Science

LOS ANGELES — Across the vast Pacific, the mighty bluefin tuna carried radioactive contamination that leaked from Japan's crippled nuclear plant to the shores of the United States 6,000 miles away – the first time a huge migrating fish has been shown to carry radioactivity such a distance.

"We were frankly kind of startled," said Nicholas Fisher, one of the researchers reporting the findings online Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The levels of radioactive cesium were 10 times higher than the amount measured in tuna off the California coast in previous years. But even so, that's still far below safe-to-eat limits set by the U.S. and Japanese governments.

Read the complete story from The Cape Cod Times.

 

 

 

 

 

 

May 24, 2012 – Young scallops are thriving off the mid-Atlantic coast, boding well for the catch in three years of Virginia watermen plying the waters of what's considered the most valuable wild scallop fishery in the world.

Recent surveys by researchers from the Virginia Institute of Marine Science found an abundance of 2-year-old scallops in the first two of the year's five assessments of the bivalves.

A record-breaking number of scallop seed were observed in late April in the DelMarVa closed area — off the coast of Delaware and the Eastern Shore of Maryland and Virginia —and in early May in the Hudson Canyon closed area located off the coast of New Jersey, said Bill DuPaul, a VIMS emeritus professor. A tow in the northern part of the Hudson Canyon closed area yielded more than 13,000 seed.

"Anything over 100 seed scallops per tow is pretty good, anything above 1,000 is excellent and anything above 10,000 is remarkable," DuPaul said.

Read the full story at the Hampton Roads Daily Press.

 

 

May 24, 2012 – Newswise — (Gloucester Point, VA) Recent surveys by researchers at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS) reveal an unprecedented number of young scallops in two fishery management areas off the mid-Atlantic coast. The high levels of scallop “seed” should generate significant commercial catches in three years, when the scallops are five years old.

That’s good news for the continued success of the Atlantic sea scallop fishery, a model of effective collaboration among scientists, resource managers, and commercial fishing interests that now sustains the most valuable wild scallop fishery in the world. U.S. scallop landings totaled $455.1 million in 2010 (latest available data).

The VIMS surveys are part of the Sea Scallop Research Set-Aside Program, a unique component of the Atlantic Sea Scallop Fishery Management Plan in which commercial scallopers each year set aside proceeds from a portion of their “Total Allowable Catch” to fund scallop-related research. This year’s set aside is for 1.25 million pounds.

VIMS emeritus professor Bill DuPaul, a key figure in establishing the scientist-scalloper partnership in the mid-1980s, says “Scallops are currently valued at $9.35 per pound, so this year’s set-aside will fund more than $10 million of research.” The research is administered through a competitive grant program managed by the National Marine Fisheries Service with input on research priorities from industry advisors.

 Read the full story at Newswise here.

 

 

May 21, 2012 – Speaking at the World Fisheries Congress 2012, Graham Patchell, from the Sealord Group New Zealand and Chief Scientist for the Southern Indian Ocean Deepsea Fishers Association (SIODFA), asked whether deepwater fisheries were overfished or simply misunderstood. Charlotte Johnston, TheFishSite editor reports.

Mr Patchell said that the biggest challenge for deepwater fisheries was ensuring that data, that can really tell you what is happening in the deep ocean, is available for management decision making.

He went on to say that there was a lot of premeditated information about deepwater fisheries that was inaccurate. In fact, he said, many "overfished" stocks are now seen as sustainably managed, as the industry's understanding of the stocks has increased.

Read the full story here.

 

 

An American chemist says he's found a substance – several, in fact – that can repel some of the most fearsome predators in the ocean. He wants to use his discovery to protect them, and us.

He watched how the sharks fed, swam, and behaved. Then, one day, he accidentally dropped a large magnet from his workbench. He noticed some small nurse sharks dart away.

Stroud thinks that was the moment he discovered that magnets repel sharks.

He demonstrates the effect at the Bimini Biological Field Station in the Bahamas. He stands waist-deep in water, just offshore, in a fenced-in pen in the sea. Several young Lemon sharks glide around the perimeter. One of Stroud's assistants captures one of them and slowly rotates it onto its back underwater. This puts the shark into a sleep-like state.

Read the complete article from The BBC

 

 

 

 

 

Young loggerhead sea turtle hatchlings, just two inches long, use a combination of strategic swimming interspersed with passive drifting in ocean currents to migrate around the North Atlantic basin after emerging from nests on eastern Florida beaches, according to new research led by a marine biologist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

“Young turtles probably rely on a strategy of ‘smart swimming’ to optimize their energy use during migrations,” biologist Kenneth Lohmann said in a news release issued by the National Science Foundation about the research. “The new results tell us that a surprisingly small amount of directional swimming in just the right places has a profound effect on the migratory paths that turtles follow and on whether they reach habitats favorable for survival.”

The research by Lohmann’s team was published in the June issue of the Journal of Experimental Biology, and was partially funded by the foundation.

The conclusions were based on computer simulations combining ocean currents and ‘virtual turtles” swimming for various periods of time. The results challenge previous conclusions that young sea turtles drift passively, with their distribution determined only by ocean currents, the press release said.

Read the complete article in The Times-Picayune

 

 

 

 

 

The latest numbers on the status of fisheries in the United States, released today by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), show continued progress toward ending overfishing. Six stocks that were previously overfished have been declared rebuilt—having reached a healthy population size—the biggest improvement since NOAA began issuing the reports in 1997. That raises the total number of rebuilt stocks to 27. "This is evidence that we are moving in the right direction and that sacrifices that fishermen have made are paying off," says Lee Crockett of the Pew Environment Group.

