, professor of marine biology at the University of New Brunswick in Canada, and one of the lecturers on the course is an expert on IMTA. He describes it as a way of mimicking nature,

provided by these organisms for the benefit of the ecosystem.

IMTA is thus a system combining organisms at different trophic levels, where some provide nutrients and others recover them. Moreover, Eurofish Magazine 5 / 2016

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[ EDUCATION ]

Ahmed Fawzi Ali Alamrousi, who is working on his Ph.D at the University of La Coruna, Spain, benefited greatly from the information on cultivation techniques and from meeting other course participants with similar interests.

Professor Chopin emphasises the importance of using species that are of commercial value if IMTA is to become widespread. In Asia, for cultural and historical reasons, the concept is well known, particularly in east and southeast Asia, where people are used to eating seaweeds and different invertebrates in addition to fish. In China, Korea and Japan, for example, there is a major seaweed industry based on the cultivation of several species in particular kombu, wakame and nori - which are consumed in a variety of forms. Seaweeds are not only a source of nutritious products, they also offer many people with a livelihood in coastal regions.

In the west, says Thierry Chopin, consumers need to be educated about seaweeds and invertebrates as food items, an exercise that will take time and effort. He feels that there are two factors in particular that can have an impact on the spread of IMTA. Firstly, a strong economic case in its favour will do much to boost its use. To make this case, however, it is necessary to reach a certain scale, and to value appropriately the ecosystem 30

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services rendered by the extractive species. Secondly, regulations will have to be adapted that will enable this scale to be reached. In much of the USA, Canada and Europe regulations are aimed at the cultivation of single species, while IMTA is a balanced ecosystem-based management approach for the cultivation of several species, taking advantage of their interactions for long-term sustainability and resilience.

Seaweeds have potential as carbon sinks The cultivation of seaweeds has also been mooted as a sink to absorb carbon emissions and thus play a role in slowing global warming. Ik Kyo Chung, director of the Marine Research Institute, Pusan National University, Republic of

Korea, and another of the course instructors, was for the five years to 2011 the principle investigator in a government-supported project exploring the potential of using seaweed as a carbon dioxide sink. At a pilot farm the researchers measured seaweed biomass and carried out chemical analyses of the seawater discovering that about 10 tonnes of CO2eq could be sequestered in seaweeds (Ecklonia cava). According to Dr Chung, growing seaweed in the ocean can thereby serve both as an income generator (by exploiting the biomass) and, by reducing the amount of carbon in the atmosphere, as an ecosystem service.

Learning about the commercial potential of algae was highly interesting for students from the

Mediterranean region too. Beatriz Garcia Sanchez works for the local government in Asturias in north west Spain, where she monitors locally growing algae as part of a project that provides information and advice to companies and others that are interested in seaweed cultivation. She participated in the course to learn more about different kinds of algae, their potential, and to find out what other people were doing in the field. At a laboratory in the National Institute of Marine Science in Tunisia, Dr Leila Ktari is developing natural anti-foulants that are less toxic for the environment than currently available synthetic alternatives. Her work involves looking at seaweed as a source of compounds that may have anti-fouling properties.

The Mediterranean Sea does not have a lot of seaweed biomass, and therefore seaweed has to be cultivated if it is needed for commercial purposes. Learning about seaweed cultivation techniques was the main reason for her to attend the course and in that respect she found it was very useful and interesting.

The marine algae course seems to have found the right balance between theoretical knowledge and fieldwork. The format brings together people from many parts of the world fostering collaboration and a valuable exchange of ideas and experience between lecturers and students to the mutual benefit of both.

For more information visit www.ciheam.org

CIHEAM ďŹ sheries and aquaculture course calendar Date

Place

Organisation

Technological solutions for reduction of discards in ďŹ sheries

20-24 Feb. 17

Zaragoza, Spain

IAMZ/EU-MINOUW project

Safety assessment of seafood products

24-28 Apr. 17

Derio, Spain

IAMZ/AZTI-Tecnalia/FAO

www.eurofishmagazine.com

[ FISHERIES ] The eel ďŹ shery in Denmark

Commercial eel ďŹ shers decline in number The Danish eel ďŹ shery is struggling to cope with the challenges it is facing. Some of these are speciďŹ c, such as the short validity of the eel ďŹ shing license, while others, such as predation by seals and cormorants, affect the coastal ďŹ shery at large.

The harbour office at Mosede Havn, a small fishing port south of Copenhagen, where a few fishers still target eel.

R

ecruitment of glass eels has been declining in Europe since the 80s and since around 2000 has fallen to as low as 1-5 of the pre-1980 levels.

Eel stock abundance has been falling since the 60s and poor recruitment means the stock will continue to decline. As a result, European eel (Anguilla anguilla) has been listed as critically

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endangered by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) and is listed by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna (CITES) in its Appendix II, following which the species though not threatened with immediate extinction, may become so unless international

trade in the species is closely controlled. Accordingly, a special permit is required for the export of European eel.

National management plans developed The critical state of the eel stock within Europe together with warnings from ICES prompted adoption

of the European eel regulation of 2007 (“establishing measures for the recovery of the stock of European eelâ€?), which enjoins Member States with eel habitats on their territories to develop and implement national eel management plans. According to the legislation, EU countries must take measures that, among others, allow 40 of adult eels to escape from Eurofish Magazine 5 / 2016

31

[ FISHERIES ] of which are still shrouded in mystery, but it is fairly well established that eels spawn in the southwestern part of the Sargasso Sea. This is body of water within the Atlantic Ocean and the only sea in the world without a land boundary.

Instead its borders are defined by currents, the Gulf Stream to the west, the North Atlantic Current to the north, the Canary Current to the east, and the North Atlantic Equatorial Current to the south.

Claus Erik Olsen, an eel fisherman, and his wife Christine also run a cafĂŠ in the harbour.

inland waters to the sea, where they can spawn. This proportion is with reference to “the best estimate of escapement that would have existed if no anthropogenic influences had impacted the stock.�

Denmark was actively involved in the drafting of the European eel regulation participating in the various bodies that were part of the process including the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES), European Inland Fisheries Advisory Commission (EIFAC), and various working groups on eel. Following the adoption of the EU legislation in 2007 a national eel management plan was implemented by the Danish authorities. The 32

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national plan had two basic elements. The first covered marine waters and sought to reduce the fishing effort on eel to 50 of the average effort deployed between 2004 and 2006. The second related to freshwater and aimed to reduce mortality to the point where the 40 condition mentioned earlier could be satisfied.

Danish catches come primarily from the sea According to the national eel management plan, the Danish eel fishery takes place all around the country in bays, lagoons, fjords as well as inland waters. About 95 of the catch is from marine waters.

Fishers, who may be commercial

or recreational, use a variety of gears including fyke nets, pound nets, trawls, seines, traps, pots and spears. One of the eel fishing harbours is Mosede Havn a little south of Copenhagen. Here, Claus Erik Olsen has a license to fish for eel which he does with a pound net. The eels from the Baltic are on their way to the Sargasso Sea to spawn, when some of them are intercepted by Mr Olsen’s nets. However, he says, only a tiny fraction, 1, is caught, the rest continue on their way through the straits and to the North Sea. The European eel is catadromous (migrates from freshwater to the sea to spawn) and semelparous (spawns only once in its lifetime).

It has a complex life history, parts

A report from the ICES working group on eel (ICES WGEEL 2015) describes how the larvae float with the currents to the continental shelf of Europe and North Africa before metamorphosing into glass eels. In fact, the presence of these currents may be one of the reasons eels migrate to the Sargasso Sea in the first place. Peter Rask Moeller, an associate professor at the Danish Natural History Museum, who actually trawled for eel larvae in the Sargasso Sea in 2014, says that most larvae can be found at the subtropical fronts between warm and cold zones in the sea at around latitude 26N, a discovery made almost 100 years ago by another Danish biologist, Ernst Johannes Schmidt. The growth phase of their lives, when they are called yellow eels, extends from two and up to 25 years (sometimes even more than 50), after which they metamorphose again, this time into silver eels, signalling maturity. At this stage they begin their long migration back to the Sargasso Sea, whence they came as larvae, to spawn and then die, an act that has so far not been witnessed.

Eel widely distributed in Denmark The eel is essentially a deep sea fish, says Henrik Carl, a scientist at the Danish Natural History www.eurofishmagazine.com

Niels Skalkam

[ FISHERIES ]

Seals are an unalloyed menace, killing vast quantities of fish, destroying nets, and occasionally topping themselves in the bargain.

Museum, typically living for 10-12 years in European waters and then migrating back to the deep sea to spawn. Questions abound as to the purpose of this migration over thousands of kilometres, but the Sargasso Sea is in fact a favourable place for breeding as it is something of a desert with few predators that feed on the eel larvae. This changes as the larvae drift towards Europe, where cod, herring, mackerel and other species all prey on the larvae. Furthermore, as glass eel, they are targeted by fishermen in Portugal, Spain, France, and the UK, making the journey into freshwater a hazardous enterprise. In Denmark (as in other countries) most eel leave the sea and move upstream. Henrik Carl points to a mapping exercise for eel in freshwater that shows that eel is the most widely distributed fish www.eurofishmagazine.com

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in Denmark, thanks to its capacity to live in all kinds of water bodies, from small streams to big lakes. He and Peter Rask Moeller are now working on an atlas of Danish saltwater fish for which they have had to study coastal waters and during their sampling trips inevitably they have found eel. The point they make is that despite the drastic decline in the eel population in Europe, the species is not threatened to the point of extinction.

Genetics has now fairly clearly established that there is only one population of European eel in Europe and North Africa with eel from both regions travelling to the Sargasso Sea to spawn, says Peter Rask Moeller. This leads to a comprehensive pooling of genetic material resulting in larvae that may have forebears

from anywhere in a region that stretches from Norway to Egypt.

It is in fact the Nile in Egypt that hosts the largest numbers of European eel. Although dismissive of the possibility of extinction the researchers agree that fishing is just one of the factors that can impact the European eel population. In Denmark most lakes suffer from eutrophication, fish farms and hydropower stations block rivers, many water courses suffer from acidity and elevated levels of iron, and, perhaps most damaging of all, land reclamation has seen the draining of small ponds, shallow fjords, wetlands, and lakes to create agricultural land, depriving the eel of thousands of hectares of habitat. The Danish eel management plan goes some way towards reversing these developments by implementing several measures

to meet the requirements of the EU eel regulation and to rehabilitate the stock in the country. These include reducing the fishing effort, improving habitat conditions, restocking, and mitigating structural factors that contribute to eel mortality.

Three-month eel fishing season While the number of eel fishing licenses has been reduced, they are still issued. For Claus Erik Olsen, the Danish fisherman, eel is the main species he targets.

Catches over the last years have tended to fluctuate, he says. Over the last 10-year-period there have been perhaps seven good years versus three bad ones, but in general his catches have increased over time. This is at odds with official data on commercial Eurofish Magazine 5 / 2016

33

[ FISHERIES ] Niels Skalkam, another eel fisher from the area, says that construction in the water, such as pillars for bridges, wind mills, or artificial reefs can have an impact on the currents and thereby an impact on the fishery. While opinions among fishers may differ on some of the factors that influence the fishery, unanimity is absolute on two issues – predation by seals and cormorants, and the one-year-validity of the eel fishing license.

Preserving the fishery calls for changes in regulations

For Joern Larsen, who has been a fisherman for almost forty years, fishing is not an occupation, but a lifestyle.

marine catches of eel, which show a decline over the 10 years to 2014 from 517 to 317 tonnes.

Mr Olsen puts his nets in the sea at the beginning of September and they remain in the water for two months. It takes several days to install all the nets and then to take them down at the end of the season, so Mr Olsen stops fishing by the third week of November, so that the nets can be dismantled before Christmas. If it gets very cold in the winter and the water freezes the ice would destroy the nets. This would be a significant loss as the nets are worth between DKK500,000 and DKK1m (EUR67,000 to EUR134,000). The first net starts close to the shore on the seabed at a depth of about 2 m 34

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and extend out for 700-800 m. The next net will be further out and so on, but there is a limit on how far out in to the sea they may extend.

In a good year some 25-30 tonnes of eel as well as a number of other less commercially valuable species will be trapped in the nets.

The eel fishery like the rest of the Danish fishery is seeing a gradual reduction in the number of fishers. Several factors are behind this development. An earlier reform of the fishing sector saw a consolidation of quotas and a reduction in the number of vessels. Reporting requirements have become increasingly onerous prompting many fishers to throw in the towel; older fishers

are not being replaced by a younger generation as youngsters are not attracted to the physically demanding (and dangerous) occupation since alternative employment opportunities exist.

And for eel fishermen in particular, the Danish eel management plan has resulted in a fall by almost a third in the number of commercial eel fishing licences between 2009 and 2014. On top of these issues that have contributed to the decline in the number of fishermen, many commercial fishers also feel threatened by recreational fishermen. While the number of recreational fishers officially registered is some 34,000, Mr Olsen for example suspects the figure is significantly higher.

