Conservation & Environment

Many North Atlantic fish spend an important part of their life cycles in coastal eelgrass habitat, and eelgrass is declining. Eelgrass is a native submerged aquatic plant found in shallow waters from Nova Scotia to North Carolina’s Outer Banks. In the northern areas this hearty plant spends part of each year under sea ice. It is not a true grass, but a flowering plant that evolved from terrestrial flora. With thin, streamlined leaves, and an extensive root system, it is uniquely adapted to thrive in ocean tides and swell. What it isn’t adapted to deal with is nutrient pollution, dredging, and other anthropogenic stressors that have our productive eelgrass meadow areas on the decline.

Why does this matter to fish? Eelgrass is one of the most valuable habitats in the northeast. For example, in the early 1930s a “wasting disease” decimated 90% of the Atlantic eelgrass communities. This decline took a heavy toll on, among other things, bay scallops. Bay scallops are a commercially important shellfish that range from Cape Cod to Florida, and are very dependent on seagrass meadows. Not only do they attach to living eelgrass leaves after their larval stage, but they consume decaying leaves for a significant portion of their diet. Bay scallops declined dramatically throughout their range, coincident with the wasting disease, and populations didn’t begin to recover until the mid-1940s. Some populations, such as those in the Chesapeake Bay, have never come back.  Lobsters, clams, and other invertebrates also declined.

Loss of eelgrass habitat has an effect on other commercial fishery species as well. Some of these animals, such as cod, winter flounder, and lobster use eelgrass meadows as a refuge in their early life stages. The eelgrass provides places to stay hidden, feeding opportunities, and shelter from wave energy. Some species, such as striped bass, bluefish, tautog, and fluke will use eelgrass habitat as adults, as a place to hunt and forage.

In addition to providing a place to eat and live, eelgrass is part of the foundation of our marine food web. Eelgrass is a primary producer – turning aquatic carbon dioxide into food and energy through photosynthesis; it is then eaten by many animals that are then consumed by our commercially important species. In short: eelgrass matters a lot to New England fishery resources, and its decline is not good news.

Read the complete story from TalkingFish.org

 

 

 

 

 

January 31, 2012 – Old tensions – and some new ones – reared their heads during a recent conference call to discuss the future of the menhaden fishery, including the growing divide between the industrial menhaden harvester, Omega Protein Inc, and the smaller bait companies.

Now that the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC), the regulatory agency that manages menhaden, has decided to limit the amount of menhaden that can be harvested from Atlantic and estuarine waters, a new amendment to the fishery management plan is being developed to detail how the reduction will be achieved.

Certain management measures could disproportionately benefit the big industrial fishery over the bait harvesters, and vice versa.

Recommendations to the ASMFC on the nascent amendment will be hammered out during several meetings including the Advisory Panel for the Atlantic menhaden fishery, a group of stakeholders, recreational fishermen, environmentalists and others with an interest in how the menhaden fishery is managed.

Read the full article at the Public Trust Project.

Analysis: In their recent article recounting the January 26th meeting of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) Advisory Panel for Atlantic menhaden, the Public Trust Project cites comments from conference call participants in order to depict the reduction and bait fisheries as being increasingly at odds with one another over the future of menhaden management. The article suggests that the future of the fishery will be “divided” and that bait companies “won’t benefit from a continued alliance” with the reduction industry. However, several industry stakeholders quoted in the Public Trust Project’s story see the future differently, and when contacted for further comment clarified their views.

“I don’t see [a division] at all,” says Jeff Kaelin of Lund’s Fisheries, a commercial bait dealer and a participant in the Advisory Panel meeting. “I would not count that discussion as characterizing a departure between the two sectors.”

Rather than devolving into a zero-sum competition between the bait and reduction fisheries, Kaelin sees potential for cooperation between the reduction and bait sectors of the fishery in the management process. The goal, he says, is still to find the best management options for the fishery. “I’m still focused on the science,” Kaelin explains.

Jennie Bichrest, of Maine’s Purse Line Bait, was also quoted in the story, but strongly disagrees that there is what the article refers to as a “growing divide” between the two sectors. “We need to stand together and work through the issues,” she said. “I have never felt like Ron [Lukens, Senior Scientist at Omega] was representing a ‘big, corporate’ interest.”

Another participant in the call, bait dealer Jimmy Kellum, considers the relationship between the bait and reduction industries to be more cooperative than competitive. “We have no animosity towards Omega,” he says. “If Omega dies, I’m going to die with them.”

