Eurofish Magazine 6 2018

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December 6 / 2018 C 44346

December 6 / 2018

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In this issue

Encouraging indications from fish stocks Croatia: Measures introduced in response to warnings a couple of years ago from scientists that stocks were overfished are starting to show results. Fishers are seeing that individual specimens of small pelagics are bigger and that catches are good, while the latest scientific stock assessments have noted a decrease in mortality and a stable biomass. These are positive signs which could be attributed to the administrative measures put in place but may also have been helped by natural factors. While better catches is good news for the fishers, it is tempered with stricter controls and harsher fines introduced by new national legislation and potentially also by revised EU legislation. Any potential increase in expenses or paperwork that may be needed to comply with new rules will be unwelcome, says a representative of the small-scale fishery. Read more on page 31 Aquaculture’s image: Aquaculture plays a vital role in maintaining the supply of fish and seafood to a growing population and yet it suffers from an image much worse than that of terrestrial farmed animal proteins. Apart from being a source of healthful and relatively environmentally friendly protein, aquaculture also provides livelihoods to millions both directly and indirectly across the world, often in communities where other opportunities to earn a living are scarce. There are thus multiple reasons to support the industry and encourage it to grow, yet it continues to attract negative publicity and is regarded with scepticism if not downright suspicion by many consumers. Among the factors that influence consumers’ perception is the way the subject is portrayed in the media. To combat this there is need for a more nuanced debate about the benefits and disadvantages of aquaculture, one that is based on facts rather than emotion. Read Dr Manfred Klinkhardt’s article on page 24 Fish farming in the Republic of Korea: Aquaculture production in the Republic of Korea already exceeds that from capture fisheries and the gap is expected to widen even more in the future. The use of technology will play a critical role in the development of the fish and seafood farming sector. Biotechnology and environmental engineering combined with elements from the fourth industrial revolution such as connectivity and convergence are likely to foster this development in the sector. The use of information technology to link equipment and share data, which is already widespread in other industrial contexts, is now being deployed in the aquaculture sector to create “smart fish farms� that can be used for the cultivation of many different species. Read more on page 53 Plastic-free packaging: As reports of plastic particles in the oceans and even in the bodies of marine dwellers fill the media, companies are starting to look for alternatives. A suitable one may not be easy to find, however, as plastics are so versatile and offer so many advantages. But as the drawbacks of plastics become apparent, it is becoming increasingly clear that a sea change in thinking is needed if this challenge is to be met. Industry, at least in the wealthier parts of the world, can see that the use of plastic packaging is meeting resistance and is looking for alternatives. The range of alternatives is currently still limited but is liable to expand in future. Read more on page 55 European eel: The European eel is still shrouded in considerable mystery despite substantial efforts to unravel it. The lack of a complete picture is one of the reasons that the species is outside of safe biological limits and stocks are declining not only in Europe, but also North America, Japan and other areas. Not only are there several unanswered questions regarding eel reproduction, but also about its early life stages and the long migration it undertakes from the Sargasso Sea to European coastal waters. What is well known is that the eel is threatened and that there are several reasons for its decline. National eel management plans have been implemented in several countries, but the stock of the European eel remains critical. Read more on page 59 Eurofish Magazine 6 / 2018

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Table of News 6 International News

Events 15 Marel Whitefish ShowHow, 26 September, Copenhagen Digitalisation brings multiple benefits

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17 Future Fish Eurasia 2018, 18-20 October, Izmir Increased focus on technology and equipment 19 EU fishmeal conference, 11 October 2018, Copenhagen Forage fish, marine mammals and optimal fisheries yields

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24 Aquaculture has a poor image despite immense economic importance Lack of knowledge nourishes prejudices 28 Second Global Fishery Forum, 13-15 September 2018, St. Petersburg Aquaculture to remain leading animal protein producer

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34 Croatia’s fisheries and aquaculture sector Impact of measures to protect stocks become apparent

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39 Fisheries and aquaculture stakeholders hold their annual meeting on Rab Modernisation of ports, landing sites commences 40 Ribnjacarstvo Koncanica exports most of its carp production Adding value to carp is something for the future

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43 Traders play a key role in supplying the Croatian market with domestic fish as well as imports Fresh seafood from around the world 44 A nature reserve in Croatia produces high quality European flat oysters Building on an ancient tradition

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Contents 47 “Trapula” is a textbook example of income diversification among small-scale fishers Combining fishing with tourism proves an enriching experience 49 Trenton plans to expand its activities in the fish side of the business Traditional recipes combining taste with health

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51 Joint Hungarian-Romanian fisheries and aquaculture workshop Joint event has suggestions for EMFF successor

Korea 53 The fourth industrial revolution and ICT will contribute to sustainability High technology is key to the future of Korean aquaculture

Technology 55 Growing concern about plastic waste in the oceans Search for plastic-free packaging intensified

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59 Will eel soon be off the menu? Europe struggling to save the eel population

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63 TUDAV uses science to influence policy making in the Mediterranean and the Black Sea Research, publish, educate

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Scan the QR code to access the Eurofish Magazine website (www.eurofishmagazine. com), where you can also sign up to receive the Eurofish Magazine newsletter.

Eurofish Magazine 6 / 2018

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[ INTERNATIONAL NEWS ] European Commission: Marine Protected Areas produce unsuspected economic beneďŹ ts A new report from the European Commission provides the latest evidence that marine protected areas (MPAs) not only encourage revival of depleted fish stocks, they can encourage economic activity and new jobs as well. The report, “Economic Benefits of Marine Protected Areas and Spatial Protection Measuresâ€?, examines ten case studies among the dozens of MPAs that have been created in EU waters. There are numerous examples of business activities in fishing, tourism, passenger shipping, and the blue economy itself, all spurred by, or even dependent upon, the existence of MPAs.

Direct benefits of MPAs on fishing activities include increased abundance of larger, healthier fish, which leads to higher prices. Greater stock abundance reduces fishing costs and improves efficiency. Fish from an MPA can often receive an eco-certification, also leading to higher prices. Benefits to the tourism sector arise from increased numbers of visitors and their length of stay, as well as extension of the tourism season, all of which mean higher incomes to sectors providing goods and services to tourists. MPAs encourage

recreational activities such as SCUBA diving and sport fishing, further adding to local financial benefits. The Commission report cites benefits to the blue economy (including aquaculture, blue biotech, ocean energy, and others), including increased revenue and profits from improved environmental inputs, cost savings from reduced repair and maintenance from better infrastructure, improved access to finance, and increased customer base and/or value from an enhanced company/brand image. The Commission hopes

the report will raise awareness and acceptance of marine protected areas and alleviate concerns that they only add economic costs to fishing and other business activities.

India: Shrimp producers doubly hit by low prices, cyclone Titli Shrimp farmers in India are facing a double whammy this winter, as buyers in a glutted global market are offering prices that are below farmers’ production costs, and farms ravaged by Cyclone Titli in October now face disease outbreaks. As reported by Undercurrent and Intrafish, the 2019 forecast for supply from India’s shrimp producers is down, with one source

estimating supply in the production year ending 31 March 2019, to be 620.000-650.000 tonnes, down from an initial estimate of 700.000 tonnes. This is attributed in part to below-cost prices offered by shrimp buyers in advance of the winter holidays, Easter, and other peak consumption periods, leading farmers to reduce their pond seeding levels. Farmers in some areas are being offered USD 6,50 per kilo, when

The lower supply forecast is also due to collateral effects of the cyclone, including a series of disease outbreaks hitting shrimp farms especially in the hard-hit eastern Indian State of Odisha, as well as parts of northern Andhra Pradesh, and West and South Bengal. The spread of white spot virus is “very severe� in some

areas, adding to the costs from damaged or destroyed farms and roads and other infrastructure. Odisha accounts for only 7 of India’s supply, so national production isn’t heavily affected by the cyclone, but locally the damage is great. On the positive side (for farmers), the forecast supply reduction means processors who must meet seasonal supply contracts with buyers will have to raise their prices offered to farmers.

and 12 nautical miles following the 2002 Berlin Commitments. It has in recent times been “by default� six nautical miles except during frequent restrictions. Earlier in October, the Defence Ministry ordered a tightening to three nautical miles, which severely impacted local fishermen because of the small quantities of fish found so close to shore.

In addition to tightening the fishing zone, other measures taken because of hostilities have included restrictions on fuel supplies and the closure of commercial crossings from Gaza, which also adversely affect fishermen. Gaza-harvested fish is sold locally as well as in other Palestinian areas and in Israel.

their costs are as high as USD 7,00 per kilo.

Israel: Extension of Gaza ďŹ shing zone Israel’s Defence Ministry announced in late October a reextension of Gaza’s fishing zone, which had been tightened following border hostilities and Palestinian Great Return March demonstrations which began in March. “Israel informed the Palestinian side that it has decided to extend the fishing area to nine

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nautical miles from the centre to the south and six miles from the centre to the north of the strip,� said the chairperson of the fishing committee of the enclave, Zakareya Bakr, in a statement. The fishing zone had been as wide as 20 nautical miles from shore as agreed in the 1995 Oslo Accords,

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[ INTERNATIONAL NEWS ] UK: Grant funding for young ďŹ sh technologists to attend seafood congress The International Association of Fish Inspectors (IAFI) has announced that it will fund the attendance of a young fish technologist (under 30 years of age) to the IAFI World Seafood Congress 2019, which will be held in Penang, Malaysia on 9-11 September. The funding, known as the 2019 Peter Howgate Award, will cover travel, accommodation and the Congress fee. The IAFI Peter Howgate Award is a tribute to Peter Howgate’s work and career, and a recognition of his immense contribution to the field of fish technology and the people who work in it, both during his 35 years at the UK’s Torry Research Station, and thereafter. The International Association of Fish Inspectors was established in

1999 to serve the world fish inspection community. IAFI exists to promote the exchange of ideas and information, foster interaction, understanding and professional collaboration among individuals, organisations, and governments, disseminate knowledge about seafood and associated products inspection, and promote advancement of the state-of-the-art fish inspection and fish quality and safety research and education. More information is available at http://www.iafi.net. The deadline for submission of applications is 29 March 2019. More information and an application form are available from www.peterhowgateaward.com. Updates and information about previous awards are available at https://www.facebook.com/PeterHowgateAward

Belgium: EUMOFA publishes study on caviar market The European Market Observatory for Fisheries and Aquaculture products (EUMOFA) has released a new publication “The caviar market. Production, trade and consumption in and outside the EU�. Wild catch of sturgeons is banned by most countries, so nearly all caviar on the global market is harvested from farmed sturgeons. In 2016, global production of sturgeons was 105,000 tonnes corresponding to an estimated global production of caviar of 340 tonnes.

were exported. The increase in volume is clearly affecting the price. Both intra- and extra-EU trade have shown decreasing price trends over the last 4-5 years.

Sturgeon production in the EU reached 2,700 tonnes in 2016 giving 126 tonnes of caviar, an increase of 17 from 2015. More than 32 tonnes

Ecuador: ToothďŹ sh to be eligible for eco-certiďŹ cation Ecuador has joined the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) as a non-Contracting Cooperating Party, the conservation body announced. As a result, Ecuador can now catch Patagonian toothfish (Dissostichus eleginoides), obtain registration and certification of origin, and export the tightly regulated

fish to markets around the world. The species is often marketed as Chilean seabass, regardless of the country of origin. Patagonian toothfish is a threatened species, owing in large part to IUU fishing. It is a large fish and grows slowly, making it susceptible to overfishing in general, and IUU fishing greatly exacerbates

Ms.Hannah Antwi, from Elmina, Ghana, seen here receiving the 2017 Peter Howgate Award from IAFI President Carey Bonnell, attended the World Seafood Congress 2017 in Iceland, and played an active part in discussions on the safety of smoked ďŹ shery products in Africa. She is now studying at the UN University Fisheries Training Programme at MATIS Iceland.

Eurofish Magazine 6 / 2018

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[ INTERNATIONAL NEWS ]

IUU ďŹ shing is a large part of why the Patagonian toothďŹ sh is a threatened species.

the problem. Therefore, CCAMLR has taken responsibility for international regulation of Patagonian toothfish and requires countries to register exports in its Catch Documentation System.

Ecuador has only a limited history of harvesting the species, so much information has yet to be collected on the species’ geographic distribution and population levels. CCAMLR has

implemented a series of rules and regulations for the management of marine ecosystems in the Convention Area, thus protecting Antarctic marine living resources such as Patagonian

toothfish while allowing fishing activities related to this resource. Ecuador’s accession to CCAMLR as a non-Contracting Cooperating Party significantly helps this effort.

Spain: Standardisation of ďŹ sheries and aquaculture products and processes A 4-year collaboration agreement was signed by the Spanish Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAPA) and UNE, the Spanish Association for Standardisation building on a history of close collaboration going back to 2006. The two organisations have been cooperating to standardise processes and products in the fishing and aquaculture industry. The purpose of the new agreement is to develop a set of regulatory documents in matters concerning traceability, consumer information, work conditions, food

hygiene and safety, and the marketing of fishing and aquaculture products. The technical standards are developed by the UNE Technical Standardisation Committees, one for fishing, the CTN 195, and another for aquaculture, the CTN 173, and will result in a set of guidelines that can be used by relevant associations and other stakeholders on a voluntary basis. The guidelines will be developed by leading experts in their respective fields.

Javier GarcĂ­a, CEO of UNE, and Ignacio Gandarias Serrano, General Director of Fisheries and Aquaculture at MAPA sign the collaboration agreement.

Northern Ireland worried by EU access demands Fishermen in Northern Ireland (NI) are troubled by EU demands to allow EU vessels full access to UK fishing waters following Brexit. Harry Wick, CAO of the Northern Ireland Fish Producers Organisation, who represents 75 of the NI fishing fleet, told the News Letter that the UK has the best fisheries waters in the EU but won’t have control over 8

them, despite Brexit. His comments were made after the 27 remaining EU leaders published a statement that vowed to protect their own interests, on issues from fishing to fair competition and the rights of citizens. Calling the current situation unfair, Mr Wick noted that French and Spanish fisherman today take 15 of prawns from the Irish Sea;

the French catch 85 of cod from the English Channel while the UK gets only 11; the UK holds 70 of the Irish sea territory but is only allowed 30 of cod from it; EU vessels catch six times as much fish in UK waters as UK vessels catch in EU waters; and that more than nine of ten commercial fishermen in the UK voted for Brexit. As a response,

EU fishermen argue that they have fished the areas for centuries and that their industries are heavily dependent on catches in UK water. They also point out that much of the UK’s own produce is exported to the EU. The French want the status quo to remain despite Brexit, said Mr Wick, but after Brexit we would expect our fair share from UK waters.

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[ INTERNATIONAL NEWS ] Norway: Salmon feed company to close UK operations The overcapacity in Europe’s salmon feed market is causing at least one major feed producer to close its production operations in the UK. Norway-based Skretting, a Nutreco subsidiary, operates production facilities in 19 countries worldwide, including one each in Scotland and England. However, a rival, Marine Harvest Scotland, is opening a plant in the spring of 2019, which Skretting estimates will raise UK capacity by more than 50 over market demand, leading to unsustainably low prices. Skretting said it isn’t planning on stopping production in other EU markets; indeed, the company continues to grow, based on a strategy of matching local aquafeed markets with local production

as closely as possible. The principal market, the global farmed salmon sector, is as highly competitive as the feed sector, and experiences production shifts of its own, which feed suppliers must adapt to. “Aquaculture is an increasingly important and attractive solution to meet growing demand for healthy food,� the company’s announcement said, but to ensure sustained profitability “tough decisions� must be made, referring to the impacts on around 100 employees as well as customers and suppliers. Norway is Europe’s largest salmon producer, followed closely by Scotland. Norwegian firms operate around the world, in South America, North America, and elsewhere,

Falling prices for salmon puts pressure on the feed supplies.

as do major feed producers. Salmon prices and volumes (and thus feed demand) can be quite volatile, as supply and demand conditions in one market ripple across the globe. Companies like Skretting, which says it is the global leader in

aquafeed, face complicated challenges, as salmon prices can fall, putting pressure on feed prices, but encouraging salmon consumption, which increases demand for more farmed salmon, requiring more feed, and so on.

Eurofish Magazine 6 / 2018

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[ INTERNATIONAL NEWS ] Romania: Conference seeks to revitalise range of Danube-centred activities

The Danube conference recently organised in Bucharest attracted over 100 participants from the region and beyond to discuss a variety of issues associated with the river including ďŹ sh stocks, habitat restoration, sustainable ďŹ sheries, and the needs of ďŹ shermen.

On 13-14 November 2018, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and International Organization for the Development of Fisheries and Aquaculture in Europe (EUROFISH), in cooperation with the European Inland Fisheries and Aquaculture Advisory Commission (EIFAAC), the Romanian Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the Romanian Ministry of Waters and Forests, the Danube Sturgeon Task Force and the International Association for Danube Research, organized in Bucharest a Regional Conference on river habitat restoration in the Danube Basin and Black Sea area. The aim of the conference was to contribute to the revival of fish

populations, inland and recreational fisheries, food security, and livelihoods of riparian communities. Particular focus was placed on the Danube River Basin’s flagship species, sturgeons, long distance migratory species currently under recovery, but which still require special protection measures against illegal fishing. To support sturgeon recovery in the Danube River, Romania, through the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and the Ministry of Environment, Waters and Forests, has restricted the commercial fishery of these valuable species since 2006 for a period of 15 years. The conservation of Danube sturgeons is supported by the European Commission, the EU Strategy for the Danube Region and numerous

Danube stakeholders implementing the Sturgeon 2020 programme. This conference marked the beginning of a closer dialogue between the environmental and fishery/aquaculture authorities from the Danube countries to reduce the current decline of freshwater fish species and identify constructive solutions for the revival of endangered species and fish populations with high economic value, bringing benefits to the riverine communities along the Danube River. Besides discussing urgent measures that need to be implemented, successful examples and good practices applied in other European states were presented to encourage their adoption at regional level.

Fishery and aquaculture provide valuable food and income resources for approximately 820 million people worldwide, starting with recreational and commercial fisheries, and ending with processing, marketing and distribution of different fish products. For many communities, they represent part of the local tradition and cultural identity. The event was attended by 108 participants and the conference proceedings and conclusions will be collected into an FAO report that can help highlight the need to restore the habitat and improve fisheries in the Danube River Basin and Black Sea area.

Busan ďŹ sheries expo attracts a ďŹ rst national stand from Latvia For the first time ever, Latvia was present with a booth at the Busan International Seafood & Fisheries Expo 2018. Busan is the second largest city in the Republic of Korea and annually holds this expo. The expo is one of the leading professional fisheries fairs in Asia. 1075 booths, including 25 national stands 10

representing all continents participated in this year’s event. The Latvian national stand was organized by the Investment and Development Agency of Latvia (LIAA) and received support from the Embassy of Latvia in the Republic of Korea. During this event three companies displayed their products, PERUZA

a manufacturer of seafood processing equipment, together with BANGA and FROZEN FOOD (the Amberfish brand) that are both fish processing companies. The Ambassador of Latvia to the Republic of Korea Peteris Vaivars, attended the launch of the exhibition and opened the Latvian

stand on the first day of the event. During his time in Busan, the Ambassador met many local delegates and visited several companies that use Latvian products. With the increased interest shown by Korean organisations, the embassy has encouraged Latvian businesses to actively participate in other exhibitions held in Korea.

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[ INTERNATIONAL NEWS ] Poland: Baltic Sea Advisory Council elects new chair

In response to the EU Council’s decisions regarding western cod, namely, to increase the TAC by 70 compared to 2018, which is within the range recommended by the BSAC, to lift the summer closure, and to set a bag limit at seven specimens, a number of concerns were raised by attendees. The impact of seasonal closures was debated with some voices saying they protect spawning stocks, while others felt they did not contribute substantially to sustainable exploitation. The eastern Baltic stock is not doing well and ways to assess it better will be discussed by ICES (International Council for the Exploration of the Sea) at a meeting in February 2019. Decisions by the EU Council to reduce the TAC by 15 and at

the same time restrict the closed period to one month for vessels above 12 m were met with dismay. Some fishermens representatives felt that the stock cannot be improved by solely reducing the fishing pressure as there are environmental factors which have a negative impact on the stock. Others felt that the eastern cod should be managed by other means than solely a TAC decrease and that the decision to lift the closures was not right. A point was raised about the lack of impact the BSAC advice seemed to have on work by the Commission and the European Parliament, and that explanations were rarely forthcoming when these institutions chose not to follow the advice tendered by the BSAC. The speaker felt that If the BSAC could not show the effect of its work to its member organisations then perhaps its raison d’etre should be called into question. The time spent on procedural issues was also decried, but it was pointed out that steps to change this had already been taken with a decision by the general assembly to focus on substantive issues.

Danmarks Pelagiske Producentorganisation

The Executive Committee of the Baltic Sea Advisory Council met on 6 November to discuss cod and herring management and a wide variety of administrative issues. Earlier that day, at an Extraordinary General Assembly, Esben Sverdrup-Jensen, chief executive officer of the Danish Pelagic Producers Organisation, was elected the Executive Committee’s new chairperson.

Esben Sverdrup-Jensen was elected chairperson of the Executive Committee of the Baltic Sea Advisory Council.

The next ExCom meeting is planned on 29th January 2019 in Copenhagen. A novelty could be to hold a “theme meeting� where invited experts come and speak

about issues related to the Baltic. On 28 January 2019 a working group will discuss the Commission’s proposal for a revised EU fisheries control regulation.

Norway: Salmon exports continue to grow During the month of October, Norwegian aquaculture companies exported 104 000 tonnes of salmon worth 65 billion NOK (₏680 million). Compared to the previous October, there has been a volume increase of 8  and a value increase of 15  or 827 million NOK. There were a number of reasons for this record-breaking October according to seafood analyst Paul T. Aandahl. Sales 12

in September were somewhat poor, but have been improving sharply, off the back of two countries Poland and the Netherlands recording volume growth of 43 and 29, respectively. This data gives an indication of a positive consumer trend in other markets, like Germany. Latest total predictions indicate that Norway is well on its

way to sell over million tonnes of salmon this year, currently 862 000 tonnes have been sold. Salmon wasn’t the only Norwegian export to receive positives values for the month of October. Farmed trout exports also increased with sales totaling 4 700 tonnes and worth 293 million NOK, a 24 and 21 increase, respectively. Although it was positive news

for Norwegian aquaculture companies during the month of October, a decision to focus on building biomass combined with an outbreak of disease resulted in a low harvest volume for Norway Royal Salmon in the third quarter. As a result profits slumped. However, the company expects to increase harvest volumes by 11 to 40,000 tonnes in 2019.

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[ INTERNATIONAL NEWS ] Spain: Cut for mackerel quota worries Cantabrian ďŹ shermen Vincent van Zeijst

Recommendations by the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) foresee a drastic reduction in fishing opportunities for mackerel (Scomber Scombrus) in 2019. ICES recommended a reduction of 42, which would seriously affect the Cantabrian coastal fleet. Such a drastic reduction comes off the back of the latest ICES study on the population of mackerel. Scientists from ICES suggest that total catches should not exceed 318 403 tonnes in 2019. For 2018, the European Union, Norway and the Faroe Islands agreed to a quota of 816 797 tonnes. The reasoning behind such a drastic reduction is twofold. The decrease in the spawning biomass since 2011 and a fishing mortality that biologists consider is above the maximum sustainable yield (MSY). If these recommendations are followed it would leave the EU with approximately half of the 318 043 tonnes due to distributions it makes with Norway and the Faroe Islands. Due to EU allocations

A forty two percent reduction of mackerel quota is recommended by ICES.

