Conservation & Environment

December 12, 2014 — Nearly all sea turtle species have been classified as endangered, with precipitous declines in many populations in recent decades. But new protections, particularly in the U.S. and Central America, are demonstrating that dramatic recovery for these remarkable reptiles is possible.

After they crawl to the water as hatchlings, earth’s sea turtles — loggerheads, greens, hawksbills, olive ridleys, Kemp’s ridleys, flatbacks, and leatherbacks — ply the seven seas, belonging to no nation. Males never touch land again. Loggerheads in the surf at Baja hatched under Japanese sand. Leatherbacks seen off California have traversed 6,000 miles of Pacific from nesting beaches in Indonesia. Some greens in Florida hatched in West Africa.

All seven species have traded ability to retreat into their shells for water speed. Forelegs that have evolved into flippers propel them faster than any human ever ran. The aptly named leatherback has even traded away its shell. Like dinosaurs, many of which were its contemporaries, it can heat its blood — “earth’s last warm-blooded monster reptile,” ecologist Carl Safina calls it in his book Voyage of the Turtle. It swims above the Arctic Circle and dives to at least 3,900 feet — deeper than sperm whales. The world’s heaviest reptile, it can weigh more than 1,900 pounds. The last natural land predator of adult female leatherbacks may have been Tyrannosaurus Rex.

Read the full story from Yale Environment 360

 

December 11, 2014 — More than 5 trillion pieces of plastic, weighing nearly 269,000 tons, are littering the world's oceans, according to a study published Wednesday by the scientific journal PLOS One. The study is the first of its kind to gather data from around the world on floating plastic.

For the study, researchers traveled the world's seas on 24 expeditions between 2007 and 2013, collecting small pieces of plastic from all five subtropical gyres, or spots in the ocean where currents converge. From there, using computer models, they extrapolated to estimate global numbers.

The researchers gathered data in areas where scientists haven't had measurements for floating plastic debris, including the Indian Ocean, the Southern Ocean near Antarctica, and the South Atlantic, according to Kara Lavender Law of the Sea Education Association in Falmouth, Mass., who wasn't involved in the study.

The study's estimate for plastic bits less than one-fifth of an inch – about 35,540 tons – is comparable to an earlier study by researchers in Spain who used different methodology, Ms. Law said. That study estimated there were 7,000 to 35,000 tons of plastics this size floating in the ocean.

It's encouraging that two different approaches came up with similar answers, given how difficult it is to measure plastic in the ocean, she said.

The largest source of plastic pollutants was found to be discarded fishing nets and buoys. As a possible remedy, lead researcher Marcus Eriksen, co-founder of the nonprofit 5 Gyres Institute, advises creating an international program to pay fishing ships to reclaim nets, according to The New York Times.

Read the full story and watch the video at the Christian Science Monitor

SEAFOODNEWS.COM [SCOM] — December 11, 2014 — The Nature Conservancy (TNC) announced today that Maria Damanaki, former European Union Commissioner for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, will join the organization as Global Managing Director for Oceans.

"Maria will bring great leadership to our global marine team, TNC, and the conservation field overall," said Mark Tercek, President and CEO at The Nature Conservancy. "Our work will greatly benefit from Maria's extensive experience in marine affairs, fisheries and international policy, as well as her strong diplomatic skills and global network."

The Nature Conservancy employs over 4,500 people and works in more than 35 countries around the world. Damanaki will be based out of the London office.

''Joining TNC is a challenge and opportunity for me. Oceans and seas have always been the background of my life, from my birth on a Mediterranean island to my mandate as a European commissioner," said Damanaki. "We can and have to do more for the conservation of what formulates 71% of the planet surface and the deepest memory of earth and human existence. I am looking forward to contributing to the results that a science based approach can deliver.''

This story originally appeared on SeafoodNews.com, a subscription site. It has been reprinted with permission.

December 10, 2014 — Climate change is expected to push some of Oregon’s most abundant fish species northward in the next 35 years, producing potentially damaging effects for Oregon’s commercial fisheries.

Scientists from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the University of British Columbia on Wednesday released a first of its kind look at future projections of species shift caused by warming oceans. They found that pelagic fish – those that tend to dwell closer to the ocean’s surface – will seek cooler waters as the southern end of their habitat heats up.

That means salmon and hake – two important commercial fish in Oregon – could begin to abandon the waters off Newport and Astoria, and become more abundant in places like the Gulf of Alaska and Bering Sea.

“If fishers want to stay with these fish, they’ll need to move farther north,” said Richard Brodeur, a Newport-based NOAA scientist who co-authored the study.

Read the full story from The Oregonian

GALVESTON, Tx. — December 6, 2014 — Marine biologists have flown dozens of endangered sea turtles from Cape Cod to Galveston for treatment for hypothermia.

The 50 Kemp’s ridley sea turtles, a critically endangered species, were shocked by recent cold temperatures in the waters off New England, the Galveston County Daily News has reported.

The group arrived Friday at the Galveston Sea Turtle Facility operated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. There, program manager Ben Higgins says the turtles will be lowly warmed to a safe temperature and treated for infections, frostbite and other health problems.

Read the full story from the Portland Press Herald

December 4, 2014 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

The Northeast Coastal Acidification Network (NECAN) is hosting an "Ocean and Coastal Acidification Stakeholder Workshop" on December 10, 2014 at the Darling Marine Center in Walpole, Maine.
 
The purpose is to inform and learn from fishermen, clam harvesters, aquaculturists, and coastal water quality volunteer programs their concerns and state of knowledge about ocean and coastal acidification (OCA).

