Conservation & Environment Archives - Page 2 of 442

Tuna Transparency Pledge gains major signatories promising 100 percent observer coverage by 2027

March 5, 2025 — The Tuna Transparency Pledge has gained multiple major signatories – including retailers, suppliers, and tuna associations – as it pushes to increase on-the-water monitoring of the world’s tuna vessels.

The Tuna Transparency Pledge is a global initiative started by The Nature Conservancy (TNC) in 2024. The central goal of the pledge is to gain signatories who promise to advance on-the-water monitoring across tuna-fishing vessels within their supply chains, with a goal of reaching 100 percent on-the-water monitoring by 2027.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

US lawmakers propose new commission to support health of Mississippi River Basin

March 4, 2025 — U.S. lawmakers have introduced legislation that would create a commission to support the long-term health of fisheries along the Mississippi River Basin, as well as their habitats, water quality, and the communities that rely on them.

“Louisianians know that the Mississippi River Basin is vital to our communities, our fishermen, and our environment,” U.S. Representative Troy Carter (D-Louisiana) said in a statement. “This bill is a critical step in securing the future of this iconic waterway. By bringing together federal, state, and local partners, we can tackle the challenges of invasive species, habitat degradation, and water quality to ensure a healthy, sustainable fishery for generations to come. This commission will help preserve the extraordinary biodiversity of the basin and protect the livelihoods of countless individuals who depend on these waters for their work and way of life. I’m proud of this bipartisan effort to strengthen our economy, protect our natural resources, and ensure a thriving Mississippi River Basin for generations.”

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Rising Temperatures Are Scrambling the Base of the Ocean Food Web

March 3, 2025 — Humans are living in a plankton world. These minuscule organisms are spread across the oceans, covering nearly three-quarters of the planet, and are among the most abundant forms of life on Earth.

But a warming world is throwing plankton into disarray and threatening the entire marine food chain that is built on them.

A year ago, NASA launched a satellite that provided the most detailed view yet of the diversity and distribution of phytoplankton. Its insights should help scientists understand the changing dynamics of life in the ocean.

“Do you like breathing? Do you like eating? If your answer is yes for either of them, then you care about phytoplankton,” said Jeremy Werdell, the lead scientist for the satellite program, called PACE, which stands for “Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem.”

Historically, research from ships has captured limited snapshots in time, offering only glimpses of the ever-changing oceans. The advent of satellites gave a fuller picture, but one still limited, like looking through glasses with a green filter.

“You know it’s a garden, you know it’s pretty, you know it’s plants, but you don’t know which plants,” explained Ivona Cetinic, a NASA oceanographer. The PACE satellite effectively removes the filter and finally reveals all the colors of the garden, she said. “It’s like seeing all the flowers of the ocean.”

These flowers are phytoplankton, tiny aquatic algae and bacteria that photosynthesize to live directly off energy from the sun. They are eaten by zooplankton, the smallest animals of the ocean, which, in turn, feed fish and larger creatures.

It may seem implausible that a satellite orbiting high above the planet’s surface could make out microscopic organisms. But different phytoplankton have unique ways of scattering and absorbing light. PACE measures the whole spectrum of visible color and slightly beyond, from ultraviolet to near infrared, allowing scientists to identify different kinds of phytoplankton. Older satellites measured limited colors and could only reveal how much phytoplankton was underneath them, not what kind.

Phytoplankton form the foundation of the marine food chain, and climate change is shaking that foundation.

Read the full article at the Pulitzer Center

Oyster Restoration Investments Net Positive Returns for Economy and Environment

February 25, 2025 — A report by the North Carolina Coastal Federation shows that NOAA and our partners’ investment in oyster restoration produces almost double the amount in economic and environmental benefits. The economic report (PDF, 43 pages) found that for every $1 spent on oyster reef restoration, the state sees $1.70 in return. Independent researchers from RTI International assessed the value of restoring the 400-acre Senator Jean Preston Oyster Sanctuary Network in Pamlico Sound.

