Conservation & Environment

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.

September 2, 2014 — One of our planet’s most appalling eyesores — and significant environmental problems — is the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a swirling collection of mostly plastic trash and smaller particles of decomposing debris dumped by humans. Now, according to a newly published study in the journal Chaos by University of New South Wales, researchers have developed a computer model to help figure out where all that the trash is coming from.

The results are a bit startling.

“In some cases, you can have a country far away from a garbage patch that’s unexpectedly contributing directly to the patch,” said Gary Froyland, a mathematician at UNSW.

Trash that originates in Madagascar and Mozambique, two nations that border the Indian Ocean, most likely flows into the south Atlantic Ocean, according the the model. The researchers also may be able to estimate how long it takes trash from Australia, for example, to drift into the northern Pacific.

Read the full story at Discovery News

September 2, 2014 — In an effort to reduce the number of giant bluefin tuna killed by fishing fleets, the U.S. is putting out new rules about commercial fishing in the Gulf of Mexico and parts of the western Atlantic. The rules have special protections for giant bluefin — fish that have grown to 81 inches or more.

The new requirements were recently published by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, in a nearly 750-page amendment to its management plan. The agency hopes the changes will help rebuild the tuna population and improve data it gets from fishing vessels.

As NPR's Christopher Joyce reports for our Newscast unit, commercial fleets in the Gulf cannot target giant bluefin tuna, whose numbers have fallen since the 1970s. The Gulf is of crucial importance, as it is the fish's breeding ground.

Read the full story from New York Now

September 3, 2014 — Imagine Cape Cod without cod. Maine without lobster. The region's famous rocky beaches invisible, obscured by constant high waters.

It's already starting to happen. The culprit is the warming seas – and in particular the Gulf of Maine, whose waters are heating up faster than 99 percent of the world's oceans, scientists say.

Long-established species of commercial fish, like cod, herring and northern shrimp, are departing for colder waters. Black sea bass, blue crabs and new species of squid – all highly unusual for the Gulf – are turning up in fishermen's nets.

The Gulf of Maine's warming reflects broader trends around the North Atlantic. But the statistic – accepted by scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration – underscores particular fears about the Gulf's unique ecosystem and the lucrative fishing industries it supports for three U.S. states and two Canadian provinces.

"These changes are very real, and we're seeing them happen quickly," said Malin Pinsky, a biology professor at New Jersey's Rutgers University who studies ocean temperature change and was not involved in the research that resulted in the 99 percent statistic.

It is a rallying point for environmental activists, who see the response to the temperature rise and its impact on fisheries as a touchstone for the global debate about climate change.

"The warming is already here," said Jeff Young, a spokesman for Pew Charitable Trust's oceans project, which has campaigned in favor of restrictions on fishing for herring, another species leaving for colder water. "And we have to deal with it."

Read the full story from New England Cable News

 

August 31, 2014 — It may not be something that you’ve ever given any thought to, but there are literally thousands of fishing traps that are lost or simply abandoned every year in US waters — what happens to these traps after being abandoned?

It should go without saying, they continue to catch and kill sea-life (fish, turtles, carbs, etc) — even though no one will be there collect there. A good example of some of the waste and carelessness that is so common in the world today. So what to do?

 Well, according to a new study from NOAA, these losses from “ghost fishing” (as it’s known) are largely preventable — but that will require strong action, somewhat decidedly lacking in the national discourse lately.

“Before this report, the marine debris community lacked comparable data on derelict traps,” stated Courtney Arthur, research specialist for NOAA’s Marine Debris Program and lead author of the study. “We had different pieces of information, but not a whole picture. This paper connects those pieces and identifies areas where we need to focus our efforts.”

Read the full story from Planetsave

 

August 29, 2014 — Thousands of fishing traps are lost or abandoned each year in the United States, and this type of "ghost fishing" is posing a real problem for marine life, according to a new NOAA-led study.

These derelict traps, as they're called, continue to catch fish, crabs, and other species such as turtles. Not only do they threaten marine life, but these traps also result in losses to habitat, fisheries, and the watermen who depend on the resources – losses that are largely preventable, researchers say.

