Conservation & Environment

The Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs has released the following: BOSTON – July 28, 2010 – A team of 20 scientists led by the Massachusetts Office of Coastal Zone Management (CZM) and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Sea Grant program will scour docks and piers along the Massachusetts coast from Cape Cod to Cape Ann this week, searching for and identifying non-native marine species.

The four-day Massachusetts sweep is part of a seven-day effort to collect, identify and catalogue marine organisms in coastal waters from Cape Cod through Maine's mid-coast. While some of these introduced species will never become established populations, others pose a great threat to the Commonwealth's environment, economy and public health.

"Invasive species can have devastating consequences for native marine ecosystems and present unique challenges for stewards of bays, beaches and estuaries – the very places that give the Massachusetts coast its special character," said Energy and Environmental Affairs Secretary Ian Bowles, whose office includes CZM. "This week's survey will give us the up-to-date information we need to safeguard natural resources along the Commonwealth's shoreline."

CZM and MIT Sea Grant, a research program of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), are coordinating the inspection of permanently floating docks and rocky shores in Westport, New Bedford, Sandwich, Bourne, Plymouth, Boston, Salem and Gloucester. Goals of the study include developing a baseline inventory of marine species, identifying species recently introduced to local ecosystems and helping natural resource managers prevent and control future invasions of non-native species. Surveys in 2000, 2003 and 2007, revealed over 30 introduced marine organisms, several of which were identified for the first time in New England coastal waters.

"Factors such as international shipping and the growth of aquaculture have recently accelerated the spread of non-native species into local waters," said Deerin Babb-Brott, EEA Assistant Secretary for Ocean and Coastal Zone Management and CZM Director. "This rapid assessment survey helps us to identify problem areas so we can find solutions. I'd like to thank all of the researchers who are contributing their time and expertise to make this ambitious effort a success."

In New England coastal waters, the European green crab and Asian shore crab prey on commercially valuable native shellfish, while other invasive species damage piers and pilings, clog pipes and cause public health problems through disease and pathogens. Of particular concern is recent discovery of the fast-growing sea squirt Didemnum vexillum on the highly productive shellfish beds of Georges Bank. With the potential to cover the sea floor like a mat, this species threatens to impact scallop fishing.

The following is the research schedule for the rapid assessment survey:
• July 26 – Westport
• July 27 – Sandwich Marina in Sandwich, Popes Island Marina in New Bedford and the Massachusetts Maritime Academy in Bourne
• July 28 – Rowes Wharf in Boston and Brewer's Marine in Plymouth
• July 30 – Winter Island and Hawthorne's Cove in Salem and the Gloucester State Fish Pier

Other organizations participating and providing funds and support for this week's survey include the Massachusetts Bays Program, Casco Bay Estuary Partnership, Northeast Aquatic Nuisance Species Panel, Piscataqua Region Estuaries Partnership, Narragansett Bay Estuary Program and Rhode Island Bays, Rivers, and Watersheds Coordination Team. Scientists participating in the project include CZM staff and researchers hailing from The Netherlands, Brazil and across the United States.  
Editor's Note: To join any of the events, contact Bruce Carlisle at (617) 626-1205 or Anne Donovan at (617) 626-1213.
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by Kate Bonzon

In continuing with our look at harvesting cooperatives as a part of our Catch Share Conversations series, the Pollock Conservation Cooperative in Alaska's Bering Sea shows a good example of how a cooperative form of catch share can lead to conservation and economic benefits for fisheries.

The Pollock Conservation Cooperative (PCC) was established in 1999 and is made up of six member companies operating 19 catch-processor vessels. As an industry led initiative, the PCC is used to coordinate harvesting activities that promote conservation of fish stocks and better utilization of landed fish. The PCC has resulted in slower paced pollock fishing, a longer season – from 74 days in 1998 to 285 days in 2009, and 50 percent more product per pound of fish landed.

Read the story in full from the EDF.

 

 

 

 

 

Arctic Storm President Doug Christensen discusses how his company catches & processes fish from two of the world’s top fisheries

Arctic Storm President Doug Christensen says, “There’s a strong focus on continual innovation on what we do with our fish. We’re constantly trying to figure out ways to make more products with the same amount of fish. By doing so, we’ve increased our fishmeal output, added fish oil output and added high recovery lines that increase our frozen human consumption food output.”

This rationalized harvesting arrangement allows industry participants the time to create innovative techniques. “We’re assessing new technology continuously. We do a lot of work with equipment that was employed in other industries that we’re finding great applications for in fish production,” Christensen says.

