Fish Update Briefing, Friday, March 9

GLOBAL FISHING FLEET ON COMPUTER TRACK
COMPUTERS are helping to track the activities of the world\’s fishing fleets, and are showing that more than half of the seas and oceans are now subject to industrial exploitation. The study has been led by David Kroodsma from Global Fishing Watch, who has published the results in Science Magazine, and the investigation shows clearly that the biggest influences on this activity are not environmental – whether it is summer or winter, or whether there is an El Niño or fish are migrating, for example. Rather, the major controlling factors are very largely political and cultural. ’Because fishing is an industrial activity tied to politics and culture, this is actually a positive message because it shows we have a lot of human agency in the way we fish the oceans, and it\’s entirely within our power to change things,’ Kroodsma  told BBC News.
1936 SEAFOOD MENU GOES VIRAL
A MENU dating back to 1936 from the long established Alioto\’s seafood restaurant in San Francisco Alioto\’s has gone viral on Facebook. It shows prices that diners today can only dream about. Clam chowder  cost  15 cents, while a lobster cocktail would have set you back  25 cents and a half-dozen oysters on the half-shell 40 cents.  A glass of wine at that time cost all of five cents. The menu was put on the Facebook  Group \’San Francisco Remembers\’ by Janice Steward, who says she found it among the belongings of her mother, who was born and raised in the city.
NZ SALUTES HUMBLE MUSSEL
A HUMBLE shellfish is to get its own appreciation day as Marlborough in New Zealand prepares to go ‘MAD\’. The mussel will come under the spotlight next week as the region\’s first Mussel Appreciation Day (MAD) gets underway. More than two-thirds of New Zealand\’s greenshell mussel crop is produced in the Marlborough Sounds and organisers behind Aquaculture Week think the unassuming mollusc deserves more attention. The move comes as the annual Havelock Mussel and Seafood Festival gets underway next month on March 17. Omega Seafood marketing manager and Smart and Connected Aquaculture group member Jo O\’Connell came up with the idea to mark the contribution that greenshell mussels make to Marlborough and the rest of New Zealand. He says the bivalve shellfish deserve greater recognition for all they do for the country\’s exports and employment.
NEW MSC CAMPAIGN
The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) is marking 20 years of working to keep the world\’s oceans wild with a new campaign. ‘Keep It Wild’ celebrates the people who love wild seafood and who have been instrumental in partnering with the MSC to protect the world\’s oceans over the past two decades. The MSC has launched a new website – 20.msc.org – to better highlight its work and mission. Director for the Americas Brian Perkins said: ‘Since the MSC\’s establishment in late 1997, we have engaged numerous stakeholders – from fisheries and processors to restaurants, retailers and consumers – in our vision to see the world\’s oceans teeming with life to ensure a healthy seafood supply for today, tomorrow and always.’