Spain would have 76  of the total or equivalent to 11 927 tonnes. In 2018 the Cantabrian fleet has a quota of 30 746 tonnes. The purse seine fishery in Galicia

considers the proposed reduction excessive and unwarranted. Fishermen say that the mackerel population has been increasing while their catches are being reduced, according to

the Association of Purse Seine Owners of Galicia. The fishermen of the Basque Country also believe that the population of mackerel is abundant enough to increase quotas.

Denmark: Plate-freezing producers merge to meet customer needs Two Danish companies, A/S Dybvad Stül Industri and Erlinord A/S, have merged to form a leader in plate freezing technology. Erlinord had been Dybvad’s long term partner for handling solutions when it was acquired by the latter in 2017. The new company, DSI Freezing Solutions A/S, will be based near Frederikshavn in Denmark from where there are market routes throughout Europe. A

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new name calls for a new look and DSI Freezing Solutions has gone in for a major rebranding exercise that is designed to express and support a common direction across application areas and geography, according to Lars Priess, the CEO. The design is modern, stylistically consistent and sharp reflecting a contemporary and effective manufacturing company, he says.

Plate freezing technology is vital to seafood distribution, because delivering quality products is key to meeting today’s customers’ demands, especially in a growing international market. Through its constituent parts the company has a long history of building high quality plate freezing and handling systems for a number of food products. As it gears up to celebrate a 50-year anniversary in 2019, its

strategic focus will be to increase knowledge of specific customer applications and to develop a stronger global footprint.

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[ EVENTS ] Marel WhiteďŹ sh ShowHow, 26 September, Copenhagen

Digitalisation brings multiple beneďŹ ts The fourth edition of Marel’s WhiteďŹ sh ShowHow, a demonstration of the company’s technological prowess in the ďŹ eld of whiteďŹ sh processing, drew some 170 guests from 26 countries. Held at the purpose-built demonstration centre, Progress Point, near Copenhagen airport, the event included equipment displays, live demonstrations, and a series of talks by experts, all calculated to show how processing technology is being digitalised to deliver improved yields and greater efďŹ ciencies.

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isitor numbers were up by a quarter this year compared to the last edition of the Whitefish ShowHow. The number of companies represented too jumped 23 to 96, reported Stella BjÜrg Kristinsdottir, Marel Marketing Manager adding that the event was becoming more and more popular with each year. Many of the guests were from Latin America, though as at previous events, the bulk of them were from the Nordic countries, northern Europe and the Mediterranean, the latter indicating perhaps the importance of the seabass and seabream farming industry there.

Exciting potential of emerging imaging technology The Whitefish ShowHow that Marel organises is not only a forum for the company to display its technology for the whitefish processing sector, but also an event that identifies technology-driven trends in processing and gives participants a taste of what the future is likely to bring. Artificial intelligence (AI), the internet of things (IoT), cloud computing, big data, and the potential of blockchains to deliver better traceability systems, were among the concepts that echoed around the venue. Three of the company’s embedded software designers, for example showed how they were using deep learning, a subset of artificial intelligence, to train a quality control scanner to recognise flaws

in fillets. Flawed fillets could then be shunted off to be used for something else, while the flawless fillets would proceed along the line. The information from the process can be sent back to the trimmer giving him real time feedback; to the plant manager; and to a machine downstream so that remedial action can be taken. The benefits of using AI are that it can be trained using the knowledge of experts and that these machines will look at all fillets in exactly the same way, eliminating the somewhat subjective assessments that a manual controller brings depending on his interpretation of what constitutes a flaw. Automating quality control (QC) using AI could vastly increase the number of samples taken resulting ultimately in a better product. Imaging technology which underpins efforts to train AI is a rapidly developing field. Emerging imaging technology solutions may be able not only to scan the surface of the fillet for flaws or parasites but will also be able to detect defects below the surface. Even more exciting is the potential to chemically analyse a fillet or portion to determine its shelf life, when the fish was slaughtered, or whether it has been frozen before and if so how many times.

installed. Although it sounds like a gimmick, the use of this technology has been proven and in the future much of the equipment produced by the company is likely to be simulated. Three-dimensional simulations of machines mean that everything can be tried out before the machine is actually installed. The installation more or less just confirms that the hardware will perform the way it should. First, the

processes that are carried out by the machine are set up as a simulation. After running the simulation, the software is taken from the controllers and is put on the controllers that are supposed to run the actual hardware. After carrying out some adjustments the software is put back into the simulation and further adjustments are performed. Switching from simulation to hardware and back a few

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Virtual Reality is not just for fun and games Marel is also using virtual reality to test its machines before they are Eurofish Magazine 6 / 2018

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[ EVENTS ]

The Marel WhiteďŹ sh ShowHow was a celebration of the power of digitalisation to achieve better results from ďŹ sh processing machinery.

times results ultimately in an identical system, says a Marel engineer. So, when changes have to be made or something has to be added or removed it can be fully simulated before installing the corresponding changes in the hardware. This offers major savings in development time, installation time, and time spent training the customer – as he can train on the simulator already before the installation. And a further advantage is that it can be run on endless numbers of products. As in other segments of the fisheries sector, equipment companies too are taking sustainability seriously. Among the companies the Marel cooperates with are Sealed Air and Mondini, who specialise in packaging products and materials. Plastics have been at the receiving end of much negative publicity with the discovery of widespread plastic pollution in the marine environment. Sealed Air, a US company, designs its packaging to ensure as 16

far as possible that the packaged product arrives in perfect condition as spoilt or damaged products have a far greater environmental cost than the packaging used to protect them. Keeping the environment in mind the company also tries to reduce waste in the supply chain by minimising the use of material, while at the same time maximising the protection offered by the packaging. The lightweight nature of the materials used often exceeds the performance of heavier materials such as wood, glass or metal. The company also supports efforts to reduce and eventually stop the disposal of plastic into the environment such as in landfills or into the oceans by partnering with organisations committed to addressing the needs of the circular economy.

Urbanisation drives demand for greater convenience At the Marel event, Cryovac, the food packaging division of Sealed

Air, demonstrated an oven-able plastic film. An aluminium tray with the film wrapped round can be gas flushed, replacing the air within with a gas or a combination of gases to prolong the product’s shelf life, and placed directly in the oven. This product responds to a mega-trend defined by Alexandre Ricarte from Sealed Air of increasing convenience and value-addition driven by increasing urbanisation. Young people in particular are looking for easy solutions (ready-to-cook, readyto-eat, oven-able, microwavable, easy-open). These films that can go in the oven are only part of the portfolio of products Sealed Air and Marel can offer. In addition, there are laminates, shrink films, and even very thin films which are more sustainable due to the reduced use of plastic. In addition, the company is starting to use a lot of recycled plastic as a base for the materials used in the films. Other initiatives include replacing conventional plastics with cornbased materials and the company is also phasing out the use of EPS trays and switching to more environmentally friendly alternatives. In collaboration with Mondini, an Italian company, Cryovac and Marel offer a complete skin packaging system that has been developed to minimise the wastage of the film that covers the product. The Mondini machine cuts the precise length of film required to make the packaging, leaving no wasted scraps of film. The machine can also work with cardboard trays, which are more environmentally friendly than metal or plastic. The product is placed on a cardboard tray, covered with the film and then vacuum-sealed. The combination of these two factors give the system a relatively small environmental footprint. On top of this, skin packaging gives the product a better appearance.

Adding value to offcuts and leftovers from processing lines While Marel is known for its primary and secondary processing systems, it has for many years also had a further processing division. The equipment here uses the end product from the primary and secondary processing stages as raw material for further processing. If a company knows what it wants to produce, says Mark Boom, project manager business development, we can figure out how it can be done. The processes that fall under further processing are many and varied. They include preparing, forming, marinating, coating, frying, cooking, and eventually freezing. Mr Boom showed that in the UK alone revenues from this type of product were estimated in 2018 at EUR1.3bn, while in Europe as a whole they were EUR3.6bn. The number of options is wide as products can be made into different shapes, sizes, and weights, with, for example, added vegetables (decreasing the proportion of fish) or not. They can then be treated in different ways with batters of different crumb sizes, flavours etc. One of the machines used to make formed products is Marel’s RevoPortioner, which is particularly suitable for offcuts, or bits and pieces. The low pressure that the machine uses helps to maintain the texture of the mass. Losses are kept to a minimum at 0.2-0.3 and products are highly uniform and, according to Mr Boom , the machine is one of the cheapest in operation. The Whitefish ShowHow offered valuable insights into developments in fish processing technology and how this equipment is becoming ever smarter and more environmentally benign. For all those with an interest in the fish processing sector this was a useful and informative event and they can look forward to the next edition in 2019.

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[ EVENTS ] Future Fish Eurasia 2018, 18-20 October, Izmir

Increased focus on technology and equipment Future Fish Eurasia, the one and only ďŹ sheries show in Turkey celebrated its 9th edition on the 18-20 October in Izmir. This year the show accommodated over 150 exhibitors, including its “old fansâ€? – companies which have been exhibiting since the ďŹ rst edition, as well as the newcomers from Canada, China, Denmark, Germany, South Africa, Spain, and the US. The show is focused on professionals and not open to the wide public - over three days more than 6000 professionals from Turkey as well as Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Uzbekistan, Far East, Middle East, Moldova and Ukraine attended the event.

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uture Fish Eurasia is based mainly on aquaculture equipment. Even though fisheries and seafood are part of the fair concept, the vast majority of exhibitors display aquaculture equipment. And this year even more equipment companies, feed and feed additives producers showed up. This can be explained by the fact that high technology products are on the rise in Turkey. In terms of fish farms, for example, everything is getting computerized now and farmers are looking for equipment which will help to monitor and control the farms - oxygen rates, feeding systems, etc. The market for food processing equipment is growing as well, since farmers are now not only producing fish, but also processing it, creating products with added value.

Suppliers to the industry abound at the expo “Local production of equipment is growing rapidly,� says Selin Akpinar, Director of Future Fish Eurasia, “and there are many local alternatives to imported products at the moment. Some are really high quality and are even exported to the EU. And local equipment manufacturers started exhibiting in international shows in Europe

– Brussels, AquaNor, Nor-Fishing, depending on the product range. It is not only copies or imitations of imported products, but they started to develop their own technologies, their own ideas. So local production is on the rise and the government supports it. Now when euro and dollar rates are high, people are looking increasingly for local products.� For the time being, however, foreign producers supply most of the Turkish market for equipment and machinery, feed and services for aquaculture, and the market still has room to accommodate both “veterans� and newcomers. Thus, Belgium-based Bernaqua, a subsidiary of France’s Neovia Group, with a presence in 35 countries around the world, is producing larvae feed for fish and shrimp. “We have been in the market for 15 years,� says Daniel Arana, Product Manager, “so we have a lot of experience in the field.� To stay competitive, Bernaqua focuses a lot on innovations in technologies, introducing new machines and new ingredients to produce larvae feed for modern fish farms. “Turkey for us is a very important market,� says Elad Zohar, Algae Division Director, “and knowing the economic situation it is very

important to see the market in reality, and to get a good feeling about who is investing and who is coming, who is looking for what, and this is part of our efforts to make sure that we are providing the solutions that our customers are looking for.� Danish producer Aliga is new to the market – founded in 2016, the company supplies micro-algae to fish farms, and soon is going to start supplying for bivalves – mussel and oyster farms. Being at Future Fish Eurasia for the first time, David Erlandsson, Sales Director, shares his impressions:

“I’ve noticed that the demand for microalgae is higher than I thought it was. There are some competitors in the market, players from Spain and some from Italy, and some local here.� Participation at the show is a step forward on the Turkish market for Aliga. “I have been around,� continues Mr. Erlandsson, “and met a lot of people to create a good network. The quality of the visitors is good – we receive a lot of people from the industry directly. The reason for this is that we are in Izmir, the center of the fish industry – it is easy for people to get here. The right people are here.�

Black Sea Salmon (Salmo trutta labrax), a new and promising species for Turkey. Eurofish Magazine 6 / 2018

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Fish welfare and protection of the environment are important components of the success

Another important aspect of fish health and the environment is water treatment. Aquaculture expert with over 30 years’ experience, Dietmar Firzlaff, the

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Related to the goal of fish health, switching to vaccination from the use of antibiotics plays an important role in the aquaculture sector. Norway-based Pharmaq is part of Zoetis, the biggest animal health company in the world. Pharmaq is the global market leader for vaccines for fish health, their job as they see it is to make sure that the farmers are producing healthy fish by vaccination, preventing the fish from diseases. Vaccination is very important for the fish welfare as well as for the profitability and sustainability of the fish farms. Pharmaq has been in the Turkish market since 2011, vaccinating more than 200 million seabass a year and taking above 75 of the market share. “Vaccination helps to reduce the volumes of antibiotics used in fish farming, almost eliminate them,â€? says Onur Emre Sola, General Manager and Sales Executive for Turkey, “it is efficient while the resistance to antibiotics has been falling. Vaccination shall be seen as a very positive aspect. Objections against the use of vaccines come from a lack of knowledge. We should educate the consumers, because the alternative to vaccines is antibiotics. We should try to stay away from antibiotics, and with vaccines we are doing a very positive job for the environment, for the fish and for the consumers as well.â€?

founder of AquaFuture company in Germany, as well as several corporations in the world, prefers to look into the future. He is convinced that neglecting environmental concerns causes longterm costs to the industry and to the public. Describing the link between Turkey’s aquaculture success and the need for environmental protection, Mr. Firzlaff explains: “Turkey is the largest producer of farmed seafood products in Europe. They have a good tradition, they know what they are doing, they have a lot of specialists, they do good work, they established good farms with the technologies available at the time. But they will also have to think for what they use their water – for farming or for human consumption. Now the producers look more and more for high quality technologies, as they want to optimise their processes and invest money only where they need it. We have had a lot of fruitful discussions with large farms here.�

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Fish health and environmental protection are important for Turkey as for everywhere else. Legislation in Turkey is strict and there are regulations as to fish feed, fish life conditions, ways of processing, cleaning and selling. The Ministry for Agriculture and Forestry co-ordinates with the Ministry of Health, and the regulations are discussed, developed and approved by both ministries. All the regulations related to health, hygiene, and product safety are in line with EU standards. Control over the production ensures that these regulations are followed by each farm. In

addition, Turkey has its own regulations. This synergy makes Turkish products more competitive globally.

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Imported equipment still dominates the Turkish market. Wenger, a U.S. company, has been in the business of extrusion over 50 years and its core business is extrusion for animal feeds, livestock feed and, within the last 20 years, in connection with the growing market for aquaculture. Wenger focuses on extrusion, drying, online technology to the operators to run the plants, and they also do coating for vacuum coating and conditional coating as well. Jesse Mitchell, Technical Sales and his colleague Charlly Hansen, Sales Manager, explained the value of Future Fish Eurasia: “We have been pleasantly surprised by the number of good visitors passing by and stopping to talk; we had a chance to see existing customers and, hopefully new ones. We could feel from questions being asked, that the market is going to expand in Turkey and we are looking forward to strengthening the relationship.�

The Central Union of Aquaculture Producers has been exhibiting at Future Fish Eurasia for many years. The Union brings together 18 associations from 18 provinces – around 1000 farmers, above half the fish farms and 80 of the country’s aquaculture production. “Aquaculture is one of the fastest growing sectors in Turkey.â€? says Faruk CoĂźkun, Chairman of the Board. “Last year the exports from fish farming reached one billion US

dollars and it is expected that in five years the exports will earn almost two billion US dollars.â€? Most famous for their sea bass, sea bream and trout, Turkish farmers recently brought a new species on stage – Black Sea salmon (Salmo trutta labrax). “Current production is 10 thousand tonnes with around 7 companies farming, but soon the production will increase up to 40 thousand a year,â€? describes Mr. CoĂźkun. “Black Sea salmon is a premium product and in high demand in Japan – the vast majority of the production volume goes there. The fish also has a good potential in the Russian market as a substitute for Norwegian salmon.â€? Black Sea salmon was showcased at Kuzuoglu Group’s booth where exhibitors and visitors to the show could taste samples grilled on the spot. Sharing his opinion about the exhibition, Mr. CoĂźkun said, the Turkish aquaculture sector continues to strengthen and expand investing in new equipment, advanced technologies, and the development of new species. Future Fish Eurasia has proven to be very beneficial for fish farmers offering a wide range of up-to-date equipment and modern technologies. A high level of interest has been shown in recirculation systems which are on the rise in Turkey, aeration systems, processing equipment, fish vaccines and feed additives among others. In addition, the show provides company representatives a platform, where they can meet in person, exchange experiences, and swing with new ideas. Aleksandra Petersen, aleksandra.petersen@eurofish.dk

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[ EVENTS ] EU ďŹ shmeal conference, 11 October 2018, Copenhagen

Forage ďŹ sh, marine mammals and optimal ďŹ sheries yields On 11 October 2018 EUďŹ shmeal, the association of European ďŹ shmeal and ďŹ sh oil producers, held an open scientiďŹ c stakeholder conference with presentations and discussions on recent ďŹ ndings with regard to changes in ďŹ sh stock productivity and food webs from an ecosystem and management perspective.

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uring the conference scientists from University of British Colombia, Institute of Marine Research Norway, DTU Aqua, ICES and others presented and discussed the most recent studies on changes in optimal fisheries yields in a changing ecosystem and the impact of marine mammals on fish stocks.

Scientists must make potential trade-offs apparent to policy-makers Professor Villy Christensen, Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries from the University of British Columbia Vancouver, BC, Canada, chaired and opened the conference with the question of who defines “optimum� fisheries yield? Answering his own question, that although decisions are made in a political system, it is important that scientist make potential tradeoffs clear and transparent for policy-makers, enabling them to approach solutions well informed. Forage fish populations support large scale fisheries and are key components of marine ecosystems, linking secondary production to higher trophic levels. A recent study from the North Sea shows that the abundances of short-lived pelagic species are highly dynamic and respond rapidly to changes in food availability. “All evidence points to a shift in forage fish productivity with

fisheries implicationsâ€? said senior scientist from DTU Aqua Mikael van Deurs. The North Sea of today is different from that of the past which could explain why total forage fish catches have reduced over time. Data suggest, he said, that it has to do with climate induced bottom-up effects, however the exact mechanisms remain unclear. In the North East Atlantic, model predictions of the impact of increasing water temperatures show a potential increase in the biomass of key species as mackerel, blue whiting and herring. The changes also enable major increases in the biomass of the key plankton copepod (Calanus finmarchicus). Scientist Kjell Rong Utne, from the Institute of Marine Science in Bergen, Norway, explained that the effects of climate change varies between species and areas, but that the current model simulations indicate more zooplankton in the Norwegian Sea. The models then show that the predators follow, causing an increase in pelagic fish in the Norwegian Sea.

Only few mammal species have an impact on ďŹ sh stocks Additionally, the increasing marine mammal populations in the North Atlantic seas may impact the potential fisheries yields. Daniel Howell, a scientist from

EUďŹ shmeal ďŹ nds it crucial that potential shifts in ecosystem productivity and changes in food web dynamics are thoroughly documented and made apparent to managers and stakeholders.

the Institute of Marine Research in Bergen, Norway, explained that studies indicate that mammals in the Barents Sea are an important ecosystem driver. However, he added, on the large-scale regarding predation on fish stocks, only a few species of mammals, such as minke whales and harp seals, have an impact, the rest have minor influences. Senior scientist Jane Behrens, DTU Aqua, presented another story of how marine mammals, in this case grey seals, have both direct and indirect effects on the local cod stocks in the Baltic Sea. In addition to seals’ direct predation and consumption of cod, a parasitic cod liver-worm, with detrimental effects on the wellbeing of the cod,

uses the grey seal as an important vector in its lifecycle. The presentations and discussions showed that potential solutions to challenges of optimising fisheries yield when considering ecosystem effects and impacts from external sources such as marine mammals is both complex and dependent on various assumptions. These assumptions will be strengthened with increased research and the results will with time appear more clearly. The major conclusion from the conference is that progress based on scientific results depends on the willingness for changes among the political managers at the highest national and international level. Eurofish Magazine 6 / 2018

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The event highlights the ongoing modernisation of the Russian ďŹ shery sector.

Global Fishery Forum and Seafood Expo Russia 2018

Russia’s place in a growing global ďŹ sh industry highlighted The main industry event on Russia’s seafood industry calendar is in St. Petersburg, where the second annual Global Fishery Forum and Seafood Expo Russia 2018 was held on 13-15 September 2018. Organised by LLC EXPO SOLUTIONS GROUP under support of the Federal Agency for Fishery of Russia, the Seafood Expo brought together more than 250 companies exhibiting their products and services, hailing from 24 countries from around the world, including, Argentina, Denmark, Germany, Iceland, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, and Turkey among others. In its second consecutive year the expo has become much bigger and more productive, with the exposition area increasing from 8.000 to 13.000 square meters, and the number of visitors growing by 40% to 7.000. Product quality, new technologies and resource protection among the key issues at the show

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he Russian fish industry is undergoing tremendous changes. Hindered for many years by ageing, inefficient vessels, crumbling on-shore processing facilities, and insufficient infrastructure, Russia is investing in state-of-the-art harvesters, modern processing plants, and appropriate infrastructure to connect producers and markets across a vast country. Much more must be done in Russia, and events like the Expo bring foreign experience and know-how into contact with Russians.

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At the exhibition, fish producers and marketers met to discuss business and market issues with new and old contacts. Russia’s DEFA Trading Group was at the show, and its representatives identified a variety of issues that are being addressed not just in Russia but worldwide.

These issues include product quality, illegal fishing, and the food embargo in Russia. As for product quality, DEFA sees the importance of standards instituted by both public and private bodies. “This issue,� said DEFA’s President, Mr. Denis Repinsky, “is discussed between associations, unions, retailers and others. Retailers understand that something shall be done about improving their stores’ “fish shelf� to make it grow and look more attractive if sales fall off a

bit, and the management begins to realize that “give us anything at any price� slogan is getting out of date. The standards set by the state give clear guidance regarding what certain fish products should be; these standards work, and it is good business to meet them. That way, all play on a level field.� Denmark-based DSI, a large producer of plate freezers for the food industry, has a strong longterm presence in Russia, which

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[ EVENTS ]

The EuroďŹ sh Business Platform offered Turkish companies a chance to display their products and services and learn more about the Russian market.

accounts for 30 of its annual turnover. For the company Seafood Expo is an opportunity to meet business contacts face-toface, both existing customers and new and potential contacts. “This exhibition for obvious reasons has a huge Russian presence,â€? says Mr. Peter Christensen, Sales Director of DSI, “All the major players are here and it’s a good place to be.â€? DSI has been in Russia for 15 years or more, and “it is very easy for us to work in this market - we’ve never lost a single euro in Russia. There are so many things going on in the fishing industry, many new vessels and many new land-based processing plants are being built . It is fantastic.â€? Inspired by the success of the previous edition of the show, this year Icelandic companies participated with a national pavilion, which was arranged with the support of Promote Iceland and the Embassy of Iceland to Russia and hosted 15 companies. Being at the forefront when it comes to processing lines design, vessel design, and everything else associated with the seafood industry, Iceland has a lot to offer to the Russian market. “Our companies can provide tailored solutions based on the customer’s needs, deliver turn-key solutions.â€?

says Ingveldur Ă sta BjĂśrnsdĂłttir, Manager of Promote Iceland, “We are interested in Russian market and there is a potential for good business here.â€? The Ambassador of Iceland to Russia, Berglind Ă sgeirsdĂłttir, noted that overfishing is an issue in Russia, and Russian fishery managers can learn from Iceland’s success with Individual Transferable Quotas, which have been proven in Iceland and elsewhere in the world as an effective fishery management tool to boost fish stocks and increase future harvests could help Russia. “After introducing ITQs, we have reduced the catch of cod by half, but the value of this half is double of what it was. One gets innovative when one is forced to – and it is important to focus on quality, not on quantity.â€? Ambassador Ă sgeirsdĂłttir sees industry co-operation as key to overcoming challenges and fulfilling the promise of growing markets for the fish industry. “You need very good technology, you have to look better after each fish, and value can be increased.â€? For that you need the best technology and Iceland can work with Russia to develop this. It’s necessary to co-operate with

Russian companies to enter the Russian market. That seems to be the key for Iceland, and for others.�

EuroďŹ sh Business Platform supports SME’s from Turkey As one of the services to its member countries, Eurofish International Organisation occasionally facilitates the participation of delegations at trade fairs around Europe, including the Global Seafood Forum and Seafood Expo. The platforms give the participants an opportunity both to explore international seafood markets and to introduce their products and services. This year the Eurofish Business Platform in St. Petersburg hosted five of Turkey’s fish producers in the country’s rapidly growing aquaculture industry. Turkey’s seabass, trout, and seabream are well known, and there are some giant firms in the industry. But all the companies started as family businesses and there are many still who can be “giantsâ€? with the help of participation at trade shows. Deputy Director General for Fisheries of the Ministry

of Agriculture and Forestry, Mr. Turgay TĂźrkyÄąlmaz, described the success of Turkey’s fish farming sector since 1984. “A lot of attention is paid to private companies which are involved into fish farming. We can see every year that growth indicators are rising. Most of the companies in the aquaculture sector export up to 50 of the volumes, which also shows that the sector is improving from year to year. Over the past 35 years it was a 1000-fold increase of all the indicators. We would like to achieve stable and steady growth, which will provide for the country’s economy, to create a healthy competition with other industries, so that they will support each other. Aquaculture is the second leading sector in the country after construction business in terms of growth. Good quality of Turkish products makes Turkish brands reliable, recognizable and trusted. This means we can increase the exports and create more jobs.â€? Emphasizing the importance of the Russian market Mr. TĂźrkyÄąlmaz says that “Turkey is ready to supply, and we are ready to work on it. In the near future we are going to concentrate our efforts on exports to Russia - our goal is to reach 100 million US$ in the Russian market.â€?

