Chris Loew

Steinar Ludvigsen, the founder and general manager of Kristiansund, Norway-based Seabed Innovation, has big plans to market uni sourced from Norwegian sea urchins, beginning with European and Asian markets.

Many aspects of his plan are novel. For example, while scuba divers conduct most urchin harvesting around the world by carrying a basket and a claw tool, Ludvigsen said this process is too costly in Norway.

“We have a new method to

At Japan's 2023 Foodex show at the Tokyo Big Sight venue in 10 March, Andrew Rooney, the second-generation managing partner of Northern Ireland-based Rooney Fish, was on the lookout for a Japanese importer and distributor for his company's brown crab.

Aiming to diversify the markets in which he operates, Rooney set up shop at Foodex, Japan’s largest food exposition with over 73,000 visitors, he eventually found a partner in Godak

For a culture that prides itself on its fresh fish offerings, it’s no wonder that aged fish is not a widely popular option for Japanese consumers.

However, despite its lack of widespread adoption in the country, innovators in this sector are trying to stray from the norm, as is the case with two former classmates from Kanoya City, Kagoshima Prefecture.

Tsutomu Shimada and Takuhiro Hachiya founded Plow A Land Co. in the same city in which

The Indian Ocean Tuna Commission (IOTC) has once again failed to reach an agreement on new skipjack or yellowfin quotas, or on managing drifting fish aggregating devices (dFADs), two issues that have stymied cooperation among its members and resulted in calls for new management methods.

The 27th session of the IOTC, held from 8 to 12 May in Mauritius, reached agreements on monitoring measures, how it responds to violations of its management

On 4 April, the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) released photos showing extensive damage to a containment chamber at the Fukushima nuclear power plant.

The photos, taken at the end of March by a robotic probe inside the primary containment chamber of the plant's Unit 1, showed that the pedestal, a concrete supporting structure over a meter thick located directly beneath the reactor core, suffered significant damage near its bottom, exposing

The morning of 9 March, an unusual event occurred at the Choshi City Fishery Cooperative Association’s No. 2 Wholesale Market, located in Japan’s Chiba Prefecture. 

A vessel unloaded its hold of largehead hairtail (Trichiurus lepturus, or tachiuo in Japanese), filling several trucks that would carry the catch to local processors. The warmwater fish, which are also sometimes called “scabbardfish,” are most common in

Following a wave of unhygienic prank videos posted online by customers at conveyor belt sushi shops, Japanese police have made arrests related to two incidents.

On 9 March, police arrested three diners, aged 21, 19, and 15, over a video filmed at a Kura Sushi restaurant in Nagoya on 3 February. The stunts in the video included licking a soy sauce dispenser.

“We sincerely hope the arrest will spread awareness in society that these pranks,

A recently approved Indian Ocean Tuna Commission (IOTC) measure instituting a closure period for drifting fish-aggregating devices (dFADs) is continuing to cause tension, with the European Union recently announcing it is objecting to the decision. 

The E.U. is putting forward two new proposals at the next meeting: one to replace the dFAD rule to which it has objected, and another to set new tropical tuna quotas, in place of an earlier

An egg substitute made of pollock has seen growing success in Japan as consumers cope with a shortage of chicken eggs.

A global epidemic of Avian influenza has resulted in a a shortage of eggs as flocks are culled to limit the spread of the virus. Additionaly, chicken feed prices have shot up as grain shipments from Russia and Ukraine were interrupted by their war, resulting in higher egg prices.

Shortages have forced food-makers to discontinue

The North Pacific Fisheries Commission (NPFC) decided to close gaps in management, improve the vessel authorization process, report transshipment of bycatch species, and require reporting of International Maritime Organization (IMO) numbers at its latest meeting – held nearly a year late. 

The seventh annual session of the commission, held in Sapporo, Japan, from 22 to 24 March, 2023, was originally scheduled for 28 to 30 March, 2022,