Science

NEWPORT — Jack Gale lined up with dozens of others today to be the first through the gates at NOAA’s Marine Operations Center.

Even after NOAA announced Newport as its new home for the pacific fleet, it was uncertain whether a formal protest might still derail the dream.

But it was the community’s attention to detail that set its bid apart, said U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden.

“You all did the heavy lifting, and you put together a proposal that was better than anybody else,” he said to loud applause.

The center not only will give Newport a much needed economic boost, but it also will add to the science discovery already happening at the Hatfield Marine Science Center, said Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber.

It will help unlock the ocean’s secrets, he said, so we can better understand the ocean and be better stewards.

 

Read the complete story from The Statesman Journal

 

 

 

 

 

NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — August 15, 2011 — Scientists from UMass Dartmouth's School of Marine Science and Technology are working with their counterparts from an environmental group, the Environmental Defense Fund, to develop a better understanding of the role that closed areas play in the management of fish stocks.

SMAST's involvement with EDF is certain to raise eyebrows on the New Bedford waterfront. The environmental group's advocacy for the controversial catch share system now governing the groundfishery in New England has convinced many in the industry that the EDF agenda is hostile to commercial fishing.

The goal is to determine how well closed areas are working, according to EDF senior marine scientist Jake Kritzer. "We're going to be looking at the permanent groundfish closed areas on Georges Bank, the Nantucket Lightship, the Gulf of Maine and Jeffrey's Ledge," he said. "And other closures used to control groundfish mortality, like habitat areas and seasonal closures."

Kritzer will partner with SMAST's Steve Cadrin to guide the project. Both men already work together on the Science and Statistical Committee, which advises the New England Fishery Management Council. The study will proceed in phases, mining existing data and, where gaps are identified, conducting new field research. Most of the actual research will be conducted by SMAST's Lisa Kerr with assistance from the University of New Hampshire's Jamie Cournane, who works closely with EDF.

"We feel this is a good scientific partnership," Cadrin said. "Some people believe that anything with the EDF stamp on it has a conservation agenda and is anti-fishing while others think that SMAST is a pro-fishing industry researcher.

"Neither one of those is true," he said. "SMAST does research that is important to fishermen but the science is objective."

 

Read the complete story from The South Coast Today

 

 

 

 

 

Influential marine scientist Brian Rothschild has charged NOAA with adopting an "unnecessarily hard-line," wrong, wasteful and job-destroying interpretation of Congress' intent for managing America's fisheries.

Finding no accountability, "no master plan" or will to align policy more closely with what was intended and no hope for redress from the judiciary, Rothschild — who is based at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth and is one of New England's most respected fishing advocates — proposed that Congress create an ad hoc commission to restructure fisheries management in the Northeast.

Rothschild issued his blunt judgments about the performance of the government and the courts in the aftermath of a June ruling by a federal judge in Boston that upheld the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's catch share policy management system, which data shows is bringing about a consolidation of the industry and forcing out small, independent boats and businesses.

Read the complete story from The Gloucester Times.

 

 

 

 

 

 

NOAA scientists have found that environmental factors have changed the distribution patterns of Atlantic mackerel (Scomber scombrus), a marine species found in waters from Cape Hatteras to Newfoundland, shifting the stock northeastward and into shallower waters.  Atlantic mackerel migrate great distances on a seasonal basis to feed and spawn, and are sensitive to changes in water temperature. These findings could have significant implications for U.S. commercial and recreational mackerel fisheries that mostly occur during late winter and early spring. 

In a paper published online in the American Fisheries Society journal Marine and Coastal Fisheries: Dynamics, Management and Ecosystem Science, researchers from NOAA’s Northeast Fisheries Science Center (NEFSC) reviewed annual changes in the winter and early-spring distribution of the Atlantic mackerel stock on the northeast U.S. continental shelf using spatial and standard statistical analyses of data collected on research trawl surveys.

“Our findings suggest that both the commercial and recreational Atlantic mackerel fisheries in the United States will probably be faced with more variable resource conditions in the future in terms of the winter distribution of the stock,” said study co-author Jon Hare of the Northeast Fisheries Science Center (NEFSC) laboratory in Narragansett, R.I. “The continental shelf is warming, increasing the area over which the stock can be distributed, while at the same time the distribution of the stock is shifting northward.”
 
Between 1968 and 2008, the overwintering distribution of the Northwest Atlantic stock has shifted about 250 kilometers (roughly 155 miles) to the north and about 50 kilometers (about 30 miles) to the east.  The Atlantic mackerel population has also shifted from deeper off-shelf locations to shallower on-shelf areas where more area is now available within the mackerel’s preferred temperature range. Atlantic mackerel prefer water above 5 degrees Celsius (41 degrees Fahrenheit).

