Fish Update Briefing Friday April 17

Nestle to sell French frozen food arm
NESTLE is planning to sell its French frozen food unit Davigel to foodservice orientated Brakes Group, which in turn is owned by buyout fund Bain Capital.
The talks, thought to be in an advanced stage, were reported earlier by French daily Les Echos, which indicated that a deal is expected to be signed soon.
Davigel supplies frozen and chilled meals, including a large number of fish and seafood products, to restaurants and hospitals.
Last month Nestle confirmed the sale of its Spanish frozen food arm, La Cocinera, to the Findus group.
 
Fish champion Dame Alison hangs up her apron
NEW Zealand’s longest serving celebrity TV chef, Dame Alison Holst, has been forced to stop cooking because she is suffering from dementia, her family has said.
She first appeared on New Zealand TV screens 50 years ago and it is said that whenever she mentioned fish or seafood the industry reported bumper sales.
Dame Alison, 77, has written more than 100 recipe books, including many on how to cook different varieties of fish.
She finally hung up her apron last year when she stopped writing her regular newspaper column.
Her family said they were saddened by her condition, but stressed that dementia was nothing to be ashamed about.
 
Fish found alive in boat after four years!
FISH have been found alive in a Japanese fishing boat wrecked off the US west coast in the wake of the tsunami of March, 2011.
The boat is thought to have drifted about 5,000 miles towards the US coast at Oregon and contained 20 yellowtail amberjacks and one striped beakfish, both species normally found in waters off Japan.
They were still in a holding tank and alive. A local aquarium will provide a home for the fish.
The tsunami followed the great Japanese earthquake, the effects of which were felt from Norway’s fjords to Antarctica’s ice sheet. Nearly 16,000 people died, mostly by drowning.
Bumper trip for freezer trawler
THE Icelandic freezer trawler Höfrungur III AK docked in Reykjavík this week after a 24-day trip with some of the best quality saithe caught for a while.
Skipper Haraldur Árnason said he was satisfied with the excellent fishing and the result from the trip.
‘We sailed on March 20 and started fishing on the Eldey Bank. There had been some good saithe fishing there for a few weeks but that was slowing down by the time we arrived on the scene.
‘So we moved off into the Skerja Deeps and the Little Bank to search for redfish and silver smelt.’
The next stop, he said, was the Selvogur Bank.
‘We were in the same area a year ago and then we had nothing but cod and haddock with hardly a saithe to be seen.
‘This time, there was plenty of large saithe to be had and the catch rates were very good.
‘When it felt like the saithe was slowing down, we started seeing haddock instead. Cod wasn’t a problem where we were, although there are colossal amounts of cod further west and plenty of cod to be found 24 miles off Surtur and away to the east.’