Science

October 30, 2013 — The following was released by the NOAA Northeast Fisheries Science Center:

One day every other week for much of the year, Mike O’Malley, a fisheries scientist at NOAA's Orono Field Station, places his acoustics gear into an open 19-foot aluminum skiff named the Silver Smolt at Turtle Head Marina in Hampden, near Bangor, and heads downriver to Fort Point on the lower Penobscot River estuary. For the next six hours or so, he monitors fish biomass in the estuary using hydroacoustics, a low cost, non-intrusive way to monitor the system on a large scale. Using this approach, scientists can obtain baseline data for some of the restoration efforts underway to remove dams and restore fish habitat. Changes induced by these efforts may first be detected in the estuary.

Click here to read the full release from NOAA

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. — October 29, 2013 — One of two oarfish found in Southern California waters earlier this month had a host of parasites living in its giant, serpent-like body.

Scientists from the University of California, Santa Barbara last week dissected the 18-foot oarfish found off Catalina Island and found large, larval tapeworms in its intestine. An adult spiny-headed worm also was found embedded in the intestine.

Read the full story from MyFoxNY

October 29, 2013 — The following was released by NOAA:

NOAA's National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), in coordination with the New England and Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Councils (Councils), is soliciting monkfish research proposals to utilize 500 Monkfish Days-at-Sea (DAS) that have been set-aside by the Councils to fund monkfish research endeavors through the 2014 Monkfish Research Set-Aside (RSA) Program. No Federal funds are provided for research under this notification. Rather, proceeds generated from the sale of monkfish harvested during a set-aside DAS will be used to fund research activities and compensate vessels that participate in research activities and/or harvest set-aside quota. Projects funded under the Monkfish RSA Program must enhance the knowledge of the monkfish fishery resource or contribute to the body of information on which monkfish management decisions are made. Priority will be given to monkfish research proposals that investigate research priorities identified by the Councils and detailed under the Program Priorities section of this announcement.

A. Program Objective

Amendment 2 to the Monkfish Fishery Management Plan (FMP) established the Monkfish RSA Program, which sets-aside 500 monkfish DAS annually from the total number of monkfish DAS allocated to limited access monkfish vessels, to address monkfish research priorities identified by the Councils. NMFS, in coordination with the Councils, is soliciting proposals for monkfish research to be conducted under the 2014 Monkfish RSA Program. DAS will be awarded to successful applicants.

B. Program Priorities

Projects funded under an RSA DAS award must enhance understanding of the monkfish fishery resource or contribute to the body of information on which management decisions are made. NMFS and the Councils will give priority to funding research proposals in the following areas. The priorities are listed in order of importance.

2014 Monkfish RSA Program Research Needs and Priorities:

1. Research on monkfish life history focusing on: (a) age and growth, (b) longevity, (c) reproduction, and (d) natural mortality;

2. Migration patterns focusing on: (a) short- and long-term movements with respect to management areas and off-shelf movements, and, (b) habitat use;

3. Research concerning trophic interactions of monkfish with other species and monkfish cannibalism;

4. Cooperative research surveys to fill in gaps in current survey coverage;

5. Research concerning bycatch and discard mortality focusing on: (a) Target species (i.e., monkfish or Northeast multispecies), and (b) non-target species (e.g., monkfish or skate); and

6. Trawl and gillnet gear studies focusing on: (a) Size and/or species selectivity, and, (b) bycatch reduction, including reducing bycatch of and interactions with protected species.

Full proposals must be received and validated by Grants.gov on or before 5 p.m. EST on Monday January 6, 2013.

Please contact Cheryl Corbett with any questions.

Read the full announcement from NOAA

 

 

COPENHAGEN — October 25, 2013 — The following was released by the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES):

The International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) will be taking a lead role in advancing the integrated scientific understanding of marine ecosystems and in providing advice on the sustainable use and protection of these ecosystems. These commitments are documented in the new Strategic Plan, charting the course for ICES for the next five years 2014–2018.