For instance, decanters are used for the recovery of fish meal and fish oil, which is then utilized onboard the vessels to fuel power generators, boilers and equipment. On the harvesting side, Arctic Storm has employed devices in nets that exclude species of fish that it is not targeting. This results in the catch of over 99 percent target fish, making for a very clean fishery.

With the price of fuel being high in recent couple years, the company has invested in conservation of diesel fuel. “Recently, we invested in power generation in our vessels. We’re just doing things in a more fuel efficient manner,” Christensen says.

The company has gone from producing fresh water each day through a heat-generated evaporation technique to a reverse osmosis process that requires pushing salt water through smaller filters until it is fresh. Propeller blades and engine arrangements have also been changed to conserve fuel.

In 2005 the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certified the North Pacific pollock fishery as sustainable and awarded its valued eco-label to products produced from that fishery. In 2010 the west coast whiting fishery was also awarded the MSC eco-label. The MSC was formed by the world’s largest environmental organization, the World Wildlife Fund, as an independent organization that identifies the best environmental choice in seafood for consumers. The MSC, a group highly valued by the industry and consumers like, has evaluated the fishery and techniques for harvesting, and certified it as sustainable. All Arctic Storm pollock and whiting products are MSC certified. Christensen says, “Harvesting in a certified sustainable manner will allow this fishery to last for many generations to come. That’s the hallmark of our sustainability.”

Read the complete story from Business Review USA.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

July 23, 2010 – Move over Asian carp, you're not the only pesky species to be eyed by the seafood industry as a potential food source. Officials in Virginia  have set their sights on the homely cownose ray, whose population has exploded, in part because of a sharp decline in their natural predator, the inland coastal shark. The population boom is bad news for valuable Chesapeake oysters, clams and scallops. Hungry rays have been known to wipe out entire shellfish beds with their powerful crushing jaws.

Mike Hutt, executive director for the Virginia Marine Products Board  has been working to develop a market for the red-fleshed cownose ray (renamed a more appealing Chesapeake Ray), but don't expect it to taste like its white-fleshed cousin, skate.

"It's not flaky, and it has a texture and tastes closer to veal or beef," says Hutt.

Ray Popson, seafood manager at Wegmans in Hunt Valley, Maryland introduced the Chesapeake Ray in his store this morning by handing out tasty samples and placing a whopping 30-pound whole ray on display.

Read the complete story from Slashfood.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

NEW BEDFORD – July 25, 2010 – Representatives from the Environmental Defense Fund came to New Bedford last week, at the invitation of The Standard-Times, to discuss the new rules governing the groundfishing industry. The new regulatory system, known as sector management or catch shares, took effect on May 1.

The EDF, a nonprofit group founded in 1967, has become a strong advocate for the controversial new system that some in the industry claim will force smaller fishermen out of business.

In a meeting with the newspaper's editorial board, Sally McGee, New England policy director for the EDF's oceans program, who also serves on the New England Fisheries Management Council, said that the shift to a catch share system, in which groups of fishermen band together into "sectors" to share fishing quotas, became necessary because of mandatory catch limits imposed by the Magnuson-Stevens Act, the federal legislation governing U.S. fisheries.

The system does not make good economic sense to its opponents in the fishing industry. Criticism of the catch share system has been vocal, stemming principally from fears among fishermen that it will lead to consolidation within the industry and force many smaller boats out of business as a result of insufficient quotas.

Fishermen also maintain that the methods employed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to allocate fishing quotas to individual boat owners were flawed, a view shared by Gov. Deval Patrick. In a July 16 letter to U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke, Patrick asked for an increase in catch limits, saying that the "history for allocations has left some smaller-boat fishermen with an unfair share of the catch."

McGee said the fisheries council is looking to address these issues by refining some elements of the sector program, first by establishing "consolidation caps" to limit the percentage of the fishery that an individual can hold.

"That needs to be in place quickly," McGee said. "A lot of things need to be addressed," she added, "but that is not a signal that we rushed ahead with this. This was three years in the works. You can't anticipate every eventuality."

To help smaller operators stay in business, permit banks are a viable option, she suggested. Permit banks, already in place in Maine, Gloucester and Cape Cod, acquire groundfish permits and then lease them to fishermen while stocks recover, she said. "These can allow people who may be marginal to stay in if they need to purchase or lease more quota."

However, consolidation among the groundfish fleet is nothing new, according to Richard Allen, a former fisherman who now is an EDF consultant. "From 1995 until now we've lost X number of boats, and that's not a catch share issue. We just had far too many boats with too much capacity for the stocks. The fleet was consolidating under the days-at-sea rules and we're going to continue to see that," he said. "Those who protest against catch shares and catch limits very seldom have an alternative approach to fisheries management."

