Conservation & Environment

RICHMOND, Va. — March 28, 2014 — The Chesapeake Bay watershed is among eight areas in the nation being designated critical conservation areas.

U.S. Sens. Mark R. Warner and Timothy M. Kaine said Tuesday that designation ensures federal funding to help implement a variety of conservation projects.

With the designation, the bay is eligible to receive a portion of more than $100 million in annual funding. It would be used to help implement a variety of conservation projects and increase the sustainability of regional water, soil, wildlife and natural resources.

Read the full story at the Richmond Times Dispatch 

 

May 23, 2014 — The University of New England announced Friday that the Marine Science Center's Marine Animal Rehabilitation and Conservation program is closing.

The university established the Marine Animal Rehabilitation and Conservation program in 2001 to help rehabilitate and release marine mammals, specifically gray and harbor seals. UNE said that the seal numbers have rebounded, so MARC no longer needs to rehabilitate marine animals.

Ed Bilsky, the vice president of research and scholarship at the University of New England, also noted the need for seal rehabilitation has been reduced since 2001, when they were endangered. Bilsky estimated 1,000 seals have been rehabbed in the past 13 years there.

The Marine Science Center at UNE provides a unique opportunity for college student because it is directly on the main campus and located near the Saco River Estuary. UNE said they will continue educating students about marine mammal behavior, biology and policy.

Read the full story at WCSH

May 24, 2014 — After a morning spent whale watching in Monterey Bay, the passengers on the Point Sur Clipper on April 27 didn't notice anything amiss when they first spotted the humpback.

But unlike the other whales, the 25-foot-long young adult stuck near the surface — and it didn't dive down to feast on the blooms of krill that attract humpbacks to the bay. "It wouldn't fluke up," said Nancy Black, a marine biologist on board the ship that day, referring to the picture-perfect tail flip that humpbacks display before diving to feed. Looking closer, the passenger on the Point Sur also noticed several buoys were strangely close to the whale, trailing behind it.

Black called the U.S. Coast Guard, which soon discovered that the whale was ensnared in a crab pot line. That led to a weekslong rescue effort involving federal and state agencies, six nonprofits, several businesses and dozens of volunteers, who battled rough seas from Monterey to Santa Barbara to free the humpback and give it a shot at survival.

Such large-scale whale rescues are likely to become more common as the population of humpbacks and other whales continues to climb along the California coast, after being suppressed by centuries of whaling. The humpbacks swim north during the spring and summer to feed, clashing with the end of crab season, which in Monterey Bay extends into July.

Most crab pots are removed from the water in the winter, after the largest crabs are taken, said Pete Kalvass, a senior marine biologist with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. So in the past, he said, whales rarely tangled with crab fishing gear. But in the last month, four entangled whales were reported off the West Coast. Two were freed, including a humpback let loose May 6 off the Oregon coast. Crews were unable to attach satellite telemetry tags to two others, and they have not been spotted again.

Once snagged, it wasn't easy to free the whale, the rescuers said as they recounted the adventure.

After Black called the Coast Guard shortly after noon that Sunday, the Guard activated the Whale Entanglement Team, a trained volunteer squad affiliated with the National Marine Fisheries Service. Affectionately called WET, the squad stayed close to the whale, giving the fare-paying passengers on the Point Sur Clipper an extra-long trip.

By 3 p.m., team members had clipped a satellite tag to the gear already wrapped around the whale. Now, wherever the humpback went, they could find it. And that was key, said Pieter Folkens, team leader and marine mammal expert.

Read the full story at the San Jose Mercury News

May 25, 2014 — HOUSTON (AP) — It seems like a simple proposition: American lakes, rivers and offshore waters are filling up with destructive fish and crustaceans originally from other parts of the world, many of them potential sources of food.

So why not control these invasive populations by getting people to eat them?

The idea has gained momentum recently from the lionfish, which invaded the Gulf of Mexico but was successfully marketed to restaurants and today appears to be in decline.

But businesses and scientists have struggled to repeat this apparent triumph with other species. Some, such as Asian carp, are not appetizing to Americans. Others, like feral hogs, reproduce too quickly to make a dent. And then there's the question of whether turning them into sought-after cuisine undermines the larger goal of eliminating them.

"Eating invasive species is not a silver bullet," said Laura Huffman, the Nature Conservancy's director in Texas. But it can still be "a way to get people engaged in the topic and in the solution."

The lionfish, a striped saltwater species with a flowing mane of venomous spines, is native to the Indo-Pacific Ocean and was first spotted in parts of the Gulf and off the East Coast a little more than 10 years ago. The skilled predators damage reefs and devour native fish, and they are eaten only by sharks – or larger lionfish.

People soon learned that beneath the lionfish's spiky skin lies a buttery, flaky meat that is perfect for ceviche, taco filler or as an alternative to lobster. After a few years of intense fishing and brisk fillet sales, the population is dropping.

But similar efforts targeting feral hogs, Asian carp and the Himalayan blackberry have been far less successful.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the New Jersey Herald

May 23, 2014 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

In the past few weeks, we’ve seen more whales hit by ships along the eastern US seaboard than is typical for this time of year. Three ship strikes, involving two sei whales and a fin whale, have occurred with vessels inbound to New York City, NY and Philadelphia, PA.

