Nicki Holmyard

Contributing Editor

Nicki Holmyard lives and breathes the seafood industry. As a specialist freelance writer for 25 years, she has travelled the globe to research in-depth articles, interviews and news stories on all aspects of fishing, aquaculture and processing for international journals and newspapers. She has contributed to books on sustainable seafood sourcing and the effects of climate change on the oceans, and acts as a communications consultant for leading fishing and aquaculture concerns. Nicki is also a director of Offshore Shellfish Ltd, which is developing Europe’s largest rope-grown mussel farm.


Author Archive

Published on
October 2, 2019

Doctor Craig Rose, also known as Doctor Seaweed, has started a social media conversation he calls #notweirdbutwonderful that he hopes will open up the fascinating world of seaweed to the general public.

“Seaweed is an incredibly healthy, sustainable and tasty food ingredient, and my vision is to see everyone enjoying and benefitting from it. There’s nothing weird about seaweed – it’s wonderful!” Rose told

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Published on
September 30, 2019

Since its inception in the 1970s, the global salmon farming industry has struggled to manage the severe economic, animal welfare, and ecological impacts of sea lice infestation, which are preventing salmon farming from reaching its true potential. The economic impact has been estimated at between USD 400 to USD 600 million (EUR 366 million to EUR 549 million) per year. 

Sea lice (Lepeophtheirus salmonis and members of

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Published on
September 13, 2019

Women from Spain, India, and Peru have won the top three prizes in the International Association for Women in the Seafood Industry’s (WSI) annual short film competition, run for the third time this year.

The competition brief asked women to document their observations and experiences in the industry, and offered a cash prize of EUR 1,000 (USD 1,108) for the winner and EUR 500 (USD 554) for two runners up. 

“We hoped to reach

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Published on
September 9, 2019

In the year since agri-biotech company Arbiom announced that samples of its innovative wood-to-food protein ingredient SylPro were available for trials, the product has been undergoing intensive assessments with hybrid striped bass at Texas A&M University and Atlantic salmon and tilapia at Matis in Iceland. 

Arbiom has its foundations in bioconversion processing technology, specifically in woody biomass as an undervalued carbon

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Published on
August 19, 2019

An Australian filmmaker is hoping that his debut feature film entitled, “Buoyancy,” will help to raise greater awareness of human trafficking and slavery on Thai fishing vessels.

Rodd Rathjen’s award-winning film highlights the plight of thousands of migrant Cambodian workers trapped in modern slavery in the Thai seafood industry. Shot in Cambodia in the Khmer and Thai languages, the film centers on the plight of an

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Published on
August 6, 2019

The United Kingdom’s top fish-and-chip shops are now easier to locate, following publication of the National Federation of Fish Friers (NFFF) latest “Official Guide to the U.K.’s Quality Fish and Chip Shops.

The guide, which its authors say is the industry equivalent of the esteemed culinary handbook known as the Michelin Guide, was started four years ago to publicize shops that achieve the NFFF’s Quality

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Published on
August 5, 2019

Land-based salmon farmer Pure Salmon has just signed a major distribution deal with Japanese trading giant Itochu for the 10,000 metric tons (MT) of Atlantic salmon it aims to produce each year at a new state of the art recirculating aquaculture system (RAS) facility in Tsu City, Japan.

Tsu City is an optimum distance from Tokyo, Nagoya, and Osaka, allowing easy distribution to Japan’s most populous cities and centers of salmon

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Published on
July 25, 2019

The proliferation of offshore wind, wave, and tidal energy projects, constructed in response to global concerns about climate change and energy security, have been greeted with caution by marine conservationists, who question their possible detrimental consequences on sea life.

Numerous studies have been undertaken to study the behavioral and physiological effects of noise and electromagnetic fields produced by the alternative energy

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Published on
July 23, 2019

A convoy of 40 large trucks and delivery vans got the Dutch mussel season underway earlier this month, reviving a tradition that had lapsed for a number of years, as processors vied with each other to be the first to start the season with their own promotional events.

This year, a degree of cooperation was achieved, with no company breaking the embargo, and a party atmosphere prevailing at the opening ceremony in the mussel fishing village of

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Published on
July 17, 2019

A new study published in the journal Science reveals that the world’s marine fisheries form a single global network – linked by transnational flows of fish larvae – rather than existing as discrete groups. 

Researchers from the United States and the United Kingdom believe that their work could lead to greater international cooperation in the way fish stocks are managed in the future.

The study combined data from

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