GULF SEAFOOD IS SAFE, INSISTS FDA
THE  United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA), is insisting that seafood caught in the Gulf of Mexico is safe to eat despite fishermen reporting last week  that some fish have developed deformities after the BP oil spill two years ago. Federal  laboratories have tested thousands of  fish and shellfish samples for traces of oil related chemicals to be certain they were well below levels that could make anyone ill before commercial fishing was allowed to resume.The FDA has said people can eat nine pounds of fish or five pounds of oyster meat a day for five years and still not reach the levels of concerns for a key set of chemicals. It also stresses that certain species rid oil contaminants from their bodies faster than others, and is the reason that fishing resumed before the oyster harvest.

BLUE WHITING SEASON DRAWS TO CLOSE
ICELAND'S 2012 blue whiting season with fishing companies saying they are pleased with the quality and size of the fish. The whiting were also dispersed over a large area of sea this year. HB Grandi, one of the main companies involved in chasing blue whiting said its 12,600 ton quota - an increase of 1,000 tons on the previous year - had almost been caught.

NORTH TO ALASKA AS SEAFOOD EXPORTS SOAR
SEAFOOD exports from the northern state of Alaska shot up last year to a record $5.2 billion.  Alaska Governor Sean Parnell said fish continued to be the largest export product comprising half of everything that left the state for other parts of the world.United Fishermen of Alaska President Arni Thomson that for the first time, China replaced Japan as the leading export destination. But there were also increased shipments to Europe and Canada. He added: "Alaska’s sustainable seafood is reaching a wider variety of destinations in a wider array of high quality product forms, and this directly benefits Alaska’s communities that share in production."

FISH FIGHT HEADS TO GERMANY AND POLAND
THE Fish Fight campaign launched over a year ago to ban wasteful fishing practices including discards has come to both Germany and Poland in the past couple of weeks. According to the campaigners, 15 per cent of all fish caught in the Baltic is discarded. In Germany more than 800,000 have publicly backed the campaign. The main purpose of the European drive is to raise public awareness about the wasteful and unselective fishing practices occurring in the Baltic Sea - and generally in the European Union waters - and  to garner support to ban discards

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