Court Battle Ensues Over Stand for Salmon Initiative

A proposed ballot initiative aimed at updating and strengthening regulations to protect fish habitat is now in the hands of the Alaska Supreme Court.

While the booklets for gathering the 32,000 signatures necessary to put the initiative on Alaska’s statewide 2018 ballot are out, the state of Alaska on Oct. 20 filed an appeal in the Alaska Supreme Court over Stand for Salmon v. Mallott, a lawsuit questioning the constitutionality of the proposed ballot initiative.

“The question of whether a proposed ballot initiative makes an appropriation is an important constitutional question that should be answered by the Alaska Supreme Court,” said Alaska Attorney General Jahna Lindemuth.

The state takes no position on whether the initiative is good policy, she said. “This is about the superior court’s legal conclusion and our duty to defend the Alaska Constitution, and we believe the superior court got it wrong,” she said.

The appeal came on the heels of a decision by Alaska Superior Court Judge Mark Rindner, who ruled in mid-October that the ballot measure to update the state’s 60-year-old law governing development in salmon habitat should move forward. Rindner than directed Lt. Gov. Byron Mallott to produce petition booklets for circulation.

That decision came after Stand for Salmon proponents sued in response to a September decision by Mallott, who acted on a recommendation of the state’s Department of Law that the initiative was unconstitutional, and declined to certify the initiative.

Once the state’s appeal was filed, the supreme court began the process of issuing a briefing schedule on when the opening brief from the state was due, initiative sponsors would respond to it, and the state would respond to the initiative sponsors’ brief, explained Libby Bakalar, an assistant attorney general for the state. There is usually a 30-day period between each briefing cycle, but the court usually moves more quickly in cases involving an election, Bakalar said.

“The Superior Court correctly determined that the initiative is not an appropriation,” said Valerie Brown, legal director for Trustees for Alaska, commenting after the Alaska Superior Court handed down its ruling reversing the state’s initial decision on the initiative. Brown argued the case for the plaintiff, Stand for Salmon, a diverse group of Alaska-based individuals, businesses and organizations concerned about protecting fish habitat.

“Some industry interests pressured the state to appeal because they benefit from a weak permitting system with no public input,” Brown said. “The current system treats every activity in salmon streams the same, regardless of potential harm. But, as the Superior Court rightly found, Alaskans have the right to have their voice heard through the initiative process and weigh in on how the state protects our salmon habitat.”

“We need to have clear rules for projects proposed in sensitive salmon habitat to ensure they’re being done responsibly – as well as provide more certainty in the permitting process for the industry proposing the project,” said Mike Wood, initiative sponsor and commercial set netter in Upper Cook Inlet.

Norton Sounds Harvesters Get Record Payout

Norton Sound Seafood Products (NSSP), a subsidiary of Norton Sound Economic Development Corp. in Nome, Alaska, has paid a record $6.05 million to 172 harvesters who delivered crab, salmon and halibut during the 2017 fishing season. Another $2.5 million went to 258 seasonal employees of NSSP who worked in processing plants, at buying stations and on fishing tenders.

“An infusion of $8.5 million in communities where jobs are limited makes significant impact in the lives of individuals, families and communities,” said Dan Harrelson, chairman of the economic development corporation, as NSSP announced the payout on Oct. 24.

The processors played a big role in bringing the harvest to record levels, said NSSP manager William “Middy” Johnson. “To allow for maximum capacity in the fishing season, the processors worked 12-hour days and seven days a week for 10 weeks straight,” he said.

The 2017 salmon harvest was valued at $2.8 million, more than double last year’s ex-vessel value of $1.2 million. The growth came from the amount of chum and coho salmon delivered by the 139 regional salmon harvesters. The year’s 1.1 million-pound chum harvest more than tripled the 2016 harvest of 344,613 pounds. The 1.3 million-pound coho harvest nearly doubled the 2016 harvest of 701,450 pounds.