Seals not only kill fish but also damage valuable fishing gear.

They also get caught in the nets and drown and then have to be freed. Cormorants can also injure fish leaving them impossible to sell. Joern Larsen, another eel fisher in Mosede Haven, is convinced that if something is not done about the menace there will soon be no coastal fishery left in Denmark.

According to Mr Skalkam killing the seals should be permitted if they enter the nets. The short term of the license is in its own way as detrimental to the future of the fishery as are the predators. With a license that is valid for only a year we cannot plan nor risk investing, says Mr Olsen, as we never know whether we will be allowed to continue fishing. Vessels, nets, and other gear are therefore maintained at the bare minimum level needed to be able to fish. While this uncertainty is bad for the fishermen, perhaps it is good for the eel. A 2015 report shows that the reductions in eel fishing effort and catches over the seven years to 2014 conform to what was envisaged in the European eel regulation and the Danish eel management plan. www.eurofishmagazine.com

POLAND

The priorities of Polish ďŹ sheries and aquaculture

Poland will strive to ensure healthy cod stocks in the Baltic Janusz Wrona, Director of the Fisheries Department in the Ministry of Maritime Economy and Inland Navigation, discusses some of the important issues affecting the Polish ďŹ sheries and the aquaculture sector.

I

n the fall of 2015 Poles elected a new government to power triggering several changes in structure and personnel.

Among the changes was that the Department of Fisheries moved from the Ministry of Agriculture to the Ministry of Maritime Economy and Inland Navigation.

In an interview with Eurofish, Janusz Wrona, Director of the Fisheries Department pointed out that fisheries policies have not changed, and the priorities of the administration regarding aquaculture remain the same.

Baltic Sea cod remains a priority A major focus continues to be addressing the insufficient availability of Baltic Sea cod, an important species for Poland.

There have been low populations of cod observed in the sea, both in terms of individuals and schools. Scientists have been unable to provide a comprehensive explanation for this, but suggest a few natural factors that could contribute to low numbers of cod, such as the lack of inflows into the Baltic Sea. in addition, pelagic fisheries have been catching fish that are natural prey for cod. Another area of uncertainty is that the health status of cod is declining, and pathologists have not yet been able to identify a clear cause. They point to an increasing seal population as www.eurofishmagazine.com

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Janusz Wrona, Director of the Fisheries Department in the Ministry of Maritime Economy and Inland Navigation.

a possible source, as seals can carry parasites which could then spread to cod. Poland’s vision for the future includes implementing as many initiatives as possible to improve cod availability, noted

Director Wrona, adding that this had also been an area of high priority before the political changes.

Poland has just held the rotating presidency of Baltfish, under

which Poland put forward several proposals, which focused on improving the cod population.

These included changing the minimum landing size (MLS) of cod from 35 centimetres,

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POLAND

Sustainability in the Baltic, and certification, are also key issues. Director Wrona noted that Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certification can be a key factor for sales, especially in the European region, though ultimately the market will determine the worth of certification.

Fishermen are interested in certifications, especially for pelagic fish, but the costs related to certification have gone up, leading many fishermen to reconsider its costs versus the benefits.

Director Wrona also spoke briefly about the status of producer organisations (PO) in Poland. In general, POs for fisheries are well established and currently number ten, yet they have slower to form in the aquaculture sector, where there are only two at the moment. Part of the reason lies in the fact that as a wild resource production and prices for fisheries products tend to fluctuate far more than they do in the aquaculture sector. The day’s weather, catches, and market demand, are among the factors that push prices up and down and there is thus greater need among fishermen for the market stabilising mechanisms that POs offer.

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Piotr Slowik

as it is now, to 38, and changing cod fishing practices in the Bornholm deep, which is where breeding occurs, as there are concerns that fishing in the area is destroying the roe. Poland was also interested in reducing fisheries for sprat and herring as these are species that cod preys on. Unfortunately, these proposals were not supported by the other members of Baltfish. Despite these differences in opinion, Director Wrona maintains that Baltfish is a useful forum for countries in the region and also for Poland.

New and innovative projects gain extra points when seeking support from the EMFF. Jurassic Salmon produces organic fish on land using water that is 150m years old.

Aquaculture will see investments in recirculation systems, traditional pond farming Production in the Polish aquaculture sector stems from modern closed recirculation systems, traditional intensive farms and traditional extensive systems.

Aquaculture in Poland continues to be dominated by carp and trout and is supported strongly by the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF). Poland is taking measures to diversify and add greater value to its aquaculture production. For example, when evaluating applications seeking support from the EMFF, Poland gives additional points to applicants whose proposals include new and innovative products, processes, or species. This approach has already met with some success. Examples include a project dedicated to salmon farming, and investments in sturgeon caviar production that have resulted in Poland evolving from being an insignificant producer to the fourth-biggest in Europe and the seventh in the world in terms of production volumes.

Less successful however were attempts to diversify into barramundi and tilapia farming.

The department will continue to encourage diversification and greater value addition, but will also rely on more comprehensive evaluations to ensure the long term viability of projects.

For traditional extensive farming Director Wrona anticipated that support would mainly be indirect and would go to water management, environmental sustainability, and compensating farmers for the higher costs of environmental compliance.

Russian embargo may lead to greater competition on Polish market Director Wrona noted that the Russian trade embargo had a minimal impact on the processing sector in Poland. Surveys were conducted to confirm this, and the evidence showed that processing was largely unaffected by the embargo. Exports of Polish production to Russia were not very significant to begin with, making up a very small proportion

of Poland’s total seafood production. Polish processing plants have become so specialized and achieved such high quality products that their production is more expensive, and thus goes primarily to markets other than Russia. Russia is more significant to Poland in terms of providing cod and other raw materials to be sent to Poland to be processed. There is still the possibility, though, for indirect impacts on Polish producers, because foreign goods that could not be sent to Russia are sent to other European countries instead, which may result in domestic producers facing greater competition for Polish consumers.

With support from the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund Poland’s fisheries and aquaculture sector will continue to develop solutions that will enable it to stay competitive in the years to come. A belief in multilateral institutions such as Baltfish and the discipline imposed by the market ensure the fundamental strength of the sector and will allow it to tackle both natural and man-made challenges. www.eurofishmagazine.com

POLAND

The aquaculture sector in Poland

Ambitious strategy to increase production and sales The Polish aquaculture sector is overwhelmingly dominated by the production of common carp and trout. InsigniďŹ cant volumes of other carps, sturgeons, and predatory species, such as catďŹ shes, and pike, are also farmed.

P

olish aquaculture can be broadly categorised into traditional extensive, that is, earthen ponds for the production of carp often in polyculture with other species; traditional intensive, which refers to the culture in raceways, typically of trout; and finally modern intensive. The latter implies the use of recirculation aquaculture systems used mainly for trout and stocking material in which the water is reused after being sent through a series of filters.

Carp ponds are beneficial for the environment There are about 65,000 ha of carp ponds in Poland with a production of some 19,500 t of cyprinids (2014) of which 18,400 tonnes, or 94, is common carp (Cyprinus carpio). Eurostat figures show that common carp production has remained stable since 2010 when it was 18,133 t. Fish ponds are usually built on agricultural land that is unsuitable for crop production. They may also contribute to the better management of water resources serving to accumulate water which can then be used in dry periods, and to regulate and mitigate the effects of flooding. Studies have also shown that fish ponds play a role in reducing the nutrient load of water from agricultural runoff and municipal centres. There are www.eurofishmagazine.com

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thus several benefits associated with pond farming. In addition, the presence of fish in the ponds, the rural surroundings, and the abundant water and vegetation in pond areas combine to act as a magnet for wildlife including birds and animals that prey on fish. While this wild fauna is generally regarded as beneficial for the environment, it can have a severe negative impact on fish production. Cormorants in particular pose a problem to fish farmers, one made worse by their status as a protected species, which means that farmers may generally only use nonlethal methods to prevent them preying on the fish. Shooting cormorants on ponds requires a special permit from the Regional Directorate of Environment Protection.

Carp ponds are characteristic of the central and southern parts of Poland where temperatures are milder and the water warmer.

Productivity of the ponds is increased with the addition of other cyprinids (silver carp, grass carp, bighead carp, goldfish, and tench) as well as catfish and pike to make better use of the naturally occurring flora and fauna in the pond. The predatory species apart from being valuable in themselves also hold down the numbers of trash fish (species of no commercial value) in the ponds. Some farmers also supply

additional feed in the form of cereals to increase yields (traditional semi-intensive). Feeding with cereals is expensive and as carp prices have stayed more or less the same, it is not low cost effective. The productivity of carp ponds varies widely. The average for Poland as a whole is about 370 kg, says Prof. Arkadiusz Wolos, head of the Department of Fishery Bioeconomics at the Stanisław Sakowicz Inland Fisheries Institute, but this includes ponds which are used for the production of stocking material or fry, where yield per ha is much lower. Some farms can achieve much higher yields with the use of supplementary feeds, good management practices, and thanks to favourable

environmental conditions.

Farms with fully integrated operation include smaller hatchery ponds for the production of larvae, as well as on-growing, and overwintering ponds. When the fish are one-season old they may either be sold to other farmers to stock their ponds or are grown further for the market.

Value-added carp products are slowly taking off Carps typically have a two or three-year cycle to reach a market-sized fish depending on the climatic conditions. The colder the climate the longer the fish takes to grow to market size of 1.5 to 2.5 kg. Carps are traditionally

Prof. Arkadiusz Wolos, head of the Department of Fishery Bioeconomics, Stanisław Sakowicz Inland Fisheries Institute.

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POLAND

sold live either at the farm gate or through retailers where the fish is kept in tanks. It is only traded on the domestic market and traditionally most carp is consumed around the Christmas period. Processed carp is becoming slightly more common in the form of filleted, deboned, smoked, or vacuum-packaged fish. Producers are aware that it will become more difficult to sell whole fish and that developing value-added products is necessary if sales of carp are to increase.

As the number of working women increases they increasingly seek convenience. Consumers are less willing to spend time on shopping for and preparing meals and look for easier solutions than whole live fish. Moreover, market surveys have shown that some consumers consider carp too bony, difficult to cook, and lacking in taste. Acknowledging this a carp farmers’ producer organisation

is preparing a production plan that will include proposals to build small processing plants that would meet the market needs, says Lidia Kacalska-Bienkowska from the Department of Fisheries. Efforts to add value to the production are being officially encouraged. Applications seeking support through the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF), for example, will earn more points if they include measures to diversify production including the development of added-value products. Increasing the consumption of carp in Poland will also call for promotion campaigns that target both the general population, but specifically also kindergartens, schools, and institutions for young people.

Over the years there have been several such campaigns in Poland and these need to continue and be developed further to ensure that carp maintains its popularity.

Lidia Kacalska-Bienkowska, Department of Fisheries, Ministry of Maritime Economy and Inland Navigation 38

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10_POLAND (PL).indd 38

Trout production has grown rapidly While carp has been farmed in Poland for centuries the other main farmed fish in Poland, rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss), is a relative newcomer having been cultivated on a large scale in the 70s. Growth in the production of farmed trout has been rapid thanks to the ready acceptance on the domestic market, an export market across the border in Germany, the development of value-added products such as smoked fillets and modified atmosphere packaged (MAP) fish, but, perhaps most importantly the relatively short growing cycle.

While it takes three years to produce a carp for the table it is only around 15 months for trout.

Trout is farmed both in raceways and in recirculation systems, but the vast majority of trout farms

in Poland produce the fish in raceways. Estimates of production of all salmonids (rainbow trout, brook trout, Arctic char, etc.) vary from 15,200 t (Eurostat, 2014) to 16,100 t (Stanisław Sakowicz Inland Fisheries Institute) while the Polish Trout Breeders’ Association (PTBA) number is 17,000 to 18,000 t.

Part of the discrepancy may be due to differences in the number of farms reporting their data.

Production of rainbow trout increased consistently from the 70s until the beginning of the millennium, when it reached about 11,500 t, but have since then tended to fluctuate without a clearly discernible trend. Jacek Juchniewicz, president of the PTBA and a trout farmer himself says production of trout in Poland today is stagnating after peaking in 2005. Today there are about 200 traditional intensive trout farms, some 50 hatcheries, and a

Prof. Andrzej Hutorowicz, director of the Stanisław Sakowicz Inland Fisheries Institute. www.eurofishmagazine.com

04/10/16 6:03 pm

POLAND

Inland ďŹ sh production in Poland, tonnes Year

Aquaculture

Angling

Total

2.80

14.90

53.90

3.03

2.51

13.40

45.17

4.03

2.99

13.90

48.24

14.57

3.88

2.51

11.70

50.36

18.80

13.70

2.60

2.70

12.00

49.80

20.30

16.10

3.70

2.70

12.00

54.80

17.50

15.00

4.00

2.40

11.50

50.40

Total

Carp

Trout

Other

2009

36.20

18.30

14.05

3.85

2010

29.26

15.40

10.83

2011

31.35

14.43

12.89

2012

36.15

17.70

2013

35.10

2014

40.10

2015*

36.50

Commercial inland ďŹ sheries

*Provisional Source: Rynek ryb - stan i perspektywy

few modern intensive farms using recirculation systems.