“The results exceeded all expectations� Global Fishery Forum and Seafood Expo Russia 2018 was by all accounts a great success. The exhibition aroused great interest among the fishing community and was actively supported by government officials. Fishermen from all over the world could exchange experience, establish business contacts, find new clients and partners, discuss and solve many pressing issues. “Despite the age of information technology and freedom of communication, our Eurofish Magazine 6 / 2018

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[ EVENTS ] exhibition has become a central place for face-to-face dialogue for the entire fishing industry,� concluded Ivan Fetisov, director of the show’s organizer EXPO SOLUTIONS Group.

“The forum and the exhibition are closely linked, very complementary and would not have had such success separately,� explained Ivan Fetisov. “The forum is a theory and the

exhibition is a practice. The forum discussed the global themes of the world and Russian fishing industry in the long term with the participation of state authorities of the participating

countries. At the exhibition, however, fish producers were able to solve more local, internal issues, find new contacts, exchange experiences and simply communicate.�

EUROFISH Business Platform supports Turkish export efforts Hakan Aquaculture Production was founded in 1994. The owner and founder of the company Mr. Hakan Anlar is an engineer by the background and started the business because he wanted it to be related to his education. The company’s products - trout, fry and roe are high quality as they are based on calculated methods coming from experienced engineer. Mr. Anlar explains that “we are still a growing company, we pay a lot of attention to the quality of our products and I hope that our on-going projects and future projects will help us grow. The Russian market is important to us and has a big potential. We have already had some Russian companies showing interest in our products. I have spoken to many people from different segments of the fish market, customs, logistics etc. and I hope that this will help us enter the Russian market.�

Sahlanlar, founded in the 1960s as a family business, specializes in crayfish production, as well as pike perch and trout. Currently the company exports cray fish to Denmark and the volumes are growing from year to year. Crayfish is also very popular among the Russian consumers and the company’s Export Manager Mr. Volkan Demirkiran sees “a lot of potential in this exhibition. We have not been to Russia before, and our products are not yet present at Russian market, but we experienced a lot of interest in our crayfish from the visitors and hope that one day we will start exporting it to Russia.�

Ay_Tunç company produces trout from fry, as well as trout caviar, which, through exporters then goes abroad. In a long-term perspective for the company, Russia is an attractive market because of its size and high per-capita fish consumption. “Our product has an advantage as people in Russia love to eat caviar, as well as trout and all kind of salmonids,â€? says Mr. Fatih Maden, the owner of the company.

Kuzuoğlu Group, Turkey’s largest Black Sea salmon (Salmo trutta labrax) farmer, owns 9 fish farms and has all together around six thousand tonnes capacity. This year the Turkish company plans to build three land-based farms, and another six sea farms for salmon. The group was the first to export Black Sea salmon to Japan, and sees a lot of potential in the Russian market. “Currently we send six trucks to Russia every week,â€? says Mr. Hassan KuzuoĂšlu, the President of the Group, “At the show we spoke to our existing customers and already arranged for bigger deals.â€?

Mittos was founded in 2004 by two families and currently employs 60 people. The volumes are pretty high and there are different fish species and products on the product list, though the main species is trout, and most popular product is trout fillet. Exports geography covers Italy, the Netherlands, Germany, Denmark, and the UK, and the company’s products can also be seen in the biggest hypermarkets in Turkey. “Russia is a new market for us,� says Ms. Gamze Sevil, Export Manager, “During the show I had a lot of meetings and shall say that many companies who visited our booth has shown a lot of interest to our products. I hope this will develop into a good co-operation in the future.� 22

Summarising the outcome of the Business Platform, Mr. Hakan Anlar echoed the opinions of the other participants – “I’m very positive about the initiative and the idea of Eurofish Business Platform. I think it is an advantage when a country has its own joint booth and have a chance to offer its products and services. All the companies at the Platform work in the same sector, but one cannot say that our products are

completely identical. At some point we are competitors, but we still can feel good exhibiting together. On one hand, it is convenient from practical and financial point of view, as not every SME can afford to exhibit. But on the other hand, we all here represent the brand, we present Turkey and fish from Turkey.� Aleksandra Petersen aleksandra.petersen@eurofish.dk

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[ FISHERIES ] Illegal, unreported and unregulated ďŹ shing threatens the future of the next generation

IUU ďŹ shing is a source of many ills Illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) ďŹ shing not only has a negative impact on ďŹ sh stocks, it is closely associated with a range of criminal activities. Nations would beneďŹ t greatly from implementing and enforcing the measures designed to prevent it.

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ishing stocks in world oceans are diminishing due to overfishing, pollution, and coastal degradation. Climate change accelerates these impacts in some areas. According to the 2018 edition of FAO’s The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture, in 2015 60 of global fish resources were maximally sustainably fished, while 7 were underfished. The remainder were overfished. These figures terrify us all because humankind needs more and more food to support an ever-increasing population and we have been highly dependent on ocean resources since antiquity.

IUU ďŹ shing knows no boundaries On top of this, the fish stocks face another type of anthropogenic threat: lllegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing. According to the FAO definition, illegal fishing takes place when fishing activities are carried out against the law, such as fishing in forbidden areas/ seasons, catching protected species or undersized fish. Unreported fishing is a catch which has not been declared or wrongly declared to national authorities upon landing in ports. Unregulated fishing refers to activities by vessels without any nationality or belonging to a country which is not a party to a competent regional fisheries management organization, i.e. one that fails to adopt measures to ensure the

sustainability of targeted stocks. This phenomenon is known to occur in both territorial and high seas and is carried out by all types of fishing vessels and with all kind of fishing gear, regardless of size, flag, origin, or registration. It is estimated that each year at least 11 million tonnes of fish is caught illegally, an economic loss of roughly USD10 billion worldwide. In developing countries of Western Africa, at least 40 of fish caught is illegal with an estimated economic loss around USD1.2 billion per year. According to a CCAMLR (Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources) report, even the Antarctic, a unique pristine marine ecosystem, suffers from IUU fishing. Patagonian toothfish is illegally caught by some nations ignoring the fact that it is an important source of food for seals, whales, dolphins and many other living creatures. In addition, IUU fishing is the root cause of several threats to the sustainability of fish resources, for example, conflicts between artisanal and industrial fisheries, damage to the marine environment, unfair competition and tax crimes leading to loss of revenues for states, and, more importantly, loss of biological diversity in coastal and marine areas. Even non-target species such as sea birds, cetaceans, turtles and other non-commercial but ecologically important species are not beyond the reach of IUU fishing.

The main reasons behind IUU fishing include weak governance frameworks, lack of trained staff, and poor enforcement mechanisms mainly in developing countries. Moreover, many crimes are linked to IUU fishing, such as corrupting national officials to issue licenses or to permit illegal landing of catches and to evade port state controls. While IUU fishing is against national laws and international obligations, the fight against such practices requires the engagement of state administrations, fisheries industries, NGOs and consumers, as well as the general public. Global seafood traceability and monitoring “from net to plate� is of crucial importance to fight this threat and consumers should be made aware of the origin and how fish comes to their table. Even though initiatives to combat IUU fishing have increased over the past 10 years, these efforts are far from a success story yet. Moreover, the FAO’s International Plan of Action to Prevent, Deter and Eliminate Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated Fishing calls upon all states to fully comply with all existing obligations to combat such fishing and urgently take the necessary steps to implement them. This plan includes monitoring and surveillance of fishing vessels with control systems like Vessel Monitoring Systems (VMS) and Automatic Identification (AIS) to detect illegal operations in

fishing grounds as well as capacity building for local authorities. In addition, the preparation of national action plans that transpose the international plan into domestic legislation is expected of all states.

International day highlights the issue and creates awareness To raise public awareness of IUU fishing issues, the General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean (GFCM) initiated an international process within the FAO to proclaim an international day in the fight against IUU fishing. This initiative may be a chance to declare once and for all zero tolerance for IUU fishing practices in the Mediterranean and the Black Sea basins, as well as the rest of the world. Fifth June 2018 marked the first celebration of this international day. Finally, international cooperation and concerted actions are needed to secure global food security. It is time to remove the barriers to effective cooperation in combating fishery-related crimes. We have to act together against IUU fishing in all oceans and seas to ensure the sustainable use of marine resources and a worthy future for our children. Prof. Bayram Ă–ztĂźrk Istanbul University and Turkish Marine Research Foundation, Istanbul, Turkey Eurofish Magazine 6 / 2018

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[ AQUACULTURE ] Aquaculture has a poor image despite immense economic importance

Lack of knowledge nourishes prejudices Demand for ďŹ sh and seafood products is growing throughout the world. Although catches from the ďŹ shing sector have stagnated since the 1990s per capita supply worldwide has increased. This is mainly due to global aquaculture which is growing year by year at impressive rates of between 6 and 8 per cent. In spite of this, ďŹ sh farming is still criticised and its image is in many places far from good.

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ithout aquaculture it would not be possible to maintain today’s level of fish and seafood supply to mankind. Despite improved sustainability the quantity of fish landed cannot be increased at will, especially since the effects of regional overfishing, natural stock fluctuations, and climate change are difficult to calculate. With the targeted production of fish and seafood humanity has found a way out of this dilemma rendering aquaculture a logical step that has long been common and “normal� in other areas of food production such as fruit, vegetables and meat. We are all well aware of the fact that these products are not collected from the wild but are systematically grown or bred and produced by mankind according to his needs. Although agricultural production has a “head start� of hundreds of years, aquaculture is rapidly catching up, with its production capacity growing worldwide by

3 to 4 million tonnes a year. In the last decade alone it almost doubled. If this growth continues aquaculture could be on a level with traditional fishing by the beginning of the next decade. There is a lot to be said for aquaculture. For example, the fact that most of the production and spectacular growth rates are achieved in Asia and South America, thereby strengthening the economies of developing countries. Aquaculture has become an important source of income, providing welcome – and valuable – export goods. Low resource and feed requirements also clearly speak in favour of aquaculture. In the case of salmon only 1.3 kg of feed is needed for the fish to grow by one kilogram, whereas poultry need 2 kg and pigs 2.9 kg of feed. And measured in terms of land use per kilogram of protein produced, aquaculture performs better, too. Depending on farming intensity, 160 to 2,100 square

Eutrophication emissions of nitrogen and phosphorus per tonne of meat produced, kg Product

Nitrogen (N)

Phosphorous (P)

Beef

1,200

180

Pork

800

120

Poultry Salmon/ trout

300 280

40 70

Without aquaculture world supply with fish and seafood would be impossible at today’s level and the fish counters at retail outlets would look rather empty and dull.

metres of land area per kilogram of protein produced are required for cattle farming, whereas fish in aquaculture are presumed to require less than 25 square metres. And even when we look at nutrient emissions that contribute to the eutrophication of water bodies, aquaculture often scores better than people think.

Emotions versus provable facts In view of the enormous importance of aquaculture for the supply of high-quality fish and seafood it is astonishing that it

has such a negative image among many consumers and has to face a constant barrage of criticism – especially in the western world. In this context “image� refers to the idea, i.e. the imaginary overall picture that the public makes of aquaculture. The message sent out about this type of fish production by many reports and discussions on aquaculture is rarely based on concrete, objectively provable facts but is rather a subjective perception with a strong emotional component. Quite a few opponents of aquaculture derive their criticism and rejection more from hearsay, mere claims and feelings than from well-founded knowledge. And behind this perception

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[ AQUACULTURE ]

The majority of oysters and mussels on the markets come from aquaculture but this is accepted by most consumers.

is often a romantic image of traditional fishing and fish farming. This is also reflected in an unjustified understanding and allocation of different product qualities. Most consumers, for example, are convinced that wild fish tastes better than farmed fish. This is a bold statement, but one which is not always true in this absolute sense, as has been revealed by serious product tests. In tests and tastings of 25 smoked salmon fillets which the consumer organization Stiftung Warentest conducts every year in Germany shortly before Christmas, salmon from aquaculture scored significantly better than wild salmon in 2017. Most of the wild salmon in the test was found to be dry or “fishy�. And indeed, overall consumer purchasing behaviour often reveals a considerable gap between criticism and demand, with farmed fish being bought at least as often and as readily as wild fish despite the reservations described above. In theory, there can be several reasons for this. Some shoppers may not know or be interested in where the fish they are buying comes from. Others may not even have a choice because the counter they shop at only offers

products from aquaculture. But it would also be possible that consumers’ opinions are much more diverse than the public debate on aquaculture would suggest, i.e. that just a few spokesmen set the critical topics and course of public discussion and in this way channel opinions in a particular direction.

Criticism focuses on environmental damage The public perception of aquaculture is very selective. While gourmets smack their lips appreciatively at the thought of oysters and mussels (all of which originate from aquaculture in our latitudes) they often turn away from other products. They often have strong reservations which are almost always based on the same accusations: that fish farms destroy natural habitats. It is often claimed that mangroves, bays and even entire sections of the coast are destroyed or irreversibly damaged by aquaculture facilities, that waste water from fish farms flows via neighbouring rivers untreated into the sea, that fish excrement and food leftovers settle on the bottom, consuming the oxygen there and over-fertilising connected water bodies. Further

accusations concern the use of chemicals and medicines, including antibiotics, which critics claim lead to the development of multiresistant germs which can also be dangerous for humans. Or the increased risk of disease resulting from intensive aquaculture for the farm animals kept there which usually grow up under conditions that are not appropriate for their species. Other accusations focus on dangers from escapes, especially of invasive species. Genetically modified organisms and the use of growth hormones are constant topics for aquaculture critics, too, as is the assertion that aquaculture consumes more fish in feed than it ultimately produces, making its sustainability impossible. What is striking is that criticism of the aquaculture industry is often directed at environmental problems. Claims that aquaculture reduces the variety of marine fauna and flora leaving behind “ecological cemeteries� are by no means new and are still heard frequently. But why do advocates of aquaculture find it so difficult to defend themselves convincingly against these accusations? One reason probably stems from the inequality of their “weapons�. It is almost

impossible to fight against feelings, prejudices and emotions with factual and technical arguments. Another reason is that this conflict is very “wearing� and many farm operators are simply tired of having to deal with the same accusations over and over again for years. These are repeated stubbornly like prayer mills under widespread ignorance of the progress and changes that have in the meantime been achieved in fish and shrimp farming. It would seem that the farm operators haven’t understood that the repetition of the same assertions, in as simple wording as possible, is one good reason why criticism of aquaculture has such a broad public resonance.

Criticism of aquaculture is often perceived as normal Arguments – whether true or false – gain persuasive power the more often they are repeated. And if critics use simple, catchy and understandable phrases to present their ideas this makes it easy even for people who know very little about aquaculture to agree, adopt and utter the same statements themselves, and ultimately to pass them on. In this way an alliance of like-minded &VSPlTI .BHB[JOF

[ AQUACULTURE ]

Aquaculture is often confronted with unfair, and sometimes even defamatory, attacks as can be seen from this sticker.

people is created that draws its strength from the same easily understandable arguments. An “echo bubble�, in which no doubts arise about the prejudices that have become so dear to their believers, because the members of the alliance confirm and reinforce each other’s judgements again and again. The “self-conditioning� to support shared ideas makes them resistant to opposing facts. How well this method works can be seen in the fact that when they hear the word “shrimp� a lot of people immediately think of mangrove destruction or if the topic under discussion is “salmon� they soon associate the subject with the use of antibiotics. The “alliance effect�, the selfconfirmation of similar opinions within an alliance, is reinforced by the fact that this “commitment� is virtually “free�, i.e. it doesn’t cost its members anything. People who position themselves verbally against aquaculture don’t enter into any obligation. They can feel themselves to be nature lovers without having to change their lifestyle in any way or even fear serious consequences, for example for their job or their bank account. That makes it easy for everyone to adopt this supposedly “progressive attitude�. Just how serious they really are

about their rejection of aquaculture can be seen at the latest at the fish counter, where much less opposition is sometimes visible. Already in 2009, the Commission of the European Union published a position paper (COM 2009/162) proposing, among other things, measures to improve the image of aquaculture. The Commission hopes that common rules at EU level will have a positive impact on the sustainable development

of aquaculture. The aim was to raise awareness of aquaculture by consulting stakeholders. To this end, the Commission was to draw up guidelines and organise workshops with stakeholders and national authorities to contribute to a better knowledge and implementation of its main instruments of environmental policy. However, such actions can fundamentally improve the image of aquaculture in the public eye. The Commission paper ignores the fact that the debate on aquaculture is not fact-based. Or does anyone seriously believe that the opponents, with their deadlocked positions, are prepared to examine, let alone accept, the arguments of the opposing party?

Public opinion is strongly influenced by the media In 2016, Tonje C. Osmundsen and Marit Schei Olsen conducted a study “The imperishable controversy over aquaculture� to

analyse the mechanisms, arguments and lines of action used in the public debate on aquaculture and the role of the news media – in this case the daily press – in the controversy. They examined 273 contributions to discussions and opinions from nine Norwegian newspapers, looking for similarities in arguments and rhetorical concepts. Their conclusion is unequivocal: public opinion is to a large extent shaped by the selection and presentation of news in the media. By paying more attention to or ignoring certain issues the media influence our perception of what are the important issues of the day. The topics that the media focus on will in the course of time be seen as important by the public, too. The debate on aquaculture involves stakeholders of all kinds: scientists and environmentalists, journalists, anglers, farmers, gourmet chefs, and many more besides. Some players who are particularly

In Asia people have much fewer reservations about aquaculture. The main focus there is on its function as a producer of valuable food.

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[ AQUACULTURE ] eager to compete for opinion leadership or, as the study calls it, “discursive hegemony� take on the role of “claim makers� or “policy entrepreneurs�. In the debate about salmon farming in Norway two opposing groups (“discourse alliances�) gather around these claim makers, seeking public support for their versions of reality. The analysis of newspaper articles reveals which linguistic images and rhetorical means both groups use. The aquaculture-critical alliance depicts salmon farming as a billion dollar industry that is allowed to destroy Norway’s fjords with the help of politicians. Newspaper articles paint a picture of a dirty industry that damages pristine waters and robs wild animals of their livelihoods. Terms such as “underwater prisons�, “sewage�, “poison� and “stinking� or phrases such as “the ecosystem is collapsing� are used to arouse readers’ emotions and remind them of the need to preserve nature. The topic as a whole is often associated with suggestions of a conspiracy between fish farmers and the government. The alliance of aquaculture advocates, on the other hand, reminds people that salmon farming makes an important contribution towards combating hunger in the world and that every human activity leaves a footprint, also confirming that problems – here usually called challenges – are taken very seriously. The rhetorical concepts presented create a positive image of progress and growth through words such as growth potential, innovation and sustainability. And there are some impressive figures to show how many plates of Norwegian salmon are enjoyed every day throughout the world. Viewed overall, the ecological footprint of salmon

A more differentiated debate on the advantages and disadvantages of aquaculture is both necessary and desirable and could also help people make informed decisions.

farming was quite acceptable, quite tolerable, already due to the strict regulations and high environmental standards, adherence to which is monitored by government authorities and public administration.

Differentiated and factual discussion is necessary Both parties are making a recognizable effort to slim down the complex topic via rhetorical means and simple linguistic images in order to convey their message in an understandable way to the broadest possible public and thereby gain social acceptance‌ A simple concept that ultimately allows every citizen – regardless of their educational background and specialist knowledge – to participate in the debate. Although this might look like grass-roots democracy it doesn’t really get us anywhere because the positions in the

urgently needed public debate on the possibilities and limits of aquaculture are not only deadlocked and at an impasse but have also taken on an almost ritual character. Both sides use the same arguments again and again to assert their positions. The study by Osmundsen and Olsen also states that the discussions about aquaculture have hardly developed further over the course of time. For years, they have been conducted in the same way with the same arguments and the same rhetorical concepts. Some rumours have almost assumed the “quality of facts� due to their constant repetition, but in the end this will not get us any further in the matter. What we need, what is desirable, and what might be helpful, is a more differentiated debate about the advantages and disadvantages of aquaculture. But the debate has to be based on a genuinely sound factual analysis. That is after all the prerequisite

for any change, and would point the way to go. The aim and purpose of a debate is the search for the right or at least a better way. Exchanging arguments only makes sense if both sides are prepared to listen and basically willing to make concessions and reach an agreement. At present there is little sign of this however. Neither the form nor the content of the public debate on aquaculture meets these requirements; so we are only marking time. There are quite a lot of other controversial issues about which it would be worth arguing. What, for example, are objective criteria for good farming practice and how can we reconcile animal welfare and protection with the economic viability of farms, or how can environmental damage be avoided most effectively? If something is really to move, each of the two parties will have to take a first step. mk &VSPlTI .BHB[JOF

[ AQUACULTURE ] Second Global Fishery Forum, 13-15 September 2018, St. Petersburg

Aquaculture to remain leading animal protein producer St. Petersburg, the “Venice of the Northâ€?, hosted the second edition of the Global Fishery Forum and Seafood Expo Russia on 13-15 September 2018. The event centered on what to expect from the global ďŹ sheries industry and markets in the coming decades.

The aquaculture session at the Second Global Fishery Forum in St. Petersburg focused on the future of the global aquaculture industry, discussing its potential and challenges it may come to face.

The forum brought together more than 1 100 business leaders, members of international food and fisheries organizations, specialized ministries, international seafood companies and fisheries representatives from 42 countries, including Canada, China, Denmark, the Faroe Islands, Germany, Iceland,Â

Italy, Japan, Morocco, Norway, and Turkey.

Asia strongly represented at aquaculture session The session “Aquaculture production and development forecast by 2050� focused on the discussions

of the state of the global aquaculture sector, its future growth, and environmental control and safety. Moderated by Ekaterina Tribilustova, Eurofish International Organisation, the session hosted experts from specialized agencies, ministries, sectorial organisations and unions from 8 countries, including the Federal

Agency for Fishery of Russia, the Union of Sturgeon Breeders of Russia, China’s Union of Seafood Processing Enterprises, Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry of Turkey, the Ministry of Agricultural Development of Islamic Republic of Iran and Shilat Organization for Fisheries and Fish Farming of Iran, and the National Institute

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[ AQUACULTURE ]

Vasily Sokolov, the Deputy Head of the Federal Agency for Fishery of Russia.