The 2017 crab harvest was steady with 409,374 pounds delivered to tender vessels and the Northern NSSO processing plant in Nome, nearly matching the salmon ex-vessel value at $2.5 million. The region’s halibut and cod fishery, with 20 harvesters out of Nome and Savoonga, got a payout of $705,030.

Mislabeling of Seafood Has Negative Economic Effects

A new study on mislabeling of seafood species, including salmon, concludes that such practices have negative economic, social and ecological consequences, from consumer losses due to fraudulent exchange to hiding illegal and unreported catches.

“Economy matters: A study of mislabeling in salmon products from two regions, Alaska and Canada (Northwest of America) and Asturias (Northwest of Spain)” appears in the November online edition of Fisheries Research at ScienceDirect.com.

Salmon are an important part of the culture and economy of many countries in the northern hemisphere, and identifying possible causes of salmon mislabeling is of great interest, even more so where wild species and species from aquaculture are consumed, researchers said.

The study, involving DNA barcoding analysis of a total of 111 salmon products from Asturias in Northwest Spain, and Alaska and Vancouver Island, found that the Spanish and Northwest American samples were mislabeled 6 percent and 23.8 percent respectively.

Species substitutions were respectively wild-farmed and wild-wild, the substitute species being cheaper. Economic reasons and social preference of wild over farmed products seem to be the main drivers in the exchanges detected in this study, researchers said. Enhancing controls over the unrecognizable products is essential and strongly recommended to prevent such fraud.

A table included in the online study identifies the mislabeled Alaska salmon product as jerky labeled as wild king salmon, when the jerky was in fact wild keta salmon.

The Vancouver Island product identified as salmon candy, with a “spring salmon” label was likewise wild keta salmon.

Humane Harvest Line-Caught P-Cod Comes to Seattle Retail Shops

Line-caught Pacific cod that are stunned immediately upon harvest aboard the fishing vessel Blue North, minimizing stress to produce a healthier, tastier fish, will go on sale on Nov. 1 at Town & Country Markets in Seattle.

Blue North is also the first vessel in the Bering Sea to use moon pool technology, harvesting the catch from inside the vessel rather than the weather deck, thus eliminating the crew’s exposure to dangerous sea condition Once cod are caught individually through the moon pool using hook and line, a stunning table immobilizes the fish, putting its central nervous system to sleep prior to processing, so the fish feels no stress or pain. The fish is then filleted and frozen at sea for optimal freshness.

Michael Burns, cofounder and chairman of Blue North Fisheries, said the company’s philosophy is that “all sentient beings, including fish, deserve to be treated as humanely as possible.”

Blue North launched its humane harvest initiative in 2015, and its catch has been available on a limited basis to restaurant groups ever since.

The announcement with Town and Country in late October represented the first time the company was able to provide a fileted product to retailers for direct-to-consumer sale.

A blind study conducted at the School of Food Science at Washington State University found that humane harvest fish had higher levels of nutrients and proteins, were flakier and had improved muscle texture.

“Seafood is one of the most important natural vectors for high nutritional value protein and omega-3s for humans,” said Mahmoudreza Ovissipour, a research associate at the university, wrote in his WSU report in 2015. “Since fish can feel pain and stress, these factors can easily influence their quality, nutritional value, shelf life and consumption safety.”

Ovissipour’s report is online at http://bluenorth.com/home/resources/Review_Reza_Ovissipour.pdf

Banner Year for Alaska Salmon

Alaska Department of Fish and Game officials say the 2017 commercial salmon of all species harvest came to 224.76 million wild salmon, with an estimated preliminary ex-vessel value of $678.8 million. That’s a 66.7 percent increase from last year’s value of $407.3 million, ranking 2017 third in terms of both pounds landed and value in over 40 years.

While fish are still being caught, the majority of the 2017 salmon season is over.