“ICES is well known for providing evidence-based advice on fishery management. However, there is a need for science and advice to go beyond traditional assessments of the status of fish stocks. The new ICES Strategic Plan commits to building a foundation of science that depends on improving our understanding of marine ecosystems, and producing integrated advice needed by decision-makers that is based on timely and accurate data and information,” said Paul Connolly, the ICES President.

The Strategic Plan was endorsed at the annual ICES Council meeting held in Copenhagen this week. The plan will be implemented through four coordinated action plans related to Science, Advice, Data and Information, and the ICES Secretariat, all of which will be finalized in February 2014.

The ICES Council of Delegates, representing the organization’s 20 member countries, decided to further support the transition towards integrated ecosystem understanding by establishing a special Science Fund. A request for research proposals to be supported by this fund will be announced next month, and further information will soon be made available on the ICES website.

The delegates also agreed to forward a letter to the European Marine Directors outlining how ICES can contribute to the Common Implementation Strategy (CIS) for the EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive (EU MSFD). ICES offers an efficient and responsive intergovernmental process that can generate routine science-based environmental advice essential for the successful implementation of the EU MSFD.

The EU MSFD, the Convention on Biological Diversity (CDB), and the World Summit on Sustainable Development are interrelated legal frameworks that require an integrated understanding of marine ecosystems to support an ecosystem-based approach to ocean management.

The Council has also elected three new committee Chairs for a 3-year term starting on 1 January 2014: Yvonne Walther (Sweden) for the ICES Science Committee (SCICOM), Eskild Kirkegaard (Denmark) the ICES Advisory Committee (ACOM), and, as of 1 November, Pierre Petitgas (France) the ICES Awards Committee.

The Council is the principal decision and policy-making body of ICES, and is led by the President, Dr. Paul Connolly. For more information, visit the ICES website.

For further information, please contact:
Terhi Minkkinen, Communications Officer
International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES)
Tel. +45 33 38 67 16
E-mail: terhi.minkkinen@ices.dk

View a PDF version of the press release

September 23, 2013 — Oxford University researchers presented some research at a London conference this month linking low omega-3 blood content with children who struggled with reading. Their research was also published in the journal PlOS One.

This study was one of the first to evaluate omega-3 fatty acid blood levels in U.K. children. Blood samples were taken from 493 schoolchildren between the ages of 7 and 9 years old. All of the children in the study were below average in reading skills. All of these children were found to have omega-3 levels below the minimum percent suggested by scientists for cardiovascular health.
 
Professor Paul Montgomery, co-author of the study, said this about the study:

"From a sample of nearly 500 schoolchildren, we found that levels of omega-3 fatty acids in the blood significantly predicted a child's behavior and ability to learn. Higher levels of omega-3 in the blood, and DHA in particular, were associated with better reading and memory, as well as with fewer behavior problems as rated by parents and teachers. "
In other words, the lower the child’s omega-3 fatty acids, the more likely that child was to have behavioral and learning issues.

Read the full story at Mother Nature News

NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — October 23, 2013 — NOAA's Northeast Fisheries Science Center has opened this year's competition for scallop research grant money.

Institutions making proposals have until Dec. 2 to file them with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The science center judges the competition but gets no revenue from it. The program is financed by the set-aside of a fraction of scallop landings expressly for this purpose.

The Cooperative Research Program has existed for several years, and UMass Dartmouth's School for Marine Science and Technology typically wins several grants each year.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

October 22, 2013 — Some are claiming that oarfish washing ashore is a sign that an earthquake will soon follow. Shortly before the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami struck Japan, about 20 oarfish stranded themselves on beaches in the area, Mark Benfield, a researcher at Louisiana State University, told LiveScience in an earlier interview.

Finding a giant oarfish washed up on the beach is a rare occurrence, since the fish is a deepwater species that's rarely seen at all. So when a second oarfish was found just five days later, the rumor mill kicked into high gear.

