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

• Trap net-caught lake whitefish from Wisconsin   
• Pot-caught golden king crab from Alaska 
• Longline-caught "Gulf Wild" red grouper from Florida 
• Longline-caught "Gulf Wild" black grouper from Florida

 

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

Swordfish  

Canada's swordfish fishery kicked off in June with a new wrinkle. This year the harpoon fleet will operate under a trial individual quota system for one year that allows fishermen to fish whenever they want. That move prompted retailer Whole Foods to announce they will feature the MSC-certified harpoon-caught swordfish throughout the summer under a program where the chain works directly with fishermen. Continued...   

• Conservation Notes 
• Sustainability Assessments   
• Buying Tips  

 

White Shrimp      

The surge in Mexican white imports led to an increase in supplies of large white shrimp, the sizes mostly produced in Mexico, while the problems in Thailand have sharply reduced supplies of smaller white shrimp. As a result, while prices of smaller whites have surged, prices of larger 21-25 shell-on whites have declined 15% since the beginning of the year to about $5.50/lb. Continued... 

• Conservation Notes 
• Sustainability Assessments    
• Buying Tips 

 

To many people the seafood industry is hopelessly fragmented with a lot of small companies battling each other for market share. But that's not always the case. Take fresh tilapia, for example, where only three companies supply over 90 percent of the U.S. market. The largest of these companies is Vermont-based Tropical Aquaculture Products, Inc., which supplies about 40 percent of the U.S. supply of fresh tilapia primarily from farms in Ecuador.

Tropical was started by John Schramm in 1995 to do sales for an Ecuador tilapia farm. Two years later a few other Ecuadoran tilapia farms signed up. Instead of battling for customers by lowering their prices to buy market share, the producers and Schramm saw the value of consolidating and coordinating sales and marketing as the most sustainable way to maintain a healthy bottom line for everyone.

Although some of the original farms working with Tropical have come and gone, today almost all of the fresh tilapia produced in Ecuador is sold by Tropical. Each week, the company sells some 425,000 pounds of fresh skinless boneless tilapia fillets to retail and foodservice accounts throughout the U.S. The tilapia farms in Ecuador are unique, in that the fish are grown in low density ponds (1.3 fish per cubic meter) in brackish water that combines river water from the Andes with water from the Pacific Ocean.  Cage culture tilapia farms and ponds in Asia, on the other hand, typically raise fish in fresh water at densities as high as 60 fish per cubic meter. Continued...