Science

PROVINCETOWN, Mass. — March 30, 2014 — Within a year, researcher Jooke Robbins hopes to identify the oldest humpback off New England.

A new DNA technique, developed using data about the humpback whales off New England and Australia in a study Robbins contributed to, will allow scientists to pinpoint the age of the animals — and many others marine mammals.

The new skin-sampling technique and its scientific basis are in a study that has been accepted for publication in the journal Molecular Ecology Resources. The research was conducted by the Australian Antarctic Division, in collaboration with Robbins, who leads the humpback whale research at the Provincetown Center for Coastal Studies, and the Australian Genome Research Facility.

Knowing the ages of humpback whales can help scientists determine if their population is rebounding, particularly in areas where decades of intensive commercial whaling has lowered their numbers.

Knowing the ages can also help determine if certain age groups are more or less vulnerable to human activities, and when and if females stop reproducing, said David Wiley, research coordinator at Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary in Scituate.

Also, scientists will be able to construct family trees for animals known to be related, and determine maximum age and average life span in specific whale populations.

Read the full story from the Cape Cod Times

WASHINGTON — March 28, 2014 — For more than a century, federal scientists have worked on Pivers Island near the historic town of Beaufort, N.C., and the beaches of Emerald Isle studying the ocean, and the fish, turtles and dolphins of its sea grass estuaries and rocky reefs.

Surrounded by three university labs, it’s one of a handful of oceanography hubs in the nation and the only government research center between New Jersey and Miami studying Atlantic fish populations.

So it came as a surprise recently that the federal government has proposed doing away with the ocean science laboratory, which opened in 1899.

Tucked in President Barack Obama’s 218-page proposed budget for 2015 was a one-sentence mention of a plan to close one lab to save money. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration subsequently identified it as North Carolina’s historic research station.

“NOAA’s Beaufort lab has conducted valuable fisheries and coastal science for more than 100 years,” said NOAA spokeswoman Ciaran Clayton. “However, this aging facility requires infrastructure repairs and improvements exceeding agency budget resources now and for the foreseeable future.”

The coastal and ocean agency plans to shift instead to grants to non-agency scientists. Closing the lab would mean the loss of 108 jobs locally. NOAA intends to relocate the federal scientists. What will happen to the lab’s 31 government contractors is less clear.

Members of the North Carolina congressional delegation say they’ll fight to keep the lab open, but its prospects are unclear. It’s one of few cuts proposed in the Commerce Department’s $8.8 billion budget.

Read the full story at McClatchy DC 

MYSTIC, Conn. — March 25, 2014 — A 19th century ship that sailed the globe hunting whales for their oil for decades has been restored and will sail the New England coast this summer to promote conservation strategies for the animals.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on Tuesday announced a partnership with Mystic Seaport to support the upcoming journey of the Charles W. Morgan. NOAA’s Office of National Marine Sanctuaries will work with the museum to develop science and outreach activities around the voyage.

‘‘America’s pursuit of whales is an epic story of global dimensions that shaped the nation’s identity,’’ said Daniel Basta, director of the Office of National Marine Sanctuaries. ‘‘Today, thanks to pioneering work by sanctuary scientists and others to understand whale behavior, and develop conservation strategies to reduce risks to whales, we’re writing a new chapter based on respect and stewardship for these magnificent creatures of the deep.’’

The museum has spent five years restoring the ship, which was built in 1841.

Read the full story by the Associated Press at The Boston Globe 

 

March 25, 2014 — The following was released by the Aleutian King Crab Research Foundation:

Alaska’s golden king crab fleet has signed on for the long haul to learn more about those far flung stocks.

The crabbers will help state and federal scientists survey the entire range of the Aleutian Islands golden crab population, an 800 mile span from Dutch Harbor to Atka. It will be the first time such an extensive survey has been undertaken, said John Hilsinger, science advisor for the Aleutian King Crab Research Foundation, a harvester group.

Hilsinger said: “We need to survey the whole area in order to get a reliable index of what’s out there.”

Up through 2006 Alaska biologists surveyed a small part of the Aleutian crab region, he said, “but they don’t have the money to do it now.”  That’s where the Foundation stepped in.

By using the crab fleet to set the pots and collect the data during their fishery, researchers can cover a larger area that has never been surveyed before. Hilsinger said for the first time managers will have a good idea of the size, age and sex makeup of the golden king crab population, and how they are distributed at different depths.

In helping science, the boats may be required to fish in areas where they normally wouldn’t. Catching the crab is tricky, no matter where they go. The goldens live on flat sandy bottom, but also among steep underwater mountains and canyons as deep as 800 fathoms.  The fleet normally fishes the flatter areas between 100 and 300 fathoms.

The expanded crab surveys will start yielding useable results in three to five years, Hilsinger said, and it could be 10 years before a ‘proven track record’ of the population can be modeled over time.

“The crabbers are very committed to help over that time frame. That’s a real major contribution by the fleet,” Hilsinger said.