An 18-foot-long (5.5-meter) oarfish carcass discovered on Oct. 13 was considered a once-in-a-lifetime event for beachgoers on Catalina Island off the coast of Southern California. But that event was followed five days later by a second oarfish, measuring 14 feet (4.3 meters), found on a beach in San Diego County.

The oarfish is known in Japan as ryugu no tsukai or "messenger from the sea god's palace," according to the Japan Times. Dozens of the deep-sea denizens were discovered by Japanese fishermen around the time a powerful 8.8-magnitude earthquake struck Chile in March 2010.

Kiyoshi Wadatsumi, a specialist in ecological seismology, told the Japan Times, "Deep-sea fish living near the sea bottom are more sensitive to the movements of active faults than those near the surface of the sea."

Read the full story at NBC News 

 

WASHINGTON (Saving Seafood) — October 23, 2013 — In this installment of Saving Seafood Radio, Dr. Olaf P. Jensen, assistant professor at the Rutgers University Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences, discusses research from his global fisheries research database that dispels misconceptions that depleted stocks cannot recover.

The RAM Legacy Stock Assessment Database, which was rolled out in 2012 by Dr. Jensen and fisheries scientists at the University of Washington and Dalhousie University, offers detailed information on the global estimated abundance of fish stocks and fishing levels over time. Dr. Jensen has used this collection of information to examine the effectiveness of fisheries management techniques, including the impacts of the catch shares program.

His data indicates that once fishing mortality rates are reduced sufficiently, depleted populations tend to rebound, as long as environmental factors are not contributing to the decline. This research sheds new light on the resiliency of fish populations and contradicts the notion that stocks reach a “point of no return” from overfishing.

Using the tools developed by Dr. Jensen, fisheries scientists around the world are able to access and contribute to the stock assessment database. Now scientists who are examining a particular stock can use data from similar fisheries in other parts of the world to guide their research. Dr. Jensen’s efforts will hopefully improve future stock assessments and collaborative research efforts on a global scale.

Listen to the full interview with Dr. Olaf Jensen

Read more about Dr. Jensen’s work in this article that appeared in the Providence Journal

 

LA JOLLA, Cal. — October 21, 2013 — A 14-foot oarfish that washed ashore in Oceanside last week was about to give birth, according to a team of scientists who were busy dissecting the carcass of the rarely seen sea creature Monday and attempting to determine why it died.

The team, gathered in La Jolla at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said it’s too soon to know what happened to the oarfish, which was found five days after an 18-foot specimen was discovered dead off the coast of Catalina on Oct. 13. Oarfish sightings are rare because the long silvery fish typically live in water more than 600 feet deep.

Though experts were still studying the data, observers on social media were quick to spout theories about the deaths, ranging from fallout from the Fukushima nuclear disaster to the possibility that a major earthquake could soon strike Southern California. Japanese legend holds that oarfish beachings are a predictor of big temblors. According to news accounts, 10 oarfish washed ashore in Japan about a year before a devastating 8.9 earthquake struck the northeast part of the country in March 2011.

Scientists said Monday there was nothing to support a connection between oarfish and earthquakes.

“You would need more evidence to establish cause and effect,” said Milton Love, a marine biologist at the University of California, Santa Barbara. “If someone drank a gallon of milk before a heroin overdose, did the milk cause the overdose?”

Read the full story at the San Diego Union-Tribune

October 21, 2013 — We don't know how else to put it: you aren't ever likely to get a more charming look inside a penguin's brain than this.

Fluffy is an African black-footed penguin who was having a hard time doing normal penguin things, like "balancing, standing and waddling around," according to a media release put out by the University of Minnesota, which received the 18-year-old bird in late July.

After conducting a battery of inconclusive tests, veterinarians decided to give Fluffy a brain scan — the first penguin MRI that vet Micky Trent had ever come across. "So this was a first," Trent says in this video — which, happy spoiler, ends with the adorable Fluffy receiving antibiotics, regaining his balance, and going off to eat more fish with his buddy named BJ. In the middle, which is also exciting, you'll get to see an image of the penguin's brain.

Watch the video and read the full story at the Huffington Post