 

 

WILMINGTON — The Delaware River's near-mythical Atlantic sturgeon won endangered species protection Tuesday, a move reflecting the big and long-lived bottom feeder's century-long slide from fishing industry mainstay to rarely seen victim of pollution, overfishing and habitat loss.

The federal listing could complicate the Delaware River main channel deepening project in areas where sturgeon spawn, feed and once teemed. It also could lead to designation of some upriver areas as critical habitat requiring special attention.

Members of the Delaware Riverkeeper conservation group warned hours after the announcement that they would work to "ensure that the project does not jeopardize the continued existence of any Atlantic sturgeon" and said that the subgroup species found in Delaware is "presently in danger of extinction."

The National Marine Fisheries Service ruling covered four populations of sturgeon, including the New York bight group that includes the Delaware River, the Chesapeake Bay, the Carolina coast and South Atlantic. A fifth group, in the Gulf of Maine, were listed as threatened.

Read the complete story from DelmarvaNow.com

 

 

 

 

 

BOSTON — Whether they got lost, sick or swam astray chasing food, 77 dolphins that beached on Cape Cod in recent weeks have died, the second time in three months New England has seen a mass of marine mammal deaths.

Now, scientists are trying to figure out why.

They're also researching whether there's any connection to a die-off this fall of 162 harbor seals, whose carcasses were found between northern Massachusetts and Maine.

Scientists later determined the seal deaths were linked to an influenza virus similar to one found in birds but never before seen in seals. In a letter earlier this month, Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry and Rep. William Keating asked Jane Lubchenco, head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, to investigate "any common cause" between the dolphin and seal deaths.

"That is a big question," said Mendy Garron, regional marine mammal stranding coordinator for the National Marine Fisheries Service, part of NOAA. The initial indications are that there is no link, she said, but it's too early for a definitive answer. Necropsies are under way to determine the causes of death, and that can take a few weeks.

Read the complete Associated Press story from The Kennebec Journal

 

 

 

 

 

The new fishing season might seem like a long way off but we're really only a couple months away from when folks will begin extracting fishing rods from attics and sheds, pulling winter tarps from their boats, and reviewing their charts, just to make extra sure they're set and ready for the fun times ahead. The natural optimism found in most anglers may foster aspirations for a new fishing season filled with beautiful weather and stringers full of big fish. But in these times when it seems fishermen are so often hampered by political, environmental, and economic issues, even the most optimistic angler can sometimes have trouble keeping a smile on their face when the winter news carries so many headlines of "doom and gloom." So it's always refreshing to hear some good news about positive developments within the fishing industry. On that note, let me reintroduce to you the Ocean City Reef Foundation and MARI.

Its activities may not always capture front-page headlines, but since 1997 the Ocean City Reef Foundation has been busy creating and enhancing offshore fish habitat through an ever-expanding network of artificial reefs. From boats to barges, cable to concrete, tanks to trains, in recent years Reef Foundation administrators have strategically submerged so much material off our shores that give fish traveling through Maryland waters a reason to reside and reproduce off our coast.

There have always been artificial reefs off Ocean City. But, until the Reef Foundation got to work, offshore structure was restricted to a small handful of boats and ships that accidentally sank, or structure that was intentionally put down by a few well meaning anglers on a very limited basis. Consequently, local wreck fishing used to be practiced by a relatively small segment of local anglers who, through years of trial and error, acquired the coordinates to the bulk of offshore structure. Since no one wants to schedule their day around fishing a certain wreck and then find someone else already anchored over it, once obtained these coordinates were very seldom shared with other fishermen. With such limited opportunities, local wreck fishing was destined to remain one of Ocean City's best-kept secrets.

Not any more. The OC Reef Foundation has been so successful at seeding the waters that fishermen no longer have a need to keep a good thing to themselves. There's plenty of places to fish, and plenty of fish once you get there.

Read the complete story from DelmarvaNow.com

 

 

 

 

 

MATTAPOISETT —The town is among eight seaside communities asked to participate in a state-funded project aimed at restoring bay scallops in areas impacted by the 2003 Bouchard barge oil spill in Buzzards Bay.

Michael Gagne said the Buzzards Bay Cooperative Bay Scallop Restoration Project is a four-year, $1.8 million project managed by Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries that hopes to seed 15 million juvenile hatchery-raised bay scallops in the hospitable coastal waters of Mattapoisett, Marion, Wareham, Fairhaven, Dartmouth, Westport, Falmouth and Bourne.

