Editorial and managing director Tom Seaman brings you a roundup of the main stories from the previous week  

Tensions are building again in Canada's largest lobster fishery and -- unless fisheries minister Diane Lebouthillier acts soon -- something terrible is going to happen, warns Colin Sproul, president of the Unified Fisheries Conservation Alliance, a non-profit alliance of fishing groups in Nova Scotia.

"There's going to be an explosion of violence in Southwest Nova Scotia," Sproul told Undercurrent News in an interview last week.

The ticking timebomb is in lobster fishery areas 33 and 34, which account for nearly a third of Canada's world-leading 100,000 metric tons in annual production of North American lobster (Homarus americanus).

Big bucks are at stake. Note that Canada's lobster industry is estimated to be worth CAD 2.0 billion ($1.5bn). Read more about what's going on by clicking here. 

Then, in Northwest Alaska, this year's salmon chum harvest on Kotzebue Sound was the lowest since the US state began record-keeping in 1962.

"It's pretty much a disaster," Mike Scott, managing partner of Arctic Circle Wild Seafood, one of two processors buying fish in Kotzebue, told Undercurrent on Sept. 11. "We can't have a repeat of this ... we're not a big company so when you lose money, it comes right out of your pocket. There's nobody backstopping you."

The Alaska Department of Fish and Game wrote in its Sept. 11 summary that a total of 41,793 pounds of chum salmon was sold at an average price of $0.60/lb.

That translated into a measly $25,091 catch for the two-dozen permit holders, the lowest since 2002 when the agency said market conditions constrained that year's harvest. For comparison purposes, consider that the Kotzebue District's chum season has averaged $728,025 annually between 1962-2023 with some years exceeding $2 million.

Click here for that story in full. 

Then, see a list of the other top headlines from last week below: 

• Canadian striped bass experiment could lead to another lobster bait source
• Alaska salmon harvest update: Week 36 brings YTD total harvest to 70% of pre-season forecast
• Shrimp greenhouses outperform RAS, earthen ponds in China
• China, US shrimp imports to drop in 2024 even with low prices, EU to grow
• Russian H&G pollock 'shortage' drives prices up further
• GSF forecasts rise in Ecuador, Indian shrimp exports despite soft markets
• Canada's fisheries minister ignored staff cod advice, court documents reveal
• New report exposes forced labor in Indonesia's shrimp industry
• Week 37 shrimp prices start higher in Ecuador, firm in Vietnam, Thailand
• Norway's Akvafuture kicks off work on first closed-containment salmon farm in BC