Fish Update Briefing Friday May 27

MACDUFF SHELLFISH LIFTS CLEARWATER SALES
INCREASED volumes and higher prices have given first quarter sales a boost at the big Canadian company Clearwater Seafoods. Sales for the three month period soared by 54 per cent to $116.2 million. The company said volume growth was due both to its acquisition last October of Macduff Shellfish Group—which expanded Clearwater’s access to supply by more than 15 million pounds or 20 per cent – as well as higher Canadian scallop volumes due to better harvesting conditions. Clearwater is also expecting a strong performance for the remainder of this year.
 
ARMED RAID ON SAUDI SEAFOOD RESTAURANT
THE security authorities in Saudi Arabia are investigating an armed robbery in the Red Sea city of Jeddah. Such crimes are quite rare in Saudi. Two men are reported to have covered their faces and stormed into the restaurant wielding guns and asked the accountant to open the safe and hand over the money. As the accountant refused, they fired bullets in the air and forced him to open the safe, from which they took all the money before fleeing the scene, the Saudi news site Sabq reported. The police are now deploying extraordinary efforts to identify the robbers and arrest them, sources added.
 
JAPAN’S YOUNG FIGHT SHY OF FISH
JAPAN’S seafood consumption has declined sharply among the younger generation, according to a government report. The report reveals that the total per capita marine food consumption in the year through March 2016 had declined to 27.3 kilograms, 30 per cent down from a peak of 40.2 kilograms a few years ago. The decreasing seafood consumption is especially prevalent among people younger than 40, who are increasingly replacing the country’s once most common food with meat, the report says.
ACID THREAT TO FISH
HIGHER acidity in coastal waters can make fish more sensitive to low oxygen, causing them to become debilitated and suffocate in water with oxygen levels that, although low, could otherwise sustain them, says the Smithsonian Environmental Research Centre. Their findings are published in the Marine Ecology Progress Series, which shows a deadly combination—low oxygen and acidity—occurs when nitrogen rich run-off gives algae and other aquatic organisms a growth boost that sucks oxygen from the water and pumps in carbon dioxide, raising acidity. ‘When we look at combinations of stressors, sometimes we find effects that are much worse than when we look at them one at a time,’ Denise Breitburg, Smithsonian senior scientist and co-author of the study said.  ‘We are often surprised at the consequences.’