Conservation & Environment

September 15, 2014 — Scientists say an explosion of invasive green crabs that threatens Maine’s lucrative soft-shell clam industry appears to have tapered off, at least temporarily.

The crabs took over hundreds of acres of Maine mudflats last year, pressing regulators and fishermen into action to slow the crustacean’s rapid growth.

This year, the amount of crabs is 10 percent of last year’s level at a key Freeport trapping site, University of Maine at Machias marine ecology researcher Brian Beal said. And anecdotes from around Maine’s coast suggest the same trend is happening elsewhere.

The harsh winter might have culled the population, Beal said. He added trappers are finding mostly smaller green crabs, suggesting the larger crabs often found last year may have died or gone out to deeper water.

The lower abundance follows a year of aggressive crab trapping and habitat fencing in coastal Maine. Marine biologist Darcie Couture, who is studying the crabs in Harpswell and Brunswick, said she has also seen fewer. She said she fished about 400 pounds of crabs out of Brunswick coves this summer – a  number she could’ve reached in a single day in 2013.

Read the full story from the Portland Press Herald

September 15, 2014 — Something odd is happening in Northern Pacific waters: They're heating up. In fact, it hasn't been this warm in parts of the Gulf of Alaska for this long since researchers began tracking surface water temperatures in the 1980s, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The warming began last year in the Gulf of Alaska and has since beendubbed "The Blob" by Nick Bond, of the Joint Institute for the Study of the Atmosphere and Ocean. Temperatures have been as high as about 5 degrees Fahrenheit (3 Celsius) above average.

Normally storms and winds roll through to cool off the surface of the Northern Pacific, but a weather pattern popped up for a few months in winter 2013 that inhibited those storms from developing, said Nate Mantua, a NOAA research scientist. Then, from October 2013 through January, the weather pattern came back as a ridge of high pressure (the same one connected to the California drought). All of that made the already warm waters in the Alaskan gulf even warmer, a layer about 100 meters thick, Mantua said.

In the spring, warm water started to develop in other Northern Pacific waters, namely the Bering Sea. There's also a chunk of warm water developing off the coast of California.

Read the full story from The Washington Post

September 15, 2014 — On the September 5 edition of the Honolulu-based Mike Buck Show, the host discussed a recent public listening session hosted by NOAA and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service regarding the proposed expansion of the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument (PRIMNM).

The program aired audio excerpts from the meeting, recorded by the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council (WPRFMC). Many of the speakers at the meeting–including scientists, fishermen, and other fishery stakeholders–voiced their opposition to the Monumnet expansion, which they said would have negative economic impacts on Western Pacific fisheries without providing many conservation benefits.

Listen to the audio here

Read more about the listening session here

September 12, 2014 — Under the endangered species act, buying or selling an endangered animal requires a permit. The permits are hard to get — even for zoos and aquariums.

But there's a loophole.

"If I donate or loan an endangered species to you, I need no permit," says Kris Vehrs of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums.

So a barter system has sprung up among zoos and aquariums to trade animals without using money. They even do it with species that aren't endangered. But barter can be complicated.

For example: The New England Aquarium in Boston was recently in the market for some lookdown fish, and they knew of an aquarium in North Carolina that was willing to trade some.

The folks in North Carolina wanted jellyfish and snipe fish. The New England aquarium had plenty of jellyfish — but no snipe fish.

Steve Bailey, the curator of fish at the New England Aquarium, wound up making a deal to get snipe fish from an aquarium in Japan, in exchange for lumpfish. Then he sent the snipe fish and some jellyfish to North Carolina. In exchange, he finally got his lookdown fish.

Read the full story and listen to the audio at NPR

September 10, 2014 — The Maine Certified Sustainable Lobster Association, Inc., a group of New England lobster wharf operators, processors, dealers and wholesalers, has entered the Gulf of Maine lobster fishery (Homarus americanus) into independent, third-party assessment against the Marine Stewardship Council’s (MSC) standard for sustainable and well-managed fisheries.