Aquaculture strategy proposes raft of new measures Efficient production is one part of the equation for a thriving trout industry. Among the sector’s strengths is the ability to adopt and adapt technological solutions such as recirculation systems. We cannot compete with countries where water flows at a rate of 10 cubic m per second and has a temperature of 11 degrees, notes Mr Juchniewicz.

Our advantages lie in the quality of

the education and training available, the qualifications of employees, the potential of the market, the availability of EU funds for investments, and our ability to deploy technology to create innovative solutions. Building on these assets the PTBA has formulated a long term strategy for the sector that has provided the basis for the Polish National Aquaculture Strategy 2014 to 2020. The strategy enumerates several ambitious goals including boosting the production and consumption of Polish farmed fish on the domestic market, and increasing the supply of Polish farmed fish to the processing sector. Some of these goals are a response to

developments in the market that have affected the Polish industry.

Trout used to have two main sales channels, half was sold as fresh fish on ice on the domestic market through supermarkets, fishmongers, and at the farm gate, while the other half went to processors, often German owned, for the production of smoked fillets destined for Germany.

Producers, processors should focus on the domestic market This changed with the arrival on the German market of trout from Turkey. Processors in Poland

Sturgeon farming for the production of meat and caviar is the latest addition to the Polish aquaculture industry. www.eurofishmagazine.com

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responded by selling MA packaged trout through discount chains, which addressed one of the biggest problems concerning trout distribution, the availability of a high quality product in big cities. The issue was that the quality of fresh fish on ice sold at supermarkets was sometimes of dubious quality, while farms and small fishmongers were often difficult to access. The MAP product on the other hand was convenient, had a clear best-before date, a country of origin label, and sometimes also an easyto-prepare recipe. Promotion campaigns by the PTBA and instore promotions by the discount chains contributed to the popularity of the product. The national strategy reflects the fact that increasing sales on the domestic market is desirable as demand is less fickle than it is on export markets. Cultivating the domestic market will also remove the uncertainty of exchange rate and import price fluctuations providing producers with more stable conditions. Poland has possibly the largest fish processing industry Europe based to a large degree on fish imported from Norway, Denmark, China, the US and other countries. Processed products are exported to the rest of the EU as well as to third countries such as the US. Making the processing sector less dependent

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POLAND

Sturgeon – the newcomer on the Polish aquaculture scene

Carp has been farmed in Poland for centuries in earthen ponds usually in polyculture with other species.

on imported raw material where availability can be difficult to predict by encouraging it to use more domestically-produced farmed fish is one of the key objectives of the strategy.

These objectives i.e. increasing the share on the domestic market of Polish fish farmed in intensive systems, and doubling the supply of this fish to the domestic processing industry, will be supported by another objective which is to promote the generic consumption of farmed fish. The goal is to increase the per capita consumption of fish by 2 kg to 14 kg by 2020.

Challenges to be overcome if strategy is to succeed While these and the other objectives of the strategy (e.g. diversification of income streams by small farmers, focusing education on technology and innovation for the 40

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sector) are worthy goals to achieve, Mr Juchniewicz points to some of the barriers facing the sector that will need to be overcome if the sector is to achieve its objectives.

One is the issue of water charges for fish farmers. Although it has now been decided to introduce only a nominal fee for the use of water the discussion included suggestions to set charges that would have effectively eradicated the industry. The industry needs the assurance that of low stable water charges if it is to continue to invest and expand. Veterinary regulations are another issue that is a thorn in the side of the PTBA as fish farms are not treated at par with other livestock farms and are not entitled to compensation if a stock contracts a disease and needs to be slaughtered to contain the spread. Another issue is a lack of suitably qualified graduates, a problem attributed to the declining interest in the field amongst young people.

Carp and trout farming dominate aquaculture production in Poland, but entrepreneurs have been periodically experimenting with new species including tilapia, Atlantic salmon, and sturgeon. Of the three, sturgeon used to be in fact native to Poland and the Stanisław Sakowicz Inland Fisheries Institute has for some years worked on rehabilitating it in the wild, says Prof. Ryszard Kolman, head of the Department of Ichthyology at the institute. Work on breeding technologies started at the institute at the beginning of the 1990s. The breeding programme began with broodstock obtained from Russia including Siberian sturgeon (Acipenser baerii), hybrid sterlet (Acipenser

Prof. Ryszard Kolman, head of the Department of Ichthyology, Stanisław Sakowicz Inland Fisheries Institute. www.eurofishmagazine.com

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Trout farmers in Poland have devised an ambitious strategy to increase production and the market for products from intensive cultivation systems.

ruthenus), beluga (Huso huso), bester (belgua x sterlet) and Russian sturgeon (Acipenser gueldenstadtii). The breeding was carried out in closed systems for the production of further generations of broodstock and of fry.

Experiments at the institute have developed techniques to shorten the time between spawnings, a commercially desirable trait. The institute was also responsible for breeding the sturgeon Acipenser oxyrinchus that was once native to the Baltic, and restocking the rivers Vistula, Oder and Warta.

Over the programme period some 800,000 fish of various Baltic sturgeon stocking material have been released in the Vistula and Oder catchment areas. Depending on the age (and size) of the fish used for restocking they were equipped either with microchips or carlin tags in order to track them.

Another group was equipped with telemetric transmitters that were used to follow the movements of the fish. www.eurofishmagazine.com

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Sturgeon farming in Poland is primarily for commercial purposes to produce caviar and sturgeon meat. Today sturgeon production in Poland is 472 tonnes and caviar is 1.9 tonnes. The Polish market for sturgeon meat is one of the best in Europe, according to Antoni Lakomiak, a big sturgeon producer. In the west people are not familiar with the product, but in Poland thanks in part to culture and history as well as the efforts of Mr Lakomiak’s company, Gospodarstwo Rybackie Goslawice sp. z.o.o., to build a market for the meat, the price is good. But sturgeon is farmed primarily for caviar with the meat as a useful by-product. Worldwide farmed sturgeon caviar has brought a degree of stability in terms of quality, availability, and price to a market where all three fluctuated wildly. Caviar from capture fisheries was generally cheaper, but quality varied a lot and was usually worse than it is today. The fish were at different stages of maturation and so the

caviar was of different qualities.

Finally, as overfishing, habitat destruction, and pollution decimated sturgeon stocks, catches in the wild ceased altogether.

Today CITES protection severely restricts the trade in wild sturgeon and caviar.

Can caviar end up like salmon?

Data from FAO show that global caviar production has been fairly stable for the decade up to 2012 averaging around 65 tonnes, but then jumped to 250 tonnes in 2013. Mr Lakomiak is confident that by 2020 caviar production worldwide will reach 500 t of which Europe will produce two fifths. As more caviar Is produced traders and farmers will need to devise ways to maintain caviar’s exclusive image yet at the same time widening the consumer base – a delicate balancing act.

Mr Lakomiak’s caviar company, Antonius Caviar, sells different grades of caviar distinguished by

a number of stars (from four to six, where six is the finest) at different prices. However, to attract new and more price-conscious consumers it is perhaps time to market farmed caviar not only for its taste and quality, but also for its health and environmental benefits. Today producers sell only a very small fraction of their caviar directly under their own brand, most is sold to traders who repackage the product under their own brand. Eliminating middle men would encourage producers to experiment more with prices and with marketing to different consumer segments. The growing supply of caviar is expected to expand the market yet at the same time put pressure on prices.

Less efficient producers will be forced to adapt or risk becoming irrelevant. The caviar industry today resembles the Norwegian salmon industry 25 years ago, says Mr Lakomiak. It is hard to believe, but if he is right, in the next two decades or so caviar may become just another commodity.

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Gospodarstwo Rybackie Goslawice sp. z.o.o. produces caviar and sturgeon

Sturgeon farm expands production Gospodarstwo Rybackie Goslawice in Konin was established ďŹ fty years ago to exploit the availability of warm water from a nearby thermal power plant to raise grass carp, bighead carp, and common carp. In the years that followed the production of other species was introduced including whiteďŹ sh, pike-perch, tilapia, paddleďŹ sh, ornamental ďŹ sh, European catďŹ sh, and sturgeons.

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or the last thirty years Gospodarstwo Rybackie Goslawice has been run by Antoni Lakomiak, a graduate from the University of Olsztyn’s popular faculty of water protection, fisheries, and ichthyology. In 1992 the radical political changes in Poland also brought changes to the fish farm which started rearing catfish, ornamental fish and sturgeon in addition to carp species. The introduction of some of the new species had far-reaching consequences on the company.

Sturgeon bred for caviar, carp for the table Today, sturgeon breeding for caviar is the main occupation, but the company also has two other commercial activities. A hatchery

for the production of fry and the rearing of market-sized table fish.

In addition, the farm provides angling facilities for pleasure fishermen, an activity designed more for promotion than for commercial gain. The hatchery was established in the 70s and at its peak was one of the biggest suppliers of fry to farms all over the country.

Today the production is mainly intended for the company’s own purposes, but other farmers can still buy fry of carps (grass carp, sliver carp, bighead carp) and catfish if the order is placed in advance. The rearing of fish for the market benefits from the thermal plant’s warm water, which prevents the ponds and channels from freezing in winter and thus prolongs the period when the fish can be fed. This means that the

Antoni Lakomiak, the CEO and board chairman of Gospodarstwo Rybackie Goslawice Sp.z.o.o., as well as owner of the group.

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breeding cycle can be reduced as the fish mature faster and reach market size more quickly.

Anglers coming to try their luck also benefit from the warm water from the thermal plant as the ponds do not freeze in winter and the fishermen can pursue their hobby also in the cold season. The angling ponds and lakes are restocked with fish from the hatchery and pleasure fishermen come both from within Poland and from outside to fish these ponds. The site has a number of facilities, fishing platforms, small vessels, bathrooms etc., but most important is probably the chance to catch a large specimen whether common carp, grass carp, bream, roach, chub, or a predatory fish such as pike or perch. These catches are acknowledged on websites and

social media generating useful publicity for the company.

Production based on two species of sturgeon Since 2004 the company has focused on the production of two species of sturgeon, Acipenser baerii or Siberian sturgeon, and A. gueldenstaedtii or Russian sturgeon, which are used for the production of caviar. Mr Lakomiak did a lot of groundwork before deciding to produce caviar, travelling extensively in Italy, France, and Germany to meet with people, visit farms, and learn about the market for caviar. The original idea was not to produce the caviar, but to establish collaborations with some of the producers in western Europe and sell them eight to

Marek Szczukowski, the CEO of Gospodarstwo Rybackie Olsztyn II and chairman of the board. www.eurofishmagazine.com

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nine-year-old female sturgeons to produce the caviar. This business model lasted from about 2010 to 2012 after which, for various reasons, the company decided to take the plunge and enter the caviar market itself.

The first step was the purchase of an existing farm that had been used for the production of trout in raceways. The new acquisition was located in Olsztyn some 300 km away from Konin and was selected for its existing infrastructure and abundant, high quality, supply of water, which, critically, was also the right temperature. The farm was adapted for the production of sturgeon and a new facility to process the caviar was also built. For Mr Lakomiak this was a fundamental departure from what he had originally envisaged. As a fisher and an ichthyologist I did not want to get involved in processing and marketing caviar, he says. “But then I realised that we had

a number of young and talented people around us, who could make things work, and I changed my mind.� Mr Lakomiak was keen to maintain the conditions under which the sturgeons grow as close to natural as possible. This meant allowing them to feed and gain weight at a natural rate as this would also have a bearing on the quality of the caviar. According to him sturgeons raised in other systems may mature faster, but at the same time they tend to be much more fatty and this also affects the caviar, not only the quality, but also the volume. Processing caviar that is excessively fatty is also more demanding and the final product is never as good. Excessive fat also shortens the shelf life of the caviar.

Sturgeons moved from one farm to the other The sturgeons are divided between the site in Konin and the one in Olsztyn. Fingerlings from the Konin

Szymon Lakomiak is production manager at the Olsztyn site.

farm when they weigh around 5 g are brought to the nursery at Olsztyn. The fish are moved from the nursery to the ongrowing tanks after two or three weeks, when they reach some 20 g in weight. As they grow the fish are kept under close observation and when they reach about two kg they are transported back to the Konin farm. The reason for this distribution is partly logistical. The smaller fish do not require

much space and so can be accommodated in Olsztyn, where space is at a premium. The bigger fish which require more space are kept in Konin, where the farm is much larger having an area of 500 ha.