ADF&G noted that despite unfavorable market conditions of a strong dollar – which made Alaska seafood significantly more expensive to foreign buyers – and an embargo due to conflict in roe markets, nearly $300 million in additional ex-vessel value went to the pockets of Alaska salmon fishermen aided by a large harvest and continued investments in quality, product development and marketing.

“Tremendous harvests occurred across Alaska, from Kotzebue to Southeast, highlighted by an all-time record statewide chum salmon harvest,” said Forrest Bowers, deputy director of the Division of Commercial Fisheries.

Bowers noted that 2017 is also the third year in a row statewide sockeye salmon harvest exceeded 50 million fish. “Record wild salmon harvests like these are a testament to Alaska’s sound, science-based management, the professionalism of ADF&G’s staff, and thoughtful stakeholder engagement,” he said.

The Bristol Bay harvest alone – with 37.7 million salmon delivered – was valued at $209.9 million.

Other fisheries also saw record salmon harvests, notably in Norton Sound, in Western Alaska, where a strong coho salmon return brought a harvest of 191,000 silvers.

These are all preliminary numbers. The final value of the 2017 salmon fishery will determined in 2018 after seafood processors, buyers and direct managers report the total value paid to fishermen.

Coast Guard Issues Vessel Documentation Fraud Alert

The US Coast Guard says a new scam is targeting boat owners looking to save a little time online.

The culprit is websites offering of documentation renewal services or a fee.

These websites lure boaters with the appearance and convenience of an official government website, but the Coast Guard warns that using these websites can result in spending three times the standard fee. The Coast Guard also noted that Coast Guard boarding officers will not accept their vessel’s documentation as valid. This is because the Coast Guard’s National Vessel Documentation Center in West Virginia is the only authorized entity to issue certificates of documentation required for vessels engaged in commercial trade.

The center is aware that there are commercial entities offering to manage the certification and renewal process on behalf of vessel owners for a fee. However the Coast Guard does not endorse any of these companies and these companies do not operate on behalf of the Coast Guard in any way. While the services they provide are legal, the certificates issued are not deemed in compliance.

According to Russell Hazlett, commercial fishing vessel examiner for the Coast Guard in Anchorage, there are companies similar to the Department of Motor Vehicles that have satellite officers open on weekends and after hours legitimate companies.

More information on certificates of Documentation is online at http://www.uscg.mil/nvdc/

Coast Guard Air Station Kodiak Now Open at Cold Bay

Coast Guard Air Station Kodiak aircrews have come to Cold Bay in advance of the winter fishing season, there once again to reduce search and rescue response times around Bristol Bay, the Bering Sea and the Aleutian Islands.

The Cold Bay forward operating location at Cold Bay will consist of one MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter with a rotating aircrew from. The Kodiak based air station will continue to have helicopter and HC-130 Hercules aircrews who are available at a moment’s notice if needed to assist with other search and rescue incidents or assist in complex long ranges.

A Coast Guard cutter equipped with an MH-65 Dolphin helicopter from Air Station Kodiak also will be on patrol in the region for the rest of the season.

Air Station Kodiak issues FOLs all over Alaska to reduce response times to mariners in distress.

Air Station Kodiak public increases the effectiveness of Coast Guard response can make a difference between life and death.

Pebble Related Hearings Held in Southwest Alaska

EPA officials were in the Bristol Bay region again this week for two more hearings related to development of the Pebble Mine. This time it was on EPA’s proposal to withdraw proposed Clean Water Act restrictions for Pebble, which lies in the Bristol Bay watershed. The July 2014 decision in favor of the Clean Water Act Proposed Determination would, if finalized, have imposed restrictions on the discharge of dredged or fill material associated with Pebble mine.

Norm Van Vactor of the Bristol Bay Economic Development Corp. said he thought the hearings went very, very well. There was an awful lot of testimony, he said, from small children to adults in need of translators. But Van Vactor also said it was frustrating to have to go back to the drawing board again.