Turgay Turkyilmaz, Deputy Director, General Directorate of Fisheries and Agriculture, Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry of Turkey.

of Research and Development of fisheries sector in the Republic of Korea.

has proved to be rather effective, Sokolov said. He noted that the major work is carried out on improving the legal framework for fish farming and increased veterinary control, and government support for companies of conventional and organic aquaculture. Major attention is given to the regulations in organic aquaculture, voluntary certification of production and traceability system for the whole supply chain of production and realization, and to research and scientific and technological cooperation.

At present, the aquaculture industry produces over 45 of fish and seafood products consumed globally, while the share of fish products is 53, according to the FAO. At the same time, the global population has never consumed as much fish as now. Since 1961, the growth rates of fish consumption in the world have been two times higher than the population growth, while the production growth rates have been declining. It is expected that even growing at a slower rate the aquaculture sector can eliminate the gap between growing demand and declining resources playing a major role in providing the world population with the proteins they need. The aquaculture sector in particular has an especially important role in improving food nutrition and fighting hunger.

Russia has ambitious plans for its aquaculture sector Projecting the development of fish consumption by 2050 and the role of the Russian Federation,

Vasily Sokolov, the Deputy Head of the Federal Agency for Fishery, reminded the audience that one of the priorities of the Federal Agency for Fishery is to increase annual domestic fish consumption to 24–26 kg per capita. In the aquaculture sector, the current production output of 220 000 tonnes is expected to triple by 2030 under the fisheries sector development strategy, and reach 2 million tonnes by 2050. A special role will be played by land-based farming, primarily by salmon farming that is expanding and has already reached about 20 000 tonnes. Organic aquaculture is a very important area for aquaculture development in the country, which has the advantages of enormous land areas and good natural conditions. Sokolov also highlighted a new focus on shellfish and algae farming. Some of the algae species in Russia include macrofids: laminaria and undaria, and microalgae (e.g, chlorella, dunaliella, gematokokkus, and porfiridium). The government has already invested into providing a business-friendly environment for attracting private investors to the aquaculture sector, which

The President of the Russian Union of Sturgeon Breeders, Alexander Novikov, said that sturgeon breeding, selection and hybridisation will be changing, and in the next 50 years, the caviar of farmed species will differ from previous wild caviar, but it does not mean it will be worse. He added that sturgeon farming has been developed in many countries in the past decades.

Chinese aquaculture will focus increasingly on the environment Development of the Chinese aquaculture in the new era was

discussed by Cui He, Vice President and Secretary General, China Union of Seafood Processing Enterprises. China, as the top world producer with its fisheries and aquaculture production of 70 million tonnes, accounts for over one third of global production. In 2016, fisheries and aquaculture production in China reached its peak, followed then by the declining trend for both fisheries and aquaculture. At present, the overall objective for the Chinese government is to enhance the quality and efficiency of the aquaculture sector, based on the necessity of aquaculture transformation and reducing production, while increasing efficiency and assuring sustainable development of the sector. It is expected that the national aquatic production will reach 58Â million tonnes by 2020. A special focus is placed on environmental protection because many traditional farming areas have been listed in protected areas. For example, traditional aquaculture in the Hainan province will decline with the decrease of farmed areas in lakes, reservoirs and coastal cages. Another example is the Hubei province, the largest freshwater aquaculture province &VSPlTI .BHB[JOF

[ AQUACULTURE ] in China, where 82Â 000 hectares have been closed down. The measures of Chinese aquaculture reform include a changing layout of the farmed areas, such as expansion of mariculture into open seas, represented by deep sea anti-wave cages. In inland waters, lakes and reservoirs, farming that uses added feed has been reduced, while ecological propagation farming (relying on natural food supply, for example) has been expanding. Some of the examples include integrated ricefield aquaculture, multi-trophic level species polyculture, ecological pond farming with sewage disposal system, deep-sea adjustable cage aquaculture, and recirculating aquaculture. Future trends for Chinese aquaculture include the optimization of the ecological farmed production model, development of the land-based industrialized aquaculture model, and shifting from inshore to off-shore operations. Aquaculture company operators are also changing from being just farmers to becoming enterprises, adjusting aquaculture species to meet market demand, increasing profitability, and developing the use of refrigerating technologies in transporting products.

Well-designed policy contributes to the growth of fish farming sector in Turkey An overview of the aquaculture development in Turkey was given by Turgay Turkyilmaz, Deputy Director, General Directorate of Fisheries and Agriculture, Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry of Turkey. Over 34 years, the national aquaculture sector has undergone a remarkable

expansion, growing 100 times in size. The first fish farming production started in the 1980s with output of 2 226 tonnes in 1984, while the total national production of fisheries and aquaculture was 569 169 tonnes, making the share of aquaculture products in total production only 0.4. By 2017, total fisheries and aquaculture production reached 630 820 tonnes, and aquaculture produced 276 502 tonnes, giving aquaculture a 44 share of total production. During the first years of aquaculture development, only rainbow trout was farmed, but later the sector expanded to seabass and seabream farming. At present, the sector has a higher variety of fish species, including tuna, sharpsnout seabream, common pandora (mercan), white grouper, shi drum, sand steenbras, meagre, common dentex, and red porgy. Discussing the key success factors contributing to the development of aquaculture in Turkey, Mr. Turkyilmaz described the policies and government initiatives for attracting investment and using best-practice technologies, and setting aquaculture control mechanisms including continuous monitoring. There are 43 aquaculture offices in the provinces with functions of supervision and advice to entrepreneurs in the optimal ways of farmed fish production with minimum costs and hazards to the environment. Aquaculture companies get quick responses from governmental institutions to expedite the sector’s adaptation to market needs. At the urging of the environment and tourism sector stakeholders, fish farms have been moved off the coast by 0.6 miles, more than 30 meters depth and bigger flow than 0.1 m per second

Cui He, Vice President and Secretary General, China Union of Seafood Processing Enterprises.

by law in 2007. The future strategies include an increase in fish consumption in the domestic market, creation of fish consumption habits and awareness among consumers, keeping a strong position in the supply of aquaculture products and developing new species, especially those which need less oxygen and lower animal protein. The session’s experts also discussed experience in the aquaculture sector in the Republic of Iran, Japan, and Korea, prospects and principal areas in aquaculture development in the Black, Azov and Caspian seas, and Russian Far Eastern basins, possibilities of developing Russian varieties of trout and Atlantic salmon, and ways of overcoming environmental and socioeconomic challenges by comparing the experience of other countries.

Sustainability of aquaculture will continue to grow in importance The session concluded that aquaculture will remain the leading industry among all food sectors producing products of animal origin, despite shrinking growth rates. By 2050, sustainability of the global aquaculture sector will depend on the introduction of practices and technologies that improve ecological and economic performance of the sector, and at the same time, increase efficiency of production. Sustainable development of the aquaculture sector is not limited to one country or region but is reflected in the consolidated approach by all countries to support sustainable, technologically innovative production. Katia Tribilustova, katia.tribilustova@eurofish.dk

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CROATIA

Legislation to prevent overďŹ shing is working, but more time is needed for assessment

The signals from the sea are positive Administration of the Croatian ďŹ sheries sector is the responsibility of Ante Misura, Assistant Minister in the Directorate of Fisheries. Together with his team he is responsible for the implementation of all the national, regional, and international legislation that governs the sector. Here he explains the impacts on ďŹ shermen of some of the changes and potential changes to the rules.

Ante Misura, Assistant Minister, Directorate of Fisheries, Ministry of Agriculture, Republic of Croatia.

By 2019 all species subject to Minimum Conservation Reference Sizes in the Mediterranean will be subject to the landing obligation. How does the fishing sector react to the landing obligation? What impact will this have on the demersal fishery? And what use can be made of the fish

that is collected by the landing obligation? Like in all questions related to fishery we need to be aware of the regional contest and specificities of fishery concern. Starting from 1th January 2019 we should apply landing obligation to all Annex III species. Species listed within Annex III are representing

core of the Adriatic fishery, both large scale and coastal. Considering geographical features of Adriatic coast and the fact that we have more than 200 landing places, out of which large number is located on the islands, it is clear that collecting of discard would be extremely difficult and expensive. This was the ground

for de minimis exemption to be implemented though EU Delegated act which will allow us sufficient time for finding long term solution. Dealing with this issue we need to take into account that solution is realistic and tailored to specific region and fishery. Important part of this problem is collection of landed discard. At Eurofish Magazine 6 / 2018

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CROATIA

this moment we find this impossible to implement or in any case cost would be highly disproportional to the value of landed fish. All of those concerns and difficulties need to be considered and recognised within the final solution. How is the administration responding to the proposal from the European Commission to revise the fisheries control system? Are all the elements of the proposal universally welcome? Is the administration’s response in consonance with that of the fisheries sector? We strongly believe that control is one of most important elements for efficient management. In the first place it needs to be directed to prevent IUU fishing, and then to control all fisheries. We are glad that we have found in the new proposal some elements that have already been implemented in Croatia that are beyond current EU obligations. We are obliged to have VMS and e-logbook on all vessels operating under authorisation regardless of their length. We have also developed mobile application for m-logbook for those vessels that don’t have conditions for installation of e-logbook. We find this very important not only for the purpose of control but also as a helpful tool for monitoring of resources status because we are able to receive information on catch composition and quantities, and even size for small pelagics, in almost real time. The proposal itself has some good improvements but it also needs to be examined more in order to find adequate solutions. In that case I believe that it would have support from the sector. What are the salient features of the new Croatian Marine 32

Fisheries Act that entered into force this year? What results is it aiming to achieve and what has been the response from the sector? First objective of new Act was to align some procedures with EU regulations. This should allow us to be more efficient in using the EMMF, but we have also improved inspections procedures and penalties. This particular stands for implementation of serious infringements and register of penalty points. As for the sector, these changes should not be problematic for any fishers that operate in accordance with law, accordingly they are supportive to this change. According to the latest STECF review of the EU fishing fleet with the exception of red mullet almost all the main species targeted by the Croatian fleet (sardine, anchovy, deep-water rose shrimp, hake, common sole and Norway lobster) are currently overexploited. What will this mean in practice for fishermen? Are they facing further effort limitations or other restrictions? Stocks are assessed at the level of basin and therefore the exploitation needs to be observed at the same level. We do need to act at local and national scale but it needs to be coordinated at the basin level. I need to say that over past few years we have a good cooperation with all Adriatic countries, and especially with Italy as a key partner in this process. This can be seen in some major achievements like establishment of Jabuka Fisheries Restricted Area (FRA) or new GFCM Recommendation for small pelagics. On top of these regional steps we have number of measures implemented in the territorial waters which are directed to protection of

demersal and coastal stocks. Over the last period we have stable catches and positive signals from the sea, and this gives me right to believe that we have managed to stop the trend of overfishing but we do need some more time to observe direct effects on the whole stock. We just need to be persistent in measures that we have implemented, and results will follow. To this end I hope that there will be no major restrictions in near future.  What is the status of the 2017 proposal for a multi-annual plan (MAP) for small pelagic stocks in the Adriatic Sea? Why, despite all the existing national, EU and international regulations, are stocks of sardine and anchovy still being overexploited? And why should a further plan make a difference? Most of the measures in place have been implemented in 2015 and later reinforced in 2016 and 2017. According to scientific opinion it takes at least five years to observe the first effect of implemented measures, and you still need to keep in mind that, at this moment, latest stock assessment is available for 2017 reference year. This is something that we have been warning for long time and one of our major objections on MAP proposal. We are against the principle where you are changing management approach and all measures in place without being able to assess their impact. I am glad to see the European Parliament has recognized this and that their amendments are following current approach. We are still far away from closing this file and I am sure there will be a lot of discussion. In any case, I believe that MAP should be more focused on regional specificities and tailor made solutions, and

not just enforced measures from the top with general approach. If this would be so, then it can make a good impact. The small-scale coastal fisheries in Croatia has a social significance that dwarfs its economic importance as it consists of over 60 of active vessels in the fleet and has a correspondingly high influence on coastal communities as a source of nutrition and at least part-time employment. What efforts is the administration making to support the small-scale fleet? As you said small-scale coastal fishery (SSCF) is of great importance from the social aspect and especially for the island communities. We always have to keep that in mind and this is why this category deserves special attention. This has been mainly reflected in the different projects for improvement of fishery and support of investment through the EMFF. But let’s not forget some concrete steps like quota allocation for bluefin tuna and swordfish, or reservation of fishing ground for passive gears in the context of spatial management. We also need to mention the derogation for shore seines and small purse seines that have just been approved by the European Parliament. All of this will directly support profitability and sustainability of SSCF. After all, GFCM Action plan and Declaration on SSCF commit us on continuation of this process in the future. Non-native species have been entering the Mediterranean and continuing to the Adriatic Sea since the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869. They also enter via the Straits of Gibraltar and through human activities such as shipping. How can they be monitored or even prevented from entering and do

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they represent a threat or an opportunity? Many non-native species have entered in the Adriatic Sea in the last decades either directly through anthropogenic activites such as shipping (ballast waters), aquarium release, mariculture and similar or by active migration from southern Mediterranean areas such are the cases of many lessepsian migrants who originally arrived into Mediterranean through Suez Channel. In Croatia, monitoring of these organisms is being carried out to a certain extent through EUs Marine Strategy Framework Directive and through various scientific projects. However, much greater effort and more elaborate monitoring schemes are needed. Any non-native organism certainly represents a threat rather than an opportunity especially in biodiversity hot-spots such as the Adriatic Sea. Additionally, this threat is greater for ecosystems which are burdened by multiple other stressors and therefore less resilient to bioinvasions. There is also an issue with threats that nonnative species represent to human health such is the case of Lagocephalus sceleratus, a toxic Tetraodontidae species which occurs in the Adriatic Sea and whose consumption can be fatal. Marketing of Tetraodontidae species is banned in the EU and awareness raising campaigns, already taking place in Croatia, are the key to successful prevention of this potential hazard. Raising awareness among general public on the perils of

species introductions and greater control and management of particular introduction vectors like ballast waters, mariculture, biofouling and similar vectors should be a part of a prevention programme. Additionally, early warning system and risk assessment procedures which would enhance prompt detection and correct taxonomic identification of invaders should be implemented. Management measures in the Mediterranean are only as good as the data that supports policy making. What are the issues associated with collecting data in the Adriatic? What actions do administrations need to take to ensure the collection of reliable data? As data collection has been incorporated in Union Priority 3 in the current programming period, capacity building has been a priority in order to implement data collection. As the Croatian fishing fleet is mostly composed of small scale vessels, in terms of collecting biological data, the biggest challenge is the co-operation of fishermen to receive scientific observers on board, while taking into account safety on board. It is important to maintain good and positive cooperation with fishermen which is why we are continuously trying to positively motivate fishermen with the support of Fisheries Advisory Service. On a national level, the legal framework for data collection incorporated in the new Marine Fisheries Act,

envisages adoption of rules and procedures for scientific observes as part of the national fisheries monitoring programme in line with the DCF (Data Collection Framework) as well as obligations for legal and natural persons to submit economic and social data.

the aim to simplify and streamline data reporting to main data end users. Also, the establishment of a regional data base in the future will aid in streamlining this process. As part of the visibility process a national web page for data collection is currently in preparation.

On a regional and EU level, Croatia coordinates its efforts with neighbouring Member States and nurtures good cooperation both on a scientific and political level, to ensure that data collected are relevant for decision making and management purposes. In this regard a high level group Adriatica coordinates activities on a political level, FAO Adriamed project and GFCM working groups on a scientific level and a newly established Regional coordination group for the Mediterranean and Black Sea on an administrative and scientific level. We ensure that our experts and scientists are educated to perform these highly specific data analyses and we encourage harmonization of data collection methodologies. As a most recent development in the region, a regional database for the Mediterranean and Black Sea is being established in the near future to support data analysis and the availability of data in the region. Transferring, disseminating and capitalising good practices, data compilation and harmonisation of data collection methodologies are the priorities for the future period. We intend to devote more emphasis on strengthening cooperation with data end users with

What developments can be seen in the fish farming sector in Croatia? Has the EMFF, which offers support for aquaculture, catalysed the development of the industry? Croatia produces mainly European seabass and gilthead seabream, but what is the status of the freshwater aquaculture sector and how is the administration encouraging it to expand? In accordance with the Croatian National Strategic plan for aquaculture 2014-2020, there was a significant increase of aquaculture in production, but there are also signs of the future improvements in wide area, from organic production, medicaments, environment protection, diseases and predators prevention, sustainable development to enforcement of social business-political environment, increase of national consumption of aquaculture products etc. Organic production is at its very beginning, applied experimentally only in one company farming seabass and seabream. Support from the EMFF for the transition to organic production should be available from 2019, so the first results of organic production can be expected in the next programming period.

"We are proud that in just two years Seafood Expo Russia in St. Petersburg has become one of the leading expositions globally. As a significant partner in creating awareness, EUROFISH Magazine has been instrumental in achieving this result. We anticipate a fruitful and long-term cooperation." Ivan Fetisov, Chief Executive Officer, Expo Solutions Group, Russia Contact EUROFISH on +45 33377763 or aleksandra.petersen@eurofish.dk to learn how we can help you effectively reach your audience.

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Croatia’s ďŹ sheries and aquaculture sector

Impact of measures to protect stocks become apparent With roughly 6,000 km of coastline along the Adriatic Sea Croatia has the basic prerequisite for a ďŹ sheries industry. Fishing, processing, and farming of marine ďŹ sh and shellďŹ sh, as well as fattening of tuna are some of the activities that the sector is involved in. In addition, there is a freshwater aquaculture industry, a modest freshwater capture sector, and an active export and import trade in ďŹ sh and seafood.

T

he diversity of the Croatian fisheries sector is reflected in the species that are fished. The Mediterranean is well known for the variety, if not the volume, of species that can be caught. The Croatian fishing sector catches pelagics large and small, several demersal finfish species as well as crustaceans, cephalopods, and bivalves.

Sardines and anchovies dominate landings However, of the approximately 69,500 tonnes of fish caught in 2017, just two species, sardines and anchovies, accounted for 85, while catches of the remaining 100 odd species contributed the rest. Catches have been declining since 2014, but in 2017 were still above their 10-year average. Fishers generally agree that catches of some species are declining but are not sure of the underlying cause. Zdenko Jakus, who has been a small-scale fisherman for many years takes the example of octopus, a species that was abundant some years ago. Today, however, it is difficult to catch, a development he feels that could be attributed to changes in the sea, the presence of invasive species, or some other factor, rather than over-fishing. He acknowledges however that demand for octopus has skyrocketed over the last two or three 34

decades and that its price has doubled over the last five years. Kastela, close to Split, is home to four or five offshore fishing vessels, according to Antun Francic, a long-time purse-seine fisherman who targets amberjack, bonito, and mullet most of the year and the small pelagics, anchovy and sardines, the rest of the time. The number of vessels has fallen significantly since before the war in Yugoslavia. Part of the reason is the decline in the number of small pelagics processing facilities which numbered 30-40 after the second World War and today are less than a dozen. Bigger vessels were less affected as they could catch enough fish to export to Italy or elsewhere, says Marin Mihanovic from the Ministry of Agriculture, and then plough the proceedings back in to upgrading the vessels. Smaller fishermen on the other hand could only sell locally and were hit by the closure of the factories. The lack of interest shown by young people in joining the fishing sector has also contributed to a reduction in the fleet. Fishing is a demanding job with a lot of time spent away from the family. To be successful calls for a sold commitment, which young people may find difficult as there are far more alternatives available, particularly when the tourism industry is booming as it is.

Antun Francic, a purse-seine ďŹ sherman, targets seriola, bonito, and mullet as well as the small pelagics, anchovy and sardines.

Marin Mihanovic, Ministry of Agriculture, Directorate of Fisheries.

Polyvalent vessels can ďŹ sh around the year Mr Francic and his sons own three vessels, one 12 m and two 14 m in length, and employ 6-7 people on each during the season. The vessels are polyvalent using multiple

gears during the year, and each is equipped with a hold that can store 4-5 tonnes of fish. This means that they can go out further and stay at sea for longer periods, up to a month at time. He attributes his success as a fisherman to the fact that his vessels can use different

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Marine ďŹ sheries landings (tonnes) SPECIES European pilchard (sardine)

2014

2015

2016

60,974.49

51,729.63

54,368.35

2017 ** 48,333.44

European anchovy

10,122.84

12,785.14

8,235.78

10,880.35

Atlantic chub mackerel *

638.07

566.37

1,865.52

1,945.50

Red mullet

1,168.56

1,144.26

972.53

1,001.43

European hake

897.37

773.80

752.98

928.49

Jack and horse mackerels

234.53

437.03

988.13

915.57

Common octopus

310.29

328.92

255.26

136.75

Horn and musky octopuses

669.34

501.43

371.11

362.65

Deep-water rose shrimp

370.09

534.58

654.94

834.39

Norway lobster

344.22

303.46

237.20

200.94

European at oyster

426.45

510.14

326.63

175.36

Other

3,265.43

3,304.47

3,298.99

3,159.73

TOTAL

79,421.69

72,919.24

72,327.41

68,874.60

*before 2016 - PaciďŹ c chub mackerel; **provisional

gears and target different species. Bigger boats specialise in certain species and that can be a problem at times. At the start of spring the target is seriola and after that mullet, later in summer the nets will be changed to target anchovies, if there is a market for them, and in winter they change again to catch sardines. For the big pelagics such as, seriola and bonito, there are no fishing grounds. Mr Francic will sail between the islands to the spots where he can expect to find the fish. Unlike Mr Jakus, Mr Francic sees no clearly discernible trend in the fishing over the years. Every season is different, he says, but in general the target species are always there – if they are not to be found in spring they can be found in autumn or winter. For his kind of fishery the situation has been more or less stable for the last five years. He has however noticed how anchovies and sardines closer to the coast seem to have become smaller in size while the bigger fish have moved further out to sea. Fishermen now have to make longer trips and fish in deeper and rougher water to catch the larger fish, which means

Source: Ministry of Agriculture, Croatia

additional expenses for fuel and equipment on board. One must also consider that catches depend not only on the availability of fish, but also on the price it commands. For example, in October this year, mullet catches were very high in the north Adriatic leading to a drop in the price, so for Mr Francic setting off after mullet was not worth it. Normally he sells his catches (seriola, bonito) all along the Croatian coast to restaurants at fresh fish markets. Towards the end of the tourist season if he has a large catch he will export the fish to Italy or Slovenia as demand from restaurants will have fallen.

Measures to limit catches are bearing fruit Although some fishermen may be fortunate or capable enough not to have experienced a change in catches, total Croatian catches of pelagic fish declined 12 from 72,000 tonnes in 2014 to 63,000 tonnes in 2017. Catches peaked in 2014 says Mr Mihanovic but even then the advice was that stocks were overexploited and under overexploitation and that

the biomass was under the safe limit. As a result, Croatia introduced a number of measures to reduce catches. Management in the Adriatic is based on capacity, effort, and minimum sizes rather than catch limits. The measures included closing off large inner sea areas for more than six months in the year to protect nurseries and spawning grounds. There is a total closure in winter during the spawning season for sardines and one in May for anchovies. In winter 2017-2018 the closure was for almost two months. Despite these measures catches of small pelagics are still quite high and this year (2018) for the first time fishermen have been reporting that they are seeing changes, that individual specimens are bigger, catches are healthy in particular for anchovies. The positive news is borne out by the latest stock assessment that notes a decrease in fishing mortality and a biomass that has been stable over the last few years. We interpret that as a good result, says Mr Mihanovic, however, he cautions, these are small pelagics that we are managing here, and nature plays an important role in how the stock develops.

