Chris Loew

Tokyo, Japan-headquartered Mitsui & Co. recently attained large stakes in two aquaculture companies: FRD Japan, a land-based recirculating aquaculture system (RAS) rainbow trout farming company, and Ecuador-based Industrial Pesquera Santa Priscila, the world’s largest shrimp-farming company.

On 20 July, Mitsui announced that it subscribed to purchase additional shares in FRD Japan amounting to JPY 7.85 billion (USD 54.3 million, EUR

Government reports coming out of Japan highlight trends of falling wild-caught and farm fishery production, with some numbers hitting record lows throughout the country.

Japan’s Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries (MAFF) released its Fisheries White Paper earlier this summer and the report – which covers trends in production, import-export changes, and consumer behavior – covers the fiscal year ending March 2022.

Kristiansund, Norway-based C Robotics is working to transform shellfish harvesting and aquaculture operations through a line of underwater remote operated vehicles (ROVs).

The company, formed in 2017 by a group of professionals who have extensive experience in the subsea oil and gas, maritime, and fishing industries, has dubbed its most recent ROV the BabyBud. The underwater ROV is intended to clean fish cages after harvesting, among other

Tokyo, Japan-based Nissui, Japan’s second-largest seafood company by revenue, is well on its way to achieving its revenue targets for its aquaculture operations it set for fiscal year (FY) 2024.

Nissui's sales of aquaculture products increased from JPY 59.9 billion (USD 425.5 million, EUR 383.2 million) to JPY 69.1 billion (USD 485 million, EUR 441 million) in FY 2022, a 15.3 percent increase year over year and 92 percent of its 2024 sales

The United Nations Fish Stocks Agreement (UNFSA) Resumed Review Conference, held at U.N. headquarters in New York City, U.S.A., elicited disappointingly few actionable recommendations that the seafood industry could use to further improve, according to several attendees.

UNFSA is a multilateral treaty aiming to promote effective, cooperative management of highly migratory fish stocks – mainly tuna, sharks, marlin, and swordfish. The treaty

Japan has received the green light to release treated cooling water from the controversial Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant into the Pacific Ocean, prompting some of Japan’s neighbors to increase seafood testing requirements or expand the number of Japanese prefectures covered by import bans over fears of radiation contamination.

A positive review from the United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency, which the plant received on

Rising costs, sustainability issues, and supply chain problems surrounding traditional fishmeal have pushed some Japanese researchers toward developing alternative sources of protein for use in aquaculture feed, including mushroom substrate.

Mushroom substrate is not the only alternative protein currently undergoing experimentation throughout Japan. Other options such as insects, single-cell organisms, and citrus byproducts are all increasingly

Manufacturers belonging to the Japan Fish Feed Association will not meet new Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC) feed standards, leaving Japan with only one major fish feed maker that is likely to meet the updated requirements: the Japanese subsidiary of Stavanger, Norway-based Skretting.

The London, U.K.-based ASC launched its new Feed Standard V1.01 on 15 June, 2021, and the standards became effective starting 14 January, 2023, allowing feed

The popularity of “burihara,” a yellowtail crossbreed originally developed in 2017 by Kindai University in Hagashi-Osaka, has begun to skyrocket in Japan, with supermarkets and sushi stores drastically increasing their sales of the product nationwide.

Burihara, which is the offspring of a female “buri,” or yellowtail (Seriola quinqueradiata), and a male “hiramasa,” or yellowtail amberjack (Seriola lalandi), is

A working party on neritic tunas – one of seven working parties supporting the Scientific Committee of the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission (IOTC) – is trying to get a better handle on the state of the resource, for which detailed data has been lacking.

In contrast to oceanic tunas, which migrate over large areas, neritic tunas such as longtail tuna (Thunnus tonggol), eastern little tuna (Euthynnus affinis), frigate tuna (Auxis thazard),