Sunwell Technologies and Marine Institute Partner on DeepChill
Sunwell Technologies Inc. of Woodbridge, Ont. and the Marine Institute (MI) are continuing their collaborative partnership in a series of tests on various groundfish and shellfish species to establish the benefits of the DeepChill™ process.
DeepChill® is an advanced slurry ice process developed and patented by Sunwell in 1978. The DeepChill® Ice Slurry System offers rapid cooling of fish by super chilling the product using a pumpable mixture of ice micro-crystals and water.
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Understanding the Building Blocks of the Marine Ecosystem
Remember the kids’ underwater mask from the 1960s that had the plastic ball in the snorkel?
“I had one of those masks and I stuck my face underwater and saw a bunch of neat things and that’s where it started. I wanted to be a marine biologist or oceanographer ever since I was five years old,” says Dr. Pierre Pepin.
“The ocean was always something that was interesting to me. It was a little bit mysterious because you don’t see what’s beneath the surface,” says Pepin.
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Federal Salmon Farming Audit Makes Eight Recommendations
A report on salmon farming in Canada, released by the Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development, Julie Gelfand on April 24, concluded “that Fisheries and Oceans Canada did not adequately manage the risks associated with salmon aquaculture consistent with its mandate to protect wild fish.”
The report also said that DFO had not “made sufficient progress in completing the risk assessments for key diseases that were required to understand the effects of salmon aquacult...
A Red Sky at Morning
Like most veteran fishing skippers, John Gillett has plenty of good yarns to spin about his many years on the water.
Some are funny, some are about boats loaded to the gunwales, some are about bad years and others are about close calls — all are interesting.
A few years ago, I had the opportunity one evening to sit and chat with John on the veranda of his home in Gillesport/Twillingate on the northeast coast of Newfoundland.
Overlooking Twillingate Harbour while sipping a cup of tea ...
New Management Measures for Atlantic Mackerel
New management measures for Atlantic mackerel being introduced across the Maritime Region by the federal department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) this year include dockside monitoring and a limit on handlines.
“DFO will be requiring 25 per cent dockside monitoring coverage for landings in the vessel-based mackerel fisheries (gillnet and handline) and the trap net fisheries,” states a notice to fish harvesters dated April 13.
“The landings from these two fisheries accounted ...
Future of FISH-NL Now in Question
After a wait of nearly 16 months, the Newfoundland and Labrador Labour Relations Board finally released a much-anticipated report into the quest of The Federation of Independent Sea Harvesters of Newfoundland and Labrador (FISH-NL) to trigger a certification vote with the aim of representing inshore fish harvesters.
However, the report’s findings might not have been the result FISH-NL was hoping for.
Submitted to the Labour Relations Board on Dec. 30, 2016, FISH-NL’s application for ...
Drilling Starts in Scotian Basin
It was ironically Earth Day (April 22) when BP Canada Energy Group ULC (BP Canada) spudded its first exploratory well in the Scotian Basin, after being given authorization the day before by the Canada Nova Scotia Offshore Petroleum Board (CNSOPB).
The company had received permission on April 7 from the CNSOPB to move the drilling rig Seadrill West Aquarius to the Aspy D-11 drilling site (42° 50’ 0.336” N 60° 17’ 52.169” W) and begin preparatory work in advance of its planned ...
N.L. Inshore Northern Shrimp Quota Continues to Shrink
The Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) recently announced a 16 per cent cut to the inshore Northern shrimp quota in fishing area 6 — meaning the total allowable catch for SFA 6 went from 10,700 tonnes in 2017 to 8,730 tonnes in 2018.
DFO said the reduction was needed to achieve a 10 per cent exploitation rate.
The cuts in SFA 6 have been dramatic over the last few years. Last year the total allowable catch (TAC) was cut by 63 per cent — from 27,825 tonnes in 2016 to 10,400 ...
The Future, Fast and Slow
In 2011, an award-winning and best-selling book was Thinking, Fast and Slow, by Daniel Kahneman.
Dr. Kahneman had won a Nobel Prize in economics for work he discussed in the book. Although it is interesting and worth reading, this column is not really about Dr. Kahneman’s work.
Instead, it’s about the future of the fishery in Atlantic Canada. In some ways, the future is arriving faster than we can deal with it. In others, it is arriving very slowly, maybe slower than we would hope or ...
Gillnets, Hook-and-Lines and Pots
Gear Considerations in a New Newfoundland Cod Fishery
In 2017, Yann Rouxel worked with fishermen on the Northeast coast to complete his master’s thesis entitled Evaluation of Best Practices for Fishing Sustainability: Fishing Gear Assessment in the Newfoundland Northern Cod Fishery, through the University of Westfjords in Iceland.
Here are some of his perspectives derived from his experiences, analysis and education. Bill Montevecchi supervised the research through his lab at ...
