Chris Loew

The Foreign Agricultural Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) maintains Agricultural Trade Offices (ATOs) in U.S. embassies and many consulates. The ATOs provide market information and help to coordinate promotions for U.S. exporters. SeafoodSource talked with the new director of the ATO in Osaka, Japan, Alexander Blamberg. Before taking up the post in August 2021, he was agricultural attaché at the U.S. embassy in Tokyo,

The annual meeting of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) wrapped up on 23 November, 2021, with some notable decisions: a ban on retaining shortfin mako shark bycatch in the North Atlantic and an increase in the Western Atlantic bluefin tuna quota. There were also significant achievements at the meeting of the regional fishery management organization (RFMO) pertaining to illegal, unreported, and

Japanese sushi chain Kura Sushi will deploy Umitron Cell automated fish-feeders at all of its aquaculture consignment sites.

The Osaka-based rotary sushi company is vertically integrating into fish farming through a subsidiary, Kura Osakana Farm Co. However, the new subsidiary, established on 1 November, 2021, does not farm fish directly. Instead, it consigns production from existing producers.

In Japan, fishery cooperatives have first dibs on

The United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021-2030) announced on 7 January that Urchinomics has been formally endorsed as an “Ocean Decade action.”

The endorsement by the Ocean Decade marks the third time ever that a for-profit company has been highlighted by the Ocean Decade, an awareness campaign run by the U.N. Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC). So far, the Ocean Decade has endorsed

A project funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) is working to create a traceability tool using blockchain to track the movement of octopus through the seafood value-chain.

Field researchers for the project were posted in Campeche and Yucatan in Mexico and the U.S. states of California and Alaska in December 2021 to gather octopus environmental DNA (eDNA) for molecular analysis. The eDNA will be used to create a database, and if

Japan’s top tuna of the New Year fetched a relatively low price this year amid continuing concerns about COVID-19.

The best bluefin tuna sold at the first tuna auction of the year at Japan’s Toyosu (and previously, at the Tsukiji) wholesale market is usually the object of a bidding war. The high price is a plug for the prestige of the product, and earns bragging rights and name-recognition for the successful bidder.

The price saw a

The November 2021 consumer price index for Japan showed price increases on both fresh and shelf-stable seafood compared to last year, outpacing general price hikes.

The Statistics Bureau of Japan released the November 2021 pricing information on 24 December, showing that prices rose 0.6 percent overall from the same period last year, and 0.3 percent from October 2021, on a seasonally adjusted basis. Most of that overall price hike was in energy,

Portland, Oregon, U.S.A.-based nonprofit Ocean Outcomes (O2) has received new funding for its work on tuna sustainability in Northeast Asia, and has added a new member to its international team.

The new funding is a USD 1.9 million (EUR 1.68 million) grant from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation dispersed over three years, which follows on from a 2016 grant from the foundation for USD 571,388 (EUR 506,003). Other major sources of funding for