“It’s not clear why we’ve seen an increase in collisions, but it may be that whales are coming closer to shore following food,” said Mendy Garron, coordinator, Marine Mammal Stranding Network, Greater Atlantic Regional Fisheries Office. “At least one of the whales, which was necropsied (animal autopsy), had a full stomach.”

We want to remind mariners, the US has had measures in place to help reduce the threat of vessel collisions  along the east coast since 2008. The rule requires that vessels 65 feet or greater in length to travel at 10 knots or less in certain areas and during certain seasons where endangered North Atlantic right whales may be present. This rule applies within 20 nautical miles around all major ports in the mid-Atlantic. NOAA Fisheries researchers report approximately 80 percent of right whale sightings in the mid-Atlantic are within 20 nautical miles of shore. NOAA also established a program for temporary voluntary speed limits in other areas when an aggregation of three or more right whales is confirmed. There are a number of other steps mariners can take to help reduce the chances of hitting a right whale. Click here for details.

These ship speed restrictions were put in place primarily to protect the North Atlantic right whale, one of the most endangered whales in the world. They also benefit other species that use coastal areas to migrate, feed, and nurse their young.

Read the full story at NOAA Fisheries 

 

SEAFOODNEWS.COM [SCOM] — May 23, 2014 — NOAA and the Puget Sound Restoration Fund (PSRF) have signed a formal agreement to work with state, tribal and industry partners in Washington State on a 10-year plan to rebuild populations of native Olympia oysters in Puget Sound and restore 100 acres of oyster habitat by 2020.

According to the PSRF native oyster populations in Puget Sound are at less than 4% of historic levels. This significant decline affects the region’s ecology, as well as the cultural tradition of tribes who harvest shellfish for a living.

The project will be headquartered along the shores of Washington state’s Kitsap Peninsula at NOAA’s Manchester Research Station.  The PSRF said the facility has been at the forefront of aquaculture since the 1970s, and with the completion of a modern shellfish hatchery onsite, scientists, research and restoration partners are better equipped to improve the conservation of native shellfish.

Goals of the project include: Culture genetically-diverse native oysters and preserve local populations; expand the ability to restore native shellfish habitat in the Pacific Northwest; advance the technology and practices of the shellfish aquaculture industry; understand the impacts of ocean acidification on shellfish and other marine life and improve monitoring to better predict changes in seawater chemistry that may affect shellfish hatchery operations.

Meanwhile, future research will focus on the culture of other marine life in Puget Sound, including rock scallops, Pinto abalone, and macroalgae.

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

 

May 23, 2014 — Nearly 300 million tons of plastic was produced in 2012. Large amounts of this ends up in the ocean, near coastlines or in swirling eddies such as the Great Pacific garbage patch. A new study has found plastic debris in a surprising location: trapped in Arctic sea ice. As the ice melts, it could release a flood of floating plastic onto the world.

In a study published recently in Earth’s Future, scientists argue that as Arctic ice freezes, it traps floating microplastics, resulting in abundances of hundreds of particles per cubic meter. That’s least two orders of magnitude greater than those that have been previously reported in highly contaminated surface waters, such as those of the Great Pacific garbage patch.

The authors estimate that, under current melting trends, more than 1 trillion pieces of plastic could be released in the next decade.

Read the full story at the Barents Observer 

 

May 22, 2014 — Whale watchers are reportedly seeing an “unusual amount” of whales in Scituate’s Stellwagan Bank. Between 20 and 30 humpback whales are spotted per 3-hour cruise, according to CBS.

The influx of whales is apparently due to the amount of sand lances— eel-like “sea candy”– swarming the bank.

Laura Howes of the New England Aquarium told CBS the whales are eating “about a million a day.” She also reported that the fish are “not only feeding the whales but the seabirds and all types of big fish.” This includes smaller Minke and Finback whales.

Read the full story and watch the video at the Boston Globe

May 21, 2014 — Bureo skateboards look like fish because they are made from old fishing nets.

They started out as garbage — fishing nets discarded in the waters off Chile. About 640,000 tons of these nets clog the world's oceans, and that's only a tenth of the world's debris.

According to a report from the Coastal Conservancy, in just one day, worldwide volunteers picked up more than 12 million pounds of rubbish from beaches and waterways. The top three culprits were cigarette butts, food wrappers and plastic bottles.

"And we were just struck with this issue of plastic in the ocean, and we just kind of made a mission to do something about it," says Bureo co-founder David Stover.

Stover, along with co-founder Ben Kneppers, started in Chile, where fishing is a major industry. They figured out how to convert the fish nets into plastic pellets, which could be used in a mold. And Bureo Skateboards was born.

"Every day has been a battle, to be perfectly honest," Kneppers says. "I mean, we've had to create an entirely new supply chain from scratch."

Read the full story at watch the video at CBS News

May 20, 2014 — Off the coast of Papua New Guinea, there's a carbon dioxide seep that's giving marine biologists a view into the future. The water around the seep, while abundant with life, is highly acidic, with CO2 levels much like those predicted for surface ocean water 100 years from now.

View the video at the Boston Globe