EU accession has been good for the ďŹ shing sector As Croatia’s accession to the EU (which it did in 2013) neared, fishermen were mixed about the prospect. For some the thought of having to compete with more sophisticated and powerful vessels from other countries was a reason to view the impending accession with misgiving. For others, however, the potential offered by the removal of border checks made them keen supporters of Croatia joining. According to Mr Francic, the situation initially was difficult to adapt to, for example when the Mediterranean regulation had to

be implemented. In addition, there were more complex rules and regulations and a lot of bureaucracy, which for some fishers became too much to want to continue in the industry. But he finds that those that stayed on became more adept at dealing with this complexity and ultimately benefited from the consolidation in the fleet. He also supports the regularisation of fishing activity, with more control and monitoring, and improved data collection as it contributes to a more orderly fishery and enables access to support programmes. He himself received support for decommissioning one of his vessels last year as well as for investments in winches, gears and so on. The creation of Producer Organisations (PO) was another benefit as it meant that the processing and marketing of the catch could be left to the PO. In addition, being a member of a PO gives additional points when applying for support. Now Mr Francic grumbles not so much about EU legislation as about the new fisheries law that was implemented in Croatia at the start of the year. The penalties are way too high, he says, for even small infringements you have to rob a bank! The Mediterranean regulation stipulates that purse seines and shore seines cannot come closer than 300 m (or 50 m in depth) to the coast, so Croatia sought a derogation for these gears immediately after accession, which is likely to be approved now, says Mr Mihanovic. Croatia has a management plan in place for these purse seines and shore seines aimed at vessels under 15 m for the purse seines and under 12 m for the shore seines. All boats will be equipped with VMS, and electronic log books, he says, and they will have specified landing places which are strictly controlled, all for the implementation of the Eurofish Magazine 6 / 2018

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Better consumer information may lead to higher consumption

Branko Matkovic, a small-scale ďŹ sherman and representative of an association of ďŹ shermen using small-scale gears.

derogation. The data from these vessels will determine whether the derogation can be prolonged.

Potential changes in the control regulation are viewed with suspicion Branko Matkovic is a small-scale fisherman and representative of an association of fishermen using small-scale gears. He uses fixed nets, putting them down in the afternoon and lifting them early in the morning to sell the fish on the market. Mr Matkovic changes his gear according to the season, the target species, and the price of fish on the market. The Croatian part of the Adriatic is divided into fishing zones and sub-zones, and each fisher’s license specifies the zone in which he can operate. Within the zone he is free to place his nets anywhere. But usually a fisherman will know the best fishing grounds in the zone. The regulation also specifies the length of the net, so that multiple nets can be placed simultaneously provided the overall permissible length is not exceeded. He targets hake, seabass, seabream, and other sparid species, as well as cephalopods in 36

winter. For Mr Matkovic, changes in the EU’s control regulation that are currently being discussed will have a mixed impact on fishermen. Placing VMS or other tracking devices on small vessels such as his he feels will not be useful as it will add to costs and bureaucracy. For the administration too, it is likely to be cumbersome purely because the number of vessels under 12 m that are licensed to fish commercially is so large. Apart from complying with the Mediterranean regulation Mr Matkovic is also subject to national laws and ordinances and so any further tightening of the rules for commercial fishers is unwelcome. As it is, he says, although only a small fisherman he has to do so much paperwork that he is forced to draft in his family to help him. Both Mr Matkovic and Mr Francic experience trouble with dolphins, which can penetrate and thereby damage static nets or purse seines and then eat, injure, and scatter the fish. Efforts to deal with the problem are under way. Mr Matkovic, for example, is involved in a project with an institute that is testing pingers to keep dolphins away and he thinks it shows potential.

Per capita fish consumption in Croatia is below the EU average, something the government is trying to change with the help of promotion campaigns that include visits to kindergartens and schools to inform children about fish and to encourage them to taste it. Official figures for consumption are somewhat misleading as they are also based on landings of small pelagic fish. A lot of this catch goes, however, to tuna fattening, which accounts for the discrepancy between the real figure of 8-10 kg and the official one of 18-19 kg. At the Department of Agricultural Marketing in the University of Zagreb Faculty of Agriculture, Marina Tomic Maksan studies agricultural marketing and consumer behaviour. She too feels that the lower figure is more credible. People from the coastal part of Croatia are very familiar with fish having eaten it all their lives, she explains, while on the continental part they are far less accustomed to consuming fish and seafood. She and Daniel Matulic collaborated on a study funded by the Croatian Chamber of Economy and Cromaris, a big fish farming company, three years ago to establish why fish consumption in Croatia was as low as it was despite being a Mediterranean country. They found out that Croatians in general have a very positive attitude to fish, but that there were a number of barriers to fish consumption. Among these was a lack of knowledge regarding freshness, difficulties finding places to purchase, the inability to recognise species, ignorance about the provenance of the fish, and no fish-eating culture. The need to improve consumers’ knowledge

to complement their positive attitude toward fish was thus one of the project results. The survey was conducted mainly online, which meant that respondents were both younger (<45) and had a higher education than a truly representative sample. For Ms Tomic Maksan the survey helped to divide consumers into different segments for each of which marketing strategies could be tailored. Among other results she found out that social pressure also played a role in fish consumption – people whose family and friends ate fish were more predisposed to fish consumption. She also felt that promotion of fish tended to be worthy, often with a nutrition expert extolling the health benefits of fish consumption, while, for example, beer drinking was marketed as fun. The way fish is promoted needs to change to become more forward looking, more fun, and with more positive associations, she says. Although fish is not currently heavily promoted in Croatia, the Chamber of Economy did have a project promoting Croatian fish. The issue, feels Ms Tomic Maksan, is that it is insufficient. Only people who are in or are connected to the field in some way seem to be aware of these campaigns, they do not seem to reach a wider audience. Coastal Croatia eats a lot of fresh locally caught fish, while on the continental part it is mainly imported frozen fish that is popular. Over the last decade or so says Ms Tomic Maksan the habit of eating fresh locally caught small pelagic fish has increased, but only slightly, and the campaign was trying to improve on this. She and her husband, who has a masters degree in fisheries, are also contributing in their own way to the promotion of fish consumption by maintaining in their spare time a blog on various fish-related consumer issues. The idea is to combine knowledge

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Marine aquaculture production (tonnes) SPECIES

2014

2015

2016

2017

European seabass

3,215.00

4,075.00

5,310.00

5,616.00

Gilthead seabream

3,655.00

4,488.00

4,101.00

4,830.00

60.00

67.00

125.00

253.00

2,224.00

2,603.00

2,934.00

2,162.00

Meagre Atlantic blueďŹ n tuna

714.00

746.00

699.00

920.00

European at oyster

Mediterranean mussel

32.00

52.00

64.00

62.00

Other

60.00

12.00

2.00

9,960.00

12,043.00

13,235.00

TOTAL

13,843.00

Source: Ministry of Agriculture, Croatia

about fish and the sea, such as the results of relevant scientific papers, with more homely advice such as recipes. Although developing slowly the results have been positive with people, consumers as well as seafood professionals, such as chefs, responding and asking questions. They have also discovered that longer texts are not as popular as short pieces of information, which tend to get shared much more. And that new information has to go up each day or at least four to five times a week to maintain followers’ interest.

different criteria. The study could be used to create promotion campaigns appropriately customised for the different groups. It is also valuable with regard to identifying market opportunities and formulating marketing strategies. Among the conclusions from the research was the need to raise awareness amongst consumers about the importance of eating fresh fish,

and inform them of ways to clean, prepare, and cook it. The report also suggested that an increase in the supply of convenience products such as filleted fish may lead to an increase in consumption. In Istria in the northern part of coastal Croatia a gastro club organises short workshops for consumers, where they learn how to clean

and prepare fish and cook it following a simple recipe. The instructors are a couple of chefs, who teach small groups of people each of whom pays a fee to attend. Marina Tomic Maksan thinks that this kind of activity should be reproduced at the national level as a way of increasing fish consumption. While frozen fish is easier to deal with both for the consumer and from a logistics point of view, among consumers from coastal Croatia, frozen fish is nowhere near as popular as fresh. In continental Croatia, however, frozen fish rules as it is available already in convenient forms (fillets, portions). When the fish is to be consumed fresh, people may go angling to catch something which they will then prepare. Zagreb being the capital is well supplied with fish, but in rural areas it is not as widely available. Consumers are sometimes reluctant to buy fresh fish because they fear that

New research to explore how millennials react to certain characteristics of ďŹ sh A new project will now explore the characteristics of fish that are important for consumers. These could, for example, be taste, smell, origin, presence of bones, etc. This will target millennials (those born between ~1977 and ~1995) as previous research has shown that this group changes its eating habits most rapidly and that it focuses increasingly on health and the environment when making food choices. In other research Ms Tomic Maksan and Dr Matulic categorised a group of consumers into “fresh fish lovers,â€? “supporters of eating fresh fish,â€? and “occasional consumers of fresh fishâ€? based on

Even small-scale ďŹ shermen are subject to large-scale paperwork. Eurofish Magazine 6 / 2018

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what is being sold as fresh fish, may not actually be fresh, but they lack the knowledge to be sure. Ms Tomic Maksan has also found that farmed fish is not as popular among consumers as wild. This was particularly apparent among consumers from the coast. Female respondents however were more positive towards farmed fish. People who had eaten fish in their childhood or those who were more regular consumers of fish also tended to prefer wild over farmed fish.

University of Dubrovnik plans a bivalve hatchery in Ston to boost production Dr Kruno Bonacic and Dr Marijana Pecarevic from the Department of Aquaculture at the University of Dubrovnik are looking to start a hatchery for bivalves in the Bay of Mali Ston. The bay is a marine protected area and is blessed with optimal environmental conditions, natural production of oyster spat and absence of diseases and competitive species, such as the Pacific cupped oyster (Crassostrea gigas). The idea is to be able to produce the spat on a regular basis so that the breeding of bivalves can be made independent of the

Professor Branko Glamuzina Department of Aquaculture, University of Dubrovnik.

38

Dr Kruno Bonacic, Department of Aquaculture, University of Dubrovnik, will lead the new hatchery for the production of bivalve spat.

collection of spat from the wild. Spat production will no longer depend on the vagaries of the weather or environmental conditions in the bay, which will benefit the bivalve farmers who will be assured of a reliable supply. Professor Branko Glamuzina, also of the Department of Aquaculture, points to the need for an operational hatchery that focuses on genetics, on selection, to produce rapidly growing oysters of a shape that the market is interested in. New broodstock based on these criteria need to be created to produce a superior oyster that can reach market size in 18 months instead of in the two to three years that they need in the wild, he says. The current production in the Bay of Mali Ston cannot even meet the demand of the local population and the tourists that visit the area in summer, let alone the needs of national and international markets. The hatchery will play a role in increasing the production and of fulfilling the Croatian aquaculture strategy that aims to increase output to 1,000 tonnes a year over the next five years from the current 100 tonnes. Farmers will also find it easier to approach financial institutions for loans to expand production if they can source spat

Dr Marijana Pecarevic, Head of the Department of Aquaculture, University of Dubrovnik feels tourism must be balanced with other activities.

from a hatchery rather than from the wild as the former will be more predictable. When it is fully functioning the hatchery will operate commercially, breeding the spat and selling it to farmers. At the site an existing unused facility will be completely renovated for the planned hatchery. This will call for a significant investment of course, but Dr Bonacic, who will come to lead the new facility, would like to make sure that the facility is, from the outset, a dedicated site for the production of spat. Here the Bay of Mali Ston being disease free has an advantage. Globally, flat oyster production is only a fraction of the production of Pacific oyster making the former highly soughtafter. There is a lot of interest in the European flat oyster, both from researchers and the industry and there has even been talk of a joint European project to breed and reintroduce the species. Dr Bonacic is in contact with many of the top European hatcheries, and using their experience as well as that of local experts he is hoping to build a state-of-the-art facility. The hatchery will not focus solely on flat oysters but will in time also raise spat of other bivalve species.

If the balance is right, tourism and bivalve farming can be mutually beneďŹ cial The facility will also include a building for offices and even rooms for accommodation, which will be used for students from around world at a planned summer school, where they can attend lectures and do practical work focused on sustainable production. The cultivation of oysters and mussels is clearly not detrimental to the environment, if it can be permitted in a protected area. Apart from the cultivation of a valuable product, rope-farmed oysters also provide ecological services by creating a habitat where different organisms can thrive. This makes it probably the most environmentally benign marine farming activity after algae farming. Oyster farming in Ston is integrated with tourism thereby bringing together two activities that otherwise often conflict with each other. This, feels Dr Pecarevic, could provide a model for other areas in similar situations. However, she emphasises, it is vital that there is a balance, so that the tourism does not swamp everything else as has happened in other areas.

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Fisheries and aquaculture stakeholders hold their annual meeting on Rab

Modernisation of ports, landing sites commences The Croatian Chamber of Trades and Crafts (HOK) annual meeting of ďŹ shermen was an opportunity to present the sector and its demands to Tomislav Tolusic, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Agriculture of Croatia.

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he 23rd annual meeting of the Croatian Chamber of Trades and Crafts (HOK), which was held in Rab from 4 to 6 October, gathered members of the Guild for Fisheries and Aquaculture of HOK, fishermen, scientists and other relevant stakeholders. The meeting was sponsored by the Ministry of Agriculture and the company Crodux. At the meeting participants expressed their views to the Minister of Agriculture Tomislav Tolusic highlighting the most common problems and obstacles they encounter during their work at sea, and on the coast.

Fisheries and aquaculture of strategic importance to economy The meeting was opened by Minister Tolusic, who welcomed the participants – including fishermen from all coastal regions of Croatia, representatives of scientific institutions and organisations, as well as of ministries and directorates that are responsible for the fishery sector. In his address, Minister Tolusic emphasized how fisheries and aquaculture are listed as one of the sectors of strategic importance to the Croatian economy and how the ministry together with the Croatian Government is working on two key goals: protection of marine resources and sustainable development.

“We want our fishermen to have a good income, and safe and sustainable fishing-related employment, and to keep the Adriatic Sea as one of the richest European seas, so our consumers can have fresh fish all year round at local fish markets. We managed to prove to the European Union that our fishery management measures are very effective with the best outcome for us, and we need to continue with the same practice in future. The derogations from the provisions of the EU’s Mediterranean regulation for Croatian fishermen operating with coastal purse-seines in Adriatic have been approved. Another big success is the threeyear closure of Jabuka Pit to all fisheries activities. Many challenges still exist, such as problems with fishery ports and landing sites, but these are being solved one by one, together with colleagues from other ministriesâ€? Mr Tolusic said. “This year, we have started with a first tender for investment and modernisation of ports and landing sites, and so far, we have used 46 (approx. HRK1.2bn/EUR160m) of the funds allocated to the Croatian Fisheries Operational Programme from the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF)â€? concluded Mr Tolusic. Dragutin Ranogajec, president of the Croatian Chamber for Trades

Mato Oberan, President of the Guild for Fisheries and Aquaculture concluded the meeting with a list of requests to be presented to the authorities.

and Crafts stressed the importance of the Guild for Fisheries and Aquaculture and its activities, which could be a role model to other guilds. “Its members are very active, approaching the relevant institutions with proposals, successfully negotiating them, and achieving their goals. United in the guild, fishermen are considered a partner in policy-making�, Ranogajec said, while thanking Minister Tolusic for the good cooperation between the ministry and the guild and expressing his hope that the collaboration would continue in the same direction for the benefit of the Croatian fishermen.

Fishers present list of requests to authorities Concluding the meeting, Mato Oberan, President of the Guild

for Fisheries and Aquaculture, presented a resolution with the most relevant questions and high-priority tasks to be delivered to institutions. These include, the government’s promulgation of landing sites for fishing vessels; a request to the Ministry of Maritime Affairs, Traffic and Infrastructure to decrease the extent of administrative obligations and expenses for fishing vessels; a request to find ways to reduce fuel costs; the continuation of activities related to minimising predation on shellfish farms; and, strong support for continuing with fisheries measures in purse seine fishing and trawling with the objective of protecting marine resources. Finally, Mr Oberan declared that the 24th Annual Meeting would be organised in Dubrovnik-Neretva county. Eurofish Magazine 6 / 2018

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Ribnjacarstvo Koncanica exports most of its carp production

Adding value to carp is something for the future The Croatian coastline is a popular destination for tourists craving sun, sand, and seafood. Local ďŹ sh and seafood consumed in coastal Croatia originates in the Adriatic, but continental Croatia also produces ďŹ sh – farmed and wild freshwater species that are cultivated in ponds or other farming systems or are ďŹ shed from rivers.

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ibnjacarstvo Koncanica, a company based in Koncanica, 130 km east of the Croatian capital, Zagreb, produces common carp in polyculture with other freshwater fish in traditional earthen ponds. The farm comprises altogether 1,300 ha of ponds that used to be owned by the regional administration together with several small shareholders. In 2010 the farm was acquired by the current owners, who embarked on a major process of renovation that is still ongoing. When they took over the property many of the ponds were in very poor shape, completely overgrown, with damaged walls, poor drainage, and with little or no yield. Today, however, more than 1,000 ha of ponds have been restored and are being used to produce fish.

Experience from construction works useful to renovate ďŹ sh ponds The new owner is in fact a construction company that builds infrastructure such as canals, roads, pipelines, and sewers, as well as dredges rivers etc. and thus has all the heavy machinery needed for this type of work. This was handy for the renovation of the ponds as much the same 40

kind of machinery is required for this task too. The farm comprises 24 big ponds, winter ponds, and an assortment of smaller ponds that are used to breed small fish. The company has invested in a hatchery in order to control the entire production chain. Having a hatchery reduces the risk of introducing diseases as the larvae are all produced on site and do not come in from outside. Production started at 100-150 tonnes per year, now however, says Mladen Previc, the sales manager, we are producing about 750 tonnes of fish including one-year-olds, two-year-olds, and market-sized fish. The latter amount to about 500 tonnes and current yields are 500-550 kg per ha. Once all the ponds are restored and taken into use greater focus will be placed on raising the yield so that total production can be increased. Fish intended for the market are harvested from the end of October until the middle of December. The fish are transferred from the big on-growing ponds to winter ponds – small ponds that are used to hold the live fish and from where they can be easily removed and delivered to customers. In January and February low temperatures can lead to the formation of ice on the big ponds making it difficult to harvest the fish. From the winter

ponds, however, the fish can easily be taken. The Christmas season is the biggest in terms of sales and consumption of fish, closely followed by the Easter season, and preparations have to be made well in advance to ensure that consumers get the fish when they need it. After Easter and continuing through the summer the consumption of fish declines steeply.

Several species are farmed, but the bulk is common carp The main species being farmed is common carp, which accounts for 80 of the production. The remainder is split between bighead, silver, and amur carp, European catfish, pike and pikeperch. In the hatchery larvae are

Mladen Previc, the sales manager at Ribnjacarstvo Koncanica.

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Of the 1,300 ha of ponds, about 1,000 ha have been renovated and are now producing ďŹ sh.

produced for the common, bighead, and silver carps. The others are bred naturally, but with a little assistance from the farm workers. Catfish, for example, are placed in the winter ponds in May, their natural spawning season, and nests made from tree branches are placed in the water. This encourages the fish

to spawn and the larvae that result are caught by directing the water in the pond through a pipe attached to a filter. The larvae are caught by the filter and are removed and introduced into the on-growing ponds. The method is also used for the pike and the pike perch. The broodstock are sometimes kept for

the next season or sold if their condition after spawning warrants it. Carp are bottom feeders living naturally off benthic organisms and plant material found in the ponds. To accelerate their growth rates the fish are given additional feed typically a blend of cereals, mainly corn and wheat. This diet is administered in the second and third years, while in the first year they are fed on a special high protein mix comprised mainly of soya. Carp takes about three years to reach market size when fed in this way.

Predatory birds take a heavy toll of young ďŹ sh The high protein diet given to the young fish is to enable them to grow rapidly, making them stronger and faster so that they can better avoid predators, in particular birds, which are a very significant problem, says Mr Previc. All over Europe fish

farmers (as well as some capture fishermen) complain about birds which do a lot of damage to the stock. Cormorants are the most destructive, but other species too cause damage, killing and wounding the small fish (which are the most vulnerable). The farm therefore does not just rely on the feed that helps the fish grow rapidly, but also maintains guards who patrol the ponds to scare away the cormorants and other fish-eating birds. More than 70 of the production is exported. Total national production of freshwater fish amounts to over 3,000 tonnes and the domestic market is simply not big enough to absorb this volume, says Mr Previc. Koncanica sells most of its production to Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Serbia as well as to Italy, Hungary, the Czech Republic, and Poland. The product is sold live to wholesalers in these

The ďŹ sh are harvested starting in October for the upcoming Christmas and Easter seasons, which are the periods when most ďŹ sh is consumed. Eurofish Magazine 6 / 2018

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Recreational ďŹ shers can try to catch either carp or pike from one of the two angling ponds.

countries, who in turn distribute the fish to fish retailers. Travelling with live fish calls for special logistics and buyers usually bring their own trucks that have a capacity of 12-14 tonnes and are equipped with liquid oxygen to ensure the health and welfare of the fish for the entire length of the journey. For shorter distances, say to Bosnia and Herzegovina or within Croatia, Koncanica uses its own fleet of vehicles. The domestic Croatian market is mainly continental Croatia, because selling to the coastal areas is very difficult. Consumers have access to plenty of marine fish and are not used to freshwater species. More surprising is the lack of demand in the area around Koncanica, but Mr Previc thinks that may be because supply exceeds demand thanks to the presence of two or three fish farms in the area. In Zagreb too the company has mixed fortunes selling its fish. Perhaps because it was trying to sell live fish and in Zagreb like most other European capitals, residents have neither the time nor perhaps the space in their apartments to deal with live fish. 42

Value addition is a long-term project

best pursued by an association with some kind of public funding.

Value-added items do not so far feature very highly in the company’s range of products. Almost all the fish is sold live, and even slaughtered and cleaned fish has no takers. Mr Previc thinks however that in a few years there may be more demand for value-added products. But, as he points out, there is a 35 loss when filleting carp which makes it expensive to produce fillets. And when consumers see the price, they are more likely to buy chicken or some other form of protein. Another factor he identifies behind the lack of value-added products is that they are relatively unknown on the market and any first mover will have to be prepared to invest heavily in promotion to educate consumers. On top of that, if the product does not sell within a few days it will have to be discarded leading to losses. Adding value to freshwater fish is thus likely to call for a long term commitment with simultaneous activities on several fronts – consumer information, product development – and is possibly

The company has diversified into a couple of other income-generating activities. It owns an area of 2,500 ha where hunters can shoot wild boar, deer, duck and other game, and has two angling ponds, one for carp, one for pike, for recreational fishers. There are plans to make these activities more attractive by building accommodation where tourists can comfortably stay for short durations, but these plans will only be realised at some point in the future. Another activity, though not commercial, is

based on a collaboration with the University of Zagreb. Each year the farm hosts students from the Department of Fisheries (which also covers aquaculture), who arrive on a field trip. Students can also do a longer internship at the farm. For students among the most popular times to be on the farm is in the spring as this is when the one-year-old and two-year-old fish are moved to larger ponds, says Mladen Previc, and it is therefore a period of a lot of activity. Working with students and their professors can lead to new ideas or new projects that may evolve into something commercially interesting.

