Conservation & Environment

August 14, 2014 — Shark experts put sharks to sleep in order to safely remove fish hooks from their bodies.

 

Watch the video at Boston.com

 

SEAFOODNEWS.COM [SCOM] — Aug 13, 2014 — Taking a page from the NGO's, the National Fisheries Institute has asked retail and foodservice crab buyers to inquire what their supplier may be doing for blue swimming crab conservation.

NFI would like buyers to purchase from those companies that are members of the NFI crab council. The Crab Council is a group of domestic crab importers  committed to preserving blue crab as a valuable export resource in Asia, where enforcement, legal sizes, and other management tools won't be implemented without industry leadership.

Since forming in 2009, the NFI Crab Council has provided funding and coordinated support for  Blue Swimming Crab Fishery Improvement Plans throughout Southeast Asia. The council’s member companies recognize the importance of a thriving crab fishery for their businesses, local  economies and environmental habitat.

Members assess themselves a tax on every pound of Blue  Swimming Crab raising $300,000 annually, which supports  Blue Swimming Crab sustainability efforts at the source.

Whether it’s net-exchange programs,  stock assessment efforts or harvest control education the Council is the leader in focused,  fundamental change for Blue Swimming Crab fisheries. 

Through this industry-led sustainability model, the Crab Council has generated close to two  million dollars of investment and developed partnerships from WWF, the Walton  Family Fund, Sustainable Fisheries Partnership, 50 in 10,  and the World Bank.

Abroad and at  home, the Crab Council has become synonymous with corporate stewardship.

NFI is asking these buyer to know whether their supplier is a member of the crab council or not, and if not, to urge them to join.

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

August 11, 2014 — Two weeks ago, we profiled the stunning humpback whale feeding display occurring close to shore off Monterey, California. Enthusiasts are still watching in awe as the giant mammals lunge upward through vast shoals of anchovies to ingest thousands of the small fish in a single gulp.

But humpback whales are putting on a spectacular exhibition in nearshore waters off New York and New Jersey, too, gorging on schooling menhaden.

The East Coast phenomenon is unique in that more whales are showing up, and staying longer than in previous years, according to the research group Gotham Whale, because water flowing into the Atlantic from New York Harbor is much cleaner than it used to be.

The cleaner water is believed responsible for luring more bait fish to the area, and as a result humpback whales are no longer compelled to migrate farther north to feeding grounds off Cape Cod or Maine.

“The river used to bring nothing but pollution, but in the last five years or so there is cleaner water, more nutrients, and less garbage,” Paul Sieswerda, director of Gotham Whale, told the Guardian. “My boat captain says New York is the new Cape Cod.”

Read the full story from GrindTV

 

August 11, 2014 — Two weeks ago, we profiled the stunning humpback whale feeding display occurring close to shore off Monterey, California. Enthusiasts are still watching in awe as the giant mammals lunge upward through vast shoals of anchovies to ingest thousands of the small fish in a single gulp.

But humpback whales are putting on a spectacular exhibition in nearshore waters off New York and New Jersey, too, gorging on schooling menhaden.

The East Coast phenomenon is unique in that more whales are showing up, and staying longer than in previous years, according to the research group Gotham Whale, because water flowing into the Atlantic from New York Harbor is much cleaner than it used to be.

The cleaner water is believed responsible for luring more bait fish to the area, and as a result humpback whales are no longer compelled to migrate farther north to feeding grounds off Cape Cod or Maine.

“The river used to bring nothing but pollution, but in the last five years or so there is cleaner water, more nutrients, and less garbage,” Paul Sieswerda, director of Gotham Whale, told the Guardian. “My boat captain says New York is the new Cape Cod.”

Read the full story from GrindTV

August 13, 2014 — Measuring 10 feet (3 meters) long and weighing in at more than 400 pounds (180 kilograms), it's hard to imagine that the arapaima, the largest fish in the Amazon River basin, could ever go missing. But these huge fish are quickly disappearing from Brazilian waterways, according to a new study.

A recent survey of fishing communities in the state of Amazonas, Brazil, found that the arapaima is already extinct in some parts of the Amazon basin. In other parts of the Amazon, its numbers are rapidly dwindling.

However, the researchers also uncovered some good news: In communities where arapaima fishing is regulated, the species is actually thriving, giving the researchers hope that conservation of the species is still possible. [Photos of the Largest Fish on Earth]

Read the full story from LiveScience

August 12 2014 — The cannon — which can also be employed in fish production — potentially solves the problem of blocked migrations, which can have a dramatic impact on an ecosystem.

In the pre-industrial past salmon used to swim happily upriver to their spawning grounds, unhindered by nothing more than a few grizzly bears and an occasionally voracious beaver.

Now, in this age of hyproelectric dams and environmental damage, it can be trickier.

Well thanks to Whooshh Innovations, their struggles may be over. Whooshh has come up with a literal fish cannon, which enables salmon to swim into a tube and be shot more than 500 feet into the air, before landing safely in the water upstream.

