Some of the new products posted on FishChoice.com recently include:

• Handline-caught Hawaiian red snapper from Indonesia
• Trap-caught Dungeness crab from California
• Longline-caught yelloweye rockfish from Alaska
• Contained-system tilapia from New Mexico    

 

Please support FishChoice and mention us to the suppliers when you contact them regarding their product listings on the website.

Seafood Watch released new ratings recently on the following seafood:

• Amberjack, Greater 
• Drum, Black
• Haddock
• Scallops: Peruvian Calico & Sea
• Snapper, Silk 

 

Blue Ocean Institute released new ratings recently on the following seafood:

• Amberjack, Greater
• Bass, European Sea
• Cockles, New Zealand
• Cod, Atlantic
• Rockfish: Canary, Red Banded, Rougheye, & Yellowtail
• Scallop, Peruvian Calico
• Shrimp, Northern
• Snapper: Hawaiian Red & Lane
• Tilefish, Golden   

 

Click here for full details.  

Northern Shrimp   

Last year, Canada's northern shrimp fishery produced landings of about 115,000 metric tons, while the fishery in the Gulf of St. Lawrence yielded catches of about 40,000 metric tons. Look for combined Canadian landings to be about 20% lower this year. Continued...   

• Conservation Notes 
• Sustainability Assessments   
• Buying Tips  

 

Mussels     

The market for mussels remains relatively calm as supply and demand are both steady. Through June, U.S. imports of mussels were up about 10% to just over 14,000 metric tons. Most of the increase was in imports of frozen mussels from New Zealand and Chile. The Kiwis shipped about 5,000 metric tons of their greenshell mussels, an increase of 10% over last year, while Chilean mussels farmers shipped just over 2,000 metric tons of blue mussels to the U.S., a year-to-year increase of about 25%. In spite of the increased supply, prices for greenshell mussels on the half shell have jumped from an average of about $1.90/lb. last August to about $2.40/lb. this August. Continued...  

• Blue Mussels Summary 
• Mediterranean Mussels Summary     
• New Zealand Green Mussels Summary 

 

A third generation family business, Calkins & Burke is one of Canada's largest and most venerable seafood importers. Established in 1914, the Vancouver-based company has long cast a net across the Pacific Ocean to find seafood and a variety of other food commodities for North American customers. In addition to importing, Calkins & Burke operates a number of primary processing plants in British Columbia that produce salmon, albacore tuna and Dungeness crab.

Like many seafood suppliers, Calkins & Burke has become much more active in trying to source seafood that is produced sustainably as its customers align themselves with various NGOs. "We have had to do it," says Fraser Rieche, the company's seafood sustainability specialist. The challenge for large suppliers like Calkins & Burke, though, says Rieche, is that different NGOs have different standards and definitions of what fisheries and fish farms are considered sustainable and which are not. "It's not so much that it's frustrating, but it does mean more work."

The largest retailers in Canada, for example, have different standards, programs and partners. Loblaw's, for example, works with WWF and the Marine Stewardship Council, Sobeys works with MSC, the Sustainable Fisheries Partnership and Global Aquaculture Alliance, and Safeway and Overwaitea work with Vancouver-based SeaChoice. Meanwhile, on the foodservice side OceanWise, a program run by the Vancouver Aquarium, has a strong following among chefs. The fact that one NGO says one fishery is sustainable while another one says the same fishery is not, poses an added challenge to suppliers, says Rieche. Continued...