Chris Chase

For the past five years, the New England Ocean Cluster has been without the collaborative working space that the model thrives on, but that’s soon going to change.

The New England Ocean Cluster is based on the Iceland Ocean Cluster, and both locations share the same mission: To connect various entrepreneurs, businesses, artists, and other talented individuals in a collaborative space to enhance the region’s seafood industry. The

The Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) in Canada is instituting new requirements for the country’s lobster and crab fisheries, partially intended to help coordinate protection of the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale.

The new measure involves specially marked gear rope that will be required for roughly 14 fisheries, with all lobster and crab traps in Eastern Canada coming under the new rule, according to the

Cellular aquaculture firm BlueNalu announced today that it has entered into a strategic partnership with Nutreco, Dutch provider of aquafeed and the paren­t company of Skretting.

The two companies, according to a release from BlueNalu, formalized an agreement that “builds upon BlueNalu’s platform technology for production of cell-based seafood products from a wide variety of species.” Nutreco is bringing its expertise in

Clearwater Seafoods and Quin-Sea Fisheries announced on 15 January the two companies have agreed to form a new joint venture to take over the operation of the St. Anthony Seafoods Limited Partnership shrimp plant in St. Anthony, Newfoundland, Canada.

The plant, according to a release from Clearwater, is located on the Great Northern Peninsula and has a “highly experienced workforce and proximity to the resource.” The resource in

The Maine lobster industry is expected to have another year with more than 100 million pounds landed, a significant number during a year fraught with bait shortages and other challenges.

Maine Department of Marine Resources Commissioner Patrick Keliher gave the estimate to Maine Public’s “Maine Calling” radio show. More precise numbers are typically made available in March, during the state’s annual Fishermen’s

The Buyers and Sellers Exchange (BASE) of New Bedford, Massachusetts, U.S.A., announced on 9 January that it has withdrawn its right of first refusal to ships owned by Carlos Rafael – a.k.a. the “Codfather” – that were pending a sale to Blue Harvest.

According to the SouthCoast Today, Blue Harvest had signed a purchase and sale agreement for Rafael’s groundfish vessels, but that agreement was subject to a 30-day

Nordic Aquafarms Inc. – which is planning to construct a salmon recirculating aquaculture system in both Belfast, Maine and Humboldt County, California – has fired Shawn Harriman just one week after he was hired after photos of him posing next to a lion he killed surfaced online.

Harriman was recently hired to be the senior vice president of projects at Nordic Aquafarms California, the West Coast subsidiary of the

Northern Wind, based in New Bedford, Massachusetts, U.S.A., is nearing completion on a state-of-the-art 38,000-square-foot processing and freezing facility on the New Bedford waterfront.

The new facility represents a significant expansion of the company, which is a direct off-loader, processor, and distributor of fresh and frozen scallops. According to a release from the company, the new expansion represents a USD 12 million (EUR 10.7 million)

The Responsible Offshore Development Alliance (RODA) has submitted a letter to NOAA Fisheries, the U.S. Coast Guard, and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) that proposes a new layout for potential wind projects off the coast of New England.

The proposal includes several four-nautical-mile transit corridors that follow likely paths for fishermen in the region. Groups representing the fisheries in the region have objected repeatedly to

The Maine Department of Marine Resource has submitted a proposal for regulatory changes to the state’s lobster industry intended to help protect the highly endangered North Atlantic right whale to the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) in advance of federal rule making on the issue.

The proposal comes after the department held 10 public meetings with members of the lobster industry, and performed further analysis of available data to