Conservation & Environment

October 12, 2014 — Cape Cod with no cod.

Our cod crisis has become a sad cliche, ironic enough to catch the eye of the national media, and the truth does indeed hurt. Just ask Chatham and Harwich fishermen, who fished in what was once one of the top cod ports in the country but now catch mostly skates and dogfish and very little cod.

Codfish once supported fleets of 400 schooners each in Gloucester and New Bedford, and as many as 100 schooners crowded into Provincetown Harbor in the 1800s, many headed to rich Canadian fishing grounds and Georges Bank. Cod are wrapped up in the history of the state and the growth of our nation, and symbolic cod hang in both the main courtroom of the Barnstable Superior Court and in the state House of Representatives.

But now, it's largely Iceland, Canada and the Pacific that put cod on restaurant menus and our tables at home. And many experts now worry that a fish, whose fortunes are so closely aligned with our own growth as a country, could now be going extinct. There's an emotional connection, and contemplating the last cod, is like letting the last bald eagle die.

"I think we have all heard people's concerns that we have reached the point of no return," said Steve Cadrin, an associate professor at the University of Massachusetts School for Marine Science and Technology in Dartmouth.

But scientists, managers and environmentalists downplay the rumors of an Endangered Species petition or possible extinction, and believe that fisheries managers are now finally taking the first real step on what could be a very long road to rebuilding cod.

Read the full story at the Cape Cod Times

October 13, 2014 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

The coastal habitats of Narragansett Bay are worth protecting. Read more about what NOAA is doing to help to preserve these important fish and shellfish habitats.

October 10, 2014 — Scores of the planet’s most vibrantly colorful and sought-after fish species will disappear from the tropics as soon as 2050, a new study finds, driven closer to the North and South Poles by seas made warmer by climate change.

This bodes ill not merely for the fish or just the Earth’s ecosystem. 

“We’ll see a loss of fish populations that are important to the fisheries and communities in these regions,” researcher William Cheung, one of the study’s two authors, said of the tropics, according to the Irish Examiner. “This area has a high dependence on fish for food, diet and nutrition.

Read the full story from U.S. News and World Report

October 10, 2014 — More than six months after issuing an El Niño watch, forecasters say they still expect the climate pattern to set in by the end of this year.

The National Weather Service's Climate Prediction Center in College Park issued an El Niño discussion Thursday that maintains the watch and suggests the wait could be over in a month or two. Forecasters predict a two-in-three chance of El Niño between November and January, and they expect it to continue into the spring.

A coming El Niño appeared more certain earlier this year, after the center issued a watch for it in March. In May, chances of El Niño arriving by this fall were up to 80 percent.

Meteorologists watch for warming Pacific Ocean surface temperatures and shifting wind patterns to detect the climate phenomenon, which is often associated with snowy winters in Maryland.

Read the full story from The Baltimore Sun

October 9, 2014 — The first great white shark to be tracked in Cape Cod Bay likely spent the better part of a day or two in Wellfleet Harbor before heading toward the Upper Cape on Wednesday.

Katharine, a 2,300-pound, 14-foot-long great white, has traveled more than 8,100 miles since she was fitted with three electronic tracking devices by shark researcher Greg Skomal and the crew of the research vessel Ocearch off Chatham in August 2013.

A sophisticated tag that broadcasts her location when she surfaces "pinged" three times in the past two days, placing her within a few feet of the town pier Tuesday afternoon and in the middle of the harbor near Great Island by Wednesday afternoon.

Although there is a 2-mile margin of error in the actual location for these particular tags, Skomal, of the state Division of Marine Fisheries, said multiple signals coming from the same approximate location mean it is more likely than not that Katharine was in the harbor.

This summer, Skomal identified 56 individual great white sharks, tagging 15 of them, as part of a scientific study to determine the size of both the local population that comes each year to feast on Cape Cod seals and the greater population in the northwest Atlantic. With so many sharks gathered in the waters around the Monomoy islands off Chatham, Skomal said Katharine's move into Cape Cod Bay may be a sign that Chatham is becoming overcrowded by shark standards and some are exploring less crowded hunting grounds to the north and into the bay.

Read the full story at the Cape Cod Times

October 9, 2014 — The following was released by the Gulf Seafood Institute:

A formal Record of Decision to implement a Gulf restoration plan has been announced by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the Natural Resource Damage Assessment trustees in the Deepwater Horizon oil spill which occurred off the shores of Louisiana in 2010.

The goal of the 44 projects, totaling an estimated $627 million, is to restore barrier islands, shorelines, dunes, underwater grasses and oyster beds along the Florida to Louisiana coastline. The announcement marks the largest number of Gulf restoration projects slated since the spill with the aim to address a range of injuries to natural resources and the loss of recreational use.

“Preserving, protecting, and restoring natural resources is an integral part of our efforts to foster resilience in communities nationwide, including those affected by the Deep Water Horizon oil spill,” said Kathryn D. Sullivan, Ph.D., Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere and NOAA Administrator. “These projects reflect an earnest commitment to the Gulf and will enhance the region’s economic, social, and ecological resilience in the future.”

Habitat the Key

According to Gulf Seafood Institute (GSI) Mississippi board member Corky Perret, “Habitat is the key, it’s first what you do to an animal’s habitat then what you do to the animals. These restoration projects should create and/or restore habitat vital to our fish and wildlife resources. The Mississippi project is desperately needed, as are any projects stabilizing the barrier islands.”