“Investing in oyster reef restoration means investing in all of the benefits these reefs provide and the benefits of the restoration work itself,” says NOAA Marine Habitat Resource Specialist Stephanie Krug. “This report is vital in telling that story.”

Economic Benefits of Restoration

Between 2013 and 2023, NOAA’s Office of Habitat Conservation, the North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries, and local partners invested $20 million building the sanctuary network. This work:

Supported 143 jobs
Generated $34 million* in revenue for North Carolina businesses
Provided $8.7 million* in employee wages and benefits

*All monetary figures in 2023 dollars

“This work is a good shot in the arm for a lot of local businesses,” says Will Hollowell, Operations Manager at Stevens Towing Company of North Carolina. The local family-owned Stevens Towing transports and deploys the limestone, granite, and other materials used as a base for oyster reef restoration in the sanctuary network. During the spring and summer months, Stevens Towing employs 10 to 15 skilled contractors to carry out the work.

“There are the local quarries that supply the rock and the truck drivers that haul 43,000 tons of rock to our location. They need fuel, and they need lunch. Our tugboats burn 1,000 gallons of locally purchased fuel a day, and I buy roughly $3,000 worth of provisions and supplies every 2 weeks. That’s a good boost to these rural areas.”

Read the full article at NOAA Fisheries

Can Fish Farms Sequester Carbon Permanently?

February 24, 2025 — As a data scientist and geochemist, Mojtaba Fakhraee has spent much of his career investigating and strategizing unusual methods of carbon capture. His most recent project, developing a safe model for increasing iron sulphide on fish farms, may be the most

Fakhraee, an assistant professor at the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Connecticut, recently published the results of his research. He and his team argue that iron sulfide enhancement in aquaculture could help sequester hundreds of millions of tons of CO₂.

Adding iron to low-oxygen environments such as fish farms, the study says, reacts with the accumulated hydrogen sulphide in the sediments found in the water, and increases alkalinity. This sets off increasing carbon saturation levels, enhancing the capture of the greenhouse gas from the atmosphere.

The researchers believe this will help the aquaculture industry offset its carbon footprint, which currently amounts to 0.49% of global carbon emissions or 245 million tons of CO₂. Fakhraee says this model could work especially well in places like China and Indonesia, which have an abundance of fish farms.

Read the full article at Ambrook Research

How do Caribbean fish species end up in Cape Cod waters?

February 24, 2025 — Scientists are tracking the abundance of these fish in local waters. You can help.

Gulf Stream orphans is a term for tropical fish who took a journey far from home via the Gulf Stream and ended up in northern waters, like here off Cape Cod.

Associate Curator of Aquatic Collections at the New England Aquarium Mike O’Neill launched the Gulf Stream Orphan Project a decade ago. Now, he and his colleagues have published a paper that looks at all the data they’ve collected over the years.

Gilda Geist Mike, I want to talk about this term, Gulf Stream orphans. Where does that term come from?

Mike O’Neill So that is a term that has been used here at the aquarium for a while. These fish have been called a variety of things depending on where you are. They also are referred to as tropical strays and Gulf Stream riders.

These are unusual tropical and subtropical species that show up here naturally every summer and fall, but it’s due to getting carried by the Gulf Stream. And the Gulf Stream is this massive mover of water that carries tropical water northward from the Caribbean, and water from the Gulf Stream can make landfall in Massachusetts and along the coast of North America. In all that water from the tropics are the planktonic forms and juvenile life stages of a lot of different species. When our environmental conditions in the summer and fall are warm enough, the species from the tropics can continue to survive that transport, and then they arrive along our coasts and continue to grow up and develop and take their role in our ecosystems.

Read the full article at nhpr

Climate change is robbing Pacific islands of another resource: Tuna

February 19, 2025 — Fourteen Pacific island nations will receive $107 million to adapt their tuna-dependent economies as climate change pushes the fish farther from their shores, the Green Climate Fund announced Tuesday.