The environmentally-driven shift in distribution patterns will probably make it more difficult to find and catch Atlantic mackerel in certain areas in the future. The authors note that the Canadian coastal commercial fishery has continued to thrive while the U.S. commercial mackerel fishery during the winter has declined in recent decades. The change in distribution pattern could also impact other species, since mackerel plays a central role in the food web of the ecosystem. Atlantic mackerel are prey for a wide variety of species; they eat mostly small crustaceans and plankton.

“Atlantic mackerel is one of many species shifting their distribution range as a result of changing oceanographic and environmental patterns,” said Hare. "Those include regional temperature changes from year to year and larger scale environmental forces or climate drivers such as the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) and the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO).  

Recent studies have indicated a northward shift in distributions of a number of species in this region (Nye et al., 2009), and work by Hare and others in 2010 documents a shift in the distribution and increase in biomass of Atlantic croaker (Micropogonias undulatus) associated with warming. This latest study on Atlantic mackerel by Hare and NOAA Fisheries co-authors William Overholtz (now retired) and Charles Keith of the NEFSC’s Woods Hole Laboratory in Massachusetts indicates that the changes in distribution are related to both interannual variability in temperature and a general warming trend on the Northeast Atlantic continental Shelf.

Despite the current high abundance of the stock, the changes could make it harder for U.S. commercial vessels to locate large schools of mackerel during the winter, when the majority of landings occur, because the fish are dispersed over a larger area within their preferred temperature range. The study also has implications for an early spring recreational Atlantic mackerel fishery in the mid-Atlantic region, which has declined steadily since the 1960s. The trends in recreational landings of Atlantic mackerel are unrelated to fishery regulations or management actions as there were no size limits, bag limits or constraining quotas in effect during this period. 

“If the data from the late 1960s are indicative of the southernmost limit in the overwintering population of Atlantic mackerel, the change in the northern and eastern extent of the winter distribution of the stock is relatively large,” Hare said. “Although there has been considerable interannual variability in the stock’s distribution from the late 1960s through the first decade of the 21st century, the Atlantic mackerel stock has progressively moved from the offshore mid-Atlantic region to the southern New England shelf, and is now on the continental shelf more often in winter and much farther north and east of their previous winter positions, moving most recently onto Georges Bank.”                          .

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In a study published online this week in Nature, an international team of researchers report the first complete sequence of the Atlantic cod genome and an unexpected discovery of the unique immune system of this important species.

Led by researchers from the University of Oslo, a consortium of Norwegian universities and aquaculture institutions turned to 454 Sequencing Systems from Roche (SIX: RO, ROG; OTCQX: RHHBY) to obtain a comprehensive de novo assembly of the highly complex cod genome at a fraction of the time and cost of traditional sequencing methods. Strikingly, the researchers found that Atlantic cod has lost genes that are essential for a critical component of its immune system. The findings call to question fundamental ideas on the evolution of the immune system in all vertebrate species.

"The overall aim of this initiative was to obtain the entire genome sequence of the Atlantic cod utilizing cutting edge sequencing technology," said study lead Professor Kjetill S. Jakobsen from the Centre for Ecological and Evolutionary Synthesis, University of Oslo. "We had not expected to find that the Atlantic cod had lost such a crucial component of its immune system." Despite lacking genes essential for the function of the major histocompatibility (MHC) II pathway, the Atlantic cod appears to function normally and relies on an increased number of MHC I genes and Toll-like receptor genes for its immune response. This finding will potentially allow for the development of more targeted vaccine development — aiding disease management and the process of domestication of Atlantic cod.

Seafood News is a subscription site.  This content is repoduced with permission.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CLOSED AREA 1

TUESDAY 8/2/2011: YT Update for 8/2: 39 boats reported 337 tows from 8/1 thru 8/2

YT catch was: MEDIUM: T1

LOW: A1,B1,C1,D1,E1,I1,J1,K1,M1,N1,O1,P1,Q1,S1,V1,W1,Z1,AA1,BB1, CC1,FF1,GG1

NO DATA: F1,G1,H1,L1,R1,X1,Y1,DD1,EE1, HH1,LL1,JJ1,KK1

Cell T1 had some high YT catch.

Next report 8/3.

Thank you!

Read the complete advisory from SMAST.

 

 

 

 

 

Over 200 scallop vessels have signed up to participate in this year’s University of Massachusetts School for Marine Science and Technology (SMAST) Yellowtail Flounder Bycatch Avoidance Program.  Participants in the program range from North Carolina to Massachusetts and include owner-operated vessels as well as vessels from larger fleets.  The program is endorsed by the Fisheries Survival Fund, which represents the vast majority of full-time Atlantic scallop fishermen from Maine to Virginia.

The SMAST Yellowtail Flounder Bycatch Avoidance Program is ready to start at the opening of Closed Areas I and II on August 1st at 12:01am.  The scallop management actions, Amendment 15 and Framework 22, were published in the Federal Register on July 21st authorizing vessels to harvest their allocations from the Georges Bank closed areas.  All vessels were allocated two 18,000 lb. trips to the areas with 75% of the effort in Closed Area I and 25% of the effort in Closed Area II.  The fleet must operate under a Total Allowable Catch of yellowtail flounder set at 201 mt. (~306,000 lb.).  Reaching this catch limit on yellowtail flounder will force a closure of both areas to all scallop fishing.