Meanwhile, the Aleutians golden king crab fishery harvest has operated under a six million pound fixed cap for decades and crabbers believe the catch could be higher. Eventually, it could overtake Bristol Bay and become Alaska’s largest king crab fishery.

If the new expanded survey design gets the ok from managers in May, the Aleutians golden king crab survey will begin in mid-August when the fishery gets underway.

Read the release here

March 23, 2014 — Taking head counts of fish isn't glamorous work, but it's made literary stars of sorts out of a team of researchers at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science.

A new non-fiction children's book called "Counting the Fish in the Sea" depicts the ongoing efforts of Jim Gartland, multispecies survey leader at VIMS, and his colleagues to gather wide samples of fish species in order to gauge the overall health of the ocean. The book is written for children ages 8 to 12.

"I hope they get a better appreciation of the ocean, and for all the sea life in it," Gartland said Friday from his office in Gloucester Point. "Particularly along the coast — Virginia, New Jersey, places like that — where a lot of kids are exposed to the ocean. There's a lot of life beneath the surface that needs to be explored."

The author is Carolyn Miller, a former teacher and now a reporter in Cape May, N.J., who cruised along with Gartland's team during one of their sampling surveys in 2008. Gartland said Miller approached them later about writing a children's book about their work, and he was immediately on board with the idea.

Children are not strangers to the sea, but they don't really understand what's going on beneath it," Miller said in a statement. "They know the excitement that comes with catching a fish, but it's important for them to know there are rules and regulations to keep the sea healthy and the fisheries well-managed and secure for generations to come."

Originally from Philadelphia, Gartland said his own interest in the sea was piqued when he was about 11 while flounder fishing with his father off the New Jersey coast. A boat from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA, pulled up next to them to begin their fish sampling work, and he was hooked.

Read the full story at the Newport News Daily Press

March 24, 2014 — Propelled through the water by enormous front flippers, leatherbacks are on the surface only a fraction of the time, and a Cape Codder could go through life and never see one, said Scott Landry, director of whale and sea turtle rescue programs at Provincetown's Center for Coastal Studies.

"It's almost like they are ghosts," Landry said.

A newly released study written by University of Massachusetts doctoral candidate Kara Dodge tracked 20 of those "ghosts" using specialized satellite tags and found that nearly all stayed in waters just off the Cape for the whole summer, eating jellyfish in some of the most heavily trafficked and fished waters in New England. It's not a combination that bodes well for this federally and internationally listed endangered species.

"They are in coastal areas in shallow water … where they are at a higher risk of ingesting plastics and getting hit by boats, which is a common cause of death. They face entanglement in any kind of line," Dodge said. "It's a perfect storm of hazards for these huge flippered turtles."

The past two summers have been particularly tragic for leatherbacks, with Landry's team called to assist in disentangling 37 in 2012 and 52 last summer, far above the dozen or so it typically would see.

Robert Prescott, director of Massachusetts Audubon Society's Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary, said the Caribbean and other countries where leatherbacks come ashore to lay eggs have been doing their part in protecting them.

"Now it's back on us. We're killing them here," Prescott said.

Two of the 20 turtles Dodge and her associates tagged died during the 2007-2010 study period. One was entangled in fishing gear and drowned, and the other died after ingesting a 3-by-1-foot sheet of plastic.

But how to protect a species that is rarely seen and whose habits are largely unknown?

Dodge and others hope this study combined with future research helps to provide data that will tell boaters, fishermen and other water users where these turtles are likely to be and how to avoid them.

"In the leatherback life history there are huge gaps in understanding," said Molly Lutcavage, of UMass Amherst's Large Pelagic Research Center in Gloucester, a study collaborator and Dodge's adviser. "This is among the first studies in foraging areas."

Read the full story at the Cape Cod Times

March 19, 2014 — A first-of-its-kind satellite tagging study of migrating New England leatherback turtles in the North Atlantic offers a greatly improved understanding of their seasonal high-use habitats, diving activity and response to key ocean and environmental features in relation to their search behavior. Leatherbacks are considered endangered species in all the world's oceans.

The study, part of doctoral research by Kara Dodge supervised by her advisor, Molly Lutcavage of the University of Massachusetts Amherst's Large Pelagics Research Center (LPRC) in Gloucester, followed leatherbacks in their northern US feeding grounds. It allowed for a rare glimpse into the migratory patterns and behavior of immature and adult male turtles.

Most satellite tagging studies of leatherbacks have focused on adult females on their tropical nesting beaches, so little is known worldwide about males and subadults, the researcher point out. But now, tagging and satellite tracking in locations where leatherbacks forage has allowed the scientists to get a much richer picture of the leatherback's behavior and dispersal patterns on the open ocean.

Findings suggest that a habitat model that includes ecoregion, topography and sea surface temperature best explains the leatherbacks' search patterns for prey. The tagged leatherbacks in this LPRC-led study showed a strong affinity for the Northeast U.S. shelf during the summer and fall when full-sized jellyfish are present.

