Curious what your fellow SeafoodSource readers are viewing? Here’s a rundown of the website’s five most-read stories and commentaries of June 2011:
5) This didn’t necessarily come as news to the seafood world: A 14 June report out of Southeast Asia found that aquaculture is more efficient and less environmentally damaging than competing forms of animal protein production. But the report, “Blue Frontiers: Managing the environmental costs of aquaculture,” may open eyes in other communities, such as environmental community. However, the report wasn’t without its criticisms of fish faming. It found that aquaculture’s environmental impact varies “dramatically” by country, region, production system and species.
4) Vietnam’s pangasius industry is at a crossroads. After years of seemingly unstoppable growth, the value of the country’s pangasius exports has reached a plateau. Now farmers and processors are being encouraged to improve efficiency without compromising quality. Can it be done? Check out SeafoodSource Contributing Editor Mike Urch’s 20 June commentary “Pangasius producers cut costs, not corners.”
3) The time is coming. China isn’t all that far off from being a net importer of seafood. For years, the country has been a seafood-production powerhouse. But that is changing, as the country become a much larger importer of medium- to high-quality farmed seafood products due to its burgeoning middle class. SeafoodSource Contributing Editor Mark Godfrey’s in-depth look at China’s fast-evolving seafood market was June’s third most-read story or commentary.
2) Stop me if you haven’t heard this question: What’s the next big thing? Take pangasius. Ten years ago, no consumer could identify pangasius. Now it’s one of the most popular species among North Americans and Europeans. Will pompano follow suit? Urch analyzed farmed pompano’s growth potential — interviewing Carlos Massad of Marine Farms Vietnam, which is beginning to raise the fast-growing species in central Vietnam — in the 6 June commentary “Is pompano the next big thing?”
1) June’s most-popular story or commentary involved the world’s most-popular fried-fish sandwich. Beginning in October, McDonald’s iconic Filet-O-Fish sandwich will bear the Marine Stewardship Council eco-label at restaurants across Europe, ensuring that the whitefish used in the sandwich originated from a sustainable, well-managed fishery. The announcement came on 8 June, World Oceans Day, just nine days after the sandwich’s inventor, Lou Groen, passed away at the age of 93. The Filet-O-Fish has come a long, long way from its humble beginnings in Cincinnati in 1962, as Groen explained to me in detail in a 2007 interview.