Ribnjacarstvo Koncanica Koncanica 488 43505 Koncanica Croatia Tel.: +385 43 325 181 ribnjacarstvo.koncanica@bj.tcom.hr http://www.ribnjacarstvokoncanica.hr/en/ Sales manager: Mladen Previc Tel.: +385 91 2391008

Activity: Fish farming Production: 750 tonnes Species: Common carp (80%), silver, grass, amur carps, as well as pike, pike-perch and catďŹ sh Product form: Live ďŹ sh Markets: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Italy, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Poland, and Croatia Other facilities: Hunting, angling

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Traders play a key role in supplying the Croatian market with domestic ďŹ sh as well as imports

Fresh seafood from around the world The market for ďŹ sh and seafood in Croatia is not only supplied by the local ďŹ shermen selling to the food service sector and to local fresh ďŹ sh markets. Fish traders are an important link in the supply chain buying both from within Croatia and from the rest of the world and selling to wholesalers, supermarkets, and ďŹ shmongers.

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he Croatian market does not rely purely on domestic supplies of seafood, as local consumers as well as the food service sector are interested in more than just locally-sourced seafood. Hotels and restaurants catering to the huge influx of tourists during the summer months need to be able to offer a variety of fish and seafood. Fiorital, an Italian trading company, has since 2002 a division in Croatia for the wholesale and distribution of seafood. Fiorital Croatia buys fish both from Croatian vessels and imports it from all over the world depending on the season and the demand in Croatia. And imports have been increasing steadily. According to EUMOFA (the EU Market Observatory for Fisheries and Aquaculture Products) in the five years to 2017 the value of imports tripled to EUR147m, while volumes increased 2.5 times to 42,000 tonnes. The fish is distributed to the domestic market as well as those in Serbia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina. We are like a shop for wholesalers, and for supermarkets with fresh fish counters, says Lee Plese, the CEO of the company. Most of our products are fresh with only a small proportion of frozen, though this is a side of the business we would like to develop. The fresh fish from Europe is typically brought by truck, however from other parts of the world it is flown in. Demand on the Croatian market is highly seasonal – from a peak in the summer months it

decreases to Christmas, declines again until Easter, and then falls again until summer.

Value-added products increase in popularity Fiorital deals mainly with whole fish in polystyrene boxes, but Mr Pese is aware that there is an increasing interest in value addition in the form of gutted or filleted fish and his clients are making the necessary investments to process the fish he supplies. The fish trade business is highly seasonal he emphasises, with different species from different suppliers coming on to the market at different times. For example, in October, the squid season starts in France, pushing down prices and (hopefully) boosting sales, John Dory also starts coming in from Greece around the same time, and in a couple of months it will be Spanish mackerel, so roughly every two or three months a season ends and another one starts. With this knowledge the company is able to advise its clients making recommendations and pushing products. Traders like Fiorital offer its clients the advantage of distribution and volume – the greater the volumes the cheaper the distribution. By bundling orders together to build up the volumes a trader can offer individual clients cheaper distribution. For a wholesaler or a supermarket it is difficult to order 10 kg of fish

from Greece, for example, it is much easier to approach a trader, who will organise everything and either have the fish delivered to the door or arrange that the client can pick it up from the trader’s warehouse. Here, in a controlled atmosphere (0 to 4 degrees C), a pallet of fish is split up into its constituent orders preparatory to delivery. Fiorital itself, however concentrates on its core activity, buying and selling fish. The other functions, collecting the fish, and distributing it are all outsourced. It will be too much of a distraction to maintain a fleet of trucks and to employ drivers, feels Mr Plese.

Accession to EU brings open borders and increased competition Croatia’s accession to the EU had a significant influence on the business. Trucks could now travel freely across the border meaning deliveries could be made faster and the fish was fresher when it reached the client. At the same

time, on the other hand, it opened the doors for increased competition as anyone could go to France or Italy and buy fish to be sold in Croatia. This development forced Mr Plese to focus ever more on volumes in order to reduce the price of transport. He considers Fiorital among the biggest importers of fresh fish in to Croatia, but would like to break into the frozen fish business as well, as the volumes traded here are much larger. However, this would mean a reorganisation of the business with plans, projections, targets, and investments in vehicles, people and warehousing, and this would have to be approved by the parent company in Italy. The fish trade in Croatia is heavily influenced by the state of the economy, but other factors equally impossible to control, such as the weather or the state of the competition, too can have an impact, making the business highly unpredictable. Fish catches are difficult to foresee, sometimes they are good, other times not and one must be prepared for all these situations, says Mr Plese.

Fiorital Slavonska avenija 7 10000 Zagreb Croatia Tel.: +385 1 2455075 www.ďŹ orital.hr CEO: Lee Plese Sales: Mladen Kelemen

Activity: Purchase and sales of ďŹ sh and seafood Clients: Wholesalers, supermarkets, ďŹ shmongers, restaurants Markets: Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia Source countries: Croatia, rest of the world

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A nature reserve in Croatia produces high quality European at oysters

Building on an ancient tradition Ston, near Dubrovnik, has a long history of farming European at oysters, an activity that continues today although the technology used has evolved. Today the production area is part of a marine protected reserve where agriculture and ďŹ shing are prohibited.

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he town of Ston lies on the Bay of Mali Ston, a long narrow bay formed by the Peljesac peninsula and the mainland. Ston is famous for its salt production which has existed since Roman times. The commodity was so valuable that walls were built around the city to protect it and the assets, the salt pans, it contained. Salt is still being produced today, but the quantities are modest, and it is another traditional activity, oyster farming, that shows the greater potential.

Natural endowments contribute to oyster production This is partly due to some geographical advantages that the area enjoys. Precipitation carries nutrients from the limestone in the low hills surrounding the bay into the water making it far richer than the surrounding Adriatic Sea. This is the main reason why oysters and mussels cultivated in the bay grow much faster than in other areas in Croatia. The water in the bay is not deep (13 m) and this combined with the fact that it is long and narrow has an influence on the currents, which tend to be very strong. Rapid currents in turn are good for growth as they ensure the flow of nutrients to the shellfish. As a protected area the bay has no tourist activity nor is there any industry in or around it. This contributes to the high quality of the water, which has the coveted A classification meaning that shellfish can be safely eaten 44

without needing to go through a process of depuration first. Both oysters and mussels are produced in the bay, but over the last two years the production of mussels has fallen partly because demand for oysters, and so also the price, is higher. In addition, however, there is a population of seabream in the bay that is destroying the mussel farms. Vedran Kunica, a member of the Association of Shellfish Producers, recalls how he suggested that fishermen could be allowed to fish for the seabream, thus benefiting both the fishers and the mussel farmers, but the proposal was not supported. The seabeam are voracious feeders and cause losses amounting to 30-50 of the production within a short space of time. Fishing is possible but only with certain tools and not with the purse seines that are occasionally used when fishing for seabream. Purse seines may only be used 3 nautical miles from the coast and because the bay is so narrow this criterion cannot be fulfilled.

Vedran Kunica, a member of the Ston Association of ShellďŹ sh Producers.

Oyster production dates from the 14th century The oysters farmed are the European flat oyster Ostrea edulis. This is the only species that is found in the bay. The oyster spat generated during the natural cycle of reproduction is collected to start the cultivation, there are no hatcheries. Oysters have been farmed in the bay since the fourteenth century, says Mr Kunica, and because Dubrovnik

The strings are put through a machine to remove the oysters.

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There are two seasons when spat is deposited on the collectors, spring and fall. The oysters grow to 1-2 cm on the collector, which takes about 6 months.

for various reasons was largely spared from the wars of the time, written records that document this activity still exist. They provide evidence that oyster cultivation was such an important activity at the time, that the the Republic of Dubrovnik enacted legislation determining how many and which families could farm the bivalves. These families were exempt from doing guard duty along the city walls. Production itself was fairly primitive – branches cut from trees served as both spat collectors and as a substrate for the oysters to grow. Today spat collectors are plastic structures

and different techniques are used for the on-growing stages of the oysters. Mussel farming is a much later development, says Mr Kunica, and has never been as important an activity as oyster cultivation which is internationally renowned. He mentions a meeting in Spain in 2017, where delegates were told that the conditions in Ston for growing oysters were near-unique in Europe.

Mr Kunica, is that the production area is small, and shellfish have not been brought in from outside as has happened in other countries. A few years ago, a delegation from France visited Ston and took several thousand oysters back in the hope of re-starting production of the species after disease outbreaks had practically wiped out European flat oyster production in the country. But, due to disease, success has been elusive. French production of European flat oyster was a mere 700 tonnes in 2015, according to Eurostat. Most of the farms in the Ston association, some forty in all, are family-run operations partly because it is difficult to

find employees in the area. The work force has shrunk as people migrate from villages to cities within Croatia or to better-paid jobs in other EU countries. The farming families have typically owned their plots for generations and in the past when they cultivated the shellfish with the branches from trees each family would have a specific spot where the branches would be placed. Today the government allocates concessions to the farmers. These vary in size from 10,000 to 100,000 sq. m. The association lobbies the government to solve some of the issues that it is facing, seabream predation, for example, or other administrative issues.

Another advantage is the lack (so far) of two pathogens Bonamia, a protozoan and Marteilia, a protistan parasite, that are lethal for oysters. The reason, claims

Boris FranuĹĄicĚ , the President of the Association, and owner of one of the largest concessions for the production of oysters in Malostonski bay.

A plastic box holds the oysters for a year after they are removed from the collector. Eurofish Magazine 6 / 2018

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300 restaurants and several fivestar hotels. The entire production is sold on the local market. Mr Kunica has initiated the process of gaining the protected designation of origin (PDO) label for the Ston oysters, the equivalent national certification has already been obtained. If successful with the European designation it will be the first farmed product in Croatia to receive this label. Mr Kunica

hopes the fact that the oysters are farmed in a marine protected area, where the results of a number of scientific studies prove that the reserve is a special area with unique characteristics, will win the oysters PDO status. Once the PDO status is in the bag Mr Kunica wants to launch a marketing campaign with a story about the high quality and the unique origin of the oysters.

Association of ShellďŹ sh Producers vedrankunica@gmail.com Tel.: +385 91 411 1031

Bay of Mali Ston Kralja Tomislava 1 20230 Ston Croatia President: Boris FranuĹĄicĚ Member: Mr Vedran Kunica

Members: 40 Production volumes: 1.3m oysters (2017) Markets: Mainly Dubrovnik

Oysters are removed from the plastic box and cemented top to top to a string that sits between them.

Oyster producing technology is simple but effective Oysters attach to a substrate only once in their lifetime, says Mr Kunica. As spat they attach to the collectors, a series of plastic discs arranged a couple of centimetres apart on a central stalk. The space between the discs is enough for the spat to settle, but too small for predators to attack the spat. The spat settles on the discs twice a year, in the spring and the autumn and remains there for about six months growing to 1 or 2 cm. They are then removed and placed in plastic boxes where they spend a year. After this stage, farmers need to choose a method of attaching the animals for the final growth phase. One of the ways is by cementing two oysters together 46

with a rope in between. This is a simple way of ensuring that the oyster is firmly attached and also gives them the space they need to grow. If they are too densely packed together the mortality is very high, so it is important that the technique used takes this into account. The method is commonly used in other parts of Europe too. When harvesting, the strings with the oysters attached are taken off the longline and put through a machine that removes the oysters from the string. They are then washed and graded.

A PDO label will make it easier to promote oysters from Ston

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Sales are mainly to the local restaurants both in the area and in Dubrovnik, where there are some

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“Trapulaâ€? is a textbook example of income diversiďŹ cation among small-scale ďŹ shers

Combining ďŹ shing with tourism proves an enriching experience A serious accident some years ago prompted Zdenko Jakus to rethink his life as a small-scale ďŹ sherman. Today he still catches ďŹ sh but has also developed a collapsible ďŹ sh trap through which he supports his local community and has further diversiďŹ ed his incomegenerating activities by taking tourists out on his vessel to ďŹ sh as well as by accommodating and feeding them.

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rapula, based in Marina on the Bay of Trogir close to Split, is the name of the company that Mr Jakus established to exploit his innovative fish traps. Fish traps are one of the gear types used by coastal fishermen in Croatia to capture fish, cephalopods, and even crustaceans. However, traps are responsible for a very minor proportion of the catches by Croatian fishermen as the vessels used are small, the activity is seasonal, and the fishing is mainly carried out locally. For most fishers working with traps, fishing is not the main source of income. Fish traps have a number of advantages, chief among them being that they hold the fish alive unlike with longlines or nets. Fish that get caught in the trap can be released unharmed if, or for example, they are below the minimum size or are trapped when there is a prohibition against targeting that particular species. In addition, if bad weather prevents the trap from being emptied for a couple of days, it will not affect the fish in the trap, unlike fish caught on longlines or in nets.

A collapsible ďŹ sh trap is a blessing on small vessels Fish traps have long been used by Croatian fishermen, but Mr Jakus’s

Zdenko Jakus holds aloft an octopus that had found its way into his trap.

innovation was to make them collapsible so that, when they are not in use, they take up less space on the vessel. Space is a constraint on most fishing vessels and particularly for those used by trap fishermen, since their vessels are typically in the <6m or <12 m segment, a collapsible trap makes a lot of sense as many more can be stored on board, compared to the traditional trap. The redesigned trap works in the same way however. It is a metal cage of about 1 square m, though bigger and smaller variations are also

available, that has an opening ringed on the inside with spikes that prevent the prey from escaping. The trap is baited and set out in the water attached to a buoy so that it can be found again. The depth at which it is anchored depends on the depth of the sea at the mooring point, as well as the season, the water temperature, and the target species, because it is possible to find fish all the way from 0.5 to 50 m. Mr Jakus visits his traps every 24 or 48 hours, retrieves the catch and takes it to the local market.

The fish trap has earned Mr Jakus several honours including from the Croatian Chamber of Economy for innovation by small enterprises. As he says, fish traps are used in several countries because it is a simple but effective gear, but many fish traps are specialised to target a specific species, for example, lobster, but when he started working on this about 15 years ago, he tried to make a universal trap that can be used for any species, since the Adriatic offers octopus, cuttlefish, spiny and Eurofish Magazine 6 / 2018

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From drug trap to ďŹ sh traps

Among the advantages of Mr Jakus’ design is that the trap can be collapsed, when not in use.

Norway lobsters, crabs, shrimp and many different kinds of fish. The size of the opening of the fish trap can be adjusted to become bigger or smaller. Some species, such as crabs favour bigger openings, while others prefer smaller ones. Thus, the same trap can be used to capture crabs in one season and other species in the next, a flexibility which has made it popular among Mr Jakus’s customers.

Stainless steel for quality and durability Mr Jakus comes from a family that has been living by and off the sea for generations. His father was a fisherman who also worked on improving fish traps. When Zdenko Jakus started to think about creating a better fish trap, it was initially only for his own needs, since he fishes mainly with traps. Designing a better fish trap involved some research to see how fish reacted to the new trap. To carry out the research Mr Jakus, who is also a trained diver, used to dive to observe the fish responding to the trap. Later he put up a camera to record their activity around

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the trap. Once he had decided on the design the marketing of the trap was the next hurdle to overcome. Initially it was difficult and expensive to get to the fishing shows where he could display and promote the trap as Croatia had not yet joined the EU. Today, however, it is much easier with support from the Croatian Chamber of Economy and Mr Jakus has taken his fish trap to multiple shows in Croatia and abroad in Belgium, Denmark, France and Italy. While traditional traps are made from iron the Trapula version is made from stainless steel, making it more expensive, but also much more durable. As a result, many of his customers are recreational fishers who can better afford these traps compared with commercial fishers. According to Mr Jakus, since he started making the traps he has sold about 20,000 pieces. Among his customers have been some research institutions (in Italy) that have used his traps to evaluate them not only for their fish-catching abilities, but also to see whether they can avoid catching species like turtles. They have then gone on to recommend the traps to fishers.

The fish traps are fabricated not far away from Split. Initially, Mr Jakus was not sure how to start manufacturing. Hiring people was a risk if the traps did not sell so he started first with his family – his parents, wife and brother were all co-opted into making the traps. This worked for a while as they managed to keep up with demand. Later Mr Jakus approached an institution working with the rehabilitation of young people who were coming out of a drug problem. These young people usually stay in the programme for a couple of years and Mr Jakus thought that both he and they might benefit if they could be set to making his fish traps. This worked very well as the young people had something meaningful to do that earned them some money as they went through the rehabilitation and at the same time Mr Jakus did not have to employ them. Men and women going through this therapy are housed separately. So Mr Jakus approached the women first to get them to put the net around the frame of the trap. He then approached the men to get them to build the stainless-steel frame. After some false starts the work progressed very smoothly, and, he points out, even if one

person does only one trap a day, it is still about 30 traps at the end of the day, which is an excellent rate of production. Small scale fishing today is not an activity that generates an income large enough to live off, says Mr Jakus. The government realises this too and encourages fishers to diversify into other commercial activities. Mr Jakus, in the summer months, offers to take tourists fishing – both dedicated anglers but also families where the children can be introduced to the activity. This has now evolved so that he can now offer a full package, whereby he organises the fishing licenses, provides refreshments, takes them fishing or combines it with swimming and snorkelling. Almost all the tourists are from abroad not just from the EU, but from all over the world and Mr Jakus has invested in a couple of fully furnished apartments where his guests can stay. The experience of interacting with so many different people has been a rewarding one he says. It has led to contacts, friendships, and the chance to promote Croatian hospitality and culture, but most of all it has afforded him a lifestyle that balances work with other aspects of his life, something that, ever since his accident, he has come to value highly.

Trapula PoljicĚŒka cesta 60 21222 Marina, Croatia Tel.: +385 21 808084 Fax.: +385 21 808084 Mob.: +385 91 5921939

www.trapula.hr www.saneta.com.hr Owner: Zdenko Jakus Activities: Fishing; manufacture of stainless-steel ďŹ sh traps; ďŹ shing excursions for tourists including accommodation and food

info@trapula.hr trapula@vip.hr

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CROATIA

Trenton plans to expand its activities in the ďŹ sh side of the business

Traditional recipes combining taste with health As in other Mediterranean countries Croatia too cultivates many of the products associated with the region such as olives, nuts, vegetables, and fruits, and catches species such as anchovies and sardines that are typical of the Adriatic. These items symbolise the Mediterranean diet with all its connotations of health, taste, and quality. Capitalising on this, the company Trenton produces a range of local delicacies from raw materials that are synonymous with the Mediterranean including salted anchovies, ďŹ sh pates, olive oil, table olives and capers.

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s a family-run company established in 1994 Trenton’s philosophy has been to manufacture the best tasting and least processed food items in keeping with its slogan “Trenton, the taste of pure nature�. Starting with olive oil and table olives the company soon moved in to the

production of salted fish, a traditional Dalmatian product. Along the way the company also got involved in cod, the consumption of which, when dried and salted, is typical of coastal Croatia, just as it is popular in Spain and Italy. Preparing the traditional Croatian “bacalao bianco� which is always

Lada Karnincic and Davor Karnincic, directors in Trenton.

Salted anchovies are a typical Mediterranean product. Croatian companies use ďŹ sh from the Adriatic which they consider superior to the species found in other parts.

eaten over Christmas and Easter, is a laborious process however. Sensing an opportunity, Lada Karnincic, one of the company’s two directors, together with a food technologist, spent a year developing a recipe based on cod to create a fish spread. Christened Bacalao Banco spread has become very popular since it was introduced 15 years ago. Today in addition to the cod the company also has spreads based on smoked salmon, and on white fish combined with Adriatic shrimp.

Obtaining raw material of the right quality is sometimes tricky Anchovies are layered with salt in barrels and allowed to mature for months under controlled temperatures.

The salted fish is based on anchovies and sardines from the Adriatic. It is in fact one of the oldest

products in Trenton’s assortment and the production is all carried out inhouse. Obtaining the raw material for this production is the responsibility of Davor Karnincic, the other company director. Sourcing the fish is sometimes a struggle as fishermen are often committed to delivering their catches to other producers. For most of the production Trenton has therefore been sourcing the already-salted fish, which it then matures. For the remainder, the company buys and salts the fish itself. Summer season (June to October) is the main season for the sale of fillets. Thanks to the presence of thousands of tourists the company sells about 2 tonnes of fillets per month in summer as opposed to 700-800 kilos per month in winter. In the past there Eurofish Magazine 6 / 2018

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have been problems with the quantity and size of the fish. Since acceding to the EU, however, there have been bans on fishing in winter and in the beginning of summer and now the situation seems to be better, says Mr Karnincic, with more anchovies and larger sizes.

the chance to produce commercially simply because of the lack of space. The project to expand is now complete on paper and Ms Karnincic is waiting to see if some EU support is available.

Producing salted anchovies and sardines is highly labour intensive and the work is often outsourced to countries where labour is cheaper. At Trenton this work is done on site mostly by women from neighbouring villages, an area with high unemployment. That these women are available to work is useful for us, says Ms Karnincic, but employing them also supports the local community, so it is a mutually beneficial relationship. The company moved into its current premises, 10,000 square m in a new industrial estate 30 minutes inland from Split, some years ago after first starting in the centre of Split and then moving to Trogir, a neighbouring town. The company has been growing and now there is a need to expand its facilities. The plan is to extend the fish segment by building more cold storage space and increasing the area of production of the fish spreads so that it can accommodate equipment with a larger capacity. Ms Karnincic foresees growing demand for the company’s fish products. Already today, in peak season, it is difficult to meet the demand. The fish spreads are unique, they are based on our recipes, says Ms Karnincic. In addition, fish is a traditional food here along the Croatian coast and I feel more and more will be consumed in the future, because it is healthy and tasty, and people are becoming increasingly aware of this. There are also several more traditional recipes that the company is interested in but has not had

Among the seafood products the company produces are also cooked octopus, and cooked squid. These are aimed specifically at the food service market because as the number of tourists visiting the area in and around Split increases many of the restaurants do not have the capacity to meet the demand. Since they are already semi-cooked this is a product that will save them some time and effort. The company also has a small turnover of frozen Adriatic shrimp, an ingredient that is already used in one of their products. As a Croatian company Trenton tries to source the raw materials for its products on the domestic market. This however is not always possible, bacalao for instance, is imported, as is smoked salmon, and the fillets of Alaska pollock that are used in the spread. She emphasises that the raw materials are of high quality, fillets rather than head and tail meat, as it makes for a better final product. The content apart from fish is mainly olive (or sunflower) oil and some seasoning, there are no conserving agents. The spreads are pasteurised (97 degrees C) rather than sterilised (122 degrees C), because the latter changed the taste. The shelf life is therefore not as long as for sterilised products ranging from five months for the spread with the prawns, as prawns tend to contain a high proportion of water, to nine months for the others. And they are packaged in glass jars.

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Seafood for the food service sector

The production is both under the company’s own brand as well as

Some of the ďŹ sh-based products the company produces. Volumes of these items are likely to increase when the company’s expansion plans are realised.

under supermarket brands. Several private label products are for chains such as Lidl, Spar, and Metro. Trenton’s market is primarily the domestic one, however its products get exported through the retail chains it supplies, Spar and Lidl in particular. When they see a product doing well in one market they will also supply it to their outlets in other markets. Fish products are also exported to other countries in the region, for example, Serbia, where thanks to an efficient distributor their products are available in all the retail chains. Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, and to a limited extent Germany and Poland are also markets for the products.

We have not pushed too hard in the EU, because demand in other markets, which are perhaps more familiar with tastes from Dalmatia, has been rising rapidly. Another issue of course is the production capacity, which has more or less peaked. Once the projected expansion has been implemented it will be an incentive to make a determined push into EU markets. For the moment, most of the exports to EU countries is through the retail chains, while to other countries is through distributors that sell products under the Trenton brand. Its Mediterranean heritage is likely to make the company’s products even more widely known in the future.