All told, 86% of the 258 major stocks reviewed by NOAA are in good shape.

But more remains to be done. Forty-five stocks remain overfished (the population is below the target) and 36 others are still "subject to overfishing," or, in other words, being caught at too high a rate. Both of these metrics, however, improved slightly from the previous year.

In a teleconference, Galen Tromble of NOAA's Office of Sustainable Fisheries credited the gains to the annual catch limits required by federal law and the rebuilding plans implemented by regional fisheries councils.

Read the complete article at ScienceMag.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

Just this month, New England fishermen absorbed a 22 percent cut in the catch of cod in the Gulf of Maine and an 80 percent cut in the yellowtail flounder catch on Georges Bank.

The lower catch limits present a huge problem for already stretched New England fishermen, because they prevent them from going after the more abundant fish the cod and flounder swim among. Fishermen have predicted catastrophe for the industry by next year unless something changes.

Tromble said New England is unique because the fish off its coast have been under pressure for so long, both from the industry's early beginnings and the foreign fleets who heavily fished its waters until the U.S. government kicked them out in the mid-1970s.

Also, he said, fish reproduction on important stocks has recently lagged in New England, compared to other regions, and it's unclear why.

To many fishermen, the problem is flawed fishery science. Their doubts have recently been fueled by radical shifts in the population estimates. The cut in Gulf of Maine cod, for instance, came just four years after scientists said the species was robust.

"It's a dynamic environment out there and the data that we have from the fishery reflects that," Tromble said. "So sometimes we get results that aren't what we expect. We've just had an unusual amount of that in New England recently."

  

BOSTON (AP) May 14, 2012— A record number of fish populations have been rebuilt in U.S waters, even as problems continue to threaten the future of the high-profile New England fishing industry, according to a federal report released Monday.

Six species that were once considered overfished have rebuilt to optimal population levels in waters from the Bering Sea to the Atlantic Coast, according to the annual report to Congress by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's fisheries arm.

The report also said just 45 of 219 fish populations (21 percent) were considered overfished in 2011.
Still, 13 of those stocks are in New England. That's the most, by far, of any geographic region.
Emily Menashes, acting director of NOAA's sustainable fisheries office said, overall, the report shows, "We are turning the corner on ending overfishing."

But New England is defying the positive trends and it's unclear how that can change, said NOAA's Galen Tromble.
"It's a challenging situation and there aren't any easy solutions," he said.

Read the full article from the AP by Jay Lindsay.

 

 

May 11, 2012 – About one-quarter of seafood sold as ‘sustainable’ is not meeting that goal, according to an analysis taking aim at the two leading bodies that grant this valuable label to fisheries.

In an online paper in Marine Policy1 and at a conference this week in Edinburgh, UK, fisheries biologist Rainer Froese of the Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research in Kiel, Germany, launched a stinging attack on the schemes by the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) and the marine-conservation organization Friend of the Sea (FOS) to certify fisheries as sustainable. Such schemes aim to help consumers and retailers to support fisheries that are sustainable and not exploited by overfishing.

Both organizations approve certain stocks of fish and seafood to carry their logo, designating these species as environmentally friendly, and both say that their certification processes are scientifically credible. The presence of the logos can result in higher prices and increased consumer demand for food products that carry them.

To assess whether products certified by the two bodies came from sustainable stocks, Froese and his co-author Alexander Proelss of the University of Trier in Germany compared information from each organization with a variety of independent assessments by fisheries scientists and national and international fisheries management bodies. The authors examined 71 MSC-certified stocks and 76 FOS-certified stocks, including species of mackerel, swordfish and tuna, and concluded that 31% of the stocks labelled as sustainable by the MSC and 19% of FOS-certified stocks do not deserve the label.

Read the full story at Nature.

 

 

May 9, 2012 – The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has selected 13 collaborative projects for $12 million in research intended to help the scallop industry maintain a healthy fishery.

Since 1998, the scallop industry has set aside a portion of its annual catch limit to fund collaborative research with marine scientists. This year, that figure is 3 percent of the total catch, which equates to about $12 million.

The money is awarded by NOAA and distributed as grants to various research institutes. Among federal fisheries, set-aside programs are unique to the Northeast region.

In the past, the money has been used for a variety of projects to help manage the fishery sustainably, including stock assessments in areas where scallop boats fish, bycatch avoidance programs and, most recently, a modified scallop dredge designed to prevent loggerhead turtles from becoming entangled in the fishing gear.

"I attribute all of the progress in the scallop fishery to the research set-aside," said Ron Smolowitz of the nonprofit Coonamessett Farm Foundation in East Falmouth, which led the research into the new turtle gear.

It was a 1996 letter from Smolowitz to the New England Fishery Management Council suggesting an industry set-aside that initially led to the program's foundation.

The Coonamesset Farm Foundation, UMass Dartmouth's School for Marine Science and Technology and the Virginia Institute of Marine Science are the principal beneficiaries of this year's awards.

One of the SMAST proposals, awarded $836,000, is for the development of a hydrodynamic dredge. The dredge is intended to reduce yellowtail bycatch and sea turtle mortality while also reducing fuel consumption while dredging. The school will also receive $926,000 to conduct a high-resolution video survey of the scallop biomass in the Nantucket Lightship and Closed Area I fishing grounds.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard Times.