At about four years the males and the females are separated and the males are sold as meat. The male fish do not produce caviar and the market for meat is not lucrative to

Channels at the Konin site where the water comes from a thermal power plant and is warmer than usual – a big advantage in winter. www.eurofishmagazine.com

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The nursery at Olsztyn, where the young sturgeon are brought before they are transferred to the outdoor raceways.

justify the expense of feed and the space they will occupy. A year or so later the remaining females are subjected either to an ultrasound or a biopsy to check the status of the eggs. Fish whose eggs are at the same stage of maturation are placed together. The eggs go through distinct phases as they develop, changing colour from white to grey to dark and

also growing in size from 0.1 mm in diameter to the final 2.5 or 2.6 mm in diameter when they are ready to be harvested. At this stage, the fish are eight to nine years old and ready to be transported back to Olsztyn for the final stage of their lives.

Caviar is produced from October to April thanks to the

low temperature of the water at Olsztyn. Cold water is essential for the production because the females need to be in water that is below 10 degrees centigrade for four to eight weeks before the caviar is harvested. Under natural conditions there are two signals that tell the sturgeon to go upstream to spawn, one of these is temperature, and the other

is light. While light conditions are much the same at the Olsztyn site and in Konin, the water temperature differs significantly.

In October when the water at Olsztyn is five or six degrees, it is 16-18 degrees in Konin. These signals influence the production of hormones in the female, which cause her to direct her resources to maturation of the eggs and preparing them for release.

The fish must be slaughtered to retrieve the caviar. According to Mr Szczukowski, this is the only way to produce genuine caviar that has the expected taste, aroma, and mouth feel. Experiments that stripped ovulated caviar from the fish resulted in quite a different (and inferior) product though they spared the fish and allowed them to reproduce again.

Exacting standards result in quality product

Two species of sturgeon are reared on the farms, Acipenser baerii or Siberian sturgeon and A. gueldenstaedtii (pictured) or Russian sturgeon 44

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The plant where the caviar is processed is equipped with all the facilities to ensure a product of the highest quality. Air filters to www.eurofishmagazine.com

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The feed is delivered by hand so that the fish and their feeding can be closely monitored and action taken if anything is amiss.

Caviar is packaged in cans under the brand name Antonius Caviar.

The cans vary in size from 30 g to 1.7 kg.

purify the air, which is circulated some 20 times an hour, cooling to keep the rooms at 12 degrees, hospital levels of sanitation and hygiene, fully sterilised equipment, a disinfection programme that takes eight hours to implement each day for just two modest rooms, regular laboratory controls, daily bacterial checks etc. Ensuring that the facility was hygienic enough for the production of caviar was the work of Mr Szczukowski, who explains that the reason for this almost obsessive cleanliness is because caviar is not a pasteurised product and therefore needs to be produced in a completely germ free environment to ensure a decent shelf life.

Every step in the production has to be carried out with the most meticulous attention to detail as the slightest error can jeopardise the end product. Washing, drying, salting, packaging, must all follow a strict regime if the product is not to be discarded. At the same time each fish is different and the caviar is also different, so the workers have to be able to sense the amount of washing, drying, salting is appropriate for each batch of eggs. Producing

Caviar� in cans that start at 30 g. These are sold mainly in the EU. Only about two percent of the production is sold in Poland, where a combination of the high price and a lack of a caviar-eating tradition deter sales. What is sold under this brand is only a small proportion of the production.

Most farmers only manage to sell 5-10 of their production under

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good caviar is, in other words, an art rather than a science, says Mr Szczukowski.

Production is typically between May and September, but new tanks are planned at the Olsztyn site to make better use of the available water and to expand production. The plans will also cover the processing plant which will not be rebuilt, but will be enlarged. The expansion should allow the company to produce caviar for 9-10 months in the year as opposed to six months which it is currently doing.

Selling under own brand is a challenge The final stage in the production is when the caviar is packaged for maturation, a process that varies in duration from caviar to caviar and depends on factors like temperature and humidity. The taste of the caviar intensifies under maturation, and a one-month old caviar tastes quite different from the product that has matured for a year. But Gospodarstwo Rybackie also packages caviar under its own brand “Antonius

their brand, says Mr Lakomiak.

The bulk of the production is sold to traders who mature the caviar and then repackage it into 30, 50, 125 or 250 g tins. Within the EU, France, Italy, and increasingly Germany are important markets, and thanks to a single-minded focus on the production of quality caviar that list of countries can only increase in the future.

Gospodarstwo Rybackie Goslawice Sp.z.o.o.

Ul. Rybacka 2 62-510 Konin Poland Tel.: +48Â 504Â 048Â 420 Fax: +48 63 246 7129

www. antoniuscaviar.com www.ryby-goslawice.com.pl Board chairman: Antoni Lakomiak

Gospodarstwo Rybackie Olsztyn Sp. z.o.o.

Rus 97 10-685 Olsztyn Poland Tel.: +48Â 505Â 664 221 Fax.: +48 89 541 03 29 Board chairman: Marek Szczukowski Activity: Production of sturgeon for caviar; production of caviar

Stock: 2,000 tonnes Species: Acipenser baerii (60%), Acipenser gueldenstaedtii (40%) Processing capacity: 200 kg of caviar per day Brand: Antonius Caviar Markets: EU, Asia, USA Employees: 62 Can sizes: 30 g to 1.7 kg

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Diffusers built into the basins oxygenate the water from the floor (foreground), while a mechanical aerator (background) performs the same job at the surface.

Hodowla Ryb K-2 combines a recirculation system with the generous use of water

Farming and processing trout for the Polish market At Hodowla Ryb K-2, trout are farmed intensively using a sophisticated recirculation system. Currently 400 tonnes of trout a year are produced on the farm, a ďŹ gure that is soon due to rise to 600 tonnes.

J

acek Juchniewicz, the owner of Hodowla Ryb, wears a second hat as president of the Polish Trout Breeders’ Association, a body that has some 100 members representing almost the entire production of trout in Poland. Output has increased steadily the last few years. Just over 16,000 tonnes of trout (including rainbow, brook, and Arctic charr) were produced in the country in 2014.

Dependence on river water affects production Marcin Juchniewicz, the son of Jacek Juchniewicz, is responsible for the day to day management of 46

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the farm. Production is intended to reach 700 to 800 tonnes a year, but this target will not be reached in 2016, he says, as temperature fluctuations in the water that supplies the farm have affected the volumes produced. The water is drawn from a river running by the farm and although it is recirculated through the system this has little impact on the temperature which tends to be the same as in the river. The farm also has access to some groundwater, which has a constant temperature, but it is only a secondary source and cannot supply all the sections of the farm. The advantages of using groundwater are so marked that the company will be looking

Jacek Juchniewicz, the owner of a trout production facility, Hodowla Ryb farm, and president of the Polish Trout Breeders’ Assocation. www.eurofishmagazine.com

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A debris filter and a drum filter for smaller particles at the point where water from the river enters the farm.

for other sources in the hope of replacing more of the river water with water from the ground.

Although the farm uses recirculation technology the consumption of water from the river is relatively high at 240 litres per second. This extensive use of freshwater means that the fish does not suffer from any off tastes that may arise when the water in the system is not changed frequently. This is usually countered by depurating the fish in freshwater in another basin before harvesting, a step that does not have to be performed at Hodowla Ryb K-2. For the moment the use of so much fresh water does not impose a cost, however there is a political debate about whether to start imposing fees for the use of this water, says Mr Juchniewicz. As fish farmers, he argues, we do not use the water, we just borrow it, and then return it to the river. Pollution is another story, however, and he agrees that if a farm pollutes the water, it must pay the cost www.eurofishmagazine.com

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of bringing it back to the level of cleanliness demanded by the law. The way the debate is headed means that a nominal charge is likely to be introduced in the near future.

Recirculation system adapted for better performance The water from the river is filtered to remove the debris, twigs, leaves, as well as larger particles of mud etc., before it is released into the farm. However, the farm is located in a glade surrounded by trees and their leaves drop into the ponds particularly in the fall which generates some work in cleaning the basins. The water is stripped of carbon dioxide and aerated using diffusers. In summer the water is oxygenated using pure oxygen as well, because aeration alone is insufficient. This enables 25-30 tonnes of fish to be stocked in one basin corresponding to a density of about 75 kg per cubic m. To optimise

the use of the water the basins have a sophisticated system that distinguishes between the upper and cleaner layer of water from the lower, dirtier layer. The former is channelled back into the basin while the latter is sent through a series of mechanical

filters, then biofilters and finally through plant lagoon before it is released. The system’s biofilter breaks down the organic matter and the dissolved nitrogen that is contained in the water using bacteria. The biofilter is filled with small plastic elements that provide a substrate for the bacteria to colonise. The biofilter is split into twenty chambers each with 22 cubic m of these plastic elements. The filtration capacity created by this volume of these elements enables about 800 tonnes of feed to be put in the system annually, explains Mr Juchniewicz. The farm has thus two recirculation systems, the main one which mechanically and biologically filters the water from a unit of four basins and then recirculates it, while the second smaller one circulates the water within each individual basin. Additionally, all the basins are equipped with automatic feeding systems to enhance the performance of the fish and lessen metabolic stress as the fish are fed with small doses delivered at high frequency.

The biological filter is the heart of the recirculation system. Small plastic elements provide a surface for the bacteria that neutralise the toxic compounds in the water.

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The feed is automatically pumped from silos into the basins at a command from the manager through the computerised control system.

Grading and fish delivery system on track to be automated On the farm classic treatment methods are followed to get rid of any parasites or pathogens that occur naturally in the river water.

The disinfectants or other products are applied at low concentrations and for longer periods in order to protect the biofilter.

If higher concentrations are needed this is stepped up very gradually to allow the system the time it needs to adapt to the treatment. From this perspective to the benefits of obtaining water from the ground rather than from a river are very marked.

The chances of groundwater harbouring pathogens are generally far lower compared with river water. The fish are grown to portion size of about 300 g, but some are allowed to grow to 1,000 or 1,500 g and are then sold as salmon trout. Once in their lifecycle the fish are sorted by size, a process that is carried out automatically using a grader, but 48

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the idea is to increase the level of automation in the near future.

When implemented the fish will be moved through specially designed system from a pond to a grader and from the grader to the pond or sales facility with even less manual operations than is the case now. It is also worth underlining that a wide scale monitoring programme is operational at the farm that keeps constant track of oxygen and pH levels as well as provides information on the functioning of all the technical facilities.

All the information is combined together and sent to the monitoring panel in the control room.

While the fish is currently being sold with minimal processing Mr Juchniewicz is well aware of the benefits of greater value addition. A processing unit has been put up at the farm that is waiting for the final installation of the necessary equipment. Further developments are designed to make the company even more vertically integrated. Today the

Marcin Juchniewicz manages an annual production of 400 tonnes with the help of just two employees.

farm is supplied with fingerlings from a company in Denmark, but Mr Juchniewicz has invested in another farm in the vicinity which is being modernised and will be used as a hatchery, if the project secures funding through the EMFF. The plan is to have two

activities at the new site. One to produce 50 g fish indoors in a completely isolated unit using ground water and the other to produce large fish (1,000 g) for the market. If all goes to plan, trout production in Poland will soon receive a further boost.

Hodowla Ryb K-2 Keblowo Nowowiejskie 14A 84-351 Nowa Wies Leborska Owner: Jacek Juchniewicz Tel.: +48 59 862 2727 jj@sprl.pl

Production capacity: 600-700 tonnes per year Current production: >400 tonnes Employees: 2 Main feed supplier: Aller Aqua Market: Poland Planned: Hatchery, processing plant

Manager: Marcin Juchniewicz marcin@juchniewicz.com.pl Activity: Trout farming Production model: Intensive, recirculation

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Dabie Hatchery produces eyed trout eggs for the domestic market and export

Substantial expansion planned The Polish production of eyed eggs for rainbow trout is set to increase as concerns about biosecurity persuade farmers to establish their own hatcheries.

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ainbow trout is the most widely produced farmed fish in Poland after common carp. The fish is typically grown to a portion size of around 300-400 g, but some farmers also grow it to larger sizes over 1 kg. On-growing the fish in open raceways and, increasingly, in recirculation systems is well established in Poland. Successfully producing these fish calls for the use of high quality disease free eggs and the use of strains that grow rapidly, are disease resistant, and have other desirable traits, such as high stress tolerance. These eggs are often imported from other parts of Europe or the United States, but more and more eggs are being produced and supplied by local companies, either independent hatcheries or by trout farmers looking to backward integrate their operations.

A fine specimen of brook trout Salvelinus fontinalis. Brook trout eggs account for a tenth of the production.

Production set to increase significantly by 2018 The Dabie Hatchery near Bytow produces top quality eyed eggs of rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss), brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis), brown trout (Salmo trutta m. fario), sea trout (Salmo trutta m. trutta) and their hybrids, though rainbow trout eggs make up around 90 of the production.