“Sadly it can also be said that this isn’t about mining or minerals, he said. “It is about mining in the stock market and people making a play to make a lot of money quickly in the stock market and leaving other people holding the bag, he said. But meantime the rest of us have to spend a lot of time working on an issue that should be over and done with,” he said.

Pebble Partnership spokesman Mike Heatwole said he felt that the EPA heard a more balanced mix of views in Iliamna.

In a related manner, United Tribes of Bristol Bay and the Southeast Alaska Indigenous Transboundary Commission say they will announce their intent to formalize today their efforts to stop proposed mega-mines in their respective regions. Veteran Bristol Bay fisherman Robert Heyano, president of United Tribes of Bristol Bay, said they are uniting efforts to protect their peoples’ way of life from mega-mines threatening their continued existence.

“Stand for Salmon” Ballot Measure Moves Forward

Alaska Superior Court Mark Rindner has issued a ruling allowing the “Stand for Salmon” ballot measure to move forward. The measure aimed at updating and strengthening regulations to protect fish habitat.

“The judge agreed with us that Alaskans have a constitutional right to say how fish habitat is protected,” said Valerie Brown, legal director for Trustees for Alaska. Brown argued the case for the plaintiff, Stand for Salmon, a diverse group of Alaska-based individuals, businesses and organizations concerned about protecting fish habitat.

“What this means is that the initiative will get certified and Stand for Salmon can start collecting the signatures it needs to get the initiative on the ballot,” she said.

Last month Alaska Lt. Gov. Byron Mallott declined to certify the “stand for Salmon” initiative after he received a legal opinion that it would limit the ability of the state’s Legislature to allocate state assets.

The Stand for Salmon initiative proposes updates to the state’s 60-year-old law governing development in salmon habitat.

“This ballot measure is an important step back to the levels of protection for salmon that were intended by the authors of the Alaska constitution,” said Gayla Hoseth, an initiative sponsor and subsistence research specialist with the Bristol Bay Native Association in Dillingham. “These are needed updates to an outdated law that will balance responsible development with protecting Alaska’s wild salmon, one of the state’s most vital natural resources from a cultural, economic and recreational perspective.”

“We need to have clear rules for projects proposed in sensitive salmon habitat to ensure they’re being done responsibly – as well as provide more certainty in the permitting process for the industry proposing the project” said Mike Wood, another initiative sponsor and commercial set netter in Upper Cook Inlet.

More information on the initiative is online at www.standforsalmon.org

Bering Sea Snow Crab TAC Set at 18.9M Pounds, Tanner at 2.5M

Harvest limits for Bering Sea snow crab fishery are set at 18,961,000 pounds, with 17,064,900 pounds for holders of individual fishing quota and 1,896,100 pounds for community development quota entities. That’s down from the 2016 TAC of 21,570,000 pounds, which was down dramatically from the previous year’s TAC. The fishery will be open in the Eastern Subdistrict on October 15 and remain continue through May 15, 2018 and through May 31, 2018 in the Western Subdistrict.

The Bering Sea tanner crab fishery, which also starts on October 15, runs through March 31, has a TAC of 2,500,200 pounds for west of 166 degrees, with 2,250,180 pounds for IFQ and 250,020 pounds for CDQs. The fishery is closed east of 166 degrees west longitude.

Last year the entire Bering Sea tanner crab fishery was closed over conservation concerns.

The TACS were announced this past week by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G), in the wake of an announcement that the Bristol Bay red king crab season, which runs through January 15, has a TAC of 6.6 million pounds, down 22 percent from the 2016-2017 quota.

ADF&G has also closed Pribilof district red and blue king crab and Saint Matthew Island section blue king crab fisheries for the season for conservation reasons.