Read the full story at The Huffington Post UK

 

NEW ZEALAND — August 12, 2014 — The startling reality is that in 2014, we know more about the surface of Mars than about the depths of the ocean. And that deficit is a huge problem as scientists try to understand how human activity is changing the planet.

A few weeks ago, some 300 miles off the coast of New Zealand, scientists aboard the research vessel Tangaroa gently lowered two funky-looking orange orbs into the sea. Soon they disappeared, plunging of their own accord toward the depths of the Pacific Ocean.

They were prototypes, specialized robots designed to record temperature and other conditions all the way to the sea bottom, more than three miles down. Every few days since that June voyage, they have been surfacing, beaming their data to a satellite, then diving again.

With luck, a fleet of hundreds like them will be prowling the ocean in a few years, and the great veil of human ignorance will lift a bit further.

The startling reality is that in 2014, we know more about the surface of Mars than about the depths of the ocean. And that deficit is a huge problem as scientists try to understand how human activity is changing the planet.

As many people know, the warming of the earth’s surface has slowed sharply over recent years. That slowdown did not match past computer projections of what the climate was supposed to do under the influence of greenhouse gases, and scientists have been struggling to explain it.

Read the full story at The New York Times 

 

NEW YORK — August 11, 2014 — Off New York and New Jersey, some of the largest creatures in the ocean are being spotted in greater abundance than has been the case for decades.

Humpback whales and great white sharks are surging in numbers in the waters around New York City this summer, in a wildlife bonanza that is delighting naturalists, environmentalists and fishermen – if not necessarily bathers.

Off New York and New Jersey, some of the largest creatures in the ocean are being spotted in greater abundance than has been the case for decades. Paul Sieswerda, head of the Gotham Whale volunteer marine wildlife tracking group, believes the increasing abundance of whales around the Big Apple is largely prompted by cleaner waters that have encouraged huge rises in the populations of fish which the whales eat.

Sieswerda takes boat tours to locations where giant humpback whales can be seen feeding – with the iconic Manhattan skyline in the background.

“I would say it’s only about four miles from the Statue of Liberty,” he told the Guardian.

Gotham Whale counted 29 whales, all humpbacks, in New York waters from the start of the feeding season in the spring to the end of July 2014, compared with 43 for the whole 2013 season, 25 in 2012 and five in 2011.

Sieswerda, a former curator at both the New York aquarium and the New England aquarium in Boston, keeps records of whale sightings with a team of trained volunteers, identifying individual whales by their unique tail markings.

His team has seen humpbacks “lunge feeding”, where the whales rise up under giant shoals and take hundreds of thousands of pounds of fish into their mouths in one gulp, filtering out the seawater through their baleen grills and swallowing the fish.

Read the full story at The Guardian

 

BISCAYNE NATIONAL PARK, Fla. — August 8, 2014 — Officials say ending commercial fishing there will improve the numbers and sizes of snappers, groupers, wahoo, mackerel and hogfish.

One recent morning at Biscayne National Park, a biologist in scuba gear hovered near a reef, a waterproof clipboard and pencil at the ready to record fish swimming into view. Her pencil rarely moved. There just weren't that many fish to count.

That kind of lackluster reef experience is partly why the National Park Service wants to phase out commercial fishing in the park, which is almost entirely comprised of the bay and reefs between downtown Miami, a waterfront nuclear power plant south of the city and the Gulf Stream. Ninety-five percent of the 172,000-acre park is under water, and its primary appeal to visitors is the opportunity to encounter marine life through snorkeling, diving or recreational fishing and boating.

Officials say ending commercial fishing there will improve the numbers and sizes of snappers, groupers, wahoo, mackerel and hogfish.

"Right now it's pretty rare to see a large grouper and it's very exciting because they're so uncommon, but in reality they should be present on the reefs all the time," said park biologist Vanessa McDonough.

But critics say federal officials are punishing fishermen for polluted runoff from the land that reduces water quality. They say closing off the park would devastate South Florida's commercial fishing industry, putting people out of work and putting more pressure on fisheries elsewhere.

"Do we need regulations for fishing? Yes, but that's not the problem. The problem is the water quality and if we would deal with that, we'd have more fish," said Tom Hill, a member of the Florida Keys Commercial Fishermen's Association who has helped run his family's Key Largo Fisheries Inc. since the 1970s.

Read the full story from the New Jersey Herald

 

RENO, Nev. — August 8, 2014 — Volunteers joined Nevada wildlife officials this week in a rescue mission to save thousands of stranded trout and other fish from irrigation ditches that have been cut off from Truckee River water supplies due to drought in the Reno area.

Two dozen wader-clad rescuers splashed through the knee-deep ditches that soon will be going dry, netting an estimated 6,000 fish over two days.

Most were returned Wednesday to the Truckee River near Verdi, just west of Reno, where a rare stretch of wet August weather helped boost flows the past few days with more than an inch of precipitation.

Wildlife officials say the moisture helped, but it doesn't put much of a dent in the lingering drought, now in its third year.

"We're trying to make sure the fish in there get a second chance," Nevada Department of Wildlife spokesman Chris Healy said.

Read the full story from The Associated Press at Fox News New York