Chris Loew

Chris Loew

Contributing Editor reporting from Osaka, Japan

Chris Loew reports from Osaka, Japan as a contributing editor for SeafoodSource.com. In addition to writing for SeafoodSource.com, he covers Japan for stock-investing newsletter Global Investing. He co-authored a college language text, “Healthcare English:  Read, Write and Speak It.” When not writing, he proofreads Japanese-to-English translations. Chris is a 1990 graduate of The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington. After graduation, he worked for two years in the purchasing department of a Japanese meat importer, and for five years as export director for two Seattle food companies, selling to customers in the Far East, and arranging shipping and export documentation for mixed containers of frozen foods.

Published on
November 11, 2021

Hotel and hospitality chain Hilton has signed a memorandum of understanding that will see it purchase more Marine Stewardship Council- and Aquaculture Stewardship Council-certified sustainable seafood.

Hilton Vice President of Operations for Japan, South Korea, and Micronesia Timothy Soper; Seafood Legacy CEO Wakao Hanaoka; and UMITO Partners’ Shunji Murakami, signed the MoU at a ceremony at Hilton Tokyo Bay on 27 October. The MoU will

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Published on
November 9, 2021

Vladivostok, Russia-based Russian Fishery Company and Osaka, Japan-based Daisui have signed a long-term agreement on cooperation in promoting and developing sales of RFC products derived from pollock surimi ... 

Photo courtesy of Russian Fishery

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Published on
November 5, 2021

Among the exhibitors at the 23rd Japan International Seafood and Technology Expo, taking place at the Tokyo International Exhibition Center from 8 to 10 November, will be a number of pioneering shrimp-farming recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS), including Tokyo, Japan-based International Mariculture Technology Engineering (IMTE), the developer of a proprietary "Indoor Shrimp Production System.”

The ISPS system in place at its pilot

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Published on
November 4, 2021

Pumice, spewed into the ocean from a distant underwater volcano has clogged the cooling water intakes of ships and killed farmed fish around the Japanese island of Okinawa. The drifting stones earlier reached southern Kyushu, and have now been spotted farther north, off Shikoku.

On 1 November, Japan's Coast Guard announced its planes had spotted pumice stones at two locations near Shikoku Island’s Kochi Prefecture: 146 kilometers off Cape

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Published on
November 3, 2021

Cold-water fish that have been the mainstay for fishers and processors in Japan’s northeast are becoming increasingly scarce as sea-water temperatures in the region rise.

The Pacific coast of Hokkaido and the Sanriku coast – which includes parts of Aomori, Iwate, and Miyagi prefectures – have been affected the worse by rising seawater temperatures, which are keeping schools of cold-water fish further off the coast.

This

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Published on
October 29, 2021

The Industrial Analysis Research Institute at Kumamoto University and Japan Seafoods Co., based in Fukuoka, have jointly developed a new method of killing anisakis parasites using pulsed electricity …

Photo courtesy of the Industrial Analysis Research Institute at Kumamoto

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Published on
October 27, 2021

The Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission (IATTC) has approved a higher catch limit for Pacific bluefin tuna.

Based on IATTC Scientific Committee projections that indicated a 100 percent chance of reaching an initial stock rebuilding target by 2024, the IATTC approved a 15 percent increase in the catch limit for adults (over 30 kilograms) and no change for juveniles. The decision was made at IATTC's full commission meeting, which ran

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Published on
October 26, 2021

Beginning 25 October, Tokyo and three neighboring prefectures have removed most restrictions for eating and drinking establishments that have had their anti-COVID-19 measures certified.

In order to meet the requirements to open, restaurants must have implemented measures to address ventilation, prevention of crowding, installation of plastic shields to separate customers at the tables, provision of disinfecting spray, and conduct temperature

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Published on
October 21, 2021

Regional fishery management organizations (RFMOs) that regulate Pacific bluefin tuna have moved closer to adopting a catch increase, based on an improved outlook for meeting stock recovery goals.

During its 5-7 October electronic meeting, the Northern Committee (NC) of the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC) approved, by consensus, the recommendation of the sixth Joint IATTC and WCPFC-NC Working Group Meeting on the

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Published on
October 18, 2021

NGOs, government agencies, and businesses gathered online to discuss policies, trends, and challenges in sustainable fishery resource use at the Tokyo Seafood Sustainability Summit (TSSS), 10 to 13 October.

The event, previously called the Tokyo Sustainable Seafood Symposium, has taken place annually since 2015. It is sponsored by Seafood Legacy Co. and Nikkei Business Publications, Inc. and supported financially by co-sponsors the Walton Family

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