The program uses data collected by active fishermen on the location and amount of yellowtail and scallop catch.  SMAST sends a summary of the information back to the fleet each day to provide a real-time update of bycatch hotspots.

The program began in 2010 in the Nantucket Lightship area with 122 participants.  The fleet was able to harvest their full allocation of scallops, worth ~$40 million, while only catching 32% of the yellowtail flounder Total Allowable Catch.  With over half of the fleet participating in the program in 2011, SMAST is optimistic that the scallop fleet will be able to harvest their full allocation of scallops from the Georges Bank access areas.  The value of the 2011 access area scallop fishery could be as high as $125 million.

Listen to SMAST's Cate O'Keefe and Greg DeCelles describe the Yellowtail Flounder Bycatch Avoidance Program

Read the Standard-Times editorial:  SMAST, scallopers develop another model program

 

 

 

 

 

Reduced catches of small oceanic prey fish like sardines and anchovies may be required in some ocean areas in order to protect the larger predators that rely on these species for food, the first major study of the ecosystem effects of fishing forage species concludes.

“Forage species such as anchovy, sardine, herring, mackerel and krill often are the main food source for larger predatory fish, marine mammals and seabirds,” said Dr. Tony Smith, a scientist with Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO’s) and lead author of the paper. “They account for more than 30 percent of global fisheries production for use directly as human food and indirectly in livestock feeds, and demand is rising.”

Previous studies have raised concerns about the flow-on effects on seabirds of forage fishing off Peru and South Africa and in the North Sea, and of rising krill catches on whales in the Southern Ocean. “We found forage fishing had large impacts in the five areas studied,” Smith said. “In this study we used three different types of models to examine the broader ecosystem effects when forage fish are harvested at levels that maximize sustainable yields. We found forage fishing had large impacts in the five areas studied – the northern Humboldt, southern Benguela and California currents, North Sea and south-east Australia. These impacts were both positive and negative, and varied across forage species, ecological groups and ecosystems.”

Read the complete story from Global Adventures.

 

 

 

 

 

 

There’s been some buzz lately from luminaries like Senator John Kerry and Legal Seafoods’ Roger Berkowitz about new methods for measuring fish populations using acoustic remote sensing that are being pioneered by a group of scientists from MIT and Northeastern University and that may have the potential application for dramatically improving fisheries science and management. Talking Fish had a chance to find out more about this initiative through a visit last week to the group’s lab – and it was very exciting!

Getting real time, accurate fish population data is a weak spot in fisheries management science. Fisheries data coming from fishermen has problems with quality control and bias; fisheries data from the government’s trawl surveys is expensive, episodic, and selectively samples small swaths of the ecosystem. The data issue is nonetheless hyper-critical since the fisheries stock assessment models on which all fishery management decisions are based, even the best ones, are only as good as the data inputs.  Given data limitations, the current ability to cost-effectively and accurately understand what is happening to fish populations in response to management changes and environmental or other factors is characteristically uncertain.

Many fishermen say that the scientists don’t see as many fish as the fishermen do. There are legitimate and sound reasons why scientists and fishermen see different abundances of fish; it doesn’t mean the science is “bad.” In fact, it is quite good in New England. The trend lines for stock biomass are accurate in projecting relative upward or downward changes in overall stock abundances. But these differing perspectives as to what fishermen and scientists “see” out on  the water does produce a confidence gap that is a major problem and science uncertainties force managers to set lower catch limits than might otherwise be possible.

Read the complete article from Talking Fish.

 

 

 

 

 

JUNEAU – July 18, 2011 — A new study of genetically modified salmon shows they can breed with their wild counterparts.

That raises concerns that escaped farmed fish could weaken wild stocks. It’s not an immediate threat to Alaska species, though it could be to commercial sales.

The study was conducted at the Memorial University of Newfoundland, on Canada’s eastern seaboard.

Graduate student Darek Moreau says he and other researchers worked with what are called growth hormone transgenic Atlantic salmon. Those have an added Chinook, or king salmon gene, that speeds their growth.

Moreau says modified males were exposed to male and female wild salmon in a laboratory simulation of natural spawning conditions.

"So we basically put these fish together and allowed them to do what they do that time of the year and recorded the results. … We found the transgenics had a much reduced breeding performance but they did, in fact, show an interest in breeding and the ability to breed," Moreau says.

The research, published in the scientific journal Evolutionary Applications, is the first to show this type of genetically engineered salmon can interbreed with wild fish.

Moreau says the study should raise concerns about the possible release of modified salmon through accidents at fish farms.

"If there was a significant number of escapes that occurred in succession over many years, there’s certainly the potential for there to be some harm," Moreau says.

 

Read the complete story from NPR's Affiliate in Alaska