Chris Loew

The North Pacific Anadromous Fish Commission (NPAFC) recently reported the 2022 salmon catch in its area of oversight at 710,400 metric tons, the second-lowest total since 2000.

The declines were blamed on lower landings of pink and chum salmon in Asia, where those species make up most of the catch, according to a NPAFC scientific committee report.

The Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada-based NPAFC, which includes Canada, Japan, South Korea,

Nissui released its consolidated financial results for fiscal year 2022, ending 31 March, 2023, revealing higher sales on account of a rebound from loosened Covid-19 measures, but lower operating profits mainly due to higher material costs.

The Tokyo, Japan-based seafood conglomerate’s report and related presentation materials highlighted a net sales increase of 10.7 percent, reaching JPY 768 billion (USD 5.5 billion, EUR 5.1 billion), up

Two of Japan’s biggest trading companies, Marubeni and Sumitomo, have separately begun partnerships with insect protein companies, aiming to both use and sell the alternative protein for aquaculture feed purposes in Japan.

Japan is the second-largest user of fishmeal in the world, with much of it imported from Peru  for its yellowtail and sea bream aquaculture operations. But recently, prices for fishmeal have been rising, leading to

Hannah Schlosstein is the new international marketing coordinator for Asia at the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute (ASMI). She earned a politics and sociology undergraduate degree from the University of Edinburgh in Scotland and then worked as a language teacher in rural Japan for two years. Schlosstein most recently worked as a clinical programs manager at the Southeast Alaska Regional Health Consortium (SEARHC) Hospital in Juneau. She

Japan’s imports of fish and fish preparations from Russia in 2022 rose to a new record value of JPY 155.2 billion (USD 1.14 billion, EUR 1.05 billion), up 12.9 percent from 2021, frustrating other nations, especially Canada, that have vowed to heavily limit or totally ban imports from the country following its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

The previous record high value of seafood imports from Russia to Japan occurred in 2018, when

Steinar Ludvigsen, the founder and general manager of Kristiansund, Norway-based Seabed Innovation, has big plans to market uni sourced from Norwegian sea urchins, beginning with European and Asian markets.

Many aspects of his plan are novel. For example, while scuba divers conduct most urchin harvesting around the world by carrying a basket and a claw tool, Ludvigsen said this process is too costly in Norway.

“We have a new method to

At Japan's 2023 Foodex show at the Tokyo Big Sight venue in 10 March, Andrew Rooney, the second-generation managing partner of Northern Ireland-based Rooney Fish, was on the lookout for a Japanese importer and distributor for his company's brown crab.

Aiming to diversify the markets in which he operates, Rooney set up shop at Foodex, Japan’s largest food exposition with over 73,000 visitors, he eventually found a partner in Godak

For a culture that prides itself on its fresh fish offerings, it’s no wonder that aged fish is not a widely popular option for Japanese consumers.

However, despite its lack of widespread adoption in the country, innovators in this sector are trying to stray from the norm, as is the case with two former classmates from Kanoya City, Kagoshima Prefecture.

Tsutomu Shimada and Takuhiro Hachiya founded Plow A Land Co. in the same city in which

The Indian Ocean Tuna Commission (IOTC) has once again failed to reach an agreement on new skipjack or yellowfin quotas, or on managing drifting fish aggregating devices (dFADs), two issues that have stymied cooperation among its members and resulted in calls for new management methods.

The 27th session of the IOTC, held from 8 to 12 May in Mauritius, reached agreements on monitoring measures, how it responds to violations of its management

On 4 April, the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) released photos showing extensive damage to a containment chamber at the Fukushima nuclear power plant.

The photos, taken at the end of March by a robotic probe inside the primary containment chamber of the plant's Unit 1, showed that the pedestal, a concrete supporting structure over a meter thick located directly beneath the reactor core, suffered significant damage near its bottom, exposing