Trenton Prisike II 15 21247 Gizdavac Croatia Tel.: +385 21 383395 trenton@trenton.hr www.trenton.hr Directors: Lada Karnincic, Davor Karnincic Products: Fish (25% of turnover, after expansion 40%) – salted

anchovies, sardines, ďŹ sh pastes, cooked octopus, frozen Adriatic shrimp Non-ďŹ sh (75% of turnover) – olive oil, table olives, olive paste, honey, humus Markets: Croatia, Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Germany, Poland, Slovenia, Switzerland

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ROMANIA

Joint Hungarian-Romanian ďŹ sheries and aquaculture workshop

Joint event has suggestions for EMFF successor The Hungarian Aquaculture and Fisheries Inter-branch Organisation (MA-HAL) and the Research Institute for Fisheries and Aquaculture (HAKI) of the National Agricultural Research and Innovation Center (NAIK) with ďŹ nancial support from the Hungarian Ministry of Agriculture organised a Hungarian-Romanian Fisheries and Aquaculture Workshop that was held in Szarvas, Hungary on 25-26 October 2018 at HAKI’s facilities.

Tradition in research cooperation between Hungary and Romania Research cooperation between HAKI and leading Romanian institutions in aquaculture research, mainly the Research and Development Institute for Fisheries, Aquaculture and Aquatic Ecology (ICDEAPA) in Galati, and the Fish Culture Research

GyĂśrgy Hajtun

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he workshop was attended by more than 50 leading aquaculture experts from both countries, representing the aquaculture governance, production and research sectors. The main objective of the event was the exchange of information between Romanian and Hungarian aquaculture experts on the challenges and opportunities related to the development of freshwater aquaculture. The workshop outcomes will assist in the preparation for the next programming period of EMFF and identify joint actions in which stakeholders from the aquaculture sectors in both countries can participate. The workshop was chaired by Mr BĂŠla HalasiKovĂĄcs, Director of HAKI and Mr Nicolae Dimulescu, President of the Romanian National Agency for Fisheries and Aquaculture (ANPA).

Recommendations from a joint Hungarian-Romanian workshop will be sent to the European Commission.

and Development Station (SPC) in Nucet, has been ongoing for more than 25 years. Numerous exchange visits and meetings have been organised in the framework of the scientific cooperation. Since 2003, when Romanian company, Arcum, in Odorhei Secuiesc signed an agreement with HAKI on the rehabilitation of a pond fish farm in Sânpaul that was operated by a newly established company, Agropics, the cooperation proved to be very successful and led to

the organisation of a series of workshops between experts in Hungary and Romania, including the workshop in Szarvas.

Common challenges and opportunities in the development of freshwater aquaculture There are obvious similarities between the freshwater aquaculture sectors in Hungary and Romania. Common carp

dominates traditional fish pond production which is the backbone of freshwater aquaculture in both countries. Another striking similarity is the low level of fish consumption. Fish consumption per capita is around 6.3 kg/capita/year in both countries, the lowest in the EU and far behind the EU average (25 kg/capita/year). Due to the similarities in the freshwater aquaculture profile, numerous common challenges have been Eurofish Magazine 6 / 2018

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Innovation as a key driver of development of sustainable freshwater aquaculture It was agreed that innovation is a key driver in aquaculture development that can contribute meeting the challenges freshwater aquaculture is facing with in both countries. Productive strains of common carp, sturgeon and other species are available as the result of the genetic improvement work in HAKI at Szarvas and in SPC at Nucet. There have been promising results in the commercial use of new types of fish pond production systems such as combined intensive extensive (CIE) systems, Integrated Multi-Trophic Aquaculture and that of recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS). However, further efforts are needed to bring about the widespread adoption of these new systems and technologies. Innovation is not limited to production, but also affects the processing industry, which is adding value to farmers’ 52

GyĂśrgy Hajtun

identified such as the damages caused by fish eating wild animals mainly birds, the competition for freshwater resources by various users, the effects of climate change, the changing consumer demands and market conditions, the unreasonably strict regulations and administrative burdens, just to mention some major ones. There are also similar opportunities to overcome the challenges that were clearly identified by representatives of the producers’ associations from both countries, the Aquaculture and Fisheries Interbranch Organisation (MA-HAL) from Hungary and the ROMFISH National Fish Farmers Association and the Romanian Fish Patronate.

The workshop was chaired by Mr Nicolae Dimulescu, President of the Romanian National Agency for Fisheries and Aquaculture (ANPA) and Mr BĂŠla Halasi-KovĂĄcs, Director of HAKI.

products. Processing should develop considering consumer’s perception, knowledge and buying habits, New marketing methods should include organising producers and stakeholders’ cooperation better. Selected farms including Aranyponty, Biharugra, and Szarvasfish, from Hungary, and Agropisc and Doripesco from Romania, presented their knowledge-based innovations at the workshop.

Proposed future actions in freshwater aquaculture development Governance is a key issue in future development of aquaculture. Representatives from the two ministries responsible for aquaculture development and from the Managing Authorities

of the Fisheries Operational Programs in Hungary and Romania summarised the regulatory aspects of freshwater aquaculture with special regard to the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF) beyond 2020. The views of the two countries are very close on the future EMFF. It is unfortunate that specificities of freshwater pond aquaculture are still not properly known and acknowledged by decision makers despite efforts by stakeholders. Several measures proposed for the new EMFF such as Financial Instruments can not be applied to the European freshwater pond aquaculture sector, where the vast majority of the farms are SMEs and micro enterprises. The valuable ecosystem services that are provided by freshwater

pond fish farms are also not properly acknowledged or supported. There is a need for further joint efforts to demonstrate the contribution of freshwater pond aquaculture to the overall growth of aquaculture, to the increase of employment opportunities in rural areas and to the improvement of environmental quality of aquatic ecosystems. The workshop participants will summarize recommendations that will be sent to the European Commission and European aquaculture organisations. Laszlo Varadi, Senior Adviser for International Relations, Research Institute for Fisheries and Aquaculture (HAKI), Hungary, and Cătălin Platon, Executive Director, ROMFISH National Fish Farners' Association, Romania

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KOREA

The fourth industrial revolution and ICT will contribute to sustainability

High technology is key to the future of Korean aquaculture The Republic of Korea farms a wide variety of marine species including algae, ďŹ nďŹ sh, and shellďŹ sh. Aquaculture production already exceeds capture ďŹ sheries production and the industry together with research institutions such as the National Institute of Fisheries Science is working to increase farmed output even more in the future.

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ccording to the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries, South Korea’s total fishery production reached 3.74 million tonnes in 2017. Coastal and offshore fisheries production amounted to 920,000 tonnes, accounting for 25 of South Korea’s total fisheries production. Distant water fisheries production was 470,000 tonnes, representing 13 of South Korea’s total fisheries output. Meanwhile, aquaculture production has grown during the past decade, reaching 2.31 million tonnes and accounting for 62 of the total fisheries production in 2017.

Capture ďŹ sheries output stagnates as farmed production grows The production of capture fisheries in coastal waters had exceeded 1 million tonnes by 2015, however, the production has recorded less than 1 million tonnes for two consecutive years since 2016, which requires the sustainable management of fisheries resources. By comparison, the aquaculture production has shown a steady increase, reaching 2.21 million tonnes and accounting for 59.4 of the total production of capture and aquaculture in 2017. However, the total sale value of aquaculture

production was estimated at KRW2.78 trillion (EUR2.18bn), compared with that of coastal and offshore fisheries production (KRW4 trillion /EUR3.13bn), because the production of lowprice farmed species (e.g. seaweed) is higher than that of high-price farmed species (e.g. finfish, crustaceans). Of the 107,000 tonnes of fish aquaculture production, olive flounder production was 41,000 tonnes, rockfish production 22,000 tonnes, eel production 11,000 tonnes, and common mullet production 7,000 tonnes. The sale value of olive flounder aquaculture production was estimated at KRW1.3 trillion (EUR1.08bn), accounting for the largest proportion (57.9) of the country’s total value of farmed fish production. Korean aquaculture is dominated by seaweed production — primarily laver, sea mustard, and kelp. In particular, laver has become one of the high valueadded seafood as its exports reached USD 500 million. Korean shellfish farmers produced 29,000 tonnes of oysters, 87,000 tonnes of mussels, 16,000 tonnes of abalones and other shellfishes, which totaled 380,000 tonnes. In particular, oysters are farmed in shellfish growing areas designated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and

exported to the United States and EU countries. The abalone production increased 800 times from 20 tonnes in 2000 to 16000 tonnes in 2017, as a result of applying research results of the NIFS to the field, policy and industry. Recently, the government made plans to restore healthy oceans and fisheries resources to build a robust economy for all people and fishing villages contributing

to regionally-balanced improvement. To that end, the government has established goals of developing high-tech aquaculture technologies and applying the technologies of the fourth industrial revolution to realize Smart Fish Farm. Achieving these goals will enable the aquaculture sector to take an opportunity to transform its landscape, in line with changes such as industry structure, income distribution and even individual lifestyle.

Seo Jang-woo, President, National Institute of Fisheries Science, Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries, Republic of Korea. Eurofish Magazine 6 / 2018

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opportunity to be seized for Korea which is a world leader in ICT.

Smart Fish Farms can be used for many species

Olive ounder is responsible for nearly three ďŹ fths of the total value of the South Korean aquaculture production.

What is the Fourth Industrial Revolution? The Fourth Industrial Revolution is characterized by “connectivity� and “convergence�. The advancement of ICT allows the world to share intelligence information, while the convergence of different technologies creates new added value. The Fourth Industrial Revolution became a buzzword, and this phenomenon is thought to be caused by people’s aspirations for change. In other words, this seems to reflect people’s expectations to resolve many problems such as youth unemployment and an aging population for better life.

So, what should we do in the era of the 4IR? Smart Fish Farm combined with biotechnology, environmental engineering and information technology was a science fiction story in the past. However, we are all hard at work making this a reality. The capture fisheries approaching its sustainable limit have been rapidly replaced with the aquaculture overcoming natural limits by the advancement of technology. By the year 2050, the world’s population is expected to grow to an estimated 9 billion, and aquaculture must be playing a major role in meeting food security needs. In this context, Smart Fish Farm is an

Korea has made efforts to develop technologies on fish, seaweed, shellfish, sea cucumber in order to realize and disseminate Smart Fish Farm. The Smart Fish Farm uses autonomous sensors to measure environmental conditions including water temperature, salinity in real-time, as well as to remotely monitor the fish health conditions and the feed intake behavior to automatically provide feed. And sensor data is transmitted to smart phone to control and manage fish farms. Biofloc technology is one of the important techniques and works by putting microorganism into water to eat fish excrement and to be additional sources of feed for fishes, reducing feed and excrement. The National Institute of Fisheries Science (NIFS) has conducted research on environmentally friendly aquaculture systems such

Smart ďŹ sh farms use an array of sensors to capture data which is then transmitted to a smartphone from where adjustments can be made to various parameters. The farms incorporate technology from what is termed the fourth industrial revolution. 54

as Biofloc aquaculture, recirculating aquaculture system as well as on the adoption of ICT and IoT technology in marine cage aquaculture, and its research has advanced considerably. Furthermore, the NIFS has made efforts to achieve sustainable and systematic aquaculture by encouraging the use of formulated feed, to effectively control disease by developing vaccines for high added-value fishes, and to farm high-value fish species by mass-production of the eggs and sperm of the endangered eel and bluefin tuna.

Technology and sustainability may rejuvenate fishing communities The aquaculture sector has been facing many challenges such as an aging and declining fisher folk population, further market liberalization, and extreme weather events. In order to tackle these challenges, we should strengthen the competitiveness of the fisheries industry by the improvement of smart aquaculture technologies and eco-friendly aquaculture systems, the development of formulated feed and vaccine, and the mass-production technology of high-value farmed fish. Meeting demand for sustainable aquaculture is closely linked to the future of the fisheries. The aquaculture industry rooted in the experiencebased knowledge will be connected with the big data industry. As a result, it is expected that fishing villages will attract young talent and create decent jobs, making a valuable contribution to the reduction of youth unemployment. Seo Jang-woo President, National Institute of Fisheries Science, Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries Busan Republic of Korea

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[ TECHNOLOGY ] Growing concern about plastic waste in the oceans

Search for plastic-free packaging intensiďŹ ed Plastic used to be the ideal material for solving many packaging problems. It is light, easily formable, food-safe, and offers endless possibilities for design. Now, however, more and more people are worried by the sight of overowing rubbish bins‌ Especially since (thanks to increased media coverage) we now know that an alarming amount of plastic waste ďŹ nishes up in the oceans. But are there any real alternatives to plastic packaging at all?

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bout 380 million tonnes of all kinds of plastics are produced worldwide every year. The synthetic materials can have very different properties, making them extremely versatile and universally applicable. They are used to make toys, buckets, and countless other utensils, car parts and costume jewellery, tents and camping mats, foamed insulating materials, functional clothing, fishing nets, bowls, boxes and pallets. Some of them are intended for long-term use, others for single use only and have fulfilled their intended purpose after a brief period of use. This is particularly true of plastics that are used in packaging. Whether as

plastic film, transparent trays, cups for coffee-to-go, or breakproof bottles – once the contents have been removed the packaging usually becomes waste. The global throwaway society presumably trusted that somebody would clear up after them. But even in countries with functioning waste disposal systems only a small amount of plastic waste is recycled, and the rest ends up in incinerators or landfills, from where it contaminates and pollutes the environment. Even the biggest environmental dunces are now beginning to realise that we need to change our lifestyles, concentrate more on sustainability, and take more responsibility for the planet we live on.

Up to 85 per cent of the rubbish on Europe's beaches is plastic – almost half of it throw-away products for single use.

Seabirds often use plastic waste as nesting material. Here, northern gannets sit on nests made of old nets and lines, recognizable here from the reddish brown and green colourings.

Although there is already a high level of environmental awareness in most industrialised countries it is these nations that we find at the top of the list where the production of plastic waste is concerned. Take Germany for example: On average, every individual there – from infants to old people – “producesâ€? 37.4 kilograms of plastic waste per year‌ which amounted to a total of 5.9 million tonnes of plastic waste in 2015 alone. Only just under half of this is recycled. Some more figures: more than 2 billion coffee capsules are used throughout Germany per year. According to a study commissioned by the German Nature Conservation Association in 2015, 63 per cent of fruit and vegetable

products in supermarkets are now industrially pre-packaged, and even organic products are often wrapped in plastic. According to the Federal Environment Agency the proportion of plastic packaging in Germany has almost doubled since 1995. A major reason for this is the sharp rise in the popularity of convenience products and smaller packaging units. Because there are similar developments in other parts of the world, too, more and more plastic is being placed onto the market and quite a bit of it ends up in the wild. Partly out of carelessness, partly due to a lack of suitable disposal systems. Every year, an estimated 8 million Eurofish Magazine 6 / 2018

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[ TECHNOLOGY ] still work for smoked sprats but who wants to carry home fresh fish wrapped in a daily newspaper, possibly dripping and smelling?

Skin packaging cannot do entirely without plastic but the amount of plastic material used is much reduced.

tonnes of plastic are washed into the oceans worldwide, while other estimates even suggest 13 million tonnes of plastic waste. Up to 85 per cent of the rubbish on Europe’s beaches is plastic – almost half of it throw-away products for single use. Northeast of Hawaii is an area named the “Great Pacific Garbage Patch� – it is larger than France – where plastic rubbish accumulates due to ocean currents. But there are other garbage zones, too, for no ocean is spared this fate. Although much of this plastic waste had only a short period of use the garbage vortex is all the more durable. If we don’t undertake vigorous action now our grandchildren and great-grandchildren will still be working their way through this sad “legacy�. Worried by alarming reports in the media some people are already trying to do completely without plastics and plastic packaging and live according to the “zero waste� principle. The “anti-plastic movement� is highly dynamic and by no means just a playground for dogged freaks and puritanical hard-core ecologists. Industry and trade have also recognized that plasticfree packaging is increasingly becoming a global development 56

trend. The search for acceptable alternatives has begun.

Consumer behaviour must change fundamentally Some people claim that, at least in the private sphere, this is not so difficult and, indeed, the internet is overflowing with advice and tips on how to avoid plastic in everyday life. A cake of soap instead of plastic soap dispensers, fabric (instead of paper) handkerchiefs, wooden toothbrushes with natural bristles, shower gel and shampoo not in plastic bottles. There are also some food recommendations for the private sector: screw top jars for storing sausage and cheese, a bread box made of stainless steel, or insulated thermo cups for coffee to go. Not every suggestion is really practical and can be implemented in the hustle and bustle of everyday life. Many good intentions have already failed because their implementation not only costs good will but also takes a bit more time and effort. Plastic packaging is particularly difficult to replace when the product requiring packaging is food, especially fish and seafood. The return to the days when there were no plastic films, skin packs and trays at all does not really help. The traditional wooden box would

Food packaged in plastic is a prerequisite for, and at the same time a concession to, today’s lifestyle. Supermarkets have to keep thousands of products in stock around the clock every day, packed safely and hygienically, portioned to a gram and ready to hand at any time. How many people are prepared today to spend hours of their free time on daily shopping? Of course it would be more practical and certainly convenient to delegate the problem to the food manufacturers and expect them to come up with ideas for reducing plastic waste. And it’s partly true that many double and triple packs are unnecessary. But in the end the challenges can only be mastered if consumers do their share, too, and are willing to do without some conveniences. Just think of the vast quantities of plastic carrier bags in which we take our purchases home. One trillion of these practical but environmentally harmful plastic bags are consumed worldwide every year – and that’s a cautious estimate.

Proper packaging protects food from spoilage The plastics processing industry defends itself against unjustified accusations claiming that actions such as “plastic fasting� are “misleading and false�. Packaging protects products from external influences such as microorganisms, oxygen, light and mechanical stress and helps prevent food losses. It also carries the product labels, making the different goods distinguishable and ensuring that they are optimally protected in the warehouse, during transport to the buyer, and on the shelves at retail outlets. In fact, virtually the entire

supply chain of supermarkets and discounters relies on food being delivered in airtight, sterile, heatinsulating or pressure-resistant containers. Plastic packaging ensures the shelf life of food better than most other materials. Plastic is relatively cheap and it is versatile, being suitable for almost any application. Plastic packaging can be light-weight and thin, thick and strong, firm or flexible, rough or smooth, transparent or brightly coloured. According to the packaging industry if glass, paper or cardboard containers were to completely replace MAP trays, vacuum sealing films, Alpamer foil, folding boxes and cups for delicatessen products, polystyrene boxes or blister packs then energy consumption would more than double. Glass, for example, is heavy, which increases the cost and effort of transport, and its production requires a lot of energy. Furthermore, glass is susceptible to breakage, something which is particularly risky when food is involved. So to completely dispense with packaging is not a solution either, because that would make the supply chains even more complex and lead to transport and shelf life problems. The basic conflict thus culminates in the question of what is the greater problem: packaging foodstuffs in plastic materials that are extremely resistant to decomposition and will survive for many centuries after their disposal on landfills or in the oceans, or wasting food as a result of insufficient protection against rapid spoilage and inadequate or lack of packaging. That, too, certainly makes no contribution to the conservation of resources. The packaging industry is now faced with the enormous challenge of developing new types of packaging that guarantee the reliability and safety of products while at

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[ TECHNOLOGY ] the same time standing out from the competition on supermarket shelves. The focus is on developing recyclable solutions and sustainable packaging concepts, reducing material usage and greenhouse gas emissions, and making more use of renewable raw materials, whereby processing these raw materials can often require completely new technologies. And this challenge is made all the more difficult by the fact that demands in the food industry are extremely severe due to the particularly strict hygiene, safety and labelling standards which apply to food.

Range of alternatives still very limited This is why although many retail chains are prepared to try out new packaging solutions they don’t want to be rushed into any overhasty decisions. They are often only prepared to do without plastic if the alternatives are absolutely equivalent and are perfectly tailored to the intended use. And good retailers have more to think about than “just� waste avoidance: product safety and hygiene, transport and logistics are no less important. The range of environmentally friendly

packaging alternatives to plastic is still quite sparse. Smart food producers know, however, that a discreet “eco-touch� will often pay off and so they present their products in this guise in order to specifically address environmentally conscious customer groups. Occasionally, they will even imitate a very plain brown paper look which, on closer inspection, turns out to be elaborately designed and, indeed, plastic-coated in order to meet all legal food requirements. Actually, the fish industry is not badly positioned with regard to finding alternative packaging solutions to plastic. Some marinades and delicatessen products are available in screw-lid jars, and even high-quality fish products such as tuna chunks are offered as preserves in jars. The cans used in the seafood sector are largely plastic-free although they, too require a plastic coating on the inside, usually an extremely thin lacquer film based on polyester or phenolic resin, to protect their contents. Despite the fact that this protective layer accounts for a comparatively small share of the packaging such composite

The tins in which canned products are packed are largely plasticfree but they are often coated on the inside with an extremely thin plastic film.

Although the production of aluminium and glass requires a lot of energy they are among the more environmentally friendly packaging materials because they are easy to recycle.

materials are often particularly difficult to recycle. Biodegradable starch-based plastics, usually made from potatoes or maize and also known as “bioplastics�, are not a convincing alternative. Growing the crops upon which these materials are based eats up valuable resources and also requires arable land that is then lost for the production of food. In addition, bioplastics degrade only very slowly, which is why compost producers are opposed to this kind of packaging being thrown into the organic waste bin. Transparent films made from maize or potato starch also have the disadvantage that they are not completely gastight which makes their use for vacuum and modified atmosphere packaging difficult, if not impossible. Conventional plastic sealing films are real high-tech products. They are made up of several different layers and they have excellent barrier properties, which protects the products they contain and prolongs their shelf life. US Department of Agriculture scientists have now developed a new type of packaging film based on milk protein (casein) that is as transparent and flexible as plastic and suited to a wide range of uses. The film is said to protect the

contents of the packaging up to 500 times better against oxygen than conventional plastics. The material is biodegradable and – a special highlight – even edible. At present casein film is mainly used for milk and cheese products but it may also be suitable for fish products in the future. In addition to materials such as glass that can be used again or recycled, paper and cardboard could also play a greater role in the fish sector, although special impregnation is necessary to render them resistant to moisture and seepages. Folding cartons are often used for frozen products such as coated and wrapped fillets with fillet portions. An interesting option is injection moulded packaging made of paper fibres, water and industrial starch. This has to be injected into an aluminium tool and then heated to form the final rigid packaging product which is environmentally friendly. This method can be used, for example, to produce paper trays with hinged lids, small containers, shaped trays and injection moulded trays for many applications that are easy to compost after use.

Plastic-free products certified by the Flustix seal Laser branding, which is already used successfully for fruit and Eurofish Magazine 6 / 2018

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[ TECHNOLOGY ] vegetables, might also be a suitable method for labelling shellfish and crustaceans. The necessary information is applied with a laser directly onto the product surface or a cellulose film based on the renewable raw material wood. Non-packed delicatessen salads, marinades or small-size fish products can also be filled into the shoppers’ own boxes at the service counter. This sales practice saves having to use plastic packaging but it is not very popular in many supermarkets because the sales staff are not allowed to touch the boxes due to hygiene regulations, and filling the containers requires a lot of time and skill. Ready-made sealable fish bags or bags with self-adhesive closures are not completely free of plastic but at least reduce the amount of plastic waste. In the near future there may even be completely new packaging solutions, such as those developed by Hannah Billqvist and Anna GlansÊn from the design agency Tomorrow Machine. These are biodegradable food packages, some of which also serve as cooking and serving dishes for the food. A sustainable expanding bowl, for example, consists of a cellulose container with freezedried food. Adding boiling water causes the food to cook inside, the packaging expands and opens

Frozen products are often packed in colourful folding cartons that meet all hygiene and product safety requirements.

up in the shape of a bowl. There is also an agar juice box, which shrinks and almost completely disappears within a month after the juice has been drunk. Tomorrow Machine is also working on paper-thin packaging made from treated beeswax that can be torn off like orange peel, and an environmentally friendly container made from caramelised sugar that can be dissolved in water after use. As is usually the case when a problem can best be solved with active participation by the consumer the

The “Flustix� and “Plastic free� seals allow consumers to identify plastic-free products and make an informed choice. 58

first “plastic-free certified� consumer labels are already pushing their way onto the market. The new "Flustix" seal is to give consumers the opportunity to recognise plastic-free products and make an informed choice. The Flustix certificate means that the total product contains less than half a per cent of plastic. In the UK, the Iceland supermarket chain has also introduced a "seal of confidence" for plastic-free food packaging in order to provide buyers with guidance when looking for more environmentally friendly alternatives. There is growing global concern about irreparable damage to the environment, and in particular to the oceans, caused by nonreturnable plastic packaging. There is an increasing number of initiatives to reduce or even eliminate throw-away plastics. On ships of the Hurtigruten line, for example, all unnecessary throw-away plastics are to be abolished: plastic drinking straws and stirring rods, plastic

cups, lids and bags. Hurtigruten wants to become the world’s first plastic-free shipping company. Scotland announced recently that it will ban all disposable straws by 2019. Taiwan has introduced probably the most far-reaching plastics ban in the world, to be implemented gradually by 2030. The EU Commission also wants to counteract pollution of the world’s oceans with new bans and regulations. By 2030, all plastic packaging in the European Union should be recyclable, and some plastic products banned altogether. These include throw-away crockery and cutlery as well as drinking straws. This is by no means merely a symbolic political gesture since annual consumption by the EU states is estimated at over 36.4 billion straws. That is equivalent to 71 straws per EU citizen per year. Compared to the USA, however, Europeans aren’t so bad: according to Eco-Cycle about 500 million drinking straws are used there every day! It’s time to change course. mk

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[ SPECIES ] Will eel soon be off the menu?