This assessment is in parallel with a separate assessment of the fishery that led to MSC certification in 2013. The founding members of the client group are Cozy Harbor Seafood, Inc., Craig’s All Natural, LLC, East Coast Seafood, Inc., Garbo Lobster Co., Inc., Inland Seafood, Inc., Mazzetta Company, LLC, and Orion Seafood International, Inc.

The Gulf of Maine lobster fishery under assessment covers all commercial vessels licensed by the State of Maine or the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) that fish within the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) Lobster Conservation Management Area 1, which includes the Gulf of Maine stock in coastal Maine and Northwest Atlantic FAO area 21.

Read the full story from The Fish Site

 

PENN COVE, Wash. — September 10, 2014 — Ocean acidification impairs mussels' ability to attach to surfaces – alarming commercial growers farming the waters around Puget Sound.

Cookie tray in hand and lifejacket around chest, Laura Newcomb looks more like a confused baker than a marine biologist. But the University of Washington researcher is dressed for work.

Her job: testing how mussels in this idyllic bay, home to the nation’s largest harvester of mussels, are affected by changing ocean conditions, especially warmer and more acidic waters. It’s a question critical to the future of mussel farmers in the region. More important, it's key to understanding whether climate change threatens mussels around the world, as well as to the food chains mussels support and protect in the wild.

"Along the West Coast, mussels are well-known ecosystem engineers," said Bruce Menge, an Oregon State University researcher who studies how climate impacts coastal ecosystems. "They provide habitat for dozens of species, they provide food for many predators and occupy a large amount of space, so are truly a 'dominant' species." 

Read the full story from Scientific American

 

September 8, 2014 — Even though Michigan is surrounded by more than 20 percent of the world's freshwater, fish farming is largely unheard of there.

But this summer, the aquaculture industry took a step forward. And that has touched off a debate over the appropriateness of fish farming on the Great Lakes.

There's only one company now in Michigan that raises fish for restaurants and grocery stores in large volumes. It's a family business, run by Dan Vogler, on a few acres near Harrietta, Mich., population 143.

There are more than a half-million fish at Harrietta Hills Trout Farm. They're mostly rainbow trout and the largest ones weigh 1.5 pounds.

Vogler wants to see more aquaculture in Michigan. He says with billions of people on the earth, and many looking for fresh fish, the state has an opportunity.

"Not only an opportunity but a responsibility to use our natural resources — use them responsibly — to grow food," he says.

Vogler's farm is on a creek that feeds the Manistee River on its way to Lake Michigan. This summer, his company received a permit to expand an existing hatchery at another location. It is also inland, on the Au Sable River in Grayling.

That's a popular trout fishing destination, and conservation groups are now challenging that permit, saying the state is not doing enough to protect the river.

Read the full story and listen to the audio at WMHT

September 8, 2014 — Fourteen years into a study of Prince William sound sea otters, a research team from Texas A and M University contributes to otter understanding.

The return of sea otters in force to the Prince William Sound is an indication that the ecosystem is returning to a natural balance. So said Randall Davis, who heads the long term study of the behavioral ecology of sea otters in Simpson Bay, which just finished up a season at Alice Cove. The project, 14 years into its 20 year horizon, has made strides toward understanding sea otters, an important predator, and mapped Simpson Bay as a microcosm of Prince William Sound, providing a wealth of data on the region's ecology.

Davis and a number of graduate and undergraduate students spent the summer at a remote camp in Alice Cove. Using three skiffs, they observed a group of otters regularly, noting dive depth and duration, and making behavioral observations. The team also mapped the entire ocean floor of Simpson Bay, learning that otters prefer to make shallow dives of up to 15 meters in "shallow outwash fjord" sediment types. The goal is larger in scope: to develop an ecosystem-based model of the trophic system by understanding how otters interact with their environment as predators. This way, the researchers can quantify the energy in the system and use it as a baseline for better understanding the ecology of the entire Sound. Though Simpson Bay is only 21 square kilometers, the information gleaned from the quantitative study will be used by a number of different people and organizations studying the Prince William Sound.

Read the full story from The Cordova Times

 

September 6, 2014 — Whale conservationists are taking their campaign to the boaters.