This is the first in a series of state workshops planned by NECAN to inform their implementation plan for monitoring, research and information products that meet the needs of regional stakeholders. Subsequent workshops will occur in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Maritime Canada, and the New York Bight area. Support for the workshops is provided by the NOAA Ocean Acidification program, the NOAA North Atlantic Regional Team, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. For more information see the NECAN website.

Click here to read more about NOAA's Ocean Acidification Program.

 

SEAFOODNEWS.COM [SCOM] — December 3, 2014 — The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) is urging the Obama Administration to take strong action to help end global illegal fishing.

“As one of the largest markets on the planet for imported seafood – valued at almost $18 billion annually – the United States essentially helps drive illegal fishing that occurs around the world,” said WWF Vice President for Marine Policy Michele Kuruc. “If we can successfully close our borders to illegal products, we can change that course.”

The Presidential Task Force on Combatting Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated (IUU) Fishing and Seafood Fraud is expected to present President Obama with a comprehensive set of recommendations outlining steps the federal government should take to keep illegal seafood from being imported into the US.

WWF provided 125,000 signatures in support of its position to the Task Force’s co-chairs, NOAA Administrator Kathryn Sullivan and Department of State Under Secretary for Economic Growth, Energy, and the Environment Catherine Novelli.

WWF wants to see the Task Force to recommend new regulations that require:

– Catch Documentation: That all seafood sold in the United States be accompanied with basic and consistent information,

– Traceable to legal and verifiable sources: That this information should be traceable by regulators and supply chain actors from bait to plate, and

– Border Control: And that border measures should be designed to allow for informed decisions about product legality based on this information.

This story originally appeared on Seafood.com, a subscription site. It is reprinted with permission.

December 1, 2014 — Under a court-sanctioned settlement, federal biologists say they will shape a new critical habitat proposal for North Atlantic right whales by early 2016.

Each year most of the 500 North Atlantic right whales remaining on Earth migrate from their feeding and breeding grounds off the U.S. Northeast to their nursery areas off the Southeast.

Conservation advocates want to see critical habitat for the whales expanded from about 4,000 square miles to more than 50,000 square miles to help protect the marine mammals from ship strikes, oil drilling and commercial fishing.

“If these whales are going to survive in the long run, we need to protect the most important waters where they live, eat and raise their young,” said Sarah Uhlemann, a senior attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity. “Every year these endangered whales have to navigate a virtual obstacle course of threats on their migration along the coast — an ocean dense with fishing nets and lines, crisscrossed by speeding vessels and increasingly roaring with underwater noise.”

Read the full story from the Summit County Citizens Voice

DANVILLE, Va. — December 1, 2014 — $300 million. That's the estimated pricetag one North Carolina researcher is putting on the coal ash spill from February.

And he's predicting it could go even higher.

Dennis Lemly from Wake Forest University looked at economic, clean up, and tourism funds that are and will be lost. So far city leaders say Danville has been hit hard.

"The promise several months ago to make it right and they've done very little to make it right. It's been agonizingly slow," said Danville Vice Mayor Gary Miller.

Nine months after 39,000 tons of coal ash poured into the Dan River, Danville's Vice Mayor Gary Miller still isn't happy with Duke Energy.

"We are in serious negotiations and we have been for sometime with Duke people. We have our attorney, our attorneys and their attorneys" Miller said.

Miller says the spill may have kept an industry out of Danville that's predicted to generate a billion dollar revenue and thousands of jobs.

It's also hurt the city's reputation.

Read the full story from WDBJ

November 28, 2014 — More than 25 years after the Exxon Valdez disaster in Prince William Sound, once bountiful Pacific herring stocks still have not recovered from the toxic oil spill, the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council has concluded.

Meeting in Anchorage on Nov. 19, the council concluded that the status of Pacific herring should remain unchanged as "not recovering," said Elise Hsieh, executive director of the council.

"EVOSTC staff noted that additional data had been received the week before the meeting from trust agency staff that shifted the previous understanding of available data and thus the recovery status recommendation had been revised the prior week," Hsieh said.

The council's recommendation to keep the status of Pacific herring status quo while approving most other updates in its Nov. 10 update on injured resources and services. Pacific herring, as the report notes, are an ecologically and commercially important species in the Prince William Sound ecosystem. They are central to the marine food web, providing food to marine mammals, birds, invertebrates and other fish. Herring are also commercially fished for food, bait, sac-roe and spawn on kelp.

When Pacific herring spawned in intertidal and sub-tidal habitats of the Sound shortly after the spill on March 24, 1989, all age classes and a significant portion of spawning habitats and staging areas in the Sound were contaminated by oil.

Juvenile and adult herring would normally come to the surface at night to feed and would have had increased exposure probability at this time to the oil. Lesions and elevated hydrocarbon levels were documented in some adult Pacific herring from the area of the spill. Laboratory studies showed abnormalities and possible depressed immune functions in Pacific herring exposed to oil, the EVOSTC report on injured resources and services note.

But the report was edited, on the recommendation of ADF&G, to delete comments that while significant adult mortality was not observed in 1989, "this would not be unexpected given the heavy predation or scavenging by different groups of predators." The report also said that egg mortalities and larval deformities of Pacific herring were also documented in the 1989 year class, but that population level effects of the spill were never clearly established.

The report, http://www.evostc.state.ak.us/static/PDFs/IRS_Update_DRAFT_11-10-14.pdf, also noted that cutthroat trout and rockfish are very likely recovered.

Read the full story from The Cordova Times