Survey Shows Substantial Drop in Gulf of Alaska Cod Stocks

Results of 2017 surveys and preliminary modeling for the 2018 Pacific cod stock assessment show a 71 percent reduction in the Gulf of Alaska bottom trawl survey Pacific cod biomass estimate from 2015 to 2017. The news came to the North Pacific Fishery Management Council’s Scientific and Statistical Committee and Advisory Panel on October 3 in a presentation from Steve Barbeaux, a research biologist with the Alaska Fisheries Science Center in Seattle, Washington, who said the drop was particularly pronounced in the central Gulf of Alaska.

The Science and Statistical Committee (SSC) said Barbeaux also presented additional data that appeared to corroborate the trawl survey results, including a 53 percent drop in the National Marine Fisheries Service 2017 longline survey and low estimates in recent years by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game large mesh trawl survey. Pacific cod fishery data from 2017 indicated slower rates of catch accumulation and lower catch per unit effort over the season, at least in the central Gulf, compared to recent years, as well as a change in depth distribution toward deeper waters.

The survey results, Barbeaux said later in an interview, were not what he expected. “Recruitment in 2011-2012 was strong,” he explained. “We expected that would carry us to 2019. We expected a drop in 2019 because we had low recruitment in 2013-2015.” There are still three levels of review to go, by the stock assessment team, the Groundfish Plan Team, and the SSC before the numbers are finalized.

Evidence indicates that the “blob” is a likely culprit. The blob is the name scientists have given to a large mass of warm water in the Pacific Ocean, which adversely affects marine life.

Temperature records indicate very warm temperatures across a broad range of ocean depths from 2014 through 2016 associated with low forage fish amounts in Pacific cod diets. That likely resulted from low prey availability in 2015 and 2016, which was evident in seabird mortalities due to starvation, as well as other ecosystem indicators. In very warm temperatures the cod would have had to eat quite a bit more to grow and survive, but there was less in the water column for them to eat.

“That was the black swan effect,” said Barbeaux. “It has never happened before as far as we know. We have had warm years before, but this blob went on for three years, and throughout the entire water column across the Gulf of Alaska shelf, even in winter.”

The cod would have needed to keep eating a lot more for three years straight, but in fact “they were in the worst condition we’ve seen, the lowest weight for a given length,” he said. “In the central Gulf, it was the same in the longline and pot survey.”

On a brighter note, cod “are a highly reproductive species, so if conditions are right they can bounce back fairly rapidly,” Barbeaux said. Still it would take at least three years for them to become large enough to harvest.

NOAA Celebrates National Seafood Month

October is National Seafood Month, and Chris Oliver, recently appointed assistant administrator for NOAA Fisheries, is urging everyone to get out there and enjoy some seafood.

“Health experts, say people should double their intake of seafood and the good news is there is plenty to choose from,” said Olive.

The former executive director of the North Pacific Fishery Management Council, who spent 27 years in Alaska helping to manage some of the nation’s largest and most valuable fisheries, credits much of the success in the United States being a global leader in sustainability to the regional fishery management councils, interstate fishery commissions and stakeholders who work together to rebuild fisheries.

“This unique collaboration − driven by the Magnuson-Stevens Act − managed to effectively end overfishing and is steadily rebuilding domestic fish stocks,” Oliver said in a letter posted October 1 on NOAA’s website (www.nmfs.noaa.gov). “At the end of 2016, 91 percent of stocks for which we have assessments were not subject to overfishing and 84 percent were not overfished.”

NOAA Fisheries tracks 474 fish stocks managed under 46 fishery management plans. Since 2000, 43 stocks have rebuilt as a result of fishery management, and overfishing and overfished numbers remained near all-time lows in 2016.

NOAA Fisheries Proposes Authorizing Halibut RQE

NOAA Fisheries is proposing to authorize formation of a recreational quota entity that could purchase and hold commercial halibut quota shares for use by charter anglers in Southeast and Southcentral Alaska.

