Chris Loew reports from Osaka, Japan as a contributing editor for SeafoodSource.com. In addition to writing for SeafoodSource.com, he covers Japan for
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A popular Japanese food-delivery company will feature sustainable Alaskan seafood in a campaign supported by the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute (ASMI) ...
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… Read MoreJapanese 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
… Read MoreThe 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
… Read MoreA 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
… Read MoreThe Tokyo-based National Pacific Saury Stick Net Fishery Cooperative announced the full-year saury landing statistics on 7 January, with the landings marking the third-consecutive year landings hit record lows …
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… Read MoreJapan’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
… Read MoreThe 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,
… Read MorePortland, 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
… Read MoreYumigahama Fisheries Co., a subsidiary of Tokyo -based Nippon Suisan Kaisha (Nissui), has harvested the first chub mackerel from its land-based recirculating aquaculture system (RAS) facility in Sakaiminato City, Tottori Prefecture, Japan.
Chub mackerel (Scomber japonicas, called “masaba” in Japanese) is considered the best-tasting mackerel for sashimi, and as a result, is more expensive than striped or spotted mackerel.
The fish
… Read MoreJapan's Yaizu Fisheries Cooperative held a briefing on 6 December to explain the theft of frozen bonito – skipjack tuna – to local fishermen.
Yaizu, located near the entrance of Tokyo Bay, is the country’s top bonito port, recording nearly half of the country’s total landings.
In February, five people were arrested and charged with stealing about 4.4 metric tons of frozen bonito, worth JPY 1.04 million (USD 9,000,
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