Read the full story at Science Daily 

March 20, 2014 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

Scientists using passive acoustic monitoring to track minke whales in the Northwest Atlantic have found clues in the individual calling behaviors and movements of this species. These findings, recently published online in the journal Behaviour, provide insight into one of the least studied baleen whales.

“Although we regularly observe minke whales in our Gulf of Maine surveys, we know very little about minke whale vocalizations and how they use sound in their behavioral and social interactions,” said Denise Risch, lead author of the study and a marine mammal researcher at NOAA’s Northeast Fisheries Science Center (NEFSC).

Information on individual calling behaviors and source levels are important in understanding marine mammal social interactions. Risch and colleagues used passive acoustic recordings to track and assess the sound production behavior of 18 minke whales in the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary (SBNMS) in the Gulf of Maine. The study periods were October – November 2009 and August – October  2011.

The recordings came from arrays of bottom-mounted marine autonomous recording units, MARUs, deployed in the sanctuary since December 2007 to continuously record low-frequency sounds. The recordings are analyzed for the presence of vocally active baleen whales and fish species. The sound data are also being used to calculate a noise budget for the sanctuary and to examine potential effects of human-induced noise on the acoustic communication of marine animals. 

Sounds produced by minke whales in the Gulf of Maine region have only recently been described in more detail, thanks in part to the recordings from the Stellwagen Bank MARUs. A 2013 study by Risch and others on minke whale acoustic behavior and vocalization patterns in Massachusetts Bay described seven distinct pulse train types, which fall into three main categories and occur with varying frequency. The behavioral significance of these vocalizations and whether they are specific to sex, age, recording site, or season is unknown.

Given that the minke whale vocal repertoire has several typical call types, the main objective of this study was to investigate whether individual minke whales use the full vocal repertoire, or combine pulses in predictable sequences. How individuals use the different call types when they interact with other individuals was also a study priority.

Read the full press release at NOAA Fisheries 

 

SEAFOOD.COM NEWS by John Sackton — March 19, 2014 — MAFAC – The Marine Fisheries Advisory Committee for the Dept. of Commerce, made a presentation to the regional fisheries management councils at their meeting last month outlining their recommendation for a NOAA sustainable fisheries label.

The key point is to certify and trace those fisheries which comply with US laws, and are neither overfished or experiencing overfishing.   Such fisheries are sustainable within the meaning that a) they are conservatively managed at or below maximum sustainable yield, b) they comply with US marine habit and ecosystem protections, and c) the process of setting their TAC's and responding to new information is public, open and transparent, with full opportunity for stakeholder engagement.
 
MAFAC recognizes that NOAA is wading into an area where many such certifications exist, for different purposes.
 
The MAFAC was asked to study the feasiblity of a certification for those fisheries that are sustainable due to their compliance with US laws.
 
Their recommendations were:
 
1.  The program would be a fee for service program, aimed at a business to business certification.  It would use existing resources including NOAA's fishwatch, and the seafood inspection service.  Finally, the program would recognize where there were limits on its scope.
 
2.  The annual cost would be up to $1.2 million, paid through user fees, and the startup cost would be between $100,000 and $500,000.  For users, the cost of the program would be around $1000 per year.
 
Target fisheries would include wild caught US seafood, landed in US ports in accordance with Magnuson and other laws.
 
The fishery stock status would have to be known, and the fishery could not be overfished nor have overfishing occuring.
 
Full traceability would be required through chain of custody programs, provided by third parties.
 
NOAA seafood safety inspection would serve as an auditor to evaluate the adaquacy of traceability, and NOAA would develop other policies or rules for a seafood inspection audit.
 
The purpose of the program would be to provide US seafood sellers with a verification system, including registration on fish watch, that customers could use to verify that the product is sustainably caught under US laws and management programs and is fuly traceable, and subject to external audits.
 
MAFAC suggests that companies using the scheme would be registered and have certificates listed on www.Fishwatch.gov.

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

NEW BEDFORD, Mass., — March 19, 2014 — The following was released by the Massachusetts Marine Fisheries Institute: Scientists, fishery managers, fishermen, groundfish sector managers and other stakeholders from throughout New England contributed to a workshop focused on reviewing the fishery monitoring system in New England, specifically for the Northeast groundfish fishery. The workshop was hosted by The Massachusetts Marine Fisheries Institute (MFI) as the third in a series that forms an end-to-end review of groundfish stock assessments and management1.

Terms of Reference

    1. Document current protocols and sampling designs for the fishery monitoring programs and resource surveys.
    2. Document the current data needs of management and science, including any changes anticipated to these needs. Determine if these needs are being met by current sampling programs.
    3. Recommend revisions to the current data collection system to improve the ability to meet the scientific and management needs.
    4. Provide recommendations for an optimal sampling system to meet scientific and management needs.
    5. Provide recommendations that are relevant to the general topic.

Conclusions and recommendations were intended to be complementary to the NMFS review of data collection programs in 2013. Consensus recommendations developed at the workshop relative to surveys and fishery-monitoring programs are provided below. A more detailed workshop report will be provided as a part of the integrated end-to-end review of groundfish stock assessments and management.

  Read the full summary here