The hatchery was established by Krzysztof Grecki and Jacek Juchniewicz in 2003 with the first production of eggs in 2004. Today annual production has reached www.eurofishmagazine.com

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The Dabie Hatchery produces eyed eggs from rainbow trout and brook trout.

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hatcheries maintain broodstock lines that have been selected or/ and conditioned using exposure to light to spawn at different times of the year. However, the eggs that are placed on the market are normally only from fish between the ages of four and seven years of age in the case of rainbow trout and from 2.5 years in the case of brook trout. Since they spawn once a year the broodstock are thus typically only used three times.

A recirculation aquaculture system limits the consumption of water.

140m eggs of which half is sold on the domestic market, while the other half is exported. The hatchery is growing, adding insulated new buildings that house circular tanks for the broodstock. The new

construction will be completed shortly and within two years production will have increased to 200m eggs. Managing a hatchery is a technically demanding job that has to balance the demands

of the market with the biology of the fish. For instance, rainbow trout normally spawn from September to May. Customers, however, can ask for eggs around the year. To accommodate this

In nature says Marcin Jesiolowski, the hatchery manager, the mortality of the spawning females is very high, 70-80 of them die after first spawning. In the hatchery, on the other hand, mortality rates are much lower at 20-25 per year, but we have to be prepared to constantly replace the fish that perish or for every 1,000 fish that we start with after seven years we will only have 130 fish left. Therefore, with each batch of eggs a certain number will go to another hatchery also owned by the owners of the Dabie Hatchery, where they will be hatched and grown as potential broodstock. These fish can then be transferred back to the Dabie Hatchery to ensure that it always has the broodstock needed for the production of eyed eggs. Once the fish have reached four years of age and are ready to spawn they are anaesthetised and the eggs massaged out. The fish are then released.

Genetic selection results in eggs with the best traits

Eggs are generally removed from the fish once a year for three years starting from when the fish is four years old.

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A strong focus on genetics allows the Dabie hatchery to produce eggs that have low mortality, are uniform and result in fish with high disease resistance, growth rate, and carcass yield. The hatchery mainly delivers all female eggs to its customers. These are particularly useful for on-growing farms www.eurofishmagazine.com

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Eggs are sorted, subjected to quality control, disinfected, and then sent to a laboratory to check the health and ensure they are disease free.

that are producing 300-400 g trout as the fish have not matured at this stage and have put all their effort into producing biomass. All female populations have other advantages too, the flesh tends to be better, they gain weight faster because of the lack of males that mature one year sooner and thus stop growing effectively, and they tend to be healthier. To other farmers that rear fish of 2-4 kg the hatchery can offer triploid eggs.

These eggs result in sterile fish

and as the fish does not expend any energy developing gametes this energy is instead directed at building biomass. As a result growth among triploids is faster compared with the usual diploid fish. Another advantage of sterile fish is that they cannot breed with wild stocks if they escape and thus have no genetic impact on the environment.

The hatchery is supplied with groundwater from a source 200

m away that has a flow of some 20 l per second. As the facility uses a recirculation system, the use of new water is limited and this flow is adequate for the hatchery’s current requirements and will also be sufficient when the production is increased, according to Mr Jesiolowski. The existing recirculation system has also evolved over the past years. Originally the core of the system was a static biofilter, but this has now been replaced with a moving bed biofilter that uses Levapor media, a porous foam enriched with active carbon, that makes the biofilter significantly more efficient. The move to Levapor illustrates the continuous effort that goes into improving the efficiency of production by

optimising the use of technology. The goal is ultimately to be able to serve the customers better, by offering them a superior product or even by being able to give them useful advice.

The hatchery also has a consulting service providing advice to farmers who wish to establish their own hatcheries, a business that is increasing as farmers prefer not to bring fish in from outside for reasons of biosecurity.

Another trend is to have facilities indoors rather than outside in order to insulate the production from natural fluctuations in temperature, the key parameter in growing the fish. The Dabie Hatchery illustrates well the evolution in the trout hatchery sector in Poland.

Dabie Hatchery Bytow Municipality Poland

Levapor, a porous foam, in a moving bed replaced the fixed bed biofilter and resulted in increased efficiency. www.eurofishmagazine.com

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Owners: Krzysztof Grecki and Jacek Juchniewicz Hatchery manager: Marcin Jesiolowski Activity: Production of eyed eggs

Species: Rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss), brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis) Volume: 140m Expected volume after expansion: 200m Markets: Poland (60%), 29 countries worldwide

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FLAG Bytow Lakeland projects should strengthen the economic, social, and environmental sustainability of the area

Developing projects that conform to new requirements Bytow Lakeland, a FLAG in the Pomerskie region has several projects running. One of these uses a practical approach to inculcate a greater awareness of nature among school children.

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xis 4 of the European Fisheries Fund introduced the idea of support for local fisheries communities to combat some of the challenges they are facing and build a sustainable future. The funds are managed by Fisheries Local Action Groups (FLAGs), partnerships between local fishermen and others involved in the fisheries sector and other stakeholders, such as representatives from local authorities and civil society organisations.

Together they design a strategy intended to generate greater social, economic and environmental welfare, create jobs, and make the fishing and related sectors more competitive. Across the EU over 10,000 projects were launched with Axis 4 support between 2007 and 2013.

Lakeland, which covers 11 municipalities in the Pomorskie province, one of the three coastal provinces in Poland. The municipalities are contiguous, with a landscape that includes forests, meadows and farmland, but also an extensive network of water bodies – ponds, reservoirs, lakes, streams and rivers. These host a number of species of fish and support commercial freshwater fisheries, recreational angling, and provide the water for aquaculture farms producing trout. Since it was established in 2009 Bytow Lakeland has launched several projects under four broad categories, strengthening competitiveness, diversification, value addition, and environmental protection. In addition to the municipalities the

FLAG’s members include other public bodies such as schools and community centres; private industry; and NGOs and associations.

Bytow Lakeland improves infrastructure for the benefit of locals and tourists The objectives of Bytow Lakeland include the creation of awareness about nature and its importance among school students. To achieve this, Władysław Pe˛dziwiatr, the president of Bytow Lakeland, has initiated a cooperation with a Danish organisation that has experience in teaching young people about nature and natural phenomena using handson methods. Following this,

Mr Pe˛dziwiatr would like to build a laboratory where children can come and discover, research, and analyse nature. This knowledge will lead to an appreciation of nature and the importance of conserving it, he says, and children can take this information back home and educate their parents and siblings as well. Bytow Lakeland is currently working on a project for the purchase of educational equipment including a multimedia board and games to help understand and reinforce knowledge about aquaculture and ecology, among school-going pupils. The natural beauty of the area and the variety of activities on offer attract tourists in large numbers in summer including families with young children, who

Poland invests heavily in FLAGs Despite a relatively modest fishing sector Poland had by far the biggest Axis 4 budget in the EU at EUR235m and way ahead of the second largest budget (Romania, EUR75m).

The Polish fishing industry is an important source of employment in coastal communities and local inland areas, where freshwater fish production provides an income to commercial fishers, fish farmers, and to some extent also to anglers.

Among the FLAGs that were formed under Axis 4 was Bytow 52

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Among trout farmers in the Bytow Lakeland FLAG the installation of drum filters was a popular way to obtain support from the EFF. www.eurofishmagazine.com

POLAND

can also benefit from the facilities that are being established. Another user group is children from local schools that organise school trips to the area.

In the previous programming period (2007-2013) expanding infrastructure to benefit tourism was supported by the EFF and many of the organisations in Bytow Lakeland are related to tourism, says Mr Pe˛dziwiatr. The EFF was also highly supportive of inititatives intended to increase the competitiveness of areas dependent on fisheries, which led to projects that improved infrastructure in the area making it more attractive both for locals and for tourists.

The support was administered at three levels, the ministry, the region, and the FLAGs, but there was a close level of cooperation between all three levels. FLAGs

also cooperate amongst themselves. For example, nine FLAGs, all from the Pomorskie province, but with different areas of focus, such as deep sea fishing, Baltic Sea fishing, ecological education, etc. contributed to the development of a centre for education and promotion, which houses the Bytow Lakeland secretariat.

A further example of cooperation between FLAGs is based on a former fishermen’s organisation called, in Polish, a maszoperia, and that would, for example, take care of the family of a fisherman if he died or became incapable of fishing. This is not relevant in today’s Poland, but the spirit of the maszoperia in terms of solidarity and fraternity persist in the FLAG. When the support applied for by the FLAG exceeded the available resources the FLAG decided to reduce the

amount of support applied for by each project rather than eliminating some projects altogether.

New project ideas currently being sought Pomorskie province received altogether EUR75m in the previous programming period, whereas in the current programming period it is EUR21m. The range of activities eligible for support has also changed, which may have been

influenced by the fact that across the EU results from some FLAGs were not impressive and they are now no longer operating. At the moment, the Bytow Lakeland FLAG is writing the strategy for the new programming period.

Once the strategy is approved the emphasis will switch to developing projects that will fit the strategy and which will benefit society at large. These will be on tourism, water, fishermen and cultural heritage.

FLAG Bytow Lakeland Ul. Szkolna 4 77-133 Tuchomie Poland

President: Władysław Pe˛ dziwiatr Projects supported: 182

Tel.: +48 59 8221250 Fax: +48 59 8221259

biuro@rlgd-pb.pl www.rlgd-pb.pl

6WD\ DĂ€ RDW

(XURÂż VK0DJD]LQH FRP www.eurofishmagazine.com

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[ PROCESSING ] Rapid and gentle freezing preserves product quality

Which freezing method is best?

Fish and seafood contain valuable proteins and fats, plus a lot of moisture. This makes them on the one hand valuable foods but on the other hand prone to rapid spoilage. The most important measure for stopping bacterial and enzymatic decomposition processes is to provide sufďŹ cient cooling within the value chains or fast freezing that will guarantee preservation of all the essential freshness parameters over several months.

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eafood is sensitive and spoils quickly. Sometimes just a few hours under inadequate storage conditions are sufficient to render the healthy, nutritious foods inedible, and in extreme cases even a health risk to consumers. In addition to hygiene and time, temperature is the most important factor influencing spoilage processes. Like a lot of fresh foods fish has to be cooled constantly and on its path from the catch to the consumer must not enter the danger zone of between 4.5 and 60°C, the range in which decomposing bacteria multiply very quickly. As all consumers must know today, the cold chain should never be interrupted during a product’s journey from the producer to the plate. This applies in particular to frozen products which are common standard today in the seafood trade. These products combine advantages such as preserved freshness, high nutritive value and productspecific flavour with extremely long shelf-life which, in the case of industrially shock frozen products, is at least six months. An important side effect of freezing is that it reliably kills nematodes and other parasites that can occur in some fish species. In addition, lowering the temperature into the freezing range also kills or at least inactivates a lot of microorganisms. This does not apply to all pathogens, however, and some dangerous bacteria can survive freezing so that for safety reasons

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The air blast freezer’s efďŹ ciency for freezing unevenly shaped products is highly dependent on throughput, air ow and air distribution in the plant’s interior.

it is always advisable to heat frozen seafood products thoroughly prior to consumption.

Wherever seafood is processed, stored, traded or prepared it has to be kept cool. Regular controls are necessary to make sure cooling and freezing systems are working correctly and such checks are an elementary part of a company’s HACCP programme which is now mandatory for all seafood processing companies under the new rules of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). This applies equally to imported fish products so they too have to be produced according to HACCP

rules. Rapid cooling or shock freezing is generally the best method for increasing the shelflife of seafood but this is hardly to be achieved with the required certainty using “normal� refrigerators and freezers such as those normally found in household use.

That is why in the European Union particularly powerful, fast cooling equipment (blast chillers, blast freezers) is mandatory in food and catering companies, restaurants and commercial kitchens which have to conform to regulations 852/2004 and 853/2004.

According to guidelines from the US Department of Health

the temperature of the food to be chilled must be reduced from 70 to 3°C within 90 minutes during blast chilling in order to guarantee the required safety for consumers. In the case of blast freezing the maximum time allowed to reduce the temperature of the product from 70 to minus 18°C is 240 minutes.

Cooling is generally standard for fish products which are to be stored only temporarily up to consumption. In contrast, deep freezing enables considerably longer storage times because at temperatures of -18°C microbial and enzymatic spoilage processes are extremely retarded, www.eurofishmagazine.com

[ PROCESSING ] Freezing methods

Air blast freezers are often used for deep freezing ďŹ sh ďŹ llets. The ďŹ llets lie on a conveyor belt and freeze during their passage through the tunnel.

particularly since the water in the flesh of the fish which is necessary for this process has solidified to ice. Although fresh products today play an increasingly important role during marketing of seafood, frozen products are also gaining significance because, parallel to traditional trade channels more and more seafood products are today purchased and delivered via the internet. This new trading segment – e-commerce – is primarily based on frozen products.

