Fish Update Briefing, Friday, August 17

HISTORIC VENICE FISH MARKET UNDER THREAT
VENICE Fish Market, one of the oldest of kind in the world, is under threat. The Rialto market opened 921 years ago in 1097 and became a symbol of the city’s commercial dynamism. But the number of fish merchants has been declining and now there are barely a handful left. Andrea Vio, whose family has been running a fish stall for more than 60 years, told the Daily Telegraph that he used to sell 30 boxes of fish a day, but that figure has now dropped to four or five. He is blaming mass tourism and rising costs for the market’s demise. The tourists come to watch, but they rarely buy, he said.
CRAB STOCKS FEELING THE PINCH
FISHERMEN in the north of Norway are worried that the crab fishery in the northern Finmark area of the country may collapse unless there is stricter regulation. They say it has happened before, not in Norway, but on the Russian Pacific coast. Some estimates suggest that up to 20 per cent of the king crabs are being caught illegally off Norway. One skipper, Øyvind Seipæjærvi, says the Directorate of Fisheries has set a quota higher than most local fishermen had recommended. But he believes that it is the black market trade in crabs which is doing most of the damage.
SURGE IN VIETNAM SEAFOOD EXPORTS
VIETNAM has netted more than US$4.7 billion in seafood exports during the first seven months of this year. The Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers said this represented an 8.1 per cent increase on the same period last year. If the upward trend continues, the country expects to earn at least $8.5 billion and possibly up to $9 billion for the whole of 2018. The 2017 figure was $8.3 billion. Prawns and shrimp accounted for $3.8 billion of that total.
TOXIC BLOOM KILLING HUNDREDS OF TURTLES
HUNDREDS of dead sea turtles have been washed up along the south-west coast of Florida as a result of a highly toxic algae bloom, sometimes known as red tide. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission has logged 287 sea turtle deaths since the problem started almost ten months ago. While the organism has a natural base, some marine biologists believe climate change and the flushing of agricultural and other waste into the sea could be behind the increase in deaths.