Frank Mirarchi, a Scituate fisherman who runs a 55-foot day boat with his son, was invited to the meeting by EDF staffers. Mirarchi said he knew several fishermen who now own more than one boat. "A lot of these people don't want to maintain three boats," he said. "In general, the aging of the fleet is a problem. These people would like to have one boat, to run their business more efficiently. But if it gets to a level where jobs are lost or the volume of business is diminished, then consolidation is not such a good thing. Where that level is I don't know."

Read the complete story at The South Coast Today [subscription site]

NOTE: The Standard-Times is a subscription site.  Unregistered visitors are able to read three stories per month, and registered visitors may view ten.  For unlimited access, please follow the subscription instructions on the site. 

July 23, 2010 – Last night, Jane Lubchenco, Administrator for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said at a press conference that NOAA is reopening a third of the "overall closed fishing area of the Gulf of Mexico after a consultation with our partner, the Food and Drug Administration-and under a reopening protocol agreed to by NOAA, the FDA and the Gulf States."

The area encompasses 26,388 square miles and lie Southeast of the overall area, Lubcheno said.  The reopening became effective last night at 6:00 Eastern Time. "It gives fishermen access to important fishing grounds, and because NOAA followed a reopening protocol agreed to by the FDA, NOAA and the Gulf States, it also protects consumers and helps prevent contaminated seafood from entering the marketplace."

NOAA will continue to monitor the situation in the gulf by taking samples for testing on the newly re-opened area, and the agency has also implemented dock site sampling to test fish caught throughout the Gulf by commercial fisherman.

Read the complete story from The Examiner.

 

 

 

 

 

 

ST. PETERSBURG, FL – July 23, 2010 – Through a chemical fingerprinting process, University of South Florida researchers have definitively linked clouds of underwater oil in the northern Gulf of Mexico to BP's runaway Deepwater Horizon well – the first direct scientific link between the subsurface oil clouds commonly known as "plumes" and the BP oil spill, USF officials said Friday.

Until now, scientists had circumstantial evidence, but lacked that definitive scientific link.

The announcement came on the same day that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced that its researchers have confirmed the existence of the subsea plumes at depths of 3,300 to 4,300 feet below the surface of the Gulf. NOAA said its detection equipment also implicated the BP well in the plumes' creation.

Together, the two studies confirm what in the early days of the spill was denied by BP and viewed skeptically by NOAA's chief – that much of the crude that gushed from the Deepwater Horizon well stayed beneath the surface of the water.

Read the complete story from The Miami Herald.

 

 

 

 

 

KODIAK, Alaska – July 22, 2010 – Salmon processed at a Kodiak plant will be getting a new label touting is connection to sustainable energy.

Island Seafoods hopes to attract customers by noting that its fish were processed with power from Kodiak Electric Association's Pillar Mountain wind turbines.

"We're going to have a green label that says something like, 'Sustainable fish produced by clean, sustainable wind turbine energy,'" Island Seafoods general manager John Whiddon told the Kodiak Daily Mirror.

Read the complete story from the Boston Globe.

 

 

 

 

 

HONOLULU (AP) – July 21, 2010 – Fishermen who use longlines to catch ahi, mahimahi and other fish off Hawaii should use a different kind of hook so they don't accidentally severely injure or kill a rare dolphin species, a federal advisory group said.

Longline fleet captains should undergo training on how to release any mistakenly caught false killer whales in a way that minimizes the chance they'll be seriously harmed, the group told the National Marine Fisheries Service, the federal agency responsible for regulating the fishery.

The agency had asked scientists, fishermen, conservationists and regulators to form the advisory group and make recommendations.

It acted in response to data showing the fleet is accidentally killing or seriously injuring an average of 7.4 false killer whales each year. This exceeds the 2.5 per year that the population can lose without hurting its ability to sustain itself.

Read the complete story from ABC 6.

 

 

 

 

 

 

July 19, 2010 – Writer Paul Greenberg has been eating fish caught in local waters since he was a kid growing up in Connecticut. Most of the fish he caught himself — but occasionally, he would visit the fishmonger in his hometown and purchase wild fish, fresh from the sea.

But when he visited fish markets as an adult, he realized that the types of fish for sale had changed. Instead of a variety of wild-caught fish, Greenberg saw four varieties of fish — salmon, sea bass, cod and tuna — that seemed to consistently be on fishmongers' shelves, despite having little to do with the waters adjacent to his local fish market.

In his new book, Four Fish: The Future of the Last Wild Food, Greenberg investigates how those four fish came to dominate the seafood market, and examines how the wild fish industry has changed in the past three decades as the business of fishing became more industrialized.

Listen to the story from NPR.