When a product is cooled particularly quickly using blast chilling or blast freezing the terms “snap chilling� and “snap freezing� are

also used. Snap chilling is one of the common methods used during cook-and-chill processes that are common in big kitchens and in the gastronomy sector.

Here the meals are in a first stage prepared to just below “cooked� and then cooled abruptly to 3°C which gives them a shelf-life of about five days. The preparation process of cook-and-chill meals is only complete with the “regenerating� step when the food is reheated prior to eating. The high speed of snap freezing, in which the product is cooled down in a very short time to temperatures below -70°C, is usually achieved through immersion in liquid nitrogen.

Batch air blast freezers are particularly suited to freezing products that are already packed on pallets or trolleys. www.eurofishmagazine.com

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Not every freezer is suited to every product There are several distinctive variants of cooling and freezing and the method chosen is primarily dependent on the type of seafood product, it shape, size and packaging, as well as other processrelated parameters, such as the time that is available for chilling during the processing chain, or the initial temperature that the product has at the beginning of the cooling process. Which cooling method is used for which purpose does not, however, only depend on the method’s functionality but also on its profitability and the user’s financial scope. Some freezing systems might be unsuitable because they are too big for the available space or they might be too slow for the planned product throughputs.

Plate freezers, for example, are not at all suited to freezing whole tuna.

Other freezers could be eliminated because they dry out the fish and thus reduce product quality.

Cryogenic freezers that work with liquid nitrogen or carbon dioxide are effective but too expensive for some products if they cannot be operated round the clock or if the running costs exceed the realizable revenue.

In principle there are three basic methods for freezing ďŹ sh and seafood, involving different freezing equipment: 1 Air blast freezers – a continuous ow of ice cold air, which is cooled to temperatures well below freezing point, is passed over the products. It ows all around the products, removing and carrying away the heat.

2 Contact freezers (“plate freezersâ€?) – the upper and lower sides of the product are in direct contact with metal plates which are cooled by an internally recirculating refrigerant. This method is only suitable for products with regular cuboid structures (for example, packaging cartons) that allow a tight ďŹ t between the plates and the product. Close contact shortens the freezing time by about a third compared to air blast freezers.

3 Immersion or spray freezing (“cryogenic freezing�) – the product is either directly immersed in a liquid refrigerant or sprayed with it, which leads to a process of sudden, very gentle freezing. Liquid nitrogen (-196° C) or a mixture of dry ice and ethanol is usually used as the refrigerant.

Air blast freezers are often the best solution for rapid shock freezing if the objective is to combine versatility with an economical procedure. These freezing systems are suited to freezing products of different shapes and sizes. Their performance is, however, decisively dependent on the air throughput which extracts the heat from the product. If the air in the freezing chamber is absolutely motionless then natural convection and thus the heat transfer rate will be low which lengthens freezing time considerably. If, on the other hand, the air is kept constantly in motion and circulated using fans (forced Eurofish Magazine 5 / 2016

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[ PROCESSING ] convection) the freezing time is reduced to a quarter of the previous value. For most applications of air blast freezers a circulation speed of 5 m/s is quite sufficient.

This value is a good compromise between freezing time and costs for the refrigerant and the fan. If, however, the product is to be frozen in less than 30 minutes the air has to circulate in the chamber much faster, mostly at a speed of 10 to 15 m/s. An essential requirement for uniform, rapid freezing is a constant flow of air within the chamber which reaches and envelops all the products equally.

This is not always easy, especially when the frozen food is packed very tightly or stacked on pallets which act as barriers to the airflow. Since the flow of air always takes the path of least resistance producers try to make circulation within the chamber as even as possible by using plates and vanes. The freezing plant has to be defrosted regularly and freed from ice which forms from freezing moisture on the walls of the chamber and gradually accumulates on the ribs of the freezer. This impairs heat transfer and lengthens freezing time.

Freezing with cold air as the heat exchanger Air blast freezers can be designed as continuous or discontinuous systems. In the case of continuous systems the goods for freezing are transported through the freezing plant on a conveyor belt and frozen during this passage. The speed and length of the conveyor belt determine the length of time the products spend in the cold, i.e. how much time is available for freezing. Mostly these systems are designed as tunnel freezers, whereby they have to have a certain length. If the required space is not available one can also use other system designs, for example 56

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multi-belt plants using serpentine belt systems where the products move back and forth, or so-called spiral freezers, in which the belt winds a spiral path through the cold chamber. With such systems the amount of time that is available for deep freezing the products can be multiplied to durations much higher than that which is possible using tunnels. Continuous freezers are particularly suitable for companies that produce their products in constant amounts in the same rhythm, so that a constant product flow pushes through the freezer.

If the production quantities vary greatly, very different products are produced, or complete pallets and trolleys are to be frozen, then “batch air blast freezers� are often a better choice. Here the goods arrive in batches and are removed in the same batches after freezing.

The loading and unloading of the chamber in cycles with changing product types and quantities requires particularly powerful cooling units and an intelligent air flow so that all products – regardless of their location in the chamber – freeze evenly and uniformly.

Inadequate air circulation wastes energy and reduces product quality, because the time to complete the freezing process in some areas of the freezing chamber is unnecessarily prolonged until all products are ready.

A special field of application of continuous air blast freezers are fluidized and semi-fluidized freezers. In these freezing plants a strong stream of icy air is blown against the products from below through a perforated plate and swirled so that they literally “float� on this air cushion. The products move as if drifting on a liquid. If they are poured into the fluidized freezer at the filler opening they dance, bounce and slide on the air cushion to the exit at the other

The removal of frozen products from plate freezers is sometimes strenuous work because the blocks can freeze onto the plates.

end. Since the swirling air current also separates the products during this journey such systems are particularly suitable for individual quick freezing (IQF). However, this method is only suited to freezing small-sized products because the air flow could hardly lift and carry larger objects such as fish fillets. Apart from that, the turbulence in the air would cause the fillets to assume irregular shapes during freezing which would look unattractive and so not be acceptable. For IQF freezing of small shrimps, especially cooked and peeled, fluidized freezers are the preferred method, however.

through the freezer. The strength of the air flow is not sufficient to make the fillets float completely but they are constantly partially moved and also momentarily raised. This ensures that they do not freeze onto the conveyor belt or freeze together and so can be removed from the freezer later one by one. Mostly the air flow is only necessary in the front section of the conveyor belt for once the fillets have solidified on the outside the air flow from below can be reduced. When freezing fillets of different size it is often difficult to adjust the amount of air supply precisely however.

For freezing fish fillets it is possible to use semi-fluidized freezer, which combine the advantages of conventional tunnel freezers and fluidized freezers. In these systems, the fillets lie on a normal conveyor belt onto which air is blown from below on the way

Direct contact accelerates the freezing process In addition to air blast freezers plate freezers are particularly frequent in the fish industry. It makes sense to use them www.eurofishmagazine.com

[ PROCESSING ] wherever evenly shaped products, such as cartons and fillet blocks, have to be frozen quickly and inexpensively. A standard version of this freezing plant is the horizontal plate freezer (HPF) in which the plates through which the refrigerant flows are arranged horizontally. The plates are usually made of aluminum and can be moved closer together or further apart using hydraulic pressure so that products of different thickness (usually from 30 to 100 mm) can be held firmly with carefully gauged pressure of typically 70-280 mbar. The applied pressure presses the cooling plates close to the frozen products, thereby improving the heat transfer. In addition, this prevents the product from expanding during freezing when the water it contains increases in volume as it freezes to ice. In vertical plate freezers (VPF) the parallel cooling plates are arranged not horizontally but vertically, whereby a series of small chambers is formed which can be up to one metre wide, 50 cm high and between 25 and 130 cm thick. VPF have the advantage that the food

for freezing can be filled into the chamber gradually from above.

They are particularly suited to freezing whole fish which is why this method is often used on ships. After the catch the fish are layered in the chamber whole or h & g and after freezing are in the form of compact blocks which can be neatly stowed away in the cold rooms of the fishing vessel.

Automatic plate freezers are a special variant of HPF which are usually used in continuous processing lines. In this system, too, the ready packaged products are held firmly between the cooling plates which, however, move like a conveyor belt through the production area during the freezing process. The main advantage of this method is its continuous operation, because there is no downtime, which is otherwise unavoidable during loading and unloading of the plate freezers.

The fastest method for freezing is the liquid nitrogen freezer (LNF) with which most seafood products can be completely frozen in just a few minutes. LNF systems usually operate on the counter flow

Filling the chambers of vertical plate freezers (VPF) is not so strenuous. In the rear row the ready frozen blocks are visible after removal of the plates.

principle, since the liquid nitrogen is only sprayed in the rear section of the freezing plant. The nitrogen gas which is released in this process has a temperature of about -50 ° C, flows towards the products that are slowly transported towards the rear on a stainless steel conveyor. Freezing begins in the front part of the system due to the nitrogen gas before the freezing process is completed by spraying on liquid nitrogen. Since the process is extremely fast, LNF can

Cryogenic freezers that work with liquid nitrogen or carbon dioxide are particularly fast but the costs are higher. www.eurofishmagazine.com

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be kept relatively small. They do not need any special refrigeration plant, compressors or condensers, which makes them less prone to interference and so inexpensive to maintain. The biggest cost factor is the constant need for liquid nitrogen, which makes the process about four times more expensive than conventional blast freezing with air blast freezers. Freezing with liquefied carbon dioxide works in a similar way. However, this method requires special security measures to ensure that the CO2 gas does not enter the working areas and put staff at risk.

Immersion freezers are also a very efficient freezing method. Here the heat transfer takes place when the products are immersed in a cooling liquid. Liquids can absorb more heat per unit volume than air, and this accelerates the freezing process. However, the choice of liquid is limited because it must not become too viscous upon cooling and should as far as possible not alter the texture and taste of the product. And so in practice, a sodium chloride brine is often used which is how things were done nearly 100 years ago, when freezing of fish products began with the Danish Ottesen Patents.

MK Eurofish Magazine 5 / 2016

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[ SPECIES ] Cephalopods: Seafood delicacies with tentacles and suckers

Climate change drawing squid northwards The common squid (Loligo vulgaris) and other cephalopod species are of economic significance, especially in southern Europe.

Landings from the fishing sector are decreasing, however. For one thing, because the size of the squid populations is strongly influenced by environmental factors, and for another probably because squid are too intensively fished. There is no effective fisheries management, although this would be urgently needed.

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ith over 250 species, squid (subclass Teuthoidea) is the largest group within the cephalopods. Like their relative the cuttlefish (Sepia), squid has a circle of ten arms around its mouth opening, eight of which are relatively short and equipped with suction discs over their entire length. Two of the arms have developed into tentacles which are more slender, much longer and only have suckers on the slightly broader, spoon-shaped front ends. The squid uses these to keep hold of its prey when it shoots its tentacles forwards at lightning speed during hunting. Then, with the help of the eight short arms it moves its prey towards the mouth opening. Squid vary greatly in size. Some species are just a few centimetres long and weigh only a few grams whereas others can be almost a metre in length. The biggest giant squid to be caught live was ten metres long and weighed half a tonne. Giant squid (Architeuthis) have even been sighted with a length of over 20 metres long, whereby the tentacles account for about two thirds of this length. Squid are probably the biggest invertebrate animals that ever existed on earth.

The few cephalopod species that live in European waters include the common or European squid (Loligo vulgaris) and veined squid 58

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(Loligo forbesii). Both species are members of the Loliginidae family. They grow quickly and are sexually mature within the first year. Their distribution areas overlap partially, although L. forbesii is more often to be found in northern waters (the species penetrates as far as 59°N), and L. vulgaris prefers southern regions, particularly the Mediterranean. The distribution area in the East Atlantic ranges from the Faeroe Islands and southern Norway, through the Mediterranean as far as the Gulf of Guinea on the West African coast. Sometimes the animals go astray and are even to be found in the Baltic Sea. In autumn, common squid migrate from the northern waters to spend the winter at greater depths off Portugal. In May and June they return to their spawning grounds, a journey which can take them as far as the North Sea. Loligo vulgaris mainly lives at depths of 40 to 150 metres but also in deeper regions as far as 500 metres.

About 500,000 t of squid of the Loliginidae family are currently caught worldwide every year.

Whilst Loligo forbesii normally reaches sizes of around 75 cm Loligo vulgaris is much smaller reaching only 40 to 50 cm in length (mantle length about 20 cm, very rarely reaching 40 cm) and weights of 1.5 kg. The males are slightly larger than females of the same age. Common squid has a round cylindrical, relatively

Permanent swimmers and skilful fish hunters

slender body that tapers torpedolike to the rear. At the rear end of the body there are horizontal fins on both sides that stretch over two thirds of the body length and together – viewed from above – have the shape of a rhomboid.