"North Atlantic Right Whales Need Your Help!" aluminum signs will be printed and ready for distribution next week, according to fishery biologist Christin Khan of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Northeast Fisheries Science Center. At first, 16 of the 2-by-3-foot signs will be available and organizers hope to place the first batch in launching areas around Cape Cod.

Local harbormasters will be asked to participate, Khan said. Signs also will be available to local marinas, although there could be a wait. The project is a cooperative effort among several right whale conservation groups in the region.

Khan and NOAA officials are hoping, though, that this is just a start.

"We'd like to have them all along the East Coast," Khan said.

The goal is to teach boaters more about the rare North Atlantic right whales.

There are about 500 North Atlantic right whales in the world, and they are considered at risk of extinction, according to the North Atlantic Right Whale Consortium. The two primary threats are ship strikes and entanglement in fishing gear. The marine mammals typically calve in warmer waters off the coasts of Florida and Georgia and then swim north to feed, traditionally staying in waters around Cape Cod Bay from Jan. 1 through April 30.

While there is a lot of information about right whales available, say, on the Internet, there are few ways where someone would casually come across the information, Khan said Friday. Signs in places where boaters get to water could help, she said.

Read the full story at the Cape Cod Times

SEAFOODNEWS.COM by John Sackton — September 3, 2014 — In a massive nod to the success of US fishery managers, Monterey Bay Aquarium has upgraded its consumer guide on 21 west coast groundfish and rockfish species.

It now says all of these species – including sable fish, many species of rockfish sold as snapper in California, the various species of flatfish and other bottom trawl fish including Dover sole, petrale sole, starry flounder and sand dabs,  are rated either 'best choice' or 'good alternative'.
 
“This is one of the great success stories about ecological and economic recovery of a commercially important fishery,” said Margaret Spring, vice president of conservation and science, and chief conservation officer for the Monterey Bay Aquarium.
 
Although Monterey Bay calls this "the most dramatic turnaround to date', it actually reflects business as usual for the US fishery management system.
 
The West Coast groundfish fisheries were declared an economic disaster early in 2000, when landings and fishing income plummeted.  Many species were listed as being overfished, and in some cases bycatch limits on types of rockfish came down to virtually single fish.
 
“The turnaround in such a short time is unprecedented,” said Jennifer Dianto Kemmerly, director of the Seafood Watch program. “Fishermen, federal agencies and our environmental colleagues have put so much effort into groundfish recovery, and now we’re seeing the results of their work.”
 
In fact, the credit should go to the Pacific Fisheries Management Council, the Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission, NMFS, and the industry that worked with them, along with the rationalization program that allowed for effort reductions to make the fishery more economically viable.
 
Although the Aquarium as an NGO credits the changes to the Magnuson act in 2006, actually the seeds of the recovery were planted much earlier.  The West coast and Alaska fisheries operated with hard TAC's long before they became mandatory across the entire U.S.
 
Like other US fisheries management success stories, the recovery of West Coast groundfish and rockfish species relies on two primary principles that have been fully embraced by the seafood industry:
 
*scientifically set quotas for the total allowable catch, and
 
*comprehensive bycatch management based on industry formed cooperatives and real time bycatch reporting.
 
A third factor, beyond anyone's control, has been the favorable environmental conditions on the West Coast that have allowed for stock recovery once the other two actions were in place.
 
Unfortunately, where the environmental conditions move against a fishery – as is happening in New England cod, the best fisheries science in the world cannot speed up a recovery.  However, fish history is replete with many species suffering declines to near zero abundance, and then recovering sharply as conditions improve.   Haddock in New England is a prime example, with the biomass recovering to levels not seen seen in 40 years.
 
In future articles we will document more about how this recovery took place, and the hard work that went into it.  But like the rooster who thought he caused the sun to rise, it is important for buyers to recognize that the rooster – in this case the Aquarium's Seafood Watch – is announcing an event that was brought about through scienctific management  and industry cooperation and discipline. 
 
That is why for the seafood industry, it is great to have the recognition, whether it be MSC or the Aquarium or other recommend lists, but just like the rooster and the sunrise, the accolades are for the work we've already done, they are not the cause of the success.

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