The proposed regulatory amendment would allow one non-profit RQE to obtain a limited amount of commercial halibut quota shares under a willing buyer-willing seller model. The harvest pounds associated with the quota shares would become recreational fishing quota that could be used to augment the amount of halibut available for harvest in the charter halibut fishery annually under the halibut catch sharing plan.

The proposed rule, recommended by the North Pacific Fishery Management Council, which is meeting this week in Anchorage, was filed on Oct. 2 in the Federal Register. Once published, it opens a 45-day public comment period.

If the RQE obtains enough quota share, restrictions on halibut size and bag limits could be relaxed for charter anglers in years of low abundance, up to a point where charter anglers could potentially retain up to the daily limit for unguided anglers- which is currently two fish of any size each day.

The proposed rule would implement quota share purchase restrictions the by regulatory area.

For Area 2C in Southeast Alaska the RQE would be limited to purchase no more than one percent of the commercial quota shares in any year, and no more than 10 percent of the total commercial quota shares for that area. For area 3A, in Southcentral Alaska, the annual limit of commercial quota share purchases would be 1.2 percent, with an upper limit of 12 percent of the total quota shares in the area.

The RQE would be allowed to hold those quota shares indefinitely, but also allowed to transfer those shares back to the commercial halibut sector – a provision that adds flexibility to the program and contributes to the market-based approach, NOAA officials said.

NOAA also said that the proposed rule is necessary to promote social and economic flexibility in the charter halibut fishery, and intended to promote the goals and objectives of the North Pacific Halibut Act of 1982, and other applicable laws.

Comments may be submitted electronically via the Federal e-Rulemaking Portal, at www.regulations.gov/#!docketDetail:D=NOAA-NMFS-2016-0158, click the “Comment Now!” icon, complete the required fields, and enter or attach your comments. By mail, submit written comments to Glenn Merrill, assistant regional administrator, Sustainable Fisheries Division, Alaska Region NMFS, Attn: Ellen Sebastian, P.O. Box 21668, Juneau, AK 99802-1668.

Bristol Bay Red King Crab TAC is 6.6 Million Pounds, Down 22 Percent

Commercial harvesters of Bristol Bay red king crab have been given a quota of 6.6 million pounds for the fishery that opens at noon on Oct. 15 – down 22 percent from the 2016-2017 quota.

The Alaska Department of Fish and Game also announced on Oct. 3 closures this season of the Pribilof district red and blue king crab and Saint Matthew Island section blue king crab fisheries.

An official announcement is still pending on snow and tanner crab, but Mark Stichert, the state’s regional management coordinator for groundfish and shellfish, said there will be a snow crab fishery and also a tanner crab fishery, the latter in the western Bering Sea. There was no bairdi fishery last year, but there will be one this year, and the TAC on the snow crab fishery will be fairly similar to last year, he said.

The red king crab fishery has been a challenging one, Stichert said.

From 2003 through 2010 the fishery had good production and TACs between 15 million and 20 million pounds, but then they started dropping. “here were generally low population levels through the 1980s. We enjoyed pretty good stability in that fishery for a while, but since 2012-2013 there has been a generally declining trend of overall abundance.”

For the 2014/2015 season, the Bristol Bay red king crab TAC was 9.99 million pounds; in 2015/2016, 9.78 million pounds; and for 2016/2017, 8.47 million pounds.

This year’s TAC of 6.6 million pounds is the lowest TAC going back to 1996.

“These TACS are based on abundance of crab,” Stichert noted. “In the late 1970s there was a regime shift, and populations collapsed from the late 1970s and generally low population levels through the 1980s, and (then) they grew in the early 1990s.”

Beginning in the early 2000s there was another increase in overall abundance that led to TACs of 15 million to 20 million pounds, and then there was a downward trend since that time, he said.

5.6 Billion Pounds of Seafood Had $5.2B Impact on Alaska

Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute’s latest economic value report concludes that the state’s 2016 seafood harvest of 5.6 billion pounds had a $5.2 billion impact on Alaska’s economy.