The colour of the body ranges from dull transparent grey to reddish brown, and the back is more intensively coloured than the underside. The mantle of the squid’s body, known in the fish trade as the tube, is stabilized by a flat inner structure made of a chitinous, calciferous substance. Compared to the body the head seems relatively small. This impression is even reinforced by the unusually large eyes that are covered by a transparent membrane. Measured against the body size squid have the biggest eyes in

the animal kingdom! The Loligo species are members of the group of closed-eye squid whose front eye chamber is closed except for a small opening with a corneal fold.

The function of this closing device is unknown; perhaps it protects the eyes from the water pressure.

Also noteworthy are the mouth parts of the squid whose shape is reminiscent of a parrot’s beak.

With this sharp edged corneal formation the animals bite large pieces from their prey before they cut them into smaller pieces using their toothed tongue.

Squid are predators and their spectrum of feed depends on their age and the season. Juveniles www.eurofishmagazine.com

[ SPECIES ] mostly feed on crustaceans, polychaetes and arrow worms. Older animals mainly (and some species solely) eat fishes but sometimes even fellow squid. As “visual animals� squid normally hunt during the daytime. They locate their prey optically, grip it with their tentacles and then use their arms to draw it towards their mouths.

In brightly lit coastal sections, for example near larger towns and tourist centres, squid also hunt at night. The light from hotels, restaurants and coastal boulevards attracts numerous fishes into the shallow water and with them squid that make use of this twilight to track their prey. Both commercial and sports fishermen have also recognized that strong sources of light attract squid and they use this knowledge to concentrate the squid close to their boats and within reach of their fishing gear.

Squid are permanent swimmers that follow their prey – mostly fishes – in orderly swarm formations. They move both horizontally and vertically coordinated in the water. A group can suddenly and synchronously change its direction of movement without getting confused. The wing-like side fins are mainly used for guidance and rarely for propulsion. At the front of the mantle cavity lies the siphon, a trunk-like lengthening at the exit of the mantle cavity. It is muscular, very mobile and can be moved in any direction, and the squid uses it for locomotion via precise jet propulsion. In this form of locomotion, water is sucked into the mantle cavity and expelled out of the siphon in a fast, strong jet. The direction of the siphon can be changed to suit the direction of travel. This jet propulsion is extremely effective.

From a stationary start the animals can reach very high speeds and even shoot several metres www.eurofishmagazine.com

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On many fish markets in Asia freshly caught squid are part of the standard offer.

high out of the water like a rocket.

When fleeing from predators squid often “fly� 30 or 40 metres over the water’s surface.

Rapid growth, short life, early death The life cycle of the common squid can be aptly described with the formula “short life, early death�. Exactly how old squid can become is controversial but cephalopod experts name the maximum lifetime of males at one and a half years, and females are apparently hardly older than one year when they die. The majority of L. vulgaris squid already die after the first spawning without their gonads being able to regenerate and mature again. This extremely short lifespan forces common squid to a hasty life and explains why the animals are almost continuously searching for prey. When the squid larvae hatch from the egg after a good three weeks in 20°C warm water they are only just under one centimetre in size but very well developed and already similar to the adult squid.

Drifting with the currents they first have to survive a planktonic phase which lasts approximately two months. Already during this period the baby squid eat incessantly and grow accordingly fast.

Their growth is heavily dependent on temperature which can lead to huge differences in size and growth between individual regions in their area of distribution. Common squid off Portugal grow about 0.8 mm per day in the first 240 days of their lives. After that the daily growth rate of male squid even increases to 1.7 mm.

In the colder North Sea vulgaris squid, which hatch in June, measure about 12 cm after six months, and after ten months between 17 and 21 cm.

With this growth rate the animals are sexually mature after ten months, in warmer waters sometimes even two or three months earlier. There are no species-typical spawning times and the individual populations reproduce at very different times over the course of the year within the whole distribution area: in the

Mediterranean off the Catalan coast mostly in March and April, in Greek waters from November to April, and in the Central Adria throughout the year, but mainly from January to May. Squid that are ready to spawn are caught off Portugal from October to February and between April and June, in the North Sea the main spawning season begins in April and often lasts into August.

Environmental factors influence population size Large swarms of squid gather in the spawning grounds to mate. To synchronize the final maturation, the partners exchange optical signal stimuli. The female stimulates the male by making the rear portion of its body shell transparent and presenting its mature genitals. Aroused males take on an intensely red hue, lie down next to the females and clasp them with their tentacles. With the fourth left arm, which serves as a copulatory organ (hectocotylus), the male then pushes a sperm packet, called a “spermatophore�, into the Eurofish Magazine 5 / 2016

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[ SPECIES ] data allows only rough estimates because Loligo vulgaris, forbesii and the other squid species that are fished in European waters are rarely separated and recorded by species. Added to this difficulty is the fact that squid are caught mainly as bycatch in other fisheries and rarely targeted specifically.

This also explains why demersal trawls account for the largest share of the European squid fishery. 90 of squid are caught with this gear off the Catalan coast, the remaining 10 per cent goes to purse seine and artisanal fishing methods such as hand fishing, pelagic longlines and pots. In the Gulf of Cadiz up to 99 of the squid landed are caught using bottom trawls.

The prices for squid also depend on the animals’ size: the larger the more expensive.

oviduct of the female. Fertilization takes place a little later during egglaying which is often watched over by the male. Large males produce several hundred spermatophores which they try to distribute among as many females as possible. Individual males survive the mating process and can spawn a second time. Fertility varies – depending on the size of the females – between 30,000 and 70,000 eggs.

Common squid usually lay several dozen eggs that are held in

elongated, sausage-shaped looking gelatinous tubes. These are attached by their sticky base onto suitable substrates, mostly stones or aquatic plants, sometimes simply on the sandy ocean floor. When after a few weeks the females have expelled all their eggs the exhausted animals die.

All common squid – not only the juveniles – are very sensitive to abrupt changes in their living conditions, and particularly

The three groups of cephalopods together on a plate: on the left squid, on the right cuttlefish, and at the top octopus.

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to changes in temperature. The water temperature influences both hatching and survival rates of the young squid and also their swimming activity, regional distribution and the lifespan of older animals. In warm southern waters common squid mostly live several months longer than in the relatively colder north. The dependence of common squid on external environmental conditions causes stock fluctuations, and population sizes can vary greatly from year to year within the distribution area.

This is also reflected in the cephalopod fishery where landings vary considerably when viewed regionally. Approximately 4 million tonnes of cephalopods (squid, cuttlefish and octopus) are currently caught worldwide per year.

Species of the Loliginidae family account for about 500,000 t of this total. The economic importance of this group is accordingly great, especially in those countries where squid is particularly common on the menu. It is impossible to say exactly how many common squid are caught, however. The available

Although the inadequate data basis does not allow a detailed assessment of the proportion and the importance of Loligo vulgaris for European squid fishing it is still possible to derive general trends from the FAO statistics which record the total annual landed volumes. According to these data, a total of 8,560 t squid were fished by all EU countries in 2015, a significant decline compared to previous years: at the turn of the millennium annual landed volumes were still steady at around 100,000 t. Such a sharp drop in catches can hardly be explained by environmental fluctuations in population size which are quite typical of the common squid. The continuity of the decline rather gives reason to suspect that the stocks are overexploited, and thus overfished.

This suspicion is supported by the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES). An ICES report from 2015 confirmed that cephalopod landings in the first decade of the new millennium fluctuated between 55,500 t in 2004 and and 38,600 t in 2009. A similar trend can also be observed in veined squid (Loligo forbesii), whose stock has been declining in www.eurofishmagazine.com

[ SPECIES ] regulate the cephalopod fishery, for example, provisions on net mesh sizes, seasonal area closures to protect spawning, closed fishing zones, limited entry for fisheries, as well as individual transferable quotas (ITQ).

While squid prefer to live near the surface in the pelagic zone, cuttlefish, which are related to them, sooner seek protection among the debris and aquatic plants on the sea bed.

the southern regions of its distribution range since 1990. However, some scientists doubt this decline seeing it rather as a consequence of global climate change, because in the same period the abundance of this squid species had risen significantly off Scotland. It is possible that the cold tolerant forbesii squids are withdrawing from more southern areas because the water there is too warm for them. The population of common squid (L. vulgaris) off Morocco, Mauritania, Senegal and Gambia was already

classified by ICES as overfished in 2007.

Indispensable to Mediterranean cuisine More exact appraisal and evaluation are difficult because there are no regular stock assessments and thus no fisheries management for common squid and other squid species. Although plans for monitoring the stocks were made time and again, so far nothing has come of them. The few national attempts

On beaches where squid live off the coast one often finds the chitinous, calciferous inner skeletons which stabilize the living animals’ streamlined mantle. www.eurofishmagazine.com

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to regulate the squid fisheries are ineffective throughout Europe, and in many places illegal and obviously excessive fishing is still common. Most coastal states even refrain completely from regulating the squid fishery in any way or imposing restrictions. In the UK – apart from requirements for mesh sizes in the cod-end of the nets – there are no limiting rules for the targeted squid fishery. Spain stipulates a minimum landing size for squid, sets guidelines for the fishing gear and permitted fishing times. Portugal is making modest efforts to set up a kind of stock control for common squid. But that’s it, because most other European countries show little interest in fisheries management for squid. Perhaps this is because the expense, considering the size of the resource, appears unreasonably high, but probably also because the species are not very important and are subject to strong natural fluctuations, leading to doubts that the stocks could be stabilized by fisheries management strategies anyway. For off West Africa, where ICES classified the population as overfished in 2007, there are very extensive measures to

Nevertheless, regulatory and protective measures would seem to make sense wherever squid and other cephalopods are popular components of the human diet.

In Europe, these areas include especially the Mediterranean countries from Spain to Greece.

In the Adriatic region 1,000 to 1,500 t common squid are caught each year, plus a number of other cephalopod species. While squid is rarely consumed in Central and Northern Europe (and then almost exclusively in the form of those fried rings that are cut from the tubes of the animals and after over-long preparation usually have a rubbery, chewy consistency) the range of uses for squid in Mediterranean cuisine is much broader. On the menu appear not only the tubes, but – and almost more frequently – the tentacles and even the ink that is used for pasta and special sauces.

Whether filled or on its own in tomato stock, as seafood salad, cooked, marinated, fried, stewed or grilled squid and cuttlefish can be prepared in many ways.

Their meat is rich in protein, low in fat with not even 90 kcal / 100 grams. In addition, almost all of the squid can be used: only the beak and internal skeleton are not suitable for consumption.

Probably the most common mistake in the preparation of squid is that it is cooked too long. A witty aphorism that applies well to the preparation of squid: “I’ve been boiling this egg for over half an hour and it’s still not soft�. Squid should never be overcooked to ensure that it maintains its optimum “bite�.

MK Eurofish Magazine 5 / 2016

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[ TRADE AND MARKETS ] In the fast food industry, ďŹ sh products still have a limited presence

Health beneďŹ ts may encourage greater use of ďŹ sh

F

ast food or quick service restaurants (QSR) offer consumers with food that is prepared and served rapidly.

The food can be taken away or eaten in-store, though retailers usually lack full table service. The fast food industries in Europe benefit from busy consumer lifestyles, which attract people to more quickly and easily available dining options; fast food is also more affordable than eating at fine-dining restaurants. While the fast food industry is dominated largely by hamburgers, chicken, and other meat products, seafood products have found some place in the industry.

Little variety exists in major chains’ fish offerings Seafood items generally available at fast food outlets consist of whitefish, primarily cod, pollock and haddock, which are popular in fried forms. These species are low in fat and have mild flavours, and are easily prepared in fillets or fish fingers. Many of the fish dishes available at burger chains like McDonald’s, Burger King, and Wendy’s are deepfried fillets of such fish, served on sandwiches. Subway, the world’s largest restaurant chain in terms of number of locations, also offers skipjack tuna in its assortment of sandwich fillings.

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Eurofish Magazine 5 / 2016

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Reports show that European nations including France, the United Kingdom, Austria, Germany, Switzerland, and Sweden, are among the top consumers of fast food worldwide. The primary reasons for consumption of fast food in these nations are convenience and low price; consumers want to dedicate less time to food preparation. Taste is a consideration as well. In many of these countries, fish have limited presence on fast food menus, and most fast food is purchased from international chains focused on meat-based fare. Fish products are seen less frequently at fast food restaurants than meat and chicken, often due to limited demand compared to hamburgers or chicken products. Yet in the United Kingdom, for example, fish and chips have enjoyed continued popularity as a staple of takeaway food.

UK’s chippies record growth servings International brands like McDonald’s remain the fast food industry leader in many European countries in terms of overall sales. McDonald’s accounted for nearly a third of fast food sales value in countries like Germany, Poland, and Romania, according to market research from Euromonitor. In the United Kingdom cod, the

Nordsee

Seafood continues to remain limited on the menus of many fast food restaurants, which are frequently focused on meat products, in Europe as well as globally. Yet increasing demands for convenient food options, coupled with growing desires for healthy and “real� food, show the potential for an increase in seafood available at quick service restaurants.