"People may not realize that derelict traps can catch not just the target species of the fishery, but also other animals including threatened and endangered species where populations are already very low. Derelict traps can also harm sensitive habitats like coral reefs and salt marsh so they have a bigger impact than might be anticipated," co-author Ariana Sutton-Grier, from NOAA's National Ocean Service, explained in a statement.

Read the full story from Nature World News

 

August 27, 2014 — Half of Iceland's seabirds nest on this low-lying volcanic outcropping and its neighboring islands in the deep west coast gash called Breidafjordur Bay. Flatey Island used to be covered with chicks snuggled inside rocky hillside burrows, under tall meadow grass, in nests strewn across headlands and shores.

"There were thousands! You could hear them," says Olina Jonsdottir, who has lived on this island with her husband, Hafsteinn Gudmundsson, nearly 50 years. She looks out her living room window, past the sheep grazing on knuckles of grass-covered lava, past the black basalt beach, to the few birds drifting over the water beyond. "You can't do that anymore. Now there are so few."

Iceland, circled by the food-rich currents of Atlantic, Arctic, and polar waters, is the Serengeti for fish-eating birds. Its rocky coast, hillocky fields, and jutting sea cliffs are breeding grounds for 23 species of Atlantic seabirds, hosting an indispensable share of Atlantic puffins, black murres, razorbills, great skuas, northern fulmars, and black-legged kittiwakes.

But the nests have gone empty in the past few years, and colonies throughout the North Atlantic are shrinking.

The suspected culprits are many. But the leading candidates are the array of profound changes under way in the world's oceans—their climate, their chemistry, their food webs, their loads of pollutants.

Warming oceans and earlier thaws are driving away the seabirds' prey; unleashing deadly, unseasonal storms; and knocking tight breeding schedules off-kilter. Mounting carbon dioxide absorption and melting glaciers are acidifying and diluting the aquatic balance, jeopardizing marine life and the creatures that depend on it for food.

Alarmed scientists have returned from fieldwork throughout the North Atlantic with sobering descriptions of massive chick die-offs and colonies abandoned with eggs still in the nests.

Read the full story at National Geographic

SEAFOODNEWS.COM by Michael Ramsingh — August 26, 2014 — The International Seafood Sustainability Foundation says some recent rhetoric from regional news agencies that has suggested the bigeye tuna stock in the Western Pacific is on the verge of collapse. In their view, this is simply not true.

While the Foundation does agree that the region's bigeye stock is on the decline and is being overfished, the group said there is still time to the right the ship.

 

 

 

 

According to the ISSF's Victor Restrepo data from the Scientific Committee of the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission shows the bigeye tuna stock is declining but not on the brink of extinction as some participants in WCPFC meetings have suggested this summer. In 2014 the stock assessment for the fishery showed a depletion level of 16 percent. Restrepo points out that this is actually smaller than 2011's 21 percent depletion, and the current WCPFC target is 20%.

"Rather than new information on the imminent collapse of bigeye tuna, what the assessments truly depict is an expected result of ineffective conservation and management measures adopted by WCPFC – measures that have failed to end overfishing," said Restrepo in his blog post on the ISSF website.  He says that the overfishing level (F/msy) has actually increased, rising to 1.57 when it should be below 1.0.

Restrepo said the industry needs to focus on recommitting to sound management practices and standards that regulate bigeye fishing across all gear types.

"Like most issues in tuna sustainability, a multi-faceted approach to the challenge is necessary. Management should consider the relative impact of all fishing gear types on the stock. Ignoring that longline and purse seine fishing associated with FADs have about the same impact on the reproductive potential of the stock, some groups are calling for a full FAD ban. While it is true that effective FAD monitoring and management is of the highest priority, managers need to consider all gear types that impact the stock," said Restrepo.

For the Western bigeye stock, reduced catches will solve the problem says Restrepo, which will only be achieved through a streamlined and useable management plan similar to what is already being used to manage tuna fishing in other parts of the Pacific.

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