NOAA, which is directly involved in the implementation of only four of the proposed projects, is supporting an overall Early Restoration plan that includes both ecological and human use projects as outlined in the Final Programmatic and Phase III Early Restoration Plan and Early Restoration Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement.

Read the full story at the Gulf Seafood Institute

October 9, 2014 — The menhaden have returned in numbers that local fishermen say they have never seen before — likely due to the improvement of local water quality. Sieswerda says all the environmental work since the ’70s is finally paying off. There is also a cap in place now on the Atlantic fishery for menhaden, a fish harvested for fertilizer and omega-3 fish oil.

The waters are calm as the American Princess cruises through the New York Bight, a nick of the Atlantic Ocean splayed between the shores of New Jersey and Long Island. Squinting, I spy a gentle “boil” of the ocean as hundreds of small shiny fish break the surface in circles spreading slowly outward.

Suddenly, a humpback whale bursts through this bait ball off the starboard side like a torpedo to its mark. The whale’s mouth is open wide and scooping in as many fish as it can hold, with the remnants spilling back into the sea. As it smacks its massive head down, a wave of very fishy whale’s breath blows across the bow of the boat.

The New York seascape’s warm waters are coming back to life, and these great leviathans are here to take a bite of the Bight.

Paul L. Sieswerda, a naturalist with Gotham Whale (the citizen science group that partners with the American Princess) is on board with me. He thinks the return of humpbacks to the New York Bight is a matter of their finding good food.

The menhaden have returned in numbers that local fishermen say they have never seen before — likely due to the improvement of local water quality.

Read the full story from National Geographic's Newswatch

 

October 9, 2014 — The menhaden have returned in numbers that local fishermen say they have never seen before — likely due to the improvement of local water quality. Sieswerda says all the environmental work since the ’70s is finally paying off. There is also a cap in place now on the Atlantic fishery for menhaden, a fish harvested for fertilizer and omega-3 fish oil.

The waters are calm as the American Princess cruises through the New York Bight, a nick of the Atlantic Ocean splayed between the shores of New Jersey and Long Island. Squinting, I spy a gentle “boil” of the ocean as hundreds of small shiny fish break the surface in circles spreading slowly outward.

Suddenly, a humpback whale bursts through this bait ball off the starboard side like a torpedo to its mark. The whale’s mouth is open wide and scooping in as many fish as it can hold, with the remnants spilling back into the sea. As it smacks its massive head down, a wave of very fishy whale’s breath blows across the bow of the boat.

The New York seascape’s warm waters are coming back to life, and these great leviathans are here to take a bite of the Bight.

Paul L. Sieswerda, a naturalist with Gotham Whale (the citizen science group that partners with the American Princess) is on board with me. He thinks the return of humpbacks to the New York Bight is a matter of their finding good food.

The menhaden have returned in numbers that local fishermen say they have never seen before — likely due to the improvement of local water quality.

Read the full story from National Geographic's Newswatch

 

October 1, 2014 — Twenty-five years after the Exxon Valdez oil spill, and millions of dollars in research, marine scientists still have no conclusions about the relationship between that environmental disaster and the demise of Pacific herring in Prince William Sound.

What we do know is that the Exxon Valdez oil tanker struck Bligh Reef in Prince William Sound shortly after midnight on March 24, 1989, spilling 260,000 to 750,000 barrels of thick, toxic crude oil, creating one of the most devastating human caused environmental disasters on record.

Then in subsequent storms and currents, the oil spread over 1,300 miles, fouling the shoreline, resulting in the deaths of vast numbers of wildlife, including sea otters, herring and birds.

Some of that crude oil is still not cleaned up, and while some species have recovered, herring have not. A once lucrative commercial fishery, the herring, which also provided nutrition for seabirds, salmon and marine mammals ranging from sea otters to whales, is still listed as “not recovering.”

What is not clear is the direct relationship between the Exxon Valdez oil spill and the demise of the herring fishery in Prince William Sound, but marine conservation scientist Rick Steiner of Anchorage says that without doubt the oil spill had a significant effect on the Prince William Sound herring population, and it is almost certainly one of the reasons for the crash in 1993.

Read the full story at Fishermen's News

SEATTLE, Wa. — October 7, 2014 — Federal fisheries biologists told the Army Corps of Engineers it must improve dam operations on the White River to protect endangered salmon, a report released Tuesday shows.

NOAA Fisheries found that too many migrating fish, including endangered Chinook salmon, can't make it safely down the White River or to spawning habitat upriver above Mud Mountain Dam near Enumclaw, Washington.

The agency is requiring the corps by 2020 to build new fish passage facilities near Buckley to comply with the federal Endangered Species Act. It said the current structures are outdated, unsafe and routinely injure and kill endangered salmon, steelhead and other fish.

Brig. Gen. John Kem, the corps' northwestern division commander, replied that the corps is committed to improving fish passage and meeting the requirements set out by NOAA. He said the corps will seek money for the project with the goal of having it operational by 2020.

The corps had committed to building the new facilities in 2007 but that hasn't happened.

"Do I think this will get done? Yes, if we can persuade Congress to authorize the program," said Will Stelle, NOAA Fisheries regional administrator.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at Komo News