The commercial harvest itself had a total ex-vessel value of $1.7 billion, ASMI reported in the report prepared by the McDowell Group in Juneau.

The impact came from a total of some 56,800 workers who earned $1.518 million, including 29,200 harvesters earning $842 million, 24,500 processing workers who earned $467 million, and 3,200 workers in management, hatcheries and other areas who earned $228 million.

Processors produced 2.7 billion pounds of Alaska seafood products in 2016, worth a first wholesale value of $4.2 billion, while employing an average of 24,500 workers in 2015/2016, including an estimated 7,200 Alaska residents, the report said. The industry for that period included 169 shore-based plants, 73 catcher-processors, and more than a dozen floating processors.

On the national scale, the Alaska seafood industry creates an estimated 99,000 full time equivalent jobs, $5.2 billion in annual labor income and $12.8 billion in economic output, McDowell Group economists concluded. The national economic impacts of Alaska’s seafood industry include $5.4 billion in direct output associated with fishing, processing, distribution and retail. The impact also includes $7.3 billion in multiplier effects generated as industry income circulates through the national economy. The Alaska seafood industry employed some 29,600 residents of other states who came north to work in the state in 2016.

Alaska exports more than one million metric tons of seafood annually, bringing over $3 billion in new money into the nation’s economy. Since statehood in 1959, Alaska’s abundant fisheries have produced over 169 billion pounds of seafood. The largest harvest to date was 6.1 billion pounds in 2015.

The industry catches and processes enough seafood each year to feed everybody in the world at least one serving of Alaska seafood, or one serving for every American for more than a month, the economists said.

In 2016, Alaska seafood was sold in 105 countries. Export markets typically account for about two-thirds of sales value, while the domestic market buys the remaining one-third, the report said.

The complete report is online at http://www.alaskaseafood.org/industry/seafood-market-info/economic-value-reports/

New Food for Fish Farms is Fly Larvae

AgriProtein, a South African firm that recently moved its headquarters to London, has won the BBC Food Chain Global Championship for MagMeal, a protein substitute for fishmeal used widely in aquaculture, agriculture and pet food. The product is produced from black soldier flies fed on food waste.

The award, presented in Bristol, England, was announced in late September. “Insect protein is an idea whose time has come and we are now producing it at an industrial scale,” said Jason Drew, co-founder and chief executive officer of Agri-Protein. “By using existing waste to rear fly larvae, we’re reducing the greenhouse gases and pollution caused by organic landfill,” he said.

AgriProtein has fly farm projects under way in several countries, potentially including the United States and Canada, to produce MagMeal for the $100 billion aquafeed market.

The BBC noted in one of its podcasts (http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p05gpsz4) that AgriProtein’s South African farm has the capacity to farm more than nine billion black soldier flies. The maggot offspring of billions of these protein rich flies are churned into sustainable animal feed.

At present, about 10 percent of global fish production goes into fishmeal, and is used mainly in aquaculture, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization notes in an online report, http://www.fao.org/docrep/018/i3253e/i3253e07.pdf The high demand and consequent high prices for fishmeal, together with increasing production pressure on aquaculture, led to research into the development of insect proteins for aquaculture and livestock. Meanwhile, aquaculture is growing and fishmeal declining as a source of feed, because of decreased supplies of industrially caught fish due to tighter quotas, additional controls on unregulated fishing, and greater use of more cost-effective dietary fishmeal substitutes, the FAO report said.

The report identifies black soldier flies as the most promising species for industrial feed production, noting that they are found in abundance and naturally occur around manure piles of large poultry, pigs and cattle, and for this reason are known as latrine larvae.

“They can be used commercially to solve a number of environmental problems associated with manure and other organic waste, such as reducing manure mass, moisture content and offensive odors, while providing high value feedstuff for cattle, pigs, poultry and fish, the report said.