Here’s a glance at this week’s must-read SeafoodSource news stories and commentaries:
• After more than two years at the helm, Åse Aulie Michelet is no longer CEO of Marine Harvest. Wednesday’s announcement came as a surprise, and the Norwegian farmed salmon company is already on the lookout for a permanent replacement. Marine Harvest Chairman Ole-Eirik Lerøy commended Michelet for strengthening the company’s financial position during her two-year tenure but declined to elaborate on her departure.
• SeafoodSource Contributing Editor Jason Holland posed an intriguing question in his column “Seizing the opportunity” on Wednesday: Will Europe be able to find more mid-priced, sustainably farmed species to supplement Atlantic salmon, global production of which is expected to drop over the next two years? The opportunity certainly exists. “The fast-growing cobia has been widely tipped as a fish of the future for as long as many of us can remember. Meanwhile, meagre is a species that a number of Mediterranean farmers have been trialing in recent years,” wrote Holland.
• Talk of last week’s vote rejecting the proposed international trade ban on Atlantic bluefin tuna by Convention on the International Trade of Endangered Species (CITES) delegates in Doha, Qatar, is still simmering. SeaFood Business Associate Editor James Wright tried to make sense of the decision in his column “Politics trump science” on Monday. “Maybe the trade ban wasn’t the best solution. Maybe CITES isn’t a proper fishery-management tool,” wrote Wright. “ICCAT (International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas) can only be as strong as the governments that participate in it. Those powerful forces should protect their economic interests, as that’s what they’re elected to do. But they also must respect the natural resources that made them possible — and realize that the fight isn’t over yet.”
• Two companies this week announced their intentions to strengthen their sustainable seafood sourcing policies. Canadian grocery wholesaler Federated Co-operatives is working with SeaChoice, a Canadian NGO that collaborates with the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch program, to assess its seafood supply chain, while Hannaford Bros., a 150-unit New England supermarket chain, posted its new sustainable seafood sourcing policy on its Web site.
• And the winners are... Well, the results won’t be in until 27 April. But, on Monday, the 43 finalists for 10th annual Seafood Prix d’Elite new products competition at the European Seafood Exposition in Brussels, Belgium, were unveiled. Two of the finalists — Spain’s Procesados Pesqueros SL/Grupo Lumar and Kaipara Oysters of New Zealand — were featured on SeafoodSource this week.
