EMEA editor Neil Ramsden brings you a roundup of the main stories from the previous week.

It was two Canadian news items that topped our most-read charts over the last week or so. 

First was the news that a brand new shrimp and turbot trawler for Canada's Baffin Fisheries is finally en route to its new home after a nearly three-month delay. The Innuksuk II sailed out of Turkey on Jan. 1, 2025, headed for the port of St. John's, in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador (NL), Chris Flanagan, CEO of Iqaluit, Nunavut-based Baffin, told Undercurrent News.

Then, the Labrador Fishermen's Union Shrimp Company (LFUSC), a harvester and processor cooperative based in NL, has quietly wrapped up a deal worth close to CAD 100 million ($69m) to gain 100% ownership of a shrimp fishing trawler and cold storage operation. Though LFUSC has been quiet about the state of its long, drawn-out negotiations until now, it closed its deal in mid-November to gain full control of the MV Osprey, a shrimp fishing firm based in Sydney, Nova Scotia.

There was big news out of China just ahead of the new year, as the State Council announced it would increase tariffs on some key imported seafood products, including frozen shrimp, cod, pollock, and abalone, in 2025, to adapt to the domestic economic downturn.

And the US state of Oregon's commercial Dungeness crab harvest won't fully open until at least Jan. 15, 2025. As Undercurrent reported, the commercial fishery on the US West Coast continues to be delayed due to concerns over whale entanglement off California's coastline and insufficient meat in northern areas of California, Oregon and Washington state.

For the rest of the past week's biggest stories, click the headlines below:

• Wild salmon surge 140% in key Atlantic Canada river, revives aquaculture debate
• Young's, Greenland Seafood parent reports surge in earnings, passes £2bn in revenue
• 'Enormous' jump in Norwegian, Scottish salmon prices for New Year, Chilean up too
• US scallop season even worse than expected with little relief on horizon
• Jeff Bolton named president of $500m PE-backed shellfish platform after Atlantic Capes deal closes
• Shipping company plans surcharges if US port strike occurs in 2025
• Captain Fresh closes deal for EU salmon processor Koral
• Week 52 farm-gate shrimp roundup: Indian prices rebound, though supply concerns persist
• EU whitefish sector 'not in crisis' but cod shortage poses serious challenge for 2025
• Fishing group applauds 'partial victory' in US court ruling over regional council's constitutionality