Europe struggling to save the eel population The European eel stock diminished by 90% in the past three decades. Although more glass eels reached Europe’s coastal waters in the recent past the species is outside safe biological limits and is listed as an endangered species. Despite all efforts to preserve it, the eel – a ďŹ sh which is still in many aspects a mystery to researchers – faces an uncertain future. The reason for the severe drop in stock numbers is not clear and there are numerous possible explanations.

W

hile even scientists are at a loss when asked to give reasons for the current plight of the eel, some people are sure they already have the solution to the problem‌ There must be a ban on fishing if the species is to survive. But things aren’t that easy, for professional and recreational fishermen have not done any noticeable damage to the eel population for centuries. Not only is the European eel stock (Anguilla anguilla) declining but also that in North America (A. rostrata), Japan (A. japonica) and some other areas of temperate, subtropical and tropical latitudes, where one of the 20 species of eels that spend at least part of their lives in fresh water. The eel is remarkable for the numerous questions it has posed, and indeed still poses, to mankind. One of the major uncertainties was (and is!) the species’ reproduction, for the fish do not develop any recognizable sexual organs in fresh water for years but only mature when they begin their migration to the spawning grounds. The great Greek philosopher and scholar Aristotle claimed in Book VI (Chap. 16) of his work on zoology that eels originated “by themselvesâ€? from earthworms that were formed in the mud and moist earth. It was not until 1873 that the ichthyologist Simon Syrski

discovered in Trieste how the sexes can be distinguished. In fact Albert von KĂślliker held the key to solving the problem in his hand as early as 1852 when he described transparent leptocephali, creatures that are shaped like willow leaves, but did not realise that they were the larvae of eel. As late as 1886 the fish expert Albert C.L.G. GĂźnther stated in “Handbuch der Ichthylogieâ€? (Handbook of Ichthylogy) that the leaf-shaped creatures, whose appearance did not match the later body shape of eels, were merely “undeveloped, hydrophilic creaturesâ€?. For a long time they were even regarded as a separate species of fish in their own right, named by taxonomists “Leptocephalus brevirostrisâ€?. Then in 1893 the Italian zoologist Giovanni Battista Grassi, who from 1887 to 1892 had studied the reproductive biology of conger eels and moray eels with Salvatore Calandruccio, discovered that Leptocephalus brevirostris was an early larval form of the river eel. Since then it has been known that eels do not give birth to live offspring (the viviparous eelpout Zoarces viviparus owes its name to this legend), but spawn eggs. When Johannes Schmidt from Denmark finally caught eel larvae in the North Atlantic near the Faroe Islands in 1904 the search for the species’ spawning grounds began. Schmidt first presumed them to lie in the

The eel, one of the economically most important ďŹ sh species in some regions of Europe, is in many aspects still a mystery to researchers.

“depths of the Atlantic�, but the further westwards his search took him the smaller were the leptocephali he found in his net. In 1922 he discovered the youngest phases of eel larvae in the Sargasso Sea. Since then, the area northeast of St. Thomas and southeast of Bermuda has generally been considered the spawning ground of European eels. This conclusion is understandable but it is based solely on the assumption that the place where the youngest larval stages occur must also be the location of the spawning grounds. However, the final proof is still missing! Despite countless expeditions to the Sargasso Sea and very careful searching with modern tracking and locating technology, no mating act has ever been observed, no sexually mature eel has ever been caught, and no eel spawn has ever been detected. And no cadavers of eels, which – as far as we know

today – die after spawning and would therefore sink to the seabed in large numbers, have been found. The Sargasso Sea is considered a low-current area so it is unlikely say researchers that the eel larvae would be washed from the surrounding area. Physically this would probably be possible because both the eel eggs and the freshly hatched pre-leptocephali, the first larval stage upon whose evidence at a depth of 100 to 300 metres the suggestion of the Sargasso Sea as the eel’s spawning ground is based, have numerous drops of oil in the yolk. This allows them to float in the open sea. So it might make sense to extend the search to neighbouring waters instead of stubbornly exploring further in the same area. Despite intensive efforts it has so far not been possible to reproduce European eels “artificially�. Although eels can now be raised Eurofish Magazine 6 / 2018

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[ SPECIES ] to sexual maturity in the lab and the fertilized eggs can be reared to the hatching stage this entails not only great effort but also the use of hormones‌ and the larvae usually die during the transition to active nutrition. Researchers are now looking for a suitable feed that meets the eel’s nutritional requirements in this critical phase.

A ďŹ sh with unique biology and lifestyle However, reproduction is only one of the open questions in the eel’s life history and there are many more curiosities and peculiarities. For example, the unusually long larval phase of the leptocephali, which lasts three years. Just as long as their journey from the Sargasso Sea to the European coasts. Whereas in the past it was assumed that they drifted passively with the

Gulf Stream, today the larvae are believed to swim to their destination actively over a distance of 5,500 and 7,000 km. In the European coastal waters the willow leaf-like larvae develop into 7 cm long glass eels which then leave the open ocean to enter estuaries and ascend rivers in the country’s interior as “elvers�. During this life phase they develop further into yellow eels (so-called due to their yellowish coloured stomach). It takes years for the eels to finally become sexually mature and to return to the place of their birth to spawn. Male eels migrate already at the age of 6 to 9 years at a maximum length of 60 cm. Females are only ready for the journey after 12 to 15 years, which is why they also grow much larger and heavier. A maximum length of 150 cm and a weight of 6 kg are said to be possible. Those are theoreticalvalues, however,

Many small, often family-run enterprises rely on eel for a substantial part of their income. 60

Some glass eel (French montĂŠe, Italian montata) are smuggled illegally to Asia and thereby lost for the preservation of the European stock.

that are probably not reached any more today. Eels are twilight and nocturnal hunters that preferably feed on insect larvae, worms, and small crustaceans as well as fish spawn and young fish. They occur in our waters with two different head shapes which are explained by different food preferences. The sharpnosed eel has a narrow head with a pointed snout and is said to feed mainly on crustaceans and other invertebrates. The broad-nosed eel with its wide head and more voluminous snout is on the other hand considered rather as a fish-eater. When hunting for prey, eels rely on their phenomenal sense of smell, which is many times better than that of dogs. Studies have proved that eels can sniff out certain substances in extremely low concentrations of just a few hundred molecules in huge amounts of water. Their tubular nostrils even allow them to smell “three-dimensionally�: they don’t only perceive the smell of their prey diffusely but can even follow the specific trace of the smell and track down its source. With the beginning of maturation and migration for spawning the eel again undergoes another noticeable change to silver eel. Its

body colour changes from greenish-brown to a silvery-white grey, its eyes become larger, it gradually stops eating and the digestive tract disappears completely. During the month-long journey to the spawning grounds the eels live solely from the fat-reserves that they devoured in the course of their lives. The eel’s body weight can consist of approximately one third fat. Already during its life in fresh water the eel can survive surprisingly long hunger-phases undamaged. There are reports that they have managed without food for several months – one source even states for 675 days. Information about the maximum age of eel, which is about 50 years in the wild, is no less impressive. Individual animals are said to have lived as long as 80 years in aquariums, in extreme cases even over 100 years.

Decline and endangerment of the eel stock are indisputable However, despite these unusual characteristics and capabilities the European eel is now under threat. The IUCN lists it as “critically endangered� and the parties to the Washington Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora

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[ SPECIES ]

When glass eels ascend the rivers their “climbing ability� helps them overcome obstacles, the best-known example of which is probably the Rhine Falls near Schaffhausen.

Care must be taken when processing eels. Their blood contains a haemolytic poison (ichthyotoxin), which is neutralized during cooking, frying or smoking.

(CITES) decided in 2007 to include it in Appendix II of the list of vulnerable species. The total catch of European eels has declined almost continuously from 20,000 tonnes in the 1960s to 3,000 tonnes in 2015, and the number of glass eels ascending the rivers has diminished from a once mighty stream to a miserable trickle. “3 million pounds� were allegedly caught in only five hours in the River Arno (Italy) in 1886 – equivalent to 1,500 tonnes! And 90 buckets of glass eels were taken from the Eider near Rendsburg in the north of Germany in just one day. Eels are hardly seen there today. Glass eels are said to have swum past in a continuous stream in some places for as long as 14 days.

this parasite causes such serious damage to the swim bladder that its function during the migration to the spawning grounds is limited and the eels no longer reach the Sargasso Sea. In addition, the migrating silver eels are hindered by transverse structures in many rivers and often die in the turbines of hydroelectric power stations. Although hydroelectric power is politically desirable and is regarded as an environmentally friendly way of generating energy it causes enormous damage to eel stocks. Studies show that, depending on specific conditions (turbine type, rotation

Why is it that what used to be a "mass fish" is today disappearing increasingly from our waters? Blaming the fishing sector, whose catches not only weaken the stock of eels in food fish size but also the glass eel stock, is only superficially plausible. It is often overlooked that fisheries, both professional fishermen and sport anglers, make a special contribution to the conservation of eel stocks in many European countries through targeted stocking measures. No other stakeholder has a greater interest in the conservation of eel than

fishermen, for it is not uncommon for their economic existence to depend on this fish. The eel stock has been fished for centuries without experiencing consequences like those we are seeing today. At present, nobody can say exactly why the eel stock is depleted. Particularly since this development is not only recognizable for the European, but also for American and Japanese eel. Scientists list a number of influences that have a negative impact on the eel population. For example, climate change and increasing environmental pollution. Many toxins that enter the water are fat-soluble. The eel ingests them with food and accumulates them in its fat reserves, which may affect the development of it sexual organs. Laboratory experiments show that even small concentrations of dioxin-like PCBs in spawners can lead to damage during embryonic development, which then has a detrimental effect on successful reproduction.

speed, fish length, etc.) damage rates of between 30 and 70 per cent can be assumed per power plant. The cormorant (Phalacrocorax carbo), whose number has increased explosively in Europe, also makes a considerable regional contribution to the decimation of the eel population. With a daily feed requirement of 450 to 500 grams of fish, feeding pressure from these birds in Europe adds up to almost 5,000 tonnes per year, and eels account for part of this total. It is still completely unclear whether the North Atlantic

Not one, but many reasons are responsible for the problems Nearly all European eels are today affected by blood-sucking nematodes which were introduced from Asia and settle in the fishes’ swim bladders. Perhaps

Smoked eel is the best known and most popular product from this species in many European countries. Eurofish Magazine 6 / 2018

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[ SPECIES ] Oscillation (NAO) also has an impact on eel stocks. This weather and climate phenomenon does not only influence the weather between Europe and the east coast of the USA but also the surface currents and oceanicclimatic conditions in the North Atlantic. Correlations between the intensity of the NAO and the year class strength of marine stocks have been confirmed for several fish species. Since eel larvae spend three years in the ocean it is reasonable to assume that climate also has a certain influence on the species’ stock dynamics. So although fishing is not the only and probably not the main cause of the decline in eel, it naturally contributes towards it

and for this reason alone has to face up to some criticism. And it is one of the few factors that can be directly influenced by man. In recent years, however, the fishing industry has demonstrated impressively that it is living up to its responsibilities. Regulation (EC) No 1100/2007 of the Council of the European Union on the recovery of the stock of European eel, which aims to protect and make sustainable use of the eel stock, is being implemented throughout the EU. Detailed eel management plans for relevant waters have been drawn up in the Member States in order to implement what is probably the most important objective of the regulation, i.e. to allow 40 per cent of adult eels to migrate from inland waters to the Sargasso Sea

spawning area. For example, the plans stipulate monitoring of commercial fishing activity and the best possible assessment of the quantity of silver eels migrating. A large quantity of data is collected, including the number of eel fishing enterprises, employees and waters managed, fishing vessels and gear used to catch eels, annual catches, fishing effort and annual eel stocking. In addition, some countries have already introduced effective regulatory measures for fisheries, such as closed seasons and minimum sizes, maximum daily catch and technical requirements for the fishing gear used (mesh size, number of traps per ha or per km).

The success of the supporting measures will only be visible after decades Although the low point in recruitment seems to have been overcome in recent years – since the lowest level in 2011 the number of glass eels on the European coasts has risen again slightly – it is the glass eel catch in particular that is the focus of criticism, incidentally by a lot of fishermen, too. They are outraged by the fact that some of the catches are not being used for stocksupporting measures or aquaculture but are being sold – illegally – to Asia. They are calling for this illegal practice (which contravenes existing EU law) to be stopped at last by stricter controls because the young eels are then irretrievably lost to the European stock.

Dedicated professional and recreational ďŹ shermen contribute to the preservation and growth of the European eel population with regular stocking measures. 62

There is also criticism, however, of the stocking measures which release glass eels or eels from farming facilities into rivers and lakes. For one thing because a scientific study has suggested

that over 40 of the glass eel caught die during fishing or their subsequent transport. And for another because, viewed generally, eel stocking in the current stock situation only makes sense if it supports the entire stock and does not serve only to maintain the fishery. A positive net effect for the endangered species would only be achieved if the survival rate of young eels in the occupied rivers and lakes minus mortality from catch and transport were higher than in the original waters. Despite such doubts about the sense of stocking measures there is no question that professional fishermen and sport anglers are trying to make an effective contribution to the conservation and rebuilding of the eel stock not only with high personal commitment but also their own financial means. This cannot be said of all stakeholders who are possibly partly to blame for the decline of the eel. The commitment and positive outcome of efforts made by the fishing sector are also confirmed in the implementation reports which are due every three years under the eel management plans in accordance with Article 9 of Regulation (EC) No 1100/2007. For this reason, there is no understanding on the part of the fishing industry for a general ban on fishing, as was demanded by the EU Commission on 22 November 2017. Due to the long and complex life cycle of eels it was already clear when the management plans were drawn up that measurable results could only be expected after many years, probably even decades. Anyone who makes their living from fishing quickly learns to be patient. Politicians often lack this virtue, but now they should give eel management plans a little more time. mk

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TUDAV uses science to inuence policy making in the Mediterranean and the Black Sea

Research, publish, educate Professor Bayram Öztßrk was among the founders of the Turkish Marine Research Foundation (TUDAV), an institution established in 1997 to research the waters around Turkey to understand the natural and anthropogenic processes inuencing marine life. The studies and reports produced by TUDAV are intended to inform policymakers in the area and to contribute to the protection of marine organisms. The organisation educates young people about the value of the seas and why it is vital to use these riches sustainably, and also strives to inculcate in younger generations a feeling of respect and appreciation for these marine resources. Since the Bucharest conference in 2016 on enhancing cooperation between Black Sea riparian states, what changes have you noticed in the collaboration between riparian states to sustainably exploit the resources of the Black Sea? What are the expectations of the Sofia Declaration signed two years later in June 2018? The Bucharest Conference was one of the milestones for the Black Sea riparian states in terms of conservation. Every country understands that something is going wrong in the Black Sea with regard to the sustainable fishing for shared fish stocks. There is a need for actions to be taken against IUU fishing practices and overfishing. The expectation is simple: concerted actions, which means that we have to work together in harmony. Regional cooperation is essential for both EU countries and non-EU countries. In fact, the Black Sea is an extremely fragile sea in terms of biodiversity. Only 9 contains life and below 200 m there is little life existing. This peculiarity makes it a very unique water body. We also depend on fisheries in the entire Black Sea. All these indicate why we have to protect such a fertile sea for future generations. In addition, due to climate

change, many species originating in the Mediterranean are now in the Black Sea. This is a new wave of Mediterranean-isation. It was hard to imagine that the IndoPacific alien, puffer fish, could invade the Black Sea through the Suez Canal, but now it has become the reality. Besides, the role of the FAO/ GFCM (General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean Sea) is paramount here with the recommendation for turbot and sprat. Turkey should lead and take responsibility in this regard due to its huge fishing fleet, huge fish production and longest coastline in the Black Sea. Recently, Turkey withdrew some of its fishing boats for the sustainability of the fisheries and pays fishers when they decommission their vessels. This is also considered a positive development. The GFCM has devised a midterm strategy to improve the sustainability of fisheries in the Black Sea and the Mediterranean Sea by 2020. Could you say something about the implementation of this strategy in the first year of its existence? Do current trends suggest a meaningful increase in sustainability by the target date? According to the GFCM, roughly 90 of the scientifically assessed

Bayram Ă–ztĂźrk, Prof. Istanbul University, Faculty of Aquatic Science, and President, Turkish Marine Research Foundation.

stocks are considered to be fished outside of safe biological limits. So, the picture is clear. The strategy is ambitious with five targets. However, achieving these targets is strongly related with the political atmosphere. Everybody is aware that several fish stocks have diminished in the Mediterranean and Baltic seas. Instead of fish, we now have stinging jellyfish along every coast of the Mediterranean Sea, and marine litter. To address the latter, I would like underline that it is necessary to enhance capacity building. The Mediterranean is plagued by a number of factors that contribute to dwindling fish stocks.

Overfishing, pollution, maritime traffic, climate change, to name a few, all have a negative impact on the marine ecosystem. With such a diversity of challenges what is the best way forward to reverse the depletion of fish stocks? How can institutions like the Turkish Marine Research Foundation contribute to this process? TUDAV has been working for over 20 years against overfishing, IUU fishing, habitat destruction, and lobbying for the protection of vulnerable species, such as dolphins, monk seals and sharks. For example, 12 shark species are now protected by law after Eurofish Magazine 6 / 2018

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TUDAV’s pressure on the government. Besides, the 46 books we have published are excellent sources of information on ocean conservation, pollution, marine governance, fisheries management, and maritime disputes. Booklets for children are also produced as we invest in the next generation in order to protect the seas around us. To reverse the depletion of the stocks is not easy and there is no magic solution. But one of the measures is increasing Marine Protected Areas in the Mediterranean and Baltic seas, as one of the Aichi Targets. We have proposed several MPA’s for the coastal states. Together with our partners we are also advocating protection of the deep sea and the high seas. Another issue is zero tolerance of IUU fishing, which is crucial for all states. This year an International Day against IUU Fishing initiated by the GFCM, was accepted by the UN. Supporting small-scale fishing in the Mediterranean and Black Sea could also be useful to reverse the decrease in fishing resources. Finally, TUDAV initiated and funded the first Turkish Antarctic Expedition in 2016 and published very interesting results from the Antarctic Peninsula. A book in English titled “Antarctica: Infinite beauty and wilderness for peace and science� has also been printed in order to raise awareness of the need to protect the Antarctica and the Southern Ocean. Invasive species enter the Mediterranean from the Red Sea via the Suez Canal. Since the canal opened 150 years ago, can some of these species now be considered native? How much of a threat do they pose and is it possible to treat them as a resource to be exploited economically 64

rather than something to be eradicated? Many Lessepsian fishes have become abundant and commercially relevant, influencing local markets mostly in the eastern Mediterranean region. New markets for alien species are increasing. For the moment, some alien fish species have become commercial and are treated as a resource, such as rabbitfish, Rivulatus rabbitfish, squirrelfish, Por’s goatfish. Even the poisonous lionfish has started to be consumed in some areas. But the best example is probably rapa whelk, Rapana venosa, a sea snail, which is the most harvested alien invasive species by all Black Sea countries. Much of the production is exported to countries in the Far East. Between 13-17 January 2019 in Antalya, TUDAV is going to organise a regional workshop with SPA/RAC about non-indigenous species. During the gala dinner dishes based on alien fish species will be served. Welcome on board! Climate change is expected to have an increasing impact moving towards the equator from the poles. The Mediterranean Sea is among the water bodies likely to experience changes in temperature, circulation, and sea levels, leading to alterations in stock distributions and accompanying variations in catches and fish supply. What efforts are being made in the Mediterranean area to deal with these eventualities and secure fishermen’s livelihoods? First of all, climate change is a real phenomenon and we have to learn about adaptation and mitigation of the damage caused in our daily life and society. Over the last 30 years we have become aware of the tropicalisation in

the Mediterranean Sea. Several thermophilic fish species have extended their habitat further north. We are aware that climate change will affect fishermen in one way or another. There are, however, no measures taken yet in this regard. To start with we need to collect accurate and reciprocal data, which is absent in most of the Mediterranean countries. One of TUDAV’s new projects is titled “Climate change and Adaptation Measures in the City of Antalya�. Antalya is one of the biggest touristic destinations and we try to collect baseline data. One of the key problems facing Mediterranean fisheries is the lack of data on certain commercially important stocks, an issue that is supposed to be remedied by 2020, according to the Malta MedFish4Ever declaration. The paucity of data makes reliable stock assessments difficult thus leading to poorly designed policy. What efforts are being made to gather better data on Mediterranean and Black Sea stocks including from the angling sector? We have to collect data with a standardised protocol. To do that is not easy as there are over 20 countries in the basin in various degrees of economic development, and we need capacity building initiatives. For industrial type of fisheries, there are log books and catch effort, place of catch, fishing gear, even fish prices can easily be found online. But for fishers such as anglers or longliners there are several uncertainties with regard to data collection and reporting. Fishery cooperatives can help to solve this problem. Turkey is among the dominant players in the Mediterranean

aquaculture sector and has ambitious plans to double current production to 500,000 tonnes by 2023, the 100th anniversary of the republic. What requirements will need to be fulfilled for this vision to become reality and how does it fit with the GFCM strategy for the sustainable development of aquaculture in the Mediterranean and the Black Sea? Finally, what impact is it likely to have on the market within Turkey and the EU? The target of the Turkish production in aquaculture is very ambitious and it is difficult to reach but not impossible. Turkey has very suitable conditions, such as temperature, salinity and clean water along the coastline. The 2023 vision complements the GFCM strategy of diversity of fish production, job creation, production of added-value products, and supply of affordable protein to ordinary people. Another factor is that Turkish aquaculture companies are very competitive and have started selling addedvalue products in addition to exporting fresh fish. Companies have invested a lot in research and development. Recently, KĹlĹç Seafood, for example, has succeeded in producing bluefin tuna. I should also add that the quality of fisheries education is outstanding particularly at Istanbul University. Mass production of fish or other aquatic organisms can be beneficial for the free market. Consumers can buy a variety of affordable products that are of high quality. What can be threatened is the carrying capacity of the seas. Pollution and eutrophication in some areas can create problems, which is why strict regulations and rules are also needed to control the fĹsh farms as in Japan.

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December 6 / 2018 C 44346

Croatia Results vindicate stock protection measures

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December 6 / 2018

THE GLOBAL SEAFOOD MARKETPLACE

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