“Fresh for youâ€? (frisch fĂźr dich), a concept launched by Nordsee, a German chain, is a response to consumer demand for freshly prepared products.

largest species of fish eaten outside of the home, was served approximately 145 million times in 2015, over three times the level of the nearest competitors of haddock, prawns and salmon. In 2015, quick service restaurants (excluding fish and chips shops) were responsible for 13,471 million servings of cod, a decline of 12.8 percent over 2014. Fish and chips shops accounted for 58,430 million servings, increasing by 32.8 percent from 2014. Together, QSR and fish and chips shops account for nearly half of cod consumption outside the home.

In general total seafood servings were down by 0.6 in 2015 compared with a year earlier, with declines in all types of sales outlets with the exception of fish and chip shops and pubs.

While many US-based chains have limited fish options on their typical menus, they often extend

the fish offerings during Lent, the 40-day period before Easter during which many observers abstain from meat. The famous “fillet-o-fish� from McDonald’s was invented by a franchise owner to boost sales during Lent, and the sandwich continues to see nearly a quarter of its sales during that period. The filling is made of wild-caught Alaska pollock, which is typically filleted and frozen within 72 hours of being caught, and is certified by the Marine Stewardship Council. Alaska pollock is among the most popular whitefish species in use by these chains, though some, like Wendy’s, serve cod as well. Some US-based chains have larger seafood offerings, such as Long John Silver’s, a fish and chicken chain that serves fish products including fried cod, clams, and shrimp; baked cod and shrimp; and crab cakes. www.eurofishmagazine.com

Seafish, www.seafish.org

[ TRADE AND MARKETS ]

Fish and chips shops, or “chippies,� are an important facet of British food and identity.

Regionally, tradition drives fish fast food consumption The forms in which consumers prefer to enjoy their fast food varies between nations. In the United Kingdom, quick-service, take-away fish is most prominent in the form of fish and chips, a very popular part of British dining culture. According to the National Federation of Fish Friers, the industry group for fish and chip retailers, there are 10,500 fish and chip shops in the United Kingdom. Approximately 382 million portions of fish and chips are consumed annually by British customers, equalling 6 annual portions per capita and totalling £1.2 billion in spending. A total of £3.2 billion was spent by consumers on fish outside the home. Fish and chips shops mostly use cod in England, but also serve other species of whitefish including pollock, haddock, huss, plaice, hake, coley, whiting, or lemon sole. Most of this fish is frozen at sea, though this depends on the retailer, and some shops use fresh fish when available. Fish and chips are sold frequently by smaller, independent take-away vendors, as well as chain restaurants like Harry Ramsden’s. Harry Ramsden’s www.eurofishmagazine.com

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restaurants offer battered and fried cod or haddock, as well as baked fillets. In their quick service restaurants, they offer their fish and chips (cod, haddock, plaice) as well as fish fingers, and have over 40 locations in the UK. Many consumers of fish and chips purchase the food regularly: nearly a quarter visit the shops on a weekly basis.

In Germany, the Nordsee chain provides a type of fast food restaurant that is focused specifically on seafood products. The company, which celebrated its 120th anniversary in April 2016, prides itself on a “tradition� of fish shops. Nordsee is the third largest fast food company in Germany, behind only McDonald’s and Burger King; it has 373 restaurants, primarily in Germany and Austria, though it also has locations in several other European countries and in Dubai. As a seafood-focused chain, its variety of products and preparations stand in contrast to typically single seafood menu offerings by other chains.

Products served at the restaurants include dishes of baked Alaska pollock, grilled pollock or plaice fillet, or cape-hake fillet, each served with sides of vegetables. Modern shop designs and innovative products invite a wide range of customers to the fresh fish and seafood

on offer. The range of products has been further expanded with a “fish to goâ€? concept, where store-made snacks, salads, and drinks are available as takeaway options. Consumers’ desire for fresher products also led the company to develop “fresh for youâ€? (frisch fĂźr dich) products, where dishes were freshly made to order. Nordsee notes, however, that the majority of its German and Austrian consumers — about 80 percent — are self-proclaimed “fish lovers.â€?

Healthy eating trends show potential for growth In the food service industry in general there have been trends toward healthier products with fresher ingredients. Organic or sustainably sourced seafood is also growing in popularity. At Nordsee, for example, over 80 of the fish products are sustainably sourced or certified organic. The fast food industry, which initially emphasised taste and convenience over health, has also responded to consumers demanding higher quality ingredients and greater variety in menus.

In the UK, fish typically attracts older consumers, with 34 of all fish eaten by those over age 65.

While fish fast food is still predominantly prepared by deep-frying, some retailers are taking advantage of the opportunity to create healthier options that feature fish. Sushi has also seen an increase in popularity, especially among younger consumers. Takeaway sushi chains like Yo! Sushi, which has locations across the UK, Ireland, United States, Denmark, Norway, and the Middle East, provide many consumers with the convenience they desire, as well as healthier lunch and dinner options. These “sushi bars� offer rolls for quick takeaway that include salmon, shrimp, tuna, squid, seabass, scallop, and crab.

Despite the enduring popularity of fish and chips in Britain, recent analyses have shown changing consumer tastes for takeaway. Data published by the National Food Survey in 2016 show that consumers are favouring other meat-based options, like kebabs, and global cuisines, while whitefish sales have declined. On the other hand, salmon and shellfish sales have increased in the British market, which has been credited to the marketing of the benefits of omega-3; however, these types of seafood still have minimal presence in fast food.

Fast-food outlets typically focus on their convenience and affordability when attracting consumers. Two oft-cited reasons for lack of fish consumption is the complexity of preparation and the high price, so greater fast food options may be able to help combat these reservations regarding eating fish. Seafood from fast food chains is not simply for grab-and-go meals, but has also been seen to be the source of family dinners: industry data shows that over 55 percent of people purchase fish and chips to be eaten in the home as a family meal. The large increases in demand for fish products during Lent also show that the fast food options are popular as meat alternatives. Fish products can be healthier than other fast food options, as whitefish is much lower in saturated fat than red meat, particularly when it is prepared baked or grilled. Fish fast food can provide an alternative to meat or chicken, or appeal to consumers who prefer fish; the expansion of such offerings has the potential to provide consumers the healthy, convenient dining options that they desire.

Katie Duggan kduggan@princeton.edu Eurofish Magazine 5 / 2016

63

[

FISH INFONETWORK NEWS

]

News

FAO distinguishes Uruguay for its pioneering role against illegal ďŹ shing The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) Agreement on Port State Measures to Prevent, Deter and Eliminate Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated Fishing was adopted by the FAO Conference in 2009. The main purpose of the agreement is to prevent, deter and eliminate illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing through the implementation of robust port state measures. The agreement envisages that parties, in their capacities as port states, will apply the agreement in an effective manner to foreign vessels when seeking entry to ports or while they are in port. The application of the measures set out in the agreement will, inter alia, contribute to harmonized port state

measures, enhanced regional and international cooperation and will block the flow of IUU-caught fish into national and international markets. More than 30 countries, plus the European Union with its 28 member states, are already part of the agreement, which is the first international agreement that specifically addresses the problem of illegal fishing. Uruguay was one of the first countries to sign the agreement. The early support from Uruguay was acknowledged at the 2016 session of the Committee on Fisheries (COFI), when the government of Uruguay represented

by Dr Daniel Gilardoni, National Director of Aquatic Resources, was given a token of recognition

by Graziano da Silva, the Secretary General of FAO.

Uruguay, represented by Dr Daniel Gilardoni (left), National Director of Aquatic Resources, is honoured by Graziano da Silva, Secretary General of FAO, for its long-standing support in the fight against illegal fishing.

Events

INFOSAMAK holds its eighth General Assembly meeting The INFOSAMAK General Assembly held its eighth meeting on July 12-13, 2016 in Rome (Italy).

The meeting was attended by representatives from Algeria, Djibouti, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Palestine and Sudan. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) which was represented by Dr Lahsen Ababouch also attended the meeting. The General Assembly attendees recognized the efforts made by the Centre in terms of providing marketing information, training and consultancy services, and urged INFOSAMAK member

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14_FIN NEWS.indd 64

countries to support the centre in its efforts to carry out its responsibilities.

The Managing Director of INFOSAMAK, Mr. Abdellatif Belkouch, presented activities and finance reports for the period 2013-2014, and the work-plan together with the budget previsions for the period 2015-2017. All reports were approved by the General Assembly.

At the end of the meeting, it was agreed that Palestine holds the Presidency, Libya the first VicePresidency and Morocco second Vice-Presidency.

The INFOSAMAK General Assembly was attended by representatives from seven member countries and from the FAO.

www.eurofishmagazine.com

04/10/16 5:46 pm

DIARY DATES 16-20 October 2016 Sial Paris Paris, France Tel.: +33 1 76 77 11 11 exhibit@sialparis.com www.sialparis.com

19-20 October 2016 Third National Tuna Congress Madrid, Spain Tel. +34 696 381 961 Fax: +34 957 227 819 info@congresonacionalatun.es www.congresonacionalatun.es

27-29 October 2016 Busan International Seafood & Fisheries EXPO (BISFE) Busan, Korea Tel.: +82 51 740 75 18 bisfe@bexco.co.kr www.bisfe.com

10 November 2016 WhiteďŹ sh ShowHow Copenhagen, Denmark Tel.: +45 89 30 44 44 info.dk@marel.com www.marel.dk

19-21 March 2017 Seafood Expo North America/Seafood Processing North America Boston, USA Tel.: +1 207 842 5504 customerservice@divcom.com www.seafoodexpo.com/north-america

15-18 November 2016 EuroTier Hanover, Germany Tel.: +49 69 2478 8307 b.schmidt-puckhaber@dlg.org www.eurotier.com/aquaculture.html

28 November- 1 December, 2016 Latin American & Caribbean Aquaculture 2016 Lima, Peru Tel.: +32 9 2334912 mario@marevent.com www.was.org

25-27 April 2017 Seafood Expo Global / Seafood Processing Global Brussels, Belgium Tel.: +1 207 842 55 04 customerservice@divcom.com www.seafoodexpo.com

30 November - 2 December, 2016 Sustainable Ocean Summit 2016 Rotterdam, The Netherlands Tel.: +1 808 277-9008 paul.holthus@oceancouncil.org www.oceancouncil.org

1-3 November 2016 FoodTech Herning, Denmark Tel: +45 99 26 99 38 jj@mch.dk www.foodtech.dk

7-9 June 2017 POLFISH Gdan´sk, Poland Tel.: +48 58 5549 362 monika.pain@mtgsa.com.pl www.polďŹ shfair.pl

2-4 November 2016 China Fisheries & Seafood Expo Qingdao, China Tel.:+86 10 58672620 seafoodchina@seafare.com www.seafarechina.com

7-9 March 2017 North Atlantic Seafood Forum Bergen, Norway Tel.: +47 22 87 87 00 www.nor-seafood.com

27-30 June 2017 WORLD AQUACULTURE 2017 Cape Town, South Africa www.was.org

A d d y o u r e v e n t t o w w w. E u r o f i s h M a g a z i n e . c o m

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LIST OF ADVERTISERS Imprint Publisher

Name of Company

EUROFISH International Organisation H.C. Andersens Boulevard 44-46 DK-1553 Copenhagen V Denmark

Page

Interfresh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .19

Tel.: +45 333 777 55 Fax: +45 333 777 56 info@eurofish.dk, eurofish.dk, eurofishmagazine.com Managing editor Editorial ofďŹ ces

Aina Afanasjeva Behnan Thomas (bt) H.C. Andersens Boulevard 44-46 DK-1553 Copenhagen V Denmark

JP Klausen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .17

Tel.: +45 333 777 55 behnan.thomas@eurofish.dk Dr. Manfred Klinkhardt (mk) RedaktionsbĂźro DelbrĂźck Franz-Stock-StraĂ&#x;e 23 D-33129 DelbrĂźck Germany

Marel. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Inner Front

Tel.: +49 5250 933416 manfred.klinkhardt@web.de Editorial board

Lahsen Ababouch, Audun Lem

Translation

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Tel.: +49 4149 8020 Fax: +49 4149 7292 avw.preuss@t-online.de Aleksandra Petersen Eurofish Magazine H.C. Andersens Boulevard 44-46 DK-1553 Copenhagen V Denmark

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Tel.: +45 333 777 63 Fax: +45 333 777 56 aleksandra.petersen@eurofish.dk Frequency

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Unless otherwise stated, the copyright for articles in this magazine is vested in the publisher. Articles may not be reproduced without written permission from the copyright holders.

Advertising rates and technical data available on www.eurofishmagazine.com. A soft copy is available on request to aleksandra.petersen@eurofish.dk

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