The state Division of Marine Fisheries proposes to purchase the scallop seed required for the project from Taylor Seafood in Fairhaven, Aquaculture Research Corp in Dennis, and possibly the nonprofit shellfish hatchery operated by the Martha’s Vineyard Shellfish Group.

During the spring and early summer of the first year, Marine Fisheries biologists will consult with shellfish officers in the eight communities to identify suitable 5-acre restoration sites within recreational fishing areas in each town, Gagne said. Seeding sites will be selected based on past history of recreational scallop fishery, presence of low numbers of indigenous scallops, suitability of habitat to support scallop growth and survival, abundance of scallop predators, including crabs, star fish and conch, and exposure to meteorological and hydrographic impacts, including wind and waves, ice conditions and inordinate storm water run off, according to the state Division of Marine Fisheries.

Read the complete article from Wicked Local

 

 

 

 

 

​The management system used for Alaskan halibut and other Pacific fisheries could help restore healthy fish populations and make fishing more profitable if widely adopted, according to new study published in the latest issue of Marine Policy.

Researchers found "catch shares," which assign a specific amount of the total allowable catch to a fisherman or group of fishermen, are more effective than collective catch limits at averting overfishing and destructive fishing practices.

Study co-author Kate Bonzon, who works for the Environmental Defense Fund, compares fishing management strategies to a parent's handling of the situation that unfolds after a pinata's broken at a child's birthday party. Traditional fisheries management — in which fishermen are constrained only by rules regulating boat size, gear type and calendar date — is analogous to a parent trying to slow a candy rush by insisting each child only use one hand.

If a parent was to use the catch share approach, Bonzon says, he or she would say, "You can each get 10 pieces of candy. You have to stay within your limit or find someone willing to give you candy. Go after sugary candy, go after chocolate candy, go after whatever you like." Bonzon says the strategy would result in children behaving less frantically, a scenario that exactly mirrors what happens at sea.

Read the complete story from The Seattle Weekly

 

 

 

 

 

Writing in the latest issue of "Nature," a trio of scientists — two of whom are associated with NOAA administrator Jane Lubchenco's longtime advocacy for catch share fisheries — have proposed a similar "catch and trade" allocation policy to help bring to an end commercial whaling.

The authors, Christopher Costello, Leah R. Gerber and Steven Gaines, argue that, by allocating whale shares to nations based on "historical whaling patterns … transactions would reduce the number of whales harvested, quite possibly to zero, unlike existing protocols (that) seem to be increasing the catches."

In the Jan. 12 Nature article, headlined "A market approach to saving the whales," the authors explain that, by their estimates, global profits from commercial whaling of $31 million were nearly matched by the expenses, $25 million, of anti-whaling activism.

Read the complete story from The Gloucester Times.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Environmental campaigners are again calling for a clampdown on fishing in one of the world’s most remote and untouched oceans after two ships suffered serious accidents in the icy waters. The accidents — in which a number of crew are believed to have died — carry a pollution risk as well as raising questions over whether any fishing should be allowed in the Ross Sea, near Antarctica.

The Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition (ASOC) says that the incidents show that controversial attempts to exploit toothfish found in the sea are leading vessels into danger and threatening the environment.

“This is one of the last places on Earth where we have this pristine environment,” says James Barnes, executive director of the coalition, whose members include Greenpeace, the WWF and the Pew Group. “It’s not going to be pristine for long.”

At the end of last year, the fishing vessel Sparta was holed by ice in the Ross Sea and had to be assisted by a Korean icebreaker before it could limp into port. This January another fishing boat in the sea — the Jeong Woo 2 — caught fire, and its crew had to be rescued by vessels including a US research ship. Reports suggest the Jeong Woo 2 is still ablaze and the BBC says three crew members died in the accident.

Read the complete story from Nature News Blog

 

 

 

 

 

 

A new proposal by three academics aims to end a deadlock over whaling – a decades-long argument pitting “whaling is wrong’’ against “you have no right to end our cultural tradition.’’

The researchers suggest a new system, in which permits are given out that grant the right to kill a whale, with a clever twist: The permits could then be auctioned, allowing environmental groups to buy them from the whalers, limiting the hunt. Whales could be saved – for a price. It’s a creative proposal that offers a novel approach where one is badly needed: Whaling policy is stuck in the wrong century.

Whale hunting goes back millennia, but by the 18th century, new maritime technology made the practice truly intensive. When the market for whale oil boomed, ports like Nantucket and New Bedford flowed with tremendous wealth; the mansions of whale captains still stand, and still impress. The whalers became too good at their vocation, though, and whale populations plummeted.

Read the complete story from the Boston Globe.