The fund’s largest grant-only project to date, the money will be used to create an advanced warning system to enable Pacific island nations to track changes in tuna migration and potentially pursue compensation when warming waters drive the fish from these countries’ exclusive economic zones.

“These are the countries that contribute the least to the climate crisis and now are going to lose a resource that they have collectively stewarded better than any other ocean basin,” said Jack Kittinger, senior vice president at Conservation International, the Arlington, Virginia-based nonprofit environmental organization that led the research behind the grant. “This is the ultimate climate justice issue.”

Read the full article at The Washington Post

Alaska Salmon Fishery Closes Hatchery-Related Conditions on Marine Stewardship Council Certificate in Latest Audit

February 14, 2025 — The following was released by the Marine Stewardship Council:

The Alaska salmon fishery has successfully met all Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) Standard requirements related to hatcheries, according to a recent audit by independent assessment body MRAG Americas. This achievement was possible through dedicated efforts by the Alaska Fishery Development Foundation, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game’s (ADF&G) Commercial Fisheries Division and Alaska Private Non-Profit Hatchery Corporations and reinforces Alaska’s commitment to environmentally sustainable fishing under MSC certification.

A Legacy of Sustainability

Alaska has a long history of demonstrated success in sustainable management of wild salmon runs as a constitutionally mandated priority. Alaska salmon fisheries have been MSC-certified for 25 years, making them one of the longest-running certificate holders. Through annual audits and five-year recertifications, these fisheries consistently meet MSC’s globally recognized standards for sustainable fish stocks, ecosystem protection, and effective management. In November 2024, the fishery was recertified, marking a quarter-century of engagement in the MSC program.

Advancements in Hatchery Research & Management

In collaboration with the ADF&G, Alaska fisheries have implemented comprehensive marking of hatchery production salmon in order to track the origin of fish to certain hatcheries and to assess and regulate fishery contributions and hatchery-wild interactions. The MSC audit confirmed that Alaska’s hatchery management practices and strategies align with wild salmon conservation policies, ensuring long-term sustainability.

Science-Driven Conservation

The State of Alaska Hatchery Research Project, led by ADF&G and a panel of state, federal, and academic scientists, played a key role in evaluating hatchery-wild salmon interactions. The latest MSC audit reaffirmed that wild salmon populations continue to thrive, maintaining the necessary genetic integrity to remain productive into the future.

Global Market Trust

MSC certification provides third-party verification of sustainability, ensuring continued access to key global markets that require rigorous environmental standards. This milestone highlights the cooperative efforts of Alaska’s salmon fisheries and ADF&G to uphold sustainable, science-based fisheries management.

North Atlantic Right Whale, Calf Spotted Off NJ as Rutgers Debuts AI Tool to Protect Endangered Species

February 13, 2025 — If recent reports of a North Atlantic right whale calf and its mother spotted in a busy shipping lane between New Jersey and New York are any indication that more are to come, an artificial intelligence tool developed by Rutgers University scientists to protect them, among other marine mammals, could quiet the offshore wind debate over how to keep the endangered species safe from harm’s way.

On Feb. 3, an aerial team from the NOAA’s Northeast Fisheries Science Center spotted the right whale, identified as Accordion, named for the propeller scars on her back that resemble the instrument, and her calf, according to NOAA.

Read the full article at The Sand Paper

Multiple labor activists send letter to MSC demanding action on labor abuse in seafood industry

February 12, 2025 — A group of labor activist organizations have sent an open letter to the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) pushing the seafood certifier to do more to combat forced labor incidents.

The letter was sent by the Seafood Working Group (SWG), a coalition of labor rights groups comprising Global Labor Justice, International Transport Workers’ Federation, Humanity United, Freedom Fund, and Greenpeace US. The letter said the MSC needs to do more to combat “rampant labor abuse” in the seafood industry, and criticized the MSC’s stance on the ecolabel not offering assurances that there is no forced or child labor within its fisheries.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource