Today's Main Story: Strengthening Dollar puts US market in ideal position for imported seafood An analysis on the strength of the US dollar in recent months shows how the US market is in the driver’s seat as a premier market for imported seafood. Urner Barry Market Reporter Russell Barton explains how the Federal Reserve’s tapering of its Quantitative Easing program has combined with other factors to strengthen the dollar compared to international markets including Japan, Brazil and the EU. This makes the US a prime market for seafood exporters to sell into. For Ecuador, who trades on the US dollar, the stronger dollar could be an especially positive development for the country’s shrimp exporters who want to sell into the US and avoid exchange rate volatility with competing importers. With Southwest Nova Scotia’s LFA 34 set to open Monday morning, research biologists predict warmer waters in the region will result in early hauls of “new” or soft-shell lobsters. One canner said that as much as 40 percent of the early haul will go straight to processors. We should get an idea of the lobster quality and boat prices when the first hauls come in next week. In other news some seafood suppliers and fishermen in Maine and New England say the second straight shrimp closure in the Gulf of Maine has put their businesses in jeopardy. Both depend on the winter shrimp season to plug their winter seafood supplies. This year’s closure--with the likelihood of the moratorium to continue past 2014--has the industry scrambling for alternatives. During the 1980’s groundfish collapse in Canada, High Liner found its business in need of funds to stay afloat. The Nova Scotia government stepped in and purchased $5 million worth of shares. Our story reports how that investment helped High Liner grow its seafood empire ever since. Finally, we explain how higher demand for no moisture tilapia in the US has created two distinct markets between moisture added and no-moisture added product. Now Urner Barry is publishing two quotations for